Which New iPhone Features Are the Most Tempting to Buyers?

The three newest Apple iPhones arrive this Friday. There are plenty of considerations when choosing between the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. But some features are standouts.

PCMag surveyed readers to find out what most excited them about the new phones. Given how much use our smartphones get during the day, it's not a surprise that longer battery life was the favorite feature, at 39 percent. The iPhone 11 gains an hour of battery life over its predecessor, the iPhone XR; the iPhone 11 Pro has four hours more than the iPhone XS; and the iPhone 11 Pro Max gets five hours more than the iPhone XS Max.

One of the biggest upgrades this year is to the iPhone cameras. That is, indeed, cameras plural. The iPhone 11 has two cameras on the back, dual 12MP ultra-wide and wide cameras, with a 12MP front-facing camera. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max each has three 12MP cameras on the back: a primary wide-angle lens, ultra-wide-angle lens with a 120-degree field of view, and a sort-of-but-not-really-telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom in and out as well as 10x digital zoom. The front-facing cam is also 12MP. The phones also have Night Mode, which lets users shoot in low-light conditions. These specs and features appealed to 27 percent of survey respondents.

Another appealing inclusion with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max: Apple is shipping an 18W power adapter in the box, which appealed to 13 percent of our respondents.

Apple events used to prominently feature the iPod, along with a commercial for it that was as bright as the device itself. This year, the color came from the iPhone 11, which is available in six different ones: purple, yellow, green, black, white, and red. Even the Pro versions got a little extra color with a midnight-green option added to the usual gold, silver, and space-gray. The new colors swayed 9 percent of those answering the survey.

One feature was missing from the lineup, though: support for 5G. Apple has its reasons for not releasing 5G-compatible phones this go-round, and most respondents were OK with that: 73 percent said they wouldn't consider switching to an Android phone even if Apple "doesn't integrate 5G support soon."

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