iPhone X vs iPhone 11: Which phone is best for you?
When iPhone X was introduced to the world in autumn 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook called it “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone”. This is partly due to the fact that the iPhone X was the largest Apple phone with a revised design at the time. Gone were the thick bezels and the physical home button of the previous iPhone 7 and virtually all previous generations of iPhone. Instead, we got a bar-raising phone that had an almost borderless display, and Face ID was introduced to us for the first time. The iPhone X also set new standards in terms of price, starting at $ 1,000. Two years later, in 2019, the iPhone 11 was announced as the successor to the iPhone XR. It’s not the most innovative phone ever, but as Apple billed, it’s the iPhone for (almost) everyone.
Compared to the iPhone X, the iPhone 11 has a better camera, battery life, and durability, but doesn’t offer nearly the same number of upgrades. In fact, Apple has made some calculated compromises, such as: For example, using an LCD display instead of an OLED to lower costs so the iPhone 11 can start at $ 699. It also lacks a telephoto lens that you can find on the iPhone X, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Even with these compromises, the iPhone 11 is the all-round better phone. It’s also the iPhone that I prefer because of its longer battery life, better cameras, and solid durability.
Read our Apple iPhone 11 review.
The iPhone X was an industry-leading smartphone in 2017 and will still be fantastic in 2020. The iPhone X has a premium OLED screen, great cameras, and is powered by Apple’s robust A11 processor. But it’s not permanent as it cracks on a single drop of three feet during CNET’s drop tests. It’s also a lot harder to get since Apple discontinued it. You can buy refurbished phones, but you get back at least $ 599.
Read our Apple iPhone X review.
The iPhone X is made of stainless steel, but the iPhone 11 is almost drop-proof
The iPhone X is a beauty worthy of being valued for its aesthetics alone. The sleek look almost on the entire screen looks elegant and has helped to set new design standards for iPhones. Although it is older than the iPhone 11, it actually looks more modern. That’s because it’s lighter, thinner, and smaller than the iPhone 11. (For certain numbers, you can scroll down to the CNET technical data table.)
It’s also made of stainless steel, which is usually one of the design features of a premium phone. The iPhone 11 uses an aluminum frame with glass on the front and back. Despite its minimalist beauty, the iPhone X is not a long-lasting phone and should definitely be used with a good case. Yes, it has protection class IP67, which means that the phone is completely dust-proof and can also be immersed in 1 m of water for up to 30 minutes. This is lower than the iPhone 11’s IP 68 rating, but it was the drop tests that were the big disappointment.
The iPhone X cracked on a single drop of three feet. In the meantime, the iPhone 11 withstood eight different drop tests on hard concrete, including an 11-foot drop (though the cameras didn’t). This seemed to back Apple’s claim that it used the most durable glass ever built into a smartphone on the front and back of the iPhone 11. The glass was specially made for the iPhone by Corning, the American company behind Gorilla Glass.
Read More: What Happens When You Drop iPhone 11 Into Water?
The iPhone X has a smaller, sharper and higher quality display
Another major difference between the iPhone X and the iPhone 11 is the screen technology. The iPhone X is the clear winner in this category because it has a higher-resolution display with better build quality. While the iPhone 11 has a larger LCD display, the iPhone X has a more compact OLED display with a resolution of 2,436 x 1,125, which is higher than the resolution of the iPhone 11 (1,792 x 828). In general, OLED displays offer better picture quality with blacker blacks and whiter whites, but are also more expensive. However, when I compared the iPhone X and iPhone 11 screens side by side, I noticed no difference in quality, both in dark and normal mode.
The iPhone 11 lacks a telephoto lens, but better cameras overall
Besides the price, cameras are one of the biggest and most important distinguishing features between the two iPhones. Both devices have two 12-megapixel rear-view cameras, but differ in the type of built-in lens. While the iPhone 11 has a wide and an extremely wide camera, the iPhone X has a standard lens and a tele-shooter, which gives the iPhone X an advantage because it is better suited to zooming in on a photo without sacrificing quality to lose. Although the iPhone 11 lacks the popular telephoto lens, it generally has better cameras and can achieve double digital zoom without obvious loss of detail, even though it doesn’t offer any optical zoom functions.
In addition, the iPhone 11 has the advantage that the more powerful A13 chipset works in its favor. This hardware combined with new image processing technologies like Deep Fusion makes the iPhone 11 cameras the best that you can buy today. Deep Fusion is a new way for iPhone 11 to process photos to enable better indoor shots that are sharper and more accurate in color. It also enables faster auto focus.
Recorded on iPhone X: Apple’s latest camera hits the streets
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The iPhone 11’s ultra-wide-angle lens, which is a first on iPhones, is also a valuable resource to use when photographing expansive landscapes. It captures a 120-degree field of view so that you can blend in better with your surroundings than with previous models, and brings drama into otherwise everyday scenes. It is probably not something you will use every day.
As outstanding as iPhone cameras are, photography in low light has long been a relative weakness. However, this is not the case with the iPhone 11. You get a new automatic night mode function that allows you to take impressive photos in almost dark conditions. The iPhone X does not have the automatic night mode function. So if you take photos in low light conditions, they are more grainy compared to the iPhone 11. It also gives you excellent image stabilization that feels like taking video from a gimbal using videos. There is also a much better selfie camera that can take 4K video.
Here are some other camera tools in iPhone 11 that improve the functions of iPhone X:
- Brighter true-tone flash
- Higher contrast ratio HDR
- Portrait mode can now recognize a pet’s face
The iPhone 11 has an excellent battery life and a storage option of 128 GB
We’ve covered the differences in the exterior of the iPhone X and iPhone 11, but internally there is one key difference, and that’s the chipset mentioned above. At the heart of the iPhone X is the A11 Bionic Chip, which was Apple’s most advanced processor at the time of its launch. Fast forward to 2020, and the A11 chipset is still a fast processor that, in combination with iOS 13.5 should still run very smoothly. The iPhone 11 houses the more energy-efficient A13 chip, which can also be found in the other members of the iPhone 11 family (and the new iPhone SE). Apple claims that it increases the performance of the iPhone 11 by at least 20 percent over the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR that used the A12. This includes the speed of the main processor’s brain and its special graphics and AI engines. When we achieved 5 processing speeds with 3DMark and Geekbench, the iPhone 11 was able to win as expected, but the iPhone X held up well.
As usual, Apple did not disclose battery capacity, but reports say the iPhone X has a smaller 2,716 mAh battery, while the iPhone 11 has a 3,110 mAh battery. In our video playback tests, where videos are repeated in airplane mode, we found that the iPhone 11 lasted 15 hours and 24 minutes. In the meantime, the iPhone X has taken 11 hours and 45 minutes.
As for storage, the iPhone 11 model has $ 699 of storage space for $ 699, which is probably fine for many people. You also have the 128GB and 256GB versions to choose from for $ 749 and $ 859 respectively. The iPhone X does without the 128 GB variant, which is generally regarded as a sweet spot in terms of storage options. So you only have the two remaining ones to choose from.
iPhone X vs iPhone 11 specifications
iPhone X (2017) |
iPhone 11 (2019) |
|
Display size, resolution |
5.8 inches; 2,436 x 1,125 pixels OLED |
6.1-inch LCD liquid retina; 1,792 x 828 pixels |
Pixel density |
458 ppi |
326ppi |
Dimensions (inches) |
5.7 x 2.79 x 0.30 inches |
5.94 x 2.98 x 0.33 inches |
Dimensions (millimeters) |
143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 mm |
150.9 x 75.7 x 8.3 mm |
Weight (ounces, grams) |
6.14 oz; 174 g |
6.84 ounces; 194 g |
Mobile software |
iOS 11 (can be upgraded to 13) |
iOS 13 |
camera |
12 megapixels (standard), 12 megapixels (telephoto) |
12 megapixels (wide), 12 megapixels (extremely wide) |
Front camera |
7 megapixels with facial recognition |
12 megapixels with facial recognition |
Video recording |
4K |
4K |
processor |
Apple A11 Bionic |
Apple A13 Bionic |
warehouse |
64 GB, 256 GB |
64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB |
R.A.M. |
3 GB |
Not revealed |
Expandable memory |
None |
None |
battery |
Not revealed |
Not announced, but Apple claims it will take 1 hour longer than the iPhone XR |
Fingerprint sensor |
None (face detection via TrueDepth camera) |
None (face ID) |
Interconnects |
lightning |
lightning |
Headphone jack |
No |
No |
Special features |
Waterproof (IP67); Wireless charging; Unlock Face ID 3D, Animoji |
Waterproof (IP68); Dual SIM functions (nano-SIM and E-SIM); Wireless charging |
Price outside the contract (USD) |
$ 999 (64 GB), $ 1,149 (256 GB) Refurbished: $ 599 |
$ 699 (64GB), $ 749 (128GB), $ 849 (256GB) |