#406 - iPhone 11 Pro - A leap forward!

This week: iPhone 11 Pro’s cameras are the largest leap forward yet. We’ll tell why the cameras alone make iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro worth the upgrade. Plus: iPhone 11 Pro may have dual wireless charging built in after all; and it looks like Apple Watch Series 5 is just an upgraded series 4. We’ll tell you what you need to know.

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On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's story links

First iPhone 11 Pro Max teardown shows off gigantic new battery

• One of the specs Apple refuses to reveal about the iPhone 11 Pro Max has been revealed by a teardown of this new model: it includes a 3,969 mAh battery, significantly larger than the one in the XS Max.
• That's hugely larger than the 3,174 mAh power cell in last year’s iPhone XS Max.
• And of course Apple is reporting the 11 Pro features 4 hours of extra battery life, while the iPhone 5 clock 5 extra hours.

iPhone 11 Pro review roundup: Big battery, camera, display upgrades

• There’s no question about it: the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are two of the best iPhones Apple has ever built — and arguably the best handsets in the world right now.
• Verge says it has the best camera in a phone.
• • “[T]he iPhone 11 Pro cameras are an enormous improvement over the XS, and they beat the Pixel and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 Plus in most of our side-by-side comparisons. In fact, I think the iPhone 11 Pro is the best smartphone camera on the market right now.”
• Tom’s Guide loved the screen
• • "iPhone 11 Pro Max’s 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display vastly outshined the Galaxy Note 10 Plus”
• What about speed you ask. Hold on to your butts. Wired had this to say:
• • “The phones are fast. Downloading apps is fast. Switching between apps is fast. Processing and editing photos is fast. Apple Pay is faster on this phone; Face ID feels slightly faster. FaceID supports more face angles too “

iPhone 11 supposedly capable of two-way wireless charging

• One feature we expected but didn’t get from the iPhone 11 lineup is two-way wireless charging. But Apple could surprise us with it later.
• Two-way or bilateral wireless charging would allow you to charge certain devices — including other smartphones — by placing them down on the back of your iPhone.
• Tipster Sonny Dickson, citing “reliable sources,” reports that iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max do feature the hardware required for two-way wireless charging. It’s just that Apple hasn’t enabled it yet.
• "Reliable sources are saying iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do include the hardware for bilateral charging, but that it is software disabled. Uncertain whether this was removed prior to final production run.”
• It’s not clear why or when two-way wireless charging may have been deactivated. Reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently suggested the “efficiency may not meet Apple’s requirements.”
• Bizarre that Apple would not have at least MENTIONED this feature and announced an anticipated release date.

Apple Watch Series 5 has same CPU as Series 4

• The insides of the Apple Watch Series 5 aren’t all that different from last year’s Series 4 upgrade.
• Other than the new always-on display, the only other internal changes Apple promoted were the new compass and increased storage. The latest build of Xcode reveals that those are basically the only changes, as the Series 5 uses the same CPU and GPU found in Apple Watch Series 4.