The cheapest of the 3 iPhones released this
year, the normal iPhone 11, is different enough
that it warrants it's own durability test
video. You do save $300 by not buying the
$1000 iPhone 11 Pro. And today we're going
to find out what we lose from that price drop.
But let's be real, all iPhones kind of do
the same thing anyway.
In front of us we have the yellow version
which looks like Pikachu and a block of cheese
had a baby. The first thing that I noticed
about this iPhone is it doesn't have the frosted
textured back glass panel. Interesting.
This video is sponsored by Anker.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
So the cool thing about this phone is that
it is capable of 18 watt fast charging, just
like the rest of the iPhones. The uncool thing
about this phone is that Apple is still not
including a fast charger in the box. They
only include the ancient 5 watt slow charger
that they've been using since basically the
dawn of time. You can check the wattage of
your charger by just multiplying the volts
and the amps. I'm sure Apple only does this
so you'll drop extra cash on the 18 watt charger
that they sell for $30. Personally I'm not
a big fan of that. Especially when there's
a cheaper 18 watt charger from Anker that
has the same form factor as the stock wall
adapter, but has the specs of the new iPhone
11 Pro charger and only costs $15.99 using
that discount code in the description. Anker's
charger is basically half the price of Apple's.
It has the same USB-C power delivery port
for the high speed charging just like Apple's
$30 version. And spits out 3x the power as
the one that comes inside the iPhone 11 box.
I'll leave a link for Anker's fast charger
down in the video description. And thanks
to Anker for sponsoring this video and saving
us from expensive chargers. Now let's get
back to the phone.
I'm getting kind of a pastel sunflower vibe
from this yellow...or maybe a slightly dead
dandelion. It's got 2 cameras instead of the
three we saw in the Pro. But I'll get to those
in a minute. Let's start with the scratch
test. Today we're going to spice things up
a bit. You know how this works. The Mohs scratch
test differentiates between different materials.
Levels 2 or 3 would be plastic like on the
Galaxy Fold. Levels 6 and 7 would be tempered
glass like on, well, every other smartphone.
And levels 8 or 9 would be sapphire. Sapphire
is a super hard, near unscratchable crystal
used on premium watches. This iPhone 11 scratches
at a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level
7. Pretty normal.
To spice things up a bit, I got a $70 screen
protector off Amazon that's claiming to be
a Mohs hardness level 9 with 99.99% pure sapphire.
That's a pretty bold claim. And the only way
to find out for sure is by scratching it.
Now this screen protector isn't made for this
phone specifically so let's not worry too
much about a neat and pretty installation.
I'll make a much longer in-depth video about
sapphire here soon since it's a pretty incredible
substance.
Putting my scale back up again and grabbing
my picks, we work our way up through the entire
scale, scratching at levels 6 and 7. And moving
my way on up towards level 8, and only at
level 8 do we start seeing marks on the glass.
I thought for a second that I was also seeing
marks at levels 6 and 7, but it turns out
I was just seeing scratches from the screen
underneath, showing up through the sapphire
screen protector. Once I pulled off the sapphire
from the phone, it was pretty easy to tell
that there was no marks or scratches on the
surface until we hit level 8, which is rather
incredible considering how difficult it is
to make sapphire. Sapphire is premium and
costs quite a bit and the protector was $70,
but I'll put a link in the description because
there's a lot of fake sapphire out there.
Speaking of which, let's get back to the iPhone
11. Even though it's 2019 and big notches
were last year's thing, Apple is still notching
strong across all their new phones. This has
a metal earpiece grill and has the front facing
12 megapixel camera tucked up inside here
as well. It still has those slofies and 4K
camera that the Pros have so that's a definite
improvement over last year's phone. There's
the same plastic border as well which makes
a good cushion between the glass and the aluminum.
Aluminum kind of complains a lot more than
steel does when I scratch it. Another difference
between the 11 and the 11 Pro besides the
slow charger is the water resistance. This
phone is still ip68 but only rated to two
meters instead of 4. I talk more about that
ip rating in the 11 Pro Max teardown video
if you want to know more. The iPhone 11 is
still water resistance of course, just not
as water resistant as the Pro.
The top of this rubber ducky colored phone
is made from metal, along with the left side
and all of it's buttons. It still has the
mute switch which I'm jealous of. I think
all phones should have one of these. The bottom
of the phone has the loudspeaker and proprietary
lightning port.
The back glass panel of Big Bird here is a
bit different than the glass we saw in the
Pro. Instead of being the frosty material
that would sand down metal objects, it's a
smooth slab of glass that does nothing to
my razor blade. It still costs about $399
to replace if you happen to crack it though
if you don't have insurance. Which is definitely
a shame on Apple's part. You've probably noticed
as well that this banana colored iPhone 11
is missing a camera. Apple dropped the telephoto
camera and left us with the normal 12 megapixel
camera up top, with the 12 megapixel ultra
wide camera down at the bottom. Each of them
is still covered with the scratch resistant
material. The dual LED flash is covered with
plastic. Previously, Apple was calling this
circular lens material sapphire. But now there
is no mention of sapphire on the iPhone spec
list which is good because real sapphire would
be scratching at a level 8 or 9.
Now one thing that is slightly annoying about
the iPhone 11 screen is that it's basically
the same screen as last year's iPhone XR.
Same size at 6.1 inches. Same resolution.
And same pixels per inch. 1080P has been the
resolution standard for like the last 4 years
now. This phone is sitting closer to 720p.
Flagship or not, a sub 1080p display is just
kind of taking advantage of people who don't
understand the numbers. It's a good LCD display,
don't get me wrong. I am being nit-picky.
But at $700, 1080p should be a thing. The
iPhone 11 cannot scroll Instagram at full
quality. It lasted about 12 seconds before
the pixels went black and turned off, but
then came back and recovered when the heat
went away.
And now for the bend test. It's time to see
if Apple's cheapest phone this year can structurally
handle a bend test. The stainless steel Pro
version survived just fine, and this aluminum
iPhone 11 so far is no different. It's extremely
solid. $700 is still quite a bit to spend
on a smartphone. I feel like this is the phone
we should have gotten last year in place of
the XR. And this year we should have progressed
a bit farther and gotten something better.
Apple's Pro phones are finally competing with
the flagships, but their budget phones are
not quite competing in price or specs with
other budget phones. You could say the iPhone
11 is a step in the same direction for Apple.
Either way, don't give Apple any more money
by buying their fast charger. The 18 watt
Anker charger is linked in the description
at a fraction of the cost. Let me know what
other phones you want to see tested in the
comments and come hang out with me on Instagram
and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll
see you around.
