iPhone 11

Consumer Reports names iPhone 11 Pro the best smartphone, praising battery life and camera

Chance Miller | Oct 5 2019 - 5:08 am PT

Consumer Reports has updated its smartphone rankings with the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. This year, the iPhone 11 Pro models are able to edge out competition from Samsung, while the iPhone 11 ranks in the top 10.

For the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, Consumer Reports praises the battery life improvements. In testing, the organization says the iPhone 11 Pro Max was able to run 40.5 hours, which is “a big turnaround” compared to the iPhone XS Max that latest 29.5 hours. Meanwhile, the iPhone 11 Pro lasted 34 hours, while the iPhone 11 ran for 27.5 hours.

Here’s how Consumer Reports tests smartphone battery life:

To find out how long a phone’s battery can go, Consumer Reports uses a robotic finger programmed to put the phone through a range of tasks designed to simulate a consumer’s average day. The robot browses the internet, takes pictures, uses GPS navigation, and, of course, makes phone calls.

What about camera quality? Consumer Reports doesn’t go into much detail here, but says that the devices earned “some of the highest scores” in these categories. For rear image quality, all three iPhone 11 models earned “very good” ratings, which puts them in line with the competition.

Our testers say the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max notched some of the highest scores in our ratings for still-image quality. The iPhone 11 also earned a Very Good score in this category. And all three phones received an Excellent rating for rear-video quality.

Apple also says the iPhone 11 series feature improved durability. All three phones survived a water resistance test, but the iPhone 11 Pro couldn’t make it through a durability test:

The tumbler is a rotating chamber that repeatedly drops a phone from a height of about 2.5 feet. The phone is checked for damage after 50 drops and then again after 100. The goal is to expose it to impacts from a wide variety of angles.In

the case of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Max, the phones we tested made it through all 100 drops with just minor scratches. But when we checked the iPhone 11 Pro after 50 drops, we found that its display was broken and not working. A second sample also broke.

Ultimately, Consumer Reports rated the iPhone 11 Pro Max at an overall score of 95, followed by the iPhone 11 Pro at 92. The iPhone 11 earned an overall score of 89, putting it in eighth place overall.