The iPhone 11 review: It's cheaper, but is it better? (The Daily Charge, 9/17/2019)

Today on The Daily Charge, the reviews are in for the iPhone 11, and we have Scott Stein here to give his firsthand experience. The group camera feature, it's battery life and of course that lower price point. But is it all worth it? [MUSIC] Good morning and welcome to CNET's Daily Charge. It's Tuesday September 17th, I'm Alfred Ang. And I'm Scott Stein. Here's today's story. [MUSIC] The reviews are in for the iPhone 11 on our own Scott Stein has had his hands full with Apple's latest devices for the last few days. This one offers a lot more bang for its buck as the iPhone 11 is now the mid tier model at $699 while the iPhone 11 Pro costs at least, 999$ so Scott the iPhone 11 is now the cheapest premium iPhone available, was it a complete piece of crap? No absolutely not, is not a complete piece of crap, in fact, is basically the same phone as the pro phone, and so I feel like the pro phone and the 11 these are naming conventions. They have the same processor, they have largely the same battery life. All the cameras stuff that you thought of is pro that works across the board. The one thing that's missing is the telephoto camera, which is a shame because I use telephoto a lot over the past couple of years. So it only has widened ultra wide on the 11. But like the LCD versus OLED display, you show them two people side by side. Or show the two of them side by side to any number of people. I don't think people would notice the difference. So Apple, last week, they talked about some new features for the iPhone 11, also the 11 Pro. What were some of your favorite features on it when you were testing it out? Yeah, so I think that, on the phones as a whole, I didn't think I would like ultra wide, and that's been on a lot of phones, but I think ultra wide is a nice feature. I think the photos look really cool. First I thought this is kind of a gimmick but I find myself framing a lot of shots with it. Night mode is the biggest thing., you're seeing them on a lot of phones right now and it's not it we like Google Pixel three last year Samsung's got it Huawei phones. I think you'll see it on a lot more phones. But Apple does a really good job with it. It's not for everything, sometimes it's really saturated, sometimes the photos will not come out as well as another shot that's better lit. But it's so much better to have it. It has some really stunning effects. And the price drop, I mean who's this really For I mean if I, if I just bought an iPhone 10 or last year I mean it's upgrading now. No, I think it's definitely not worth upgrading. I think we're at the point now where you should think of upgrades. A lot of, my family's every four years at this point and and you and the other people said they have yearly upgrade programs like and other family members that I've got a yearly update of that. Yeah I don't know some people literally got an email from from a family member saying like, you know, life is short. I'm going to just get the new one. A lot of people take that approach. I'm not like that. But I mean, I also am not like most people. I test phones all the time you get to play with a lot of gadgets. I think that the 10 are you'd stick with, I think if you hung around with a phone for a number of years This is a perfected version of the 10. So, I feel like this is a great time to get on board. This feels like the boring yet wonderfully polished upgrade that you kind look for in tech. But keep in mind that next year Apple may have something big. May be a 5G phone. It might be something that has some new funky tech with AR. I don't know if you would want those? Or it will be super expensive? But this is a really nice time to get on, battery life we're still testing. That's all. You got to upgrade every year man. But don't upgrade every year. How is the camera though you were talking about the new night mode shots have you been using that a lot? Yeah. I have. I've been using it a time. It's stunning how well it works even in nearly dark situations. You have to hold the phone really Still, and it tells you there's a two to three second exposure you've gotta get used to standing still for. It's not for all instances, and ultra wide does not have the night mode. So you gotta pick the wide version or telephoto on the pro models. Is to take advantage of it I've been taking a lot of photos of ghost at night, now is that I have total ghost photography Nice And also slowmo selfies I'm not into them but my kids are literally taking non stop slow motion videos of them just like sticking their times up All your storage is just slow Yeah, there's like a 10 minute slow motion video of the kids just groaning and sticking out their tongues in slow motion. God, you will have that if you give your phone to a kid. Boy. So you said you're still testing out the battery life. I know Apple had noted that the battery life was extending by an hour. I mean Can you even notice that when you? No. If you had a 10R, the 10R was great last year and battery life. I don't think you'll notice the extra hour. I think this is more for the pro owners or people who had the 10S and wanted that step up model. There you might have four or five hour promise gain. We're still testing them. It's hard to tell in a week all those results but I've been living with the 11 Pro as my main phone now. I find that by the end of the day, I'm getting to like about 20% something like that. It's getting close like I, if I commute, I'd still want to do a top of charge because I wouldn't want to risk it. So you know, 11 Pro user then, like who has the 11 Pro for right, right? Well, I think my favorite phone is the 5.8 inch 11 Pro if price were no option, but of course prices and object I like that's a little bit smaller and for me That portability and the battery life are great and the telephoto but I think you should easily get the 11 at $700. save some money get great camera quality. To me it's got the full package with that but the pros for anyone who might use two x optical zoom, that could be anybody who's taking It sounds stupid, but to a aceptible zoom I use more than nearly any other feature, because I take a lot of pictures of products. Cuz you're a pro. Cuz I'm a pro. But if I get in close to produts, I feel like it's better than moving the camera close, it helps with With focus on framing on things and they withheld that from the 11. The 11 doesn't have 2X, it's just a wide and ultra wide camera. That plus deal plus, Is that where the third camera comes in? That's where the third camera comes in. It's wide, ultra wide and telephoto. But you'd think that the 11 Would be wide and telephoto, but it's not it's wide and ultra wide. I think Samsung's Galaxy 10E is like that. Sorry, yeah, I have the time so I don't know. Yeah. Okay, so that's a lot of competition in that mid tier, seven after all, maybe a little more expensive than others. Where other Android phones might be $500, but I think this for Apple is a really great point. And I like that they didn't shave any of the power and performance off of it. So, and I like taking videos better than I like taking photos. For professional purposes, with the phone, I'm not a big video taker at home. But I think the video quality is a real strong suit on these phones. So they weren't kidding when they said it's for pros. [LAUGH] Well sure, but the funny thing about that is that phones have been for pros for years. So you're shooting films on phones, and Apple's been making a big deal of that. I think Pro right now is more of an acknowledgement they may not pay up for that yeah I don't think the gulf between these is nearly what it is with like the iPad Pro versus the iPad [CROSSTALK] is a whole big- I definitely feel like the pros just like a work like I would only get it through my company like I wouldn't pay for it myself. That's right Pro is like if someone else is paying for Yeah,- I do think reading photos, the lead for They talk about that contrast ratio that's for it you're taking photos that really you wanna examine. And make sure you've got the lightning always right. For the Daily Charge I'm Alfred Reign, I'm Scott Steyn. Thanks for joining us. [MUSIC]