Each fall Apple releases a new iPhone to compete with the slew of Android flagships that are peppered throughout the year. While not for everyone, the iPhone offers a really compelling experience for a lot of people, and still manages to dominate in the premium market year in and year out.

Sometimes it's nice to see how things are on the other side, so we got our hands on an iPhone 11 Pro and we're going to give you Talk Android's take on Apple's latest.

Design

Apple designs can be very strange. They're a company that's repeatedly praised for sleek design work, but they were also the company that kept the huge bezels of the iPhone 8 two years too long. Despite those massive bezels, though, the iPhone 6 through 8 became an almost reference point of smartphones in pop culture, and then the iPhone X arrived and ushered in an era of notches and vertical camera modules. Love it or hate it, Apple plays a huge part in which direction the smartphone industry moves.

But the new Apple pattern is to keep a design for several years with only incremental changes. The iPhone X and iPhone XS looked nearly identical outside of a new color option (and a Max variant) and that's not really changing with the iPhone 11 Pro. It still looks like an iPhone X and has generally the same shape, with the power/Siri button on the right side, volume buttons and volume toggle on the left side, and a Lightning connector with no headphone jack on the bottom.

The back looks a bit different this year with a matte glass finish that feels extremely good in hand, and a new camera module that was ridiculed immediately after the announcement of the phone. The triple cameras definitely look like a strange spider or stovetop, but a few months on and the weirdness has mostly worn off. In fact, I think there's some boldness to the design with Apple accentuating it so much, since now it just “looks” like an Apple phone from afar. Contrast that with the Pixel 4 which tries to blend the cameras in with the back of the phone. Neither option is right or wrong, but you can tell Apple is more willing to own their funky module than Google is.

The phone weighs 188 grams, which is 11 grams more than the previous model. Overall, though, it feels really solid, especially with the frosted, matte glass on the back. It's not slippery at all, and feels exactly like you'd expect a $1000 phone to feel. Buttons feel good and are responsive, and all if you don't mind the notch and triple cameras, it's one of the best looking phones of 2019.

Hardware

Performance

It's tough to give an apples to apples comparison of performance on an Android phone to an iPhone, no pun intended, but with Apple's totally custom, in-house processors, those competitions aren't something that they shy away from. From the purpose-built silicon to iOS being designed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone, it's hard to not be impressed with how well these things run. Multitasking is a breeze, especially with the home bar navigation of the newer iPhones, and despite only rocking 4GB of RAM you don't tend to see apps reload very often. They open quickly, and gaming performance is top-notch across the board here.

The display of the iPhone 11 Pro is also gorgeous. Apple calls it a Super Retina XDR display, which is a ton of marketing fluff, but it does look really good. It's insanely bright for HDR content, and it supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision to cover whatever format you throw at it. The speakers are loud and relatively thumpy and support Dolby Atmos for precise, object-based audio, rounding out a complete phone package. Apple may not score 10/10 in any category, but they do consistently get 9/10 across the board.

The vibration motor, however, is one area where Apple still maintains a pretty big lead over its competition. The Pixel gets close, but that taptic engine just feels so robust and satisfying throughout iOS, and I'd love to see more Android OEMs invest in this department. Likewise, Face ID has gotten a speed and accuracy jump with the new phones and iOS 13. Not only is it incredibly fast, but Apple seems like they've got a slightly more secure solution for biometrics here.

Battery

The iPhone 11 Pro has just a 3000ish mAh battery, which seems small next to some of its Android competitors. But as overdone as the cliche about Apple controlling the hardware and software is, it pretty clearly works for them in situations like this.

Despite the smaller battery, you're getting pretty stellar battery life out of a phone this size. It's a big jump from its predecessors, and can easily last all day or even multiple days of light usage thanks to how efficient iOS is in standby. With heavy usage it's still pretty feasible to get 7 to 8 hours of screen time here, and that's with quite a bit of social media usage and gaming. The 11 Pro Max should fare even better with its 4000mAh battery.

Apple has been slow to adopt faster charging protocols, and that hasn't been as big of a deal previously because of their smaller batteries. This year they finally included an 18W charger in the box for their Pro iPhones to make up for the increased battery sizes, which is a plus, but it's still disappointing to see such a relatively low charging speed next to some of what Samsung and Huawei can offer. Wireless charging still caps at 7.5W, which is also pretty far behind some of the Android options.

Software

I don't think you'll find very many of even the most enthusiastic Android fanboys that will deny that Apple makes killer hardware. What really splits people, though, is the software. Let's talk about iOS 13.

If you're used to Android, you're going to have a bit of learning curve with an iPhone. The navigation gestures are a little different (although Google is slowly moving towards an Apple-esque approach) but Apple does try to make up for that with better in-app controls, like being able to consistently swipe from the left to return to the previous screen. The home screens are also just cluttered with apps and no widgets, and no, you can't hide them or have duplicate shortcuts. Android's app drawer is a signature feature that you simply don't and can't get on an iPhone. If you don't care about widgets and don't mind more constrained organization, not a big deal. If you do, though, it can really make the iPhone feel more like a restricted phone as opposed to Android's more open, computer-like experience.

Notifications have slowly improved over the years with iOS, and it's better than ever right now, but if there's one ace in the hole that Android will probably always hang onto, it's the notification shade. Apple's notification center generally just kind of sucks; apps are grouped now, but they aren't anywhere near as actionable or customizable as what's on Android. All the notifications look the same, and you can sometimes long-press them to open up something that's a little more content-rich, but there's usually very little you can do with those notifications besides hopping into the app.

On the other hand, Apple's Control Center feels like it's finally pulled ahead of Android's toggles and controls, and I think part of that is the hardware/software combo. On an Android phone with a notch, no matter where you swipe, you're getting the notification shade. On an iPhone, swiping on the right side of the notch gives you the Control Center, while the left side pulls out the Notification Center. It's a small change, but it's something that makes you feel like Apple did more with the notch than just cutting their notification bar in half like some Android OEMs. Control Center is also equally as customizable and has shortcuts to quickly record your screen, take notes, open a QR code reader, or quickly browse WiFi networks, the last of which is something that Google has taken steps away from in Android.

The rest of iOS is less of a comparison between iOS and Android, and more of a comparison between Apple services and everyone else's ecosystem. App selection is pretty close with both platforms, and it's rare to find anything on an iPhone that you can't get on an Android phone, and vice versa, which has greatly contributed to the near parity between the two these last few years. Those services do make a difference, though, at least if you're invested in Apple's ecosystem.

Apple's Notes and Reminders app work well and integrate with other devices, and iMessage is still excellent, especially compared to Google's strange messaging landscape and the RCS debacle. Apple Arcade is full of fantastic, fun games, and make Google Play Pass seem really boring in contrast. But most importantly, they're all pretty consistent in their interface and UX, which is something that I think we all wish Google would spend a little more time on.

For most people, you're going to be able to do 99% of what you want with either phone. iOS has a file browser now, plus system-wide dark mode, so there's not much that one can do that the other can't. Android is still certainly more robust and customizable, but it's a far cry from the days where iOS was completely locked down.

Camera

Oh boy, this camera. Apple used to consistently sit on top of the heap of smartphone cameras, but then Samsung and Google and Huawei put a lot of money into catching up and staying competitive. For the last few years Apple has delivered good cameras, but not the top-shelf offerings from their competition, especially in more challenging light situations.

Pretty sure Apple took that criticism to heart, and they went all-in on the camera this year. Makes sense, considering they really didn't make any other massive changes from the XS to the 11 Pro, but hey, take what you can get.

In good lighting the iPhone 11 Pro still takes phenomenal shots that are as competitive as ever. Colors are bright and accurate with plenty of detail.

Low light, which normally makes an iPhone struggle, doesn't seem to give Apple any more trouble. Whether you're in a dark restaurant, a hazy bar, or just taking photos outside at night, the iPhone captures a ton of detail in great lighting without getting blown out. Gone are the days of Google taking potshots at bad night camera images.

Apple has also spent the time to match sure that each of the cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro are color and temperature matched so your telephoto shots aren't noticeably warmer than your ultrawide shots. It's easy to consistently take good pictures with this phone, and barring some absolutely awful conditions, it's hard to take a bad picture.

Worth it?

If you're an Android guy, no. There's very little that I think Apple could do to pull someone over into their ecosystem, no matter how great it is. iOS is still iOS, and it's just not in Apple's current DNA to want something as flexible as Android. If you like Apple and their ecosystem, and you like iOS, then this is the best phone Apple's ever created for you.

But if you're just looking for certain features out of the phone, like the overall polish, check out the Google Pixel. If you want a killer camera to match Apple's latest, Huawei and Samsung both have some pretty compelling options. And if you're looking for something much more affordable, well, Apple's not particularly interested in figuring that out whatsoever.

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