On Tuesday, at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino, California, Apple announced the next-generation iPhones at their annual keynote event. The devices which go by the names of iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are minor refreshes to last year’s designs and more like iterative upgrades, with the cameras being the headlining features.

Read ahead in the article to find out all the changes that Apple has made to the predecessors and to know more about their pricing and availability.

“iPhone 11 is the next generation of iPhone, packed with great new capabilities in an incredible design, including new Ultra Wide and Wide cameras for gorgeous videos and photos, the power and ease of use of iOS 13, and A13 Bionic — the fastest chip ever in a smartphone that quickly handles the tasks that matter most to people every day,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The new iPhone devices will ship with iOS 13, which will be rolled out to compatible devices on September 19. The company also announced that additional features such as directionally aware suggestions on AirDrop will be available with iOS 13.1 release on September 30.

Design

The overall design for this year’s iPhone’s remains relatively unchanged from last year, except for the newly redesigned camera system and the brand new assortment of colours.

The iPhone 11 features a glossy back glass and aluminium unibody, similar to its predecessor, but is available in two new colours namely Purple and Green, the other available options are Black, White, Yellow and a Product Red variant.

The 11 Pro models take a slightly different route, the glossy finish on the back has been replaced by a new matte finish, made with what Apple calls an Optical PVD coating and these are now available in a new midnight green colour option alongside the space grey, silver and gold from last year.

“With the tight integration between hardware, software and services, the advancements in iPhone 11 bring an unparalleled user experience at an affordable price to even more customers. We think people will love it.”

Display

The screens remain the same across the line of devices in terms of size. The display on the Pro models has received some internal changes because of which Apple now calls it the Super Retina XDR display. The iPhone 11 is still at 6.1 inches and maintains the same specifications as its predecessor and the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max again measure 5.8 and 6.5 inches, respectively.

The Super Retina XDR Display on the new devices is said to be 15% more efficient and can provide up to 1200 nits of brightness. It also supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. A feature that last year’s flagship iPhones lacked was the ability to switch between brightness levels seamlessly; the new devices can choose between 800 nits and 1200 nits of brightness based on what is being displayed on your screen.

Camera

When rumours about the new iPhones started coming up, the most polarising ones were regarding the new cameras that Apple was going to reveal. The iPhone XR’s single-lens has been upgraded to a dual-lens setup on the iPhone 11 whereas the Pro models add a lens to the two present on last years flagships.

The iPhone 11 sports a new system that uses a 12MP wide lens and a 12MP ultrawide lens which was a surprise addition. These two lenses are joined by a new and improved 12MP telephoto lens on the Pro models, which is said to allow up to 40 percent more light than the camera on the XS and the XS Max.

The front-facing camera is now a 12MP sensor that touts a new feature called Slofie, which brings support for slow-motion videos from the front-facing camera that can now also shoot 4K video.

A new night mode setting is also available in the camera application that has received several changes to its UI to show off the capability of the ultrawide lens which has a 120-degree field of view.

“iPhone 11 Pro has the first triple-camera system in iPhone and is far and away the best camera we’ve ever made, it provides our customers with great range of creative control and advanced photo and video editing features in iOS 13. The Super Retina XDR is the brightest and most advanced display in iPhone and the A13 Bionic chip sets a new bar for smartphone performance and power efficiency,” Schiller added.

Battery

When Apple announced the iPhone XR, they claimed that it is the longest-lasting device that they have ever made, with the iPhone 11 they have improved this by another hour. The improvements in the Pro models are much more significant though, and the 11 Pro will last up to four hours more than the XS while the 11 Pro Max will last for five more hours when compared to the XS Max.

A welcome change is that Apple will now include an 18W USB C charger with a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box with the Pro models, although the 11 will still come with the standard 5W charging brick and Lightning to USB-A cable.

Other Improvements

The A series of chips that Apple has been making have been industry-leading for a better part of the last few years now. The A13 Bionic continues on this path and further improves upon the performance with its 8.5 billion transistors and machine learning capability — extending the gap from its competitors even more.

A new U1 chip which wasn’t mentioned during their presentation is going to help with spatial positioning in respect to other phones that have this chip too. It uses an ultrawideband signal to transmit data in specific directions. An example of this is that you can now point in the direction of a preferred device, and this will allow for faster file transfer via AirDrop.

FaceID is said to be 30% faster and has been improved to work in many different angles; the portrait mode comes with new studio lighting features. With this refresh, when using portrait mode on the iPhone 11, you can take photos of more than just people, which the XR did not allow.

Pricing and Availability

The new iPhone models will be available in India from the 27th of September, the base model of the 11 will retail for INR 64,990 ($699 in US), the 11 Pro for INR 99,990 ($999 in US) and the 11 Pro Max for INR 109,000 ($1099 in US). The prices for the other storage variants are as follows the 128GB, and 256GB variants of the iPhone 11 will cost $749 and $849, the 256GB and 512GB of the 11 Pro will cost $1149 and $1349, the 256GB and 512GB of the 11 Pro Max will cost $1249 and $1449 respectively.

Apple will still be selling the iPhone 8 and XR alongside these devices, and their prices have received significant cuts as well, the 8 will now start at $449 whereas the XR will be available for $599.

The devices are already available for pre-order on Apple’s website and will begin shipping from the September 20.

Also read: iOS 13 and iPadOS compatible devices