iPhone 11 shows Apple is still catching up with Android smartphones

Apple iPhone 11: Rumours pictured a big upgrade for Apple’s new smartphones.The latest series, however, shows Apple is still behind Android in these key areas.

Apple vs Android: Which one is better? (Apple)

'By innovationonly' read Apple's invitation for the company's Special Event where it unveiled three new smartphones. The tagline triggered speculations of Apple making some bold changes to its iPhone lineup. Reverse wireless charging to Apple Pencil support, all sorts of things were predicted for iPhone 11 - which has turned out to be minor updates over the predecessors.

The Apple iPhone11 series including the premium iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max offer very little to convince an Android smartphone user to change loyalties. Except for a closed iOS 13 operating system, most of the Apple iPhone 11 features are already available on many Android smartphones. Apple's new iPhone 11 smartphones also lag behind some Android phones in key areas.

Three cameras

Apple finally offers three rear cameras on its iPhones. While iPhone 11 still relies on dual rear cameras, Apple iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max come with three rear cameras. The setup includes 12-megapixel ultra-wide, wide-angle, and telephoto cameras. For iPhones, it's a massive upgrade. But for Android users, three rear cameras or wide-angle and telephoto sensor combination is not new.

Take Huawei P30 Pro for example. The phone offers a quad-camera setup including 40-megapixel (WideAngle Lens, f/1.6 aperture, OIS), 20-megapixel (Ultra Wide Angle Lens, f/2.2aperture), and 8-megapixel (Telephoto, f/3.4 aperture, OIS) along with a Time-of-Flight sensor. The phone also has a 50x zoom.

Fast Charging

Apple is bundling 18W fast charger with iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max smartphones which also come with improved battery life. Again, this is a great improvement for those in the Apple ecosystem. But it's not the same case for Android.Better or equivalent fast charging is available on many and much cheaper Android smartphones. OnePlus' OnePlus Warp Charge 30 Power Adapter comes with 30W fast charging and ships with OnePlus 7 Pro. Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro comes with 27W fast charger. Even Samsung is offering a faster charger along with its S10 and Note10 phones.

Bezel-less

Apple iPhone Xbrought in the trend of notched-screen on smartphones. While iPhone X delivered a much higher screen-to-body ratio, Android players worked on the concept tomake the display notches smaller and more fluid with the design. From pop-up selfie cameras to slider camera modules, there are already several smartphones with a notch-less screen. Apple iPhone 11 series continues with the two-year-old notch design.

Other limitations

Apple iPhone 11,iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max base models offer 64GB built-in storage. Withno possibility of a MicroSD slot or paid iCloud storage (free up to 5GB), Apple iPhone 11 users may have to keep optimising the space on their smartphones.