We all know that iPhones have had some of the best cameras on a smartphone and it's no different with the current iPhone 11 series. The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max have been hailed as the best camera smartphones of last year, and while their more affordable sibling the iPhone 11 misses out on a telephoto camera, it still manages to take some really amazing photos and videos. Perhaps even better than last year's flagship iPhones.
iPhone 11 DxOMark score
The iPhone 11, which happens to be the cheapest iPhone among Apple's latest crop, has received an impressive overall camera score of 109 from DxOMark. The camera testing specialists have given the iPhone 11 a score of 112 in still photography and 101 in video categories. However, if that doesn't ring a bell with you, the iPhone 11 has beaten last year's flagship iPhone XS Max in both the photo and video categories.
That's an impressive feat coming from a phone that is considered to be a budget iPhone in the current line-up. The iPhone 11 is also miles ahead of its predecessor, the iPhone XR, which obviously isn't too surprising since it already beat the more potent iPhone XS Max.
When it comes to competing with its bigger siblings, the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, the iPhone 11 was just 1 point shy of the iPhone 11 Pro Max in the video department, managing an impressive score of 101 versus the iPhone 11 Pro Max's 102, owing to its identical features and comparable image quality.
Lack of telephoto lens is the only con
Well, it's quite obvious that the iPhone 11 is marginally short of its bigger siblings due to lack of a telephoto camera, which the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max have the advantage of having. The iPhone 11 could not match the same quality of zooming and portrait shots without the 12MP telephoto lens which gives the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max an upper edge.
The absence of the telephoto zoom lens is the main and perhaps the only reason for the points difference between the iPhone 11 and it's Pro siblings in the still image category, where the iPhone 11's 112 points score falls short of the 124 points of the iPhone 11 Pro Max. But it still is an impressive result.
Matching results
The iPhone 11 shares the same 26mm main camera and 13mm ultra-wide sensor with its pricier siblings and they offer identical dynamic range, color reproduction and low light performance. The reviewers hailed the iPhone 11's excellent dynamic range and color reproduction and a side-by-side comparison of the photos taken from the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro shows very little difference.
Also the fact that the iPhone 11 is powered by the A13 Bionic chipset which makes use of AI, machine learning and High Dynamic Range (HDR) for image processing the resultant images turn out to be really good.
Still not good enough for the top 10?
But rather unfortunately, the iPhone 11 failed to make it to DxOMarks top 10 mobile cameras list, despite its praiseworthy performance. However, it did outscore former flagships, the likes of the Huawei P20 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and even the Google Pixel 3.
There's no review of the selfie camera if you were interested in knowing how well it performs in that department. As far as we know, it does a pretty decent job since it shares the same front facing camera and software with the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max.
All-in-all, the iPhone 11 is a really good smartphone for anyone who's considering buying Apple's latest tech without breaking the bank.
