iPhone 11, Pro and Pro Max - Tips and Tricks

Want to get the most out of your iPhone 11? Check out our tips to get to grips with Apple’s cutting-edge handset.

Read Apple’s official user guide

If you’ve moved to the iPhone 11 from an Android or even an older Apple handset, the controls can be (understatement alert) a little confusing, so make sure to check out the gestures guide for a walkthrough of all the key moves you need to know.

It’s also worth perusing the ‘Table of Contents’ menu at the top for more general tips. Give the page a bookmark so you can always refer back to it.

Add a home button

Struggling to get to grips with the buttonless setup? Worry not, mon frère - you can add a traditional home button to the bottom of your display with just a few taps.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Scroll down to AssistiveTouch, tap it and toggle it on > Go to ‘Customize Top Level Menu’ and press the remove sign until only one icon is left, and then select ‘Home’. Sorted.

Improve your battery life

With iOS 13, Apple introduced a new feature that uses machine learning to help prevent battery degradation. That means it’ll better maintain its charge over time and you’re less likely to need to replace it. Result!

To enable this, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Scroll down to ‘Optimised Battery Charging’ and toggle it on. 

Additionally, you can still rely on the good old-fashioned Low Power Mode (which limits how much energy your phone is using on apps in the background). Just go to Settings > Battery > Scroll down to ‘Low Power Mode’ and toggle it on. 

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Use a shortcut to take videos 

There’s nothing worse than trying to capture a video, only to miss the opportunity because you’re fumbling with the settings. Enter ‘QuickTake’ - a new feature which lets you, erm, take videos quickly.

To use it, go into the camera app, and then hold down the shutter button and quickly swipe to the right and it’ll start recording a video instantly.

(Note: If you’re wondering what’s happened to ‘burst’ mode photos - you can still do that by holding down the shutter and swiping to the left instead).

Take better photos

The cameras on the new iPhones are immense. Thanks to the always-on ‘Night mode’ and the multi-lens arrays you’ll get much better pictures than before, even in low-light settings. 

Switch between lenses

Different situations call for different lenses. To cycle between them and test to see which one provides the best shot, simply open the camera app, tilt your phone to landscape position, and then tap 2, 1x or .5 on the right-hand side of the screen. 

Control Smart HDR

Credit to Apple, their new Smart HDR technology is extremely reliable when it comes to delivering well-balanced photos – however, in some lighting situations, it’s good to try it with and without to get the best results. 

To give yourself the option to toggle it within the app, simply go to Settings > Camera > and then scroll down to ‘Smart HDR’ and toggle it off. 

The Smart HDR option will then appear in the background on the camera app, so you can select and unselect it on-the-fly with one tap.  

Use the improved portrait mode

Portrait mode was a cool new background-blurring feature introduced with the iPhone 7 Plus, but people were a bit disappointed to find they could only use it on human faces. Now on the iPhone 11, you can put a blurred background behind objects, animals, decorative soaps – anything, really! 

To enable portrait mode, simply go to the Camera, swipe to ‘Portrait’ mode and follow the on-screen instructions.

Take a Slow-Mo Selfie

You’ve probably seen the new ‘Slow-Mo Selfie’ iPhone ads. The one with the little boy patiently blasting his sister in the face with a hairdryer? To recreate this bizarre scenario, simply go into your camera and swipe right until you get to the Slo-Mo setting.

Bonus tip: Once you’ve taken your video, you can change the length of the slow-mo effect. Go to your camera roll, tap on the slow-mo video you want to tweak, then click on edit. There’s an additional adjuster underneath the frames of the video – just move the white sliders in and out to decrease or increase the length of the effect.

Update your iOS

Not the most exciting tip to end on, granted; but delaying updates can cause apps to stop working properly and make your device more vulnerable to security issues. Not good.

To check for updates simply go to Settings > General > Software Update. If there’s a new version available, it will give you a prompt and the option to download it.

You might also like:

- Gadget insurance with Protect Your Bubble: get your devices covered now.*
- Samsung Galaxy Fold: Everything you need to know about this fascinating foldable.
- Samsung Galaxy S11: Will Samsung’s new flagship handset live up to expectations?

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