- What's up, guys?
Saf here on SuperSaf TV
and this is my full review
of the iPhone 11 Pro Max
after using it for almost two months.
I was actually lucky enough to
get this a little bit earlier
and I really enjoyed using it.
A lot of you guys will
know in these videos,
I don't go over specs.
Those have been covered
in my unboxing video,
which I'll link in the comments
and in the description.
In this video, I'm gonna be
talking about my experience,
what I like about the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
what I don't like about it,
what I think can be improved.
This might be a long one
but I'll try to include some timestamps
in the pink comment below.
Now initially, let's talk
about the build and design.
This, I would say, is an
incremental update for design.
It's nothing drastically new.
We do have this matte
finish back, which I do like
and I do prefer it to the glossy
back that we had initially.
But then we've got this sort
of square camera module,
which I know a lot of
people are not huge fans of.
I don't mind it hugely
but, let's be real here,
I don't think this is gonna
be winning any design awards.
There's lots of other
devices out there this year
which look like a lot
better, in my opinion.
But generally speaking,
it's a pretty decent design
and realistically speaking, I
think most people are gonna be
throwing a case on here anyway.
If you want a case recommendation,
I would definitely recommend a Grip case
from our channel sponsor, dbrand.
It's gonna give you some
great protection and grip
but what's unique about the Grip series
is that you can customize it
and you can pick up a few skins
and change them up whenever you get bored.
I'll be leaving a link to
dbrand in the description below.
Now we do have an improved IP rating.
You are gonna be able to
submerge this in water
more than other devices.
I'm not somebody who takes
this swimming, to be honest,
but I have used it out in the rain
and it's been absolutely fine.
Now if you move over onto the front,
once again, the design
hasn't really changed.
But if you are to put this side-by-side
with the iPhone 10s or the iPhone 10 even,
then the front is pretty
much exactly the same.
So it does look like Apple is going
for a three-year upgrade cycle
when it comes to the design.
Maybe next year, we'll see much more
of a drastic design change.
Now design aside, this
display is very, very good
and it has been improved
compared to last year.
I really like this.
It's got great viewing angles,
it's very sharp, the colors are great,
and it's also brighter
compared to last year,
so if you're using this
outdoors in sunlight,
it's gonna perform really, really well.
And I actually did do a test.
I had the Google Pixel 4 next to this
and the Pixel 4 is very,
very dim in comparison,
so although this might not
have a 90-hertz refresh rate,
this brightness is definitely
a big selling point
and it's something that
I definitely do like.
There is, however, no 3D
touch this year around.
Now, honestly speaking, I
haven't missed it too much.
The area where I used to use 3D touch most
was on the keyboard and this
was to move the case around.
This is the area where
I found it most useful.
You can still do that by
pressing down on the space bar.
It did take me some time to get used to.
But 3D touch hasn't been something
that I personally missed too much.
It might be something that you do miss.
Now within this notch
is, of course, Face ID
and it has been noticeably
improved, compared to last year.
It's faster, it's more accurate,
it works with many more angles.
One of the things that I've
complained about before
when it comes to Face ID
is I'm somebody who uses my phone in bed,
it's probably not the best habit,
but if I have my face
kind of on my pillow,
then what I traditionally found
is that I'll have to kind of move out
to unlock the phone using Face ID.
But now Face ID actually
works in many situations
and it seems to be that accurate
that it can actually grab
most of your face data,
even if it's slightly covered
and it definitely works
from many more angles.
It's actually much better, in my opinion,
to the Google Pixel, which is faster
but it's nowhere near as accurate
and it doesn't work from as many angles.
This still doesn't unlock
if it's flat on the surface.
It still needs to be
slightly angled towards you
but, nevertheless, it has
definitely been improved
and I really do like it.
Let's now talk about the
cameras and I just want to say
that when it comes to an
all-around camera package,
in my opinion, the iPhone 11 Pro Max
is the best on the market right now.
It might not be the absolute
best for everything,
but it does everything
really, really well.
Let me break this down and explain.
So starting off with video, hands down,
the iPhone 11 Pro Max is the best video
on any smart phone right now.
I've said this before,
you've heard many others
say it before as well,
it can support extended dynamic range
at all the way up to 4K
60 frames-per-second.
That's on all cameras, including
the front-facing camera.
A lot of other smart phones
really start falling apart
when you go to those frame rates
and they don't even
offer those frame rates,
so for video, I really, really
like the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
And for images, once
again, very consistent
across all of the cameras.
Colors are great.
They're not overly-saturated.
Dynamic range is also very, very good.
And we've got a lot of
versatility design as well
with the primary telephoto,
as well as the ultra wide camera.
This year for the first time,
we also have the Night Mode.
This really does improve
low light photography,
something that I've been talking
about for a long, long time
and I'm glad that Apple has taken
all of that feedback on board.
Now we have a Night Mode.
It does work really well
and in lots of situations,
I actually preferred it to
something like the Pixel.
However, as always, there
is room for improvement
and a few of the things
that I would like to see
with hopefully some software updates
or maybe on the next version.
Firstly, Night Mode only
triggers automatically.
If the iPhone decides that
you can use Night Mode,
that's only when you're gonna
be able to use Night Mode.
I'd like to trigger this manually,
so if there is a situation
that's maybe not that dark
but I really do want to
get out the details there,
that I can switch that on.
That's something that
you can't do right now.
It's gonna do that automatically.
The ultra-wide camera has no Night Mode.
So if you want to take an ultra wide shot
in very low light, then you can
pretty much forget about it.
And although I really do
like the ultra wide camera
on the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
I don't think it's as
good as the competition.
I think the Note10+ for example
has a better ultra wide camera.
It's a little bit wider
and it's also sharper
and you get do get some softness
on the ultra wide camera here
and it's definitely not as
good as the primary camera.
And I really do like portraits
from the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
especially from that telephoto lens,
which is the equivalent of around 50 mil.
However, edge detection is not perfect.
There's lots of areas
where it sometimes will
have missed the blur.
So for instance,
if it's between your arms
or anything like that.
This is something that I
think a lot of other cameras
that have a dedicated time
of flight depth sensor
do a better job of.
So I'm hoping these
things can be improved.
Having said that, once again,
I want to emphasize that as
an overall camera package,
so I'm talking video,
I'm talking the versatility
of the triple cameras,
the consistency between the cameras,
which a lot of other
manufacturers don't do well,
front-facing camera, the dynamic range,
the colors, all of these things,
when you look at them altogether,
then I believe that the iPhone 11 Pro Max
is currently the best package out there.
Right, now let's talk a
little bit about performance.
Apple is not big on specs.
They don't even tell you how much RAM
the iPhone 11 Pro Max has,
so clearly that's not important to them.
What is important is that this has
the Apple A13 bionic chip,
which is super, super fast.
I've had no problems in terms
of speed and performance.
It's been very, very snappy
and I'm confident that this is gonna last
a good few years if you are
gonna be picking this up.
One of the reasons why it works so well
is because Apple makes both the hardware
as well as the software.
So we do have iOS 13
and I've had a really good
experience with iOS 13 overall.
I've not really had many bugs or crashes,
like some others have reported.
It's been a very smooth experience for me.
And there's lots of welcome improvements.
My biggest welcome improvement,
which is about 10 years too late,
is the ability to change the resolution
of your video within the camera app
and not have to go through deep settings
to be able to do that.
(sighing exasperatingly)
Like, come on, how long has
it been since we've got this?
But nevertheless, we finally got it,
there's a little icon here on the side,
and you can just tap on it
to change the resolution
and the frame rates.
But it is still iOS,
it's still very simple,
I know a lot of people do like that,
but one thing that I would
like to see from Apple
is a take on better one-handed usage
when it comes to the operating system,
especially considering
how big the screen size is
on the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
This is something that
lots of other manufacturers
have done really well.
So take Samsung's One UI, for example,
or OxygenOS from OnePlus,
they do take into consideration
that if you are using
the device with one hand,
kind of moves everything with the icons
towards the bottom of the screen,
so you're not always having to reach up.
This is very much still
that grid icon setup,
which I would like to
customize a little bit.
I'd like to kind of leave
the top space empty,
maybe for the time or some widgets,
and then have the bottom area
where I have all my icons
which I can reach very easily.
So hopefully this is something
that we may or may not see,
but, then again, if
you're familiar with iOS,
you're gonna be right at home here.
I also really like Dark Mode.
You guys have heard me
talk about Dark Mode a lot.
This just makes a lot of
things easier on the eyes,
especially if you're viewing
the phone in darker situations.
And it also helps with battery life.
And let's talk about the battery life.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max
has amazing battery life.
There's been a big improvement,
I've definitely noticed it,
and there's not been a single day
when I've run out of battery life
towards the end of the day.
Actually, I lied.
There was one day
when I was playing Call
of Duty continuously,
for like six hours,
and then the battery did die
and I had to charge it up.
But apart from that one situation,
this has been really, really
good for battery life.
I mean, I think it's gonna
get pretty much everyone
through the full day.
And, finally, finally,
Apple are now including a
fast charger out of the box,
something else that
I've been ranting about
for a long, long time.
Now this is an 18-watt fast charger,
which is fast, but nowhere near as fast
as 65-watt chargers that we're seeing
from some of the competition.
Nevertheless, it is still nice
to have that fast charging speed
and, honestly speaking,
I have very rarely used the
wired charger to charge this up
and that's because we do
have Qi wireless charging,
so my usage through the
day lasts me all day
and I don't necessarily
need to plug it in.
And before I go to bed,
I just drop this on my wireless charger,
I wake up, and it's at 100%
and that's kind of my routine.
And if you currently own
one of the new iPhones,
or own any phone for that matter
that supports wireless charging,
and you don't have a wireless charger,
I don't know why you don't have one.
Once you kind of know that convenience
and once you have one
on your bedside table,
you'll really notice how much
of a difference it makes.
I'll try to leave some links
to some of my favorite wireless chargers
in the description below.
They're very inexpensive
and they make such a big difference.
Now touching on the audio,
we still have stereo speakers.
One is in the earpiece,
one is bottom-firing,
and the sound has been very, very good.
We've got improved spacial audio.
If you're consuming a
lot of media on here,
then I think you're gonna
enjoy that experience.
Now finally, let's talk
about pricing and storage.
So this definitely very
pricey, especially in the UK.
You're looking at £1,150
and that's for a 64-gigabyte base model.
So that's something that
I'm not too happy about.
I think Apple should've gone
in with at least 128 gigs.
Now, I kind of get it.
It's a business decision.
Most people will opt for going
for maybe the 256-gigabyte option
instead of the 64-gigabyte option
and that option is more tempting,
considering that we're
only starting at 64 gigs.
But if you are gonna be shooting
lots of 4K video on here,
then you are gonna eat
through that 64 gigs
very, very quickly,
so you are going to have to
go for the 256-gigabyte option
or the 512-gigabyte option,
which is going close to £1,500 pounds.
So, of course, this is very, very pricey,
however if you are looking
for the best iPhone,
then this is it, the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
If you are on a bit of a budget
and you want a lot of the features
that you have here minus a few,
then the iPhone 11 is actually
a really, really good option,
especially for the much lower price point.
I am going to be covering that
in an upcoming review video.
If you want to see that first,
then be sure to subscribe
and hit that bell icon
so you don't miss it.
But if you are after the
best iPhone money can buy
and you do have the money to buy this,
then this is definitely the one to go for.
It might not be perfect,
but it does lots of
things very, very well.
That's what I think, anyway.
What do you guys think?
Definitely drop me a comment below
and let me know your thoughts.
I hope you enjoyed this
video and found it useful.
If you did, then do it
that thumbs up for me.
Thanks for watching.
This is Saf on SuperSaf TV.
I'll see you next time.
(electronic hiphop music)
