iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max review: the Pro and Pro Max models are worthwhile generational upgrades, but the regular iPhone 11 is not very impressive
It's been a little over a year since our review of the iPhone XS and XS Max, and it's that time of the year to investigate Apple's latest and greatest: the iPhone 11 family.
Context & Ripple Effects
AnandTech's verdict lands after a year in which the iPhone line already showed strain at the top: The Verge's iPhone XS and XS Max review called those phones expensive with a camera that was very good but not great, leaving Apple open to the charge of incrementalism.
The Engadget review of the 11 Pro and Pro Max had already flagged improved battery life and a flexible triple-camera system as the real story, with ultra-wide shots sometimes lacking detail. AnandTech extends that read across the whole family — and its split verdict matters because it says the upgrade case lives only in the Pro tier, a pattern the iPhone 13 Pro review would confirm two years later.
First-order effects
- Buyers upgrading from the XS or XS Max get a genuine generational jump only by paying for the 11 Pro or Pro Max; the regular iPhone 11 leaves last year's flagship owners with little reason to move.
Second-order effects
- Apple's lineup now pushes customers upmarket to justify an upgrade, concentrating revenue in the higher-priced Pro and Pro Max models rather than the base phone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — as it does through the 13 Pro generation — the iPhone splits structurally into a Pro tier that carries the annual camera-and-battery advances and a standard tier that coasts, making 'Pro' the default recommendation for anyone upgrading from a two-year-old flagship.
The trend: Apple's iPhone lineup is bifurcating into a Pro tier that absorbs each generation's real improvements while the standard model becomes a holding pattern.