The headline feature of the iPhone 11 is the new camera system. From night shooting mode to ultra-wide lenses, Apple's latest iPhones have a bunch of new camera tricks. It seems like Apple made an incredibly obvious move this year: it made the phone a little thicker and put a bigger battery inside.

The iPhone 11 is the phone most people who are upgrading to a new iPhone this year should get. It’s an excellent phone, with one of the best cameras I’ve ever seen on a smartphone and terrific battery life.

The iPhone 11 is basically an S update to last year’s very popular iPhone XR. From the front, it looks exactly the same. It has the same design, the same 6.1-inch 720p LCD with fancy rounded corners, the same giant bezels, and the same aluminium body.

But that design has been made slightly better: the water resistance is a little better, and Apple says the glass on front and back is a little stronger. The camera bump on the back is now milled right into the glass, which is kind of neat, but it’s still a camera bump. The whole design remains a little surfboard-y, and it’s definitely not small. If you’re looking to upgrade from an iPhone SE, this thing is going to feel huge.

If you’ve been holding off upgrades and aren’t familiar with the iPhone XR, here’s a quick catch-up: the iPhone XR was the lower-cost model in Apple’s 2018 line of iPhones, swapping in an LCD screen for the OLED in the iPhone XS. It also had one fewer camera, but, critically, Apple didn’t skimp anywhere else — plus the battery life was stellar. Despite not having the best specs, it was the best iPhone for most people, and it quickly became Apple’s best-selling model. That’s probably why this year’s XR upgrade is just called the “iPhone 11.”

The only major differences between the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 are the cameras, the better battery life, and the processor.

So, is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 11? If you’ve got an iPhone older than the XR and you’re looking to upgrade, I think the answer is yes. The camera is substantially improved, and you will get vastly better battery life than anything aside from a XR. That’s what most people care about, and Apple has really delivered here.

The Camera

Apple added an ultra-wide f/2.4 camera to the back of the phone, improved the sensor for the main f/1.8 camera, and updated the front camera to a 12-megapixel sensor with a slightly wider field of view in landscape and the ability to take 4K60 video. Apple’s Smart HDR system has also been improved, and there’s a new Night mode. These are all the same cameras and features as the iPhone 11 Pro, minus a telephoto, and the results are just as good.

Apple’s Smart HDR system is a lot smarter this year. It’s more willing to blow out highlights, it keeps shadows dark, and it can recognize faces and hair and apply different processing to them — a feature Apple calls “semantic rendering.”

Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max: the battery life is real

The iPhone 11 Pro is 0.4mm thicker and 11 grams heavier than the iPhone XS. But unless you’re comparing them directly, you won’t notice (and even then, it’s extremely subtle). The difference is a little more noticeable if you’re upgrading from something like an iPhone 7, however, as the 11 Pro is a full 50 grams heavier.

Between the larger size and the removal of the 3D Touch system, there’s more room inside the case for a bigger battery, which seems like a big part of Apple’s claimed four-hour battery life increase from the iPhone XS and five-hour increase for the Pro Max from the XS Max.

Apple has historically been good about meeting its battery life claims, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max has consistently run for 12 to 14 hours on a single charge, with over 10 hours of screen-on time reported in the battery settings per 24-hour period.

That’s compared to 8 to 10 hours of battery life at most for my iPhone XS Max, which is a marked improvement. It’s not enough to make me stop charging at my desk throughout the day, and I’ll definitely still carry a battery pack on trips. But it’s a big bump, and it’s better than most Android phones we’ve tested.

The smaller iPhone 11 Pro also performed well. We used it all day for video, sent it out for several hours of shooting photo tests and 4K video in the evening, left it off the charger overnight, and it still had 50 percent of its battery left the next morning.

Apple’s also finally relented and included an 18-watt USB-C fast charger with the Pro phones, so you get a USB-C to Lightning cable as well. Apple’s USB-C charger is not the smallest or prettiest charger out there, but anything’s better than that slow 5W brick it’s been including for years.

All in all, the iPhone 11 Pro battery life has been impressive, especially compared to any prior iPhone, save for last year’s iPhone XR. Turns out, making the phone thicker and putting a bigger battery inside is a good idea.

Of course, the big external change to the iPhone 11 Pro is the camera system. There’s now an ultra-wide camera in addition to the standard and telephoto cameras on the back. The iPhone 11 Pro has three cameras, all with different focal lengths: there’s a new ultra-wide camera with an f/2.4 13mm lens, the f/1.8 26mm main camera with a slightly improved sensor, and the telephoto camera with the same sensor as last year but a faster 52mm f/2.0 lens. (All focal lengths are in 35mm equivalent.) The f/2.2 front camera is now 12 megapixels, up from 7, and it has a wider 24mm focal length so it can pull out to a slightly wider angle in landscape for selfies, which is incredibly fun.

So, is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 11? If you’ve got an iPhone older than the XR and you’re looking to upgrade, the answer is yes. The camera is substantially improved, and you will get vastly better battery life than anything aside from a XR. That’s what most people care about, and Apple has really delivered here.

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Testing should not be viewed as a ‘quick fix’, but an integral part of the DevOps process, says Inspired Testing.

The proof that considerable advances have been made in mobile testing is evident when one compares the user experience a decade ago to present time. From frustratingly slow and difficult to navigate, mobile interfaces are now coming into their own, providing millions of seamless and happy encounters.

Does this mean mobile testing has finally found its groove?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because the small screen platform is finally being understood as a discrete medium that requires specific testing skills and expertise. Mobile testing is now an area of specialisation. And no, because the diversity of content, continuous updates and the plethora of devices on the market at any given time – with their associated operating and application software – create a constant challenge to mobile testers, and their clients, to provide a fast, error-free and fluid user experience.

With what do we test it, dear Liza?

“One of the biggest tribulations for companies wishing to test their software on mobile devices is access. The number of makes and models available can make it a cumbersome, expensive and ongoing process,” says Jacques Fouché, CEO of software testing firm Inspired Testing.

Cloud-based public device farms provide a range of mobile devices and offer a useful rental service, but they have some drawbacks. Firstly, it can get very expensive, especially for larger corporates that have a wide range of services they need to cover. Larger organisations often require 24/7 access to the devices for a prolonged period of time. “Public device farms are more suitable for smaller companies that have a couple of apps they want to test, but this also depends on their risk profile,” explains Fouché.

Another option is cloud-based private device farms, where you strategically procure your own devices and either house them in your own data centre within the business, or with an outsourced provider. Either way, you have 100% access to the devices at any time, without having to pay a rental fee. ‘Strategically procure’ means you buy certain models within a brand, as testing on one device will give you similar screen real estate on four or five other devices. “This option is good for high-volume device users requiring stringent levels of security, such as companies in the financial technology space,” says Fouché. Companies that strive to achieve a high frequency of continuous integration and deployment would also do well to consider a private device farm, as this will give them unrestricted access to the devices.

Houston, we have lift-off… or not

Once the challenge of how to access devices for testing purposes has been solved, the process of testing begins. This is where companies can really come unstuck, says Lloyd Dignan, Director: New Business, Inspired Testing. “Whether it’s a new release or an update, a complete retest is the only solution. There is a perception that once you have released your app or launched your Web site, any subsequent updates will not be as critical. Many big players have discovered the hard way that this is not the case. No company is immune to crashes and errors. To avoid this, testing should be viewed not as a ‘quick fix’, but an integral part of the DevOps process,” he explains.

Understanding which devices your market uses is also critical to the testing process. Tapping into the information streams available, such as market research, Google Analytics and your marketing engine will provide insights into the make and model of devices accessing your site or app, from which you can extrapolate technical data. Also bear in mind that device usage differs significantly from country to country. For example, in the UK, the majority of 18-35-year-olds have the latest iPhone. In Romania, the Samsung Galaxy J5 is the most popular phone, while Chinese brands Tecno and Infinix are big brands in Nigeria. “Keeping current with devices and operating system updates is one of the main challenges facing companies,” says Dignan.

One thing mobile users across markets, countries and continents do have in common is intolerance to poor app and Web site performance. “There is absolutely no loyalty,” says Dignan. “If an app crashes or takes too long to load (between four and eight seconds on average), the user will move on – and even delete the app before they go.” Because there is such fierce competition, there is significant pressure on companies to go live as soon as possible. “The opportunity for mobile is massive, but organisations have to make sure their systems and applications are fully tested – and the errors fixed – before they release. Errors become compounded with each new update and it gets harder to fix each time,” explains Dignan.

A changing landscape

There are clear statistics that show a massive transition from user access via desktop and laptop to mobile devices (including tablet), while the consumption of data has moved significantly from laptop to mobile. Mobile devices are not only used to access apps; they are becoming the platform of choice to access Web sites. This makes Web site testing as important as app testing, as an estimated 63% of users worldwide now use their mobile devices to access Web sites. There is much more likelihood of someone completing their cart on a phone than on a laptop or desktop. In addition, says Dignan, the emergence of responsive Web sites – Web sites that shrink down and respond to the size of the screen – made mobile browsing much easier, while many companies are now releasing apps to augment their Web sites, to provide an interactive user service. Progressive Web applications that look and load like ‘normal’ Web pages, but offer the functionality of an app, are also becoming standard practice.

These shifts are creating massive opportunities in the mobile space, and consequently, a significant explosion in mobile testing, says Fouché, particularly in industries such as fintech, logistics and retail. Automated mobile testing has become an area of specialisation in itself, and mobile testing is no longer a sub-set of testing, but a category in its own right.

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About Inspired Testing

Inspired Testing’s disruptive onshore offshore model offers a revitalised alternative to outdated offshore models. With a scalable pool of 250+ expert SQA professionals in the UK and South Africa, the company’s strength lies in knowing how to structure, execute and automate testing. Importantly, our ISO 27001 certification and its alignment to the UK/EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) ensures full protection of critical personal data. Inspired Testing uses a unique combination of experience, technique and blended onshore offshore delivery capabilities to provide expert software testing across most platforms, devices and environments. www.inspiredtesting.com

Inspired Testing is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dynamic Technologies, a software and technology group with 1 000+ staff and thirteen group companies across the UK and South Africa providing a diverse range of technology solutions, digital services and related core competencies. Our group companies comprise DVT (which includes the DVT Academy), Inspired Testing, DotModus, Cloudsmiths, IndigoCube, Blue Pencil Consulting, Dynamic DNA, Blue Pencil Creative, Emerald Consulting, Dynamic Talent, EventSmiths and Swarm. www.dynamic-tech.com