Apple takes a shot in the dark with its latest iPhone ad

For the 2019 iPhones, Apple made some changes to appease its loyal fan base and to play catch up and even leapfrog over its Android rivals. One of the ways the company did this is by adding an ultra-wide camera to both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models and introduced Night Mode. Similar to Google's Night Sight, this feature allows users to take viewable photos without flash under dark and low-light conditions.

Today, Apple released a new 30-second ad for the iPhone 11 Night Mode. With the Smashing Pumpkins' "We Only Come Out at Night" playing in the background, the ad shows examples of Night Mode at work with the left side of the screen showing an untouched photo shot in the dark and the right side revealing how the picture came out with Night Mode. While the Pixels will give users a recommendation when to use Night Sight, the iPhone 11 series enables Night Mode automatically when the camera detects too little light.

Apple also developed Deep Fusion which is similar to the Pixel's HDR+. When a photo is snapped on the iPhone, nine different exposures are created including four short exposures, four standard exposures, and one long exposure. Three standard shots are combined with one long-exposure to create a "synthetic long-exposure" which is then combined with the sharpest of the four short-exposure images. Once that occurs, it takes just one second for the neural engine on the A13 Bionic chipset to select the best pixels to use from four different processing steps. The result is a sharper photograph with less-noise. Deep Fusion is used with most telephoto shots and when using the primary wide camera in medium to low light environments. The iPhone 11 series represents Apple's entry into computational photography which Google had a head start on with the Pixel line.

Remember when iPhone users were called "wall huggers" by Samsung? A commercial produced for the Galaxy S5 back in 2014 took place at an airport where iPhone users were all sitting on "stained carpeting" charging the battery in their phones. The Galaxy S5 not only had a replaceable battery, but it also featured Ultra Power saving mode that turned off all non-essential features and turned the screen to grayscale. Those days are now long gone, especially with the new batteries that Apple included with the iPhone 11 models. Ironically, based on our tests, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max provides 56% longer battery life than the Galaxy Note 10+.

And you might recall that a 2017 ad from Samsung for the Galaxy Note 8  chronicled how a lifelong iPhone user ended up switching to the Galaxy Note 8. It's the old story: boy meets girl and starts a relationship with her. We assume that they were compatible in most areas although she always had a Samsung phone. In one scene from that ad, both of their phones end up falling off a dock and into the water. Her phone was fine because of the IP68 rating on the Galaxy S7; his iPhone ended up in a bowl of white rice because it didn't have official water protection back then. But now, Apple has enhanced the water protection on the iPhone 11 models. The iPhone 11 can be submerged to a depth of 2 meters (6.5 feet) for as long as 30 minutes while the "Pro" models can be submerged to a depth of 4 meters (13.12 feet) for as long as 30 minutes. The Galaxy Note 10+ can be submerged to a depth of 5 feet for up to half an hour.

 

The 2019 iPhone models are also protected from splashes caused by soda, beer, coffee, tea, and juice. Just rinse it off with tap water and dry. Keep in mind that Apple, like all other phone manufacturers, still will not cover water damage with the iPhone's warranty. Apple does note that "Liquid damage is not covered under warranty, but you might have rights under consumer law."

You'll probably see the new ad for Night Mode plastered all over your television set this coming week.