iPhone 11 Pro My 11 Pro Max's Screen is Dimmer and Greener Than My XS Max?!

[loybond]

Been using the 11 Pro Max for a day now, and compared a few times, and found the white balance to be quite off. Both with and without True Tone. Even weirder is that it is definitely not as bright as my XS Max. There's less contrast, and less shadow detail (possibly as a result of lower brightness, or maybe not, dunno). This doesn't make sense considering it's supposed to be 1/3 brighter normally, and 50% for peak HDR brightness. Anyone else able to compare?

Gonna head over to Apple now with both phones to compare.

Other thoughts:

My XS Max was my favourite iPhone ever, and I never questioned whether I want to keep it, but this one I'm not that sure about. The ultra wide is pretty terrible quality (adds nasty looking clarity/contrast, wild amount of shadow noise and smudgery even at base ISO on a bright day), and not software-corrected for lens distortion.

I find the regular lens to be roughly the same, but don't like the Smart HDR processing as much as I did on the XS Max. The telephoto lens is quite a bit better. Night mode is really quite good.

Oddly, the LTE is slower than the XS Max on the same network.

I didn't think I would, but I notice the lack of 3D touch. Even starting the camera from the lock screen "feels" quite different.

The spatial audio is cool, the WiFi is way faster (I'm able to stream 70GB 4K videos from my server without stuttering with VLC, whereas the XS can't do it).

 

[bwapod]

I compared my 11 Pro max with my XS max as well. Screen is brighter on last year’s XS max. -_-

 

[loybond]

Yeah, I noticed this in some of the Youtube reviews as well. Kinda the opposite of a near 200 nit increase. Does this affect your decision to keep the phone at all?

I compared my 11 Pro max with my XS max as well. Screen is brighter on last year’s XS max. -_-

 

[kre62]

Theres variance in panels every year around launch. You got a bad one. You can either play the swap game now, or wait a few weeks for batch 2, which usually have better displays.

 

[loybond]

You might be right, and I may have been lucky, but I buy the new model on launch day every year, and haven't come across an issue like this. I've seen improvements every year in the display, with the XS Max of course taking top spot.

Theres variance in panels every year around launch. You got a bad one. You can either play the swap game now, or wait a few weeks for batch 2, which usually have better displays.

 

[bwapod]

Found a fix, but ymmv. Per a post on reddit, I turned OFF auto brightness in accessibility -> display on both devices. At full brightness now, my 11 pro max is now brighter than my XS max.

 

[UKapple]

Found a fix, but ymmv. Per a post on reddit, I turned OFF auto brightness in accessibility -> display on both devices. At full brightness now, my 11 pro max is now brighter than my XS max.

Tried this on both my Xs max and pro max, screen was still dimmer and the yellow tint still wouldn’t budge. Have had to send it back to Apple for a refund, gutted as I wanted to keep the pro.

 

[bwapod]

Did you try turning the brightness all the way down, then back up again?

If that didn’t work, then yeah I would return it as well.

 

[Hatton920]

Didn’t they say that the extra brightness is automatic when it needs to use it in direct sunlight?

 

[UKapple]

Did you try turning the brightness all the way down, then back up again?

If that didn’t work, then yeah I would return it as well.

Yep and no change. Anyway it’s gone back now, intention is to wait a month or two, let any production issues be resolved and try again!

 

[loybond]

Actually I had missed the auto brightness toggle myself. With it off on both phones, the Pro is indeed brighter. I'm glad it is, because I can just keep it and enjoy it.

I'm not feeling the green tint, but the XS Max seems to have a reddish tint. Can't say which is more accurate without a colourimeter.

 

[unobtainium]

New phones also dim when restoring from an iCloud backup. Or any other processor-intensive activity that causes the phone to heat up. Historically I have always noticed new iPhones running dim until the setup and indexing is all finished. So I’d give it a couple days to be sure.

 

[Ucshade]

Didn’t they say that the extra brightness is automatic when it needs to use it in direct sunlight?

I wonder for I notice this too on direct sunlight the brightness wouldn’t ramp up unless on a very extreme sun ray I don’t know why this then the lack of 3D Touch all this removal might mean less fot apple but much for users

 

[Scott M]

Use colour filters in accessibility to change the screen tint to your liking. I’ve been doing that for years now and since they introduced this, I’ve enjoyed a perfect crisp white screen every time.