iPhone XS, Test XS Max: Get the Big One

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New iPhones this year are, at first glance, relatively boring updates, even for an S-year version. Of course, S phones have always missed an immediate wow factor because they retain the same physical design as the previous year's model, but many S phones from the past have come up with new innovations that have had an immediate impact on the user experience, like the Siri. digital assistant that was launched with the 4S, or the fingerprint scanner that debuted with the 5S. The iPhone XS and its biggest brother, the XS Max, however have no immediate feature compared to the iPhone X last year. With these new models, it takes time to see the improvements.

But having used the two new iPhones for a week, I can say that their new features – almost all internal – are welcome and make the iPhone XS a more polished, refined and balanced device than the X. I I'm not sure this is enough to warrant an upgrade for current X owners, but all other users of an iPhone 8 or higher will see the immediate benefits of the upgrade.

In my opinion, if you're shopping for a new iPhone, the biggest XS Max is the one you need. The standard XS is too similar to the X, and even to the next XR, you might as well save some money and get it. The first sales figures suggest that consumers are feeling the same, since the big model sells better than his little brother.

This review will focus on the XS Max, but in reality, everything mentioned below, with the exception of the one-hand use complaints, applies to two phones.

The bigger it is, the better it is

The XS Max made the headlines of its large 6.5-inch widescreen, and rightly so: Apple helped create a stunning, stunning and brilliant flawless OLED panel. I say "helped to manufacture" because these panels are technically Samsung hardware, but Apple has done an internal optimization to adapt them to the iPhone. The colors of the XS Max are more natural, with a less exaggerated contrast, like the OLED panels of Samsung. While I respect Apple for trying to keep things as realistic as possible, I must say that I still prefer Samsung's super bright and oversaturated displays. It's just a personal preference, of course.

Objectively, XS Max's OLED panel is one of the two or three best in the industry today. Watching videos or playing on this device is a delight. Apple has upgraded the stereo speakers of the XS and XS Max. The Max in particular broadcasts the most powerful and vibrant sound of all the phones I've tested yet, with the exception of the Razer phone, which has big dedicated speakers.

In addition to this enlarged screen and a larger battery, everything about the XS Max is identical to that of the XS, which means that in terms of pure look and feel, it is only a matter of fact. 39, a super sized iPhone X you have an iPhone X, you will know how the XS Max feels. The phone is bigger, certainly, but in 2018, everyone has seen and held big phones, there is no such reaction "whoa this is huge" as when using the iPhone 6 Plus for the first time .

Thanks to its finesse, elegant rounded corners and chamfered corners, the XS Max is very easy to hold for me. Using it with one hand, however, is another story.

iOS is not friendly to a hand

I live in Hong Kong, arguably the busiest and densest city in the world. Everyone in this city travels the city every day up the stairs and escalators and walking in narrow streets a few inches from the next person. Using the iPhone XS Max here was scary because the phone is so hostile for one-handed use.

Now, if you are a loyal user of your iPhone, you probably think that "the XS Max has a 6.5 inch screen! Of course, it's hard to use with one hand!

But it's not the size of the screen that makes the Max difficult to use with one hand. It's iOS. I use phones with screens larger than the Max – the Honor Note 10 with a 7-inch screen; the Nex Vivo with a 6.6-inch screen – and these two phones are easier to use with one hand, thanks to Android.

Android, for example, allows me to place application icons anywhere on the home screen. So I put them at the bottom of the list to easily reach the thumb. On iOS, all apps should sit at the top of the screen and flow from there. Just look at the photo below, which home screen is the most suitable for one-handed use?

That's not all: most Android phones also allow keyboard shortcuts to open the notification panel. On an iPhone, I have to reach the top of the screen and slide down. Most Android phones also have a one-handed mode that reduces the display to something that looks like a 4-inch. iOS only offers "Accessibility", which lowers the screen vertically, but not horizontally, and returns to full screen mode after a tap on the screen.

The lack of usability of a hand on iOS is a problem I have with iPhones for years, but the Xs Max is particularly difficult to manage.

Nevertheless, I think the absolutely breathtaking big screen is worth compromising. The 5.8-inch screen of the XS is too small for me in 2018, while the flagship products of Android all offer a screen of 6 inches or more.

7 nanometer power plant

This year's iPhones feature Apple's SoC A12 processor, a state-of-the-art 7-nanometer processor. In mobile processing, the smaller the nanometers, the better it is, and the 7 nanometers of the A12 are at the forefront of the industry. Huawei announced last month at IFA its own 7-nanometer chipset, but it will not be available until the release of Mate 20 in late October. So, despite Huawei's claim to be the first, Apple's A12 is actually the world's first 7-nanometer processor.

And it is powerful. The reference numbers have the A12 on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and the new iPhones are a little smoother / faster than the X last year. The power of the A12 is mainly used for intensive and complicated tasks such as augmented reality management and the use of its neural engine. process photos in real time. For example, the XS Max is equipped with a new "smart HDR" algorithm that essentially captures four photos simultaneously whenever a user presses the shutter button. Then, the neural engine of the A12 will examine the four shots, find the best lighting and image information for each one, and combine into a balanced picture. The A12 chipset does it all in real time, in milliseconds. It's safe to say that no other chipset can handle this type of computer image processing, at least until the Huawei Kirin 980 arrives in a few weeks.

The best camera

The cameras for this year's new iPhones remain essentially identical to those of the X, two 12-megapixel lenses, with the exception of an increase in the pixel size of micron, which has been increased to 1.4 , against 1.22 microns for the iPhone X. This increase in the camera allows the XS Max to attract more light than before.

But it's not really what brings improvements, it is this "intelligent HDR" algorithm integrated into the image signal processor of the phone that allows the XS Max to capture the most balanced images. The photos are rarely overexposed or underexposed, they always look natural, with realistic colors and generally uniform lighting.

It also means that sometimes the XS Max's photos will not look as "gorgeous" as captured by a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 or Huawei P20 Pro. Samsung's cameras tend to exaggerate the contrast and colors, giving photos ready for Instagram. Meanwhile, Huawei's P20 Pro still has the best low-light camera, drawing light out of nowhere to create a nearly black and unobtrusive scene. Of course, Samsung and Huawei realize these tips with intensive digital processing. They are much heavier than Apple's "intelligent HDR" approach.

That's what I'm going to say: purists of photos will prefer the XS Max's camera, but those who are just looking for the best plans for Instagram can find the photos of Samsung and Huawei more aesthetic.

The phone can, of course, capture the portrait bokeh modes and this year, one of the novelties of the iPhone is the ability to adjust the blur of the depth of field after shooting. That's another feature that uses this A12 chipset. In general, I found the XS Max's bokeh hits nice, but not the best. Google Pixel 2's edge detection is almost certainly better. Even a OnePlus 6 seems to find its subject faster.

Overall, I would say that the camera of the XS Max is not the best in all areas. In low light, she loses to Huawei. in terms of pop, he loses to Samsung; in bokeh, it loses against Google – but the XS Max often delivers the most balanced shot. The camera of the iPhone is one where everyone can aim and take a picture that works every time. Its ceiling is not as high as other phones, but its floor is not so low.

iOS 12: generally good

The good thing about using iPhones is that you will almost always use the latest iOS software, unlike Android users, the majority of whom use outdated software because third-party providers, such as Samsung, take a long time to wear to update their updates. This year, the iOS 12 brings many needed improvements, including grouped notifications (finally!) And "Screen Time", which tracks the use of your phone to the minute. iOS 12 also improves battery life: my XS Max can spend a full day without needing to charge most days, but on heavy days, it must find its way to a charger.

Of course, there is a disadvantage here too. As mentioned earlier, iOS is so hostile that it sometimes drives me crazy. The XS Max is more difficult to use than necessary, because the Apple designers of Cupertino refuse to let us place the icons of applications as we wish. I do not like the lack of aesthetic customization either. An Android home screen can look like a million different ways. iPhones? Apart from the wallpaper, they are all alike. Considering how much we use our phones, letting us put a little personality would be good.

The most refined and best iPhone of all time, but is it enough?

My thoughts on the iPhone camera – not the best in all areas, but perhaps the most complete and best in the whole – quite accurately summarize my opinion on all iPhone XS and XS Max . These phones do not have the most breathtaking design, they have neither the best camera nor the best battery life, they are not the fastest and they are certainly not the best value. However, where one or two phones have a major flaw or two, the iPhone XS Max has almost none, except perhaps for iOS which is so difficult to use with one hand.

But if there is no question of these new iPhones is that Apple is a little cheap. I'm not talking about these new iPhone prices that everyone complains about – I think that smartphones are worth the price given the price they earn for us – I'm talking about the accessories that Apple wants us to spend.

These new iPhones, for example, support fast charging, but most users will never know or experience it, because the charger that comes with the phone is the weakest and most expensive charging brick. market low. If you want to quickly charge your iPhone, Apple asks you to shell out an additional $ 50 for this high-power charging brick and USB-C cable.

The same with the 3.5 mm lightning dongle. Apple does not include more than one in the box. Therefore, if you want to use your 3.5mm headset with the new iPhones, you will have to buy the dongle separately for $ 17.

Think about it: Apple is a trillion dollar company and these new iPhones are selling for $ 1,000 to $ 1,400, but Apple will not provide you with the dongle needed to use a headset or a charging brick that can charge your iPhone to the maximum.

But to be honest, complaining is like talking to a wall. Most Apple fans do not care, and the company will continue to see a record number of units anyway. It seems that Apple can afford to remain stubborn because its products are revolutionary and provide, as always, a convincing overall package to the vast majority of users.

Plus, the iPhone XS Max is very very good.

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New iPhones this year are, at first glance, relatively boring updates, even for an S-year version. Of course, S phones have always missed an immediate wow factor because they retain the same physical design as the previous year's model, but many S phones from the past have come up with new innovations that have had an immediate impact on the user experience, like the Siri. digital assistant that was launched with the 4S, or the fingerprint scanner that debuted with the 5S. The iPhone XS and its biggest brother, the XS Max, however have no immediate feature compared to the iPhone X last year. With these new models, it takes time to see the improvements.

But having used the two new iPhones for a week, I can say that their new features – almost all internal – are welcome and make the iPhone XS a more polished, refined and balanced device than the X. I I'm not sure this is enough to warrant an upgrade for current X owners, but all other users of an iPhone 8 or higher will see the immediate benefits of the upgrade.

In my opinion, if you're shopping for a new iPhone, the biggest XS Max is the one you need. The standard XS is too similar to the X, and even to the next XR, you might as well save some money and get it. The first sales figures suggest that consumers are feeling the same, since the big model sells better than his little brother.

This review will focus on the XS Max, but in reality, everything mentioned below, with the exception of the one-hand use complaints, applies to two phones.

The bigger it is, the better it is

The XS Max made the headlines of its large 6.5-inch widescreen, and rightly so: Apple helped create a stunning, stunning and brilliant flawless OLED panel. I say "helped to manufacture" because these panels are technically Samsung hardware, but Apple has done an internal optimization to adapt them to the iPhone. The colors of the XS Max are more natural, with a less exaggerated contrast, like the OLED panels of Samsung. While I respect Apple for trying to keep things as realistic as possible, I must say that I still prefer Samsung's super bright and oversaturated displays. It's just a personal preference, of course.

Objectively, XS Max's OLED panel is one of the two or three best in the industry today. Watching videos or playing on this device is a delight. Apple has upgraded the stereo speakers of the XS and XS Max. The Max in particular broadcasts the most powerful and vibrant sound of all the phones I've tested yet, with the exception of the Razer phone, which has big dedicated speakers.

In addition to this enlarged screen and a larger battery, everything about the XS Max is identical to that of the XS, which means that in terms of pure look and feel, it is only a matter of fact. 39, a super sized iPhone X you have an iPhone X, you will know how the XS Max feels. The phone is bigger, certainly, but in 2018, everyone has seen and held big phones, there is no such reaction "whoa this is huge" as when using the iPhone 6 Plus for the first time .

Thanks to its finesse, elegant rounded corners and chamfered corners, the XS Max is very easy to hold for me. Using it with one hand, however, is another story.

iOS is not friendly to a hand

I live in Hong Kong, arguably the busiest and densest city in the world. Everyone in this city travels the city every day up the stairs and escalators and walking in narrow streets a few inches from the next person. Using the iPhone XS Max here was scary because the phone is so hostile for one-handed use.

Now, if you are a loyal user of your iPhone, you probably think that "the XS Max has a 6.5 inch screen! Of course, it's hard to use with one hand!

But it's not the size of the screen that makes the Max difficult to use with one hand. It's iOS. I use phones with screens larger than the Max – the Honor Note 10 with a 7-inch screen; the Nex Vivo with a 6.6-inch screen – and these two phones are easier to use with one hand, thanks to Android.

Android, for example, allows me to place application icons anywhere on the home screen. So I put them at the bottom of the list to easily reach the thumb. On iOS, all apps should sit at the top of the screen and flow from there. Just look at the photo below, which home screen is the most suitable for one-handed use?

That's not all: most Android phones also allow keyboard shortcuts to open the notification panel. On an iPhone, I have to reach the top of the screen and slide down. Most Android phones also have a one-handed mode that reduces the display to something that looks like a 4-inch. iOS only offers "Accessibility", which lowers the screen vertically, but not horizontally, and returns to full screen mode after a tap on the screen.

The lack of usability of a hand on iOS is a problem I have with iPhones for years, but the Xs Max is particularly difficult to manage.

Nevertheless, I think the absolutely breathtaking big screen is worth compromising. The 5.8-inch screen of the XS is too small for me in 2018, while the flagship products of Android all offer a screen of 6 inches or more.

7 nanometer power plant

This year's iPhones feature Apple's SoC A12 processor, a state-of-the-art 7-nanometer processor. In mobile processing, the smaller the nanometers, the better it is, and the 7 nanometers of the A12 are at the forefront of the industry. Huawei announced last month at IFA its own 7-nanometer chipset, but it will not be available until the release of Mate 20 in late October. So, despite Huawei's claim to be the first, Apple's A12 is actually the world's first 7-nanometer processor.

And it is powerful. The reference numbers have the A12 on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and the new iPhones are a little smoother / faster than the X last year. The power of the A12 is mainly used for intensive and complicated tasks such as augmented reality management and the use of its neural engine. process photos in real time. For example, the XS Max is equipped with a new "smart HDR" algorithm that essentially captures four photos simultaneously whenever a user presses the shutter button. Then, the neural engine of the A12 will examine the four shots, find the best lighting and image information for each one, and combine into a balanced picture. The A12 chipset does it all in real time, in milliseconds. It's safe to say that no other chipset can handle this type of computer image processing, at least until the Huawei Kirin 980 arrives in a few weeks.

The best camera

The cameras for this year's new iPhones remain essentially identical to those of the X, two 12-megapixel lenses, with the exception of an increase in the pixel size of micron, which has been increased to 1.4 , against 1.22 microns for the iPhone X. This increase in the camera allows the XS Max to attract more light than before.

But it's not really what brings improvements, it is this "intelligent HDR" algorithm integrated into the image signal processor of the phone that allows the XS Max to capture the most balanced images. The photos are rarely overexposed or underexposed, they always look natural, with realistic colors and generally uniform lighting.

It also means that sometimes the XS Max's photos will not look as "gorgeous" as captured by a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 or Huawei P20 Pro. Samsung's cameras tend to exaggerate the contrast and colors, giving photos ready for Instagram. Meanwhile, Huawei's P20 Pro still has the best low-light camera, drawing light out of nowhere to create a nearly black and unobtrusive scene. Of course, Samsung and Huawei realize these tips with intensive digital processing. They are much heavier than Apple's "intelligent HDR" approach.

That's what I'm going to say: purists of photos will prefer the XS Max's camera, but those who are just looking for the best plans for Instagram can find the photos of Samsung and Huawei more aesthetic.

The phone can, of course, capture the portrait bokeh modes and this year, one of the novelties of the iPhone is the ability to adjust the blur of the depth of field after shooting. That's another feature that uses this A12 chipset. In general, I found the XS Max's bokeh hits nice, but not the best. Google Pixel 2's edge detection is almost certainly better. Even a OnePlus 6 seems to find its subject faster.

Overall, I would say that the camera of the XS Max is not the best in all areas. In low light, she loses to Huawei. in terms of pop, he loses to Samsung; in bokeh, it loses against Google – but the XS Max often delivers the most balanced shot. The camera of the iPhone is one where everyone can aim and take a picture that works every time. Its ceiling is not as high as other phones, but its floor is not so low.

iOS 12: generally good

The good thing about using iPhones is that you will almost always use the latest iOS software, unlike Android users, the majority of whom use outdated software because third-party providers, such as Samsung, take a long time to wear to update their updates. This year, the iOS 12 brings many needed improvements, including grouped notifications (finally!) And "Screen Time", which tracks the use of your phone to the minute. iOS 12 also improves battery life: my XS Max can spend a full day without needing to charge most days, but on heavy days, it must find its way to a charger.

Of course, there is a disadvantage here too. As mentioned earlier, iOS is so hostile that it sometimes drives me crazy. The XS Max is more difficult to use than necessary, because the Apple designers of Cupertino refuse to let us place the icons of applications as we wish. I do not like the lack of aesthetic customization either. An Android home screen can look like a million different ways. iPhones? Apart from the wallpaper, they are all alike. Considering how much we use our phones, letting us put a little personality would be good.

The most refined and best iPhone of all time, but is it enough?

My thoughts on the iPhone camera – not the best in all areas, but perhaps the most complete and best in the whole – quite accurately summarize my opinion on all iPhone XS and XS Max . These phones do not have the most breathtaking design, they have neither the best camera nor the best battery life, they are not the fastest and they are certainly not the best value. However, where one or two phones have a major flaw or two, the iPhone XS Max has almost none, except perhaps for iOS which is so difficult to use with one hand.

But if there is no question of these new iPhones is that Apple is a little cheap. I'm not talking about these new iPhone prices that everyone complains about – I think that smartphones are worth the price given the price they earn for us – I'm talking about the accessories that Apple wants us to spend.

These new iPhones, for example, support fast charging, but most users will never know or experience it, because the charger that comes with the phone is the weakest and most expensive charging brick. market low. Si vous souhaitez recharger rapidement votre iPhone, Apple vous demande de débourser 50 USD supplémentaires pour cette brique de charge haute puissance et ce câble USB-C.

De même avec le dongle à foudre de 3,5 mm. Apple n&#39;en inclut plus un dans la boîte. Par conséquent, si vous souhaitez utiliser votre casque 3,5 mm avec les nouveaux iPhones, vous devrez acheter le dongle séparément au prix de 17 $.

Pensez à cela: Apple est une entreprise d’un billion de dollars et ces nouveaux iPhones se vendent entre 1 000 et 1 400 dollars, mais Apple ne vous fournira pas le dongle nécessaire pour utiliser un casque ou une brique de chargement capable de recharger votre iPhone au maximum.

Mais pour être honnête, me plaindre, c&#39;est comme parler à un mur. La plupart des fans d&#39;Apple ne s&#39;en soucient pas, et la société continuera à voir un nombre record d&#39;unités malgré tout. Il semble qu&#39;Apple puisse se permettre de rester têtu, car ses produits sont révolutionnaires et fournissent, comme toujours, un package global convaincant à la grande majorité des utilisateurs.

De plus, l&#39;iPhone XS Max est très très bon.