The iPhone 11 is truly a magnificent device. If you’re lucky enough to own one, then first let us offer our congratulations; in all likelihood, you’ve got the best smartphone on the market right now. You’re probably wondering what you should do with your new phone. The good news is that the possibilities are endless, especially if you’re upgrading from an ancient device. Here are 10 things we think you should do with your new iPhone 11 as soon as you’ve gone through the initial setup.
- Browse the web
No, really. The iPhone 11 boasts Apple’s most beautiful Liquid Retina display yet, and the 6-inch screen makes browsing the web an absolute joy. Whether you’re placing high-stakes bets on the Novibet game, browsing the stock exchange, or simply reading some of your favourite BuzzFeed articles, the iPhone 11 is the perfect place to kick back and spend some time browsing the internet. Just make sure you’ve got the best browser around for the device (hint: it’s probably not Safari).
- Take some cool low-light photos
Apple is well-known for its devices’ capability to take excellent low-light photography, and the iPhone 11 is no exception in this regard. The new Night Mode feature will automatically enhance any photos you take in the dark, meaning you can capture some of your most unforgettable memories without worrying about the photo coming out as a blurry, nondescript mess. The Google Pixel offers a similar function, but for our money the iPhone 11’s is better (sorry, Google).
- Try out the new ultra-wide camera
Unlike its predecessors, the iPhone 11 boasts a whopping 120-degree lens. According to Apple, this means you’re getting up to four times more screen space on your photos than a normal camera would have. You can throw away those painstakingly-edited panorama shots, because now you can take expansive wide-angle photos without needing any clever software or camera manipulation. Try it out next time you go hiking and you won’t be sorry.
- Check out Apple Arcade
While iPhone and iPad devices used to have a reputation for being excellent gaming devices, the slew of cheap shovelware in the App Store makes it hard to know which games you should actually play. That’s where Apple Arcade comes in. This curated service offers some of the best gaming experiences around for a meagre subscription fee. More games are being added all the time, and you can even sync your data between Apple devices. It’s definitely worth checking this service out if you’re a gamer.
- Try taking some selfies
For some reason, Apple has decided to go extra-hard on its selfie camera for the iPhone 11 family of devices. The new function – affectionately termed “slofies” – allows your front-facing camera to capture you at 120 frames per second. This results in some impressively detailed front-facing video, so make sure you’re prepared to see that before you start taking them (we weren’t). Using this function also means you can more easily pick from a series of frames, so you don’t have to settle for one unsatisfactory selfie.
- Watch a movie (or a streaming service)
There are plenty of people who think that watching a movie on their smartphone is an equivalent experience to visiting the cinema. While the jury’s out on whether they’re right or not, one thing’s for sure: if you’re going to use a phone to watch a movie, or Netflix or Amazon Prime or any other streaming service, it should be the iPhone 11. The impressive brightness value of the device’s screen, as well as its gorgeous Liquid Retina display, should make the phone an adequate rival to even the most immersive home cinema setups.
- Try swipe-typing
As always, Apple is late to the game with its addition of swipe-typing to its in-built keyboard, but as always it’s executed this concept better than almost all of its rivals. While the default Apple keyboard won’t compete with SwiftKey (but then again, what can?), Apple’s swipe-typing implementation is excellent and will successfully predict what you’re trying to say most of the time. Once you try swipe-typing, you’ll be hard-pressed (no pun intended) to go back to regular key presses.
- Check out haptic touch
It’s official: Apple’s 3D Touch function is dead. In its place, we have the new Haptic Touch feature, which assigns certain actions to different levels of touch feedback. For example, if you want to get to your camera from your lock screen, you need to press and hold the camera icon. Similarly, if you want to get to your mail, you can take a little peek at the content of an email simply by long-pressing. Haptic touch may not be quite as elegant as 3D Touch, but it’s still great fun to use.
- Switch on Optimised Battery Charging
This iOS 13 feature is almost too smart for words. Optimised Battery Charging learns your charging habits and adapts the phone’s charging protocol to take full advantage of them. Your iPhone will get to 80% battery, then stay there until you wake up, upon which it’ll start charging again. This results in a healthier, longer-lived battery in your phone. Considering Apple’s devices have always been plagued by complaints of poor battery life, this is a godsend.
- Try out the audio zoom feature
Audio zoom is a bit of a hidden feature on your iPhone 11, but it’s there nonetheless. When you’re recording, you can now focus in on a certain source of sound to amplify that sound and put everything else in the background. This can be really helpful if you’re recording a subject in a crowded room, for example, or if you’re trying to record a noise complaint and need to zero in on a particular aspect of the noise. This works automatically when you’re recording video, which is pretty cool.