Despite minimal exterior changes from the preceding iPhone XR, substantial design changes within the phone took place, including the addition of the more powerful Apple A13 Bionic chip as well as an ultra-wide dual-camera system.

[10][11] As of March 2022[update], the iPhone 11 has sold 159.2 million units worldwide, making it the tenth best-selling smartphone of all time.

[11][19] The Apple logo on the back of the phone is centered to be equidistant to all edges and is made of a reflective material.

Also, like previous iPhones, both phones do not have a headphone jack, and initially came with wired EarPods with a Lightning connector, although Apple no longer includes these with any device.

As with the iPhone 11 Pro, XR, XS, and X, the display has a notch at the top for the TrueDepth camera system and the speaker.

The phone also has an automatic night mode allowing the camera to take brighter pictures with reduced noise in low-light environments.

Apple has also announced a new Deep Fusion feature that takes advantage of AI and machine learning for image processing and was released via iOS 13.2 software update on October 29, 2019.

[27][30] Reviews generally praised the phone's performance, battery life, and cameras, while criticizing the display as passable, but aging quickly.

According to Counterpoint Research's Market Pulse, it was the second best-selling and the most popular model globally for 2019, in less than four months of launch.

Removing these items is claimed to reduce e-waste and permit a smaller iPhone box, allowing more devices to be transported simultaneously to decrease carbon footprint.