New iPhone XS and Huge 6.5-inch XS Max Announced

Apple has announced its next generation of iPhone, and one of them is by far the largest iPhone. The two new models call the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. They are almost identical to their predecessor, but there are two immediate differences: on the one hand, they are both available in gold, unlike last year; and more importantly, the XS Max is huge. It's not just the biggest iPhone of all time, it's one of the biggest phones in the world.

In addition to the iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple has also announced a cheaper model that divides the difference in size, called iPhone XR. You can read more about this in our other article – we'll focus on Apple's two flagship products for 2018, the XS and the XS Max, below.

As with other S-years, this year's iPhones are primarily defined by specification upgrades. This includes a display with better dynamic range, wider stereo sound from the speakers and an increase in the speed towards the identity of the face. Water resistance was improved on both models. And the processor is also booming, thanks to the newly unveiled Apple's A12 Bionic processor, a six-core chip that is among the first in the industry to use a 7-nm process. Tim Cook called the devices "by far the most advanced iPhone we've ever created".

But the real novelty this year is the introduction of the 'Max' model, which has a huge 6.5-inch screen. It's much bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus (5.5 inches) and bigger than the Galaxy Note 9 (6.4 inches). It's not like Apple is jumping into unprecedented territory here, but it's entering a big class that, even in a world of big phones, is still considered big enough. It's an admission that big phones will continue to rule. And while it took Apple a little too much time to imagine over the years, he is happy to get into the battle of more than six inches.

Because the iPhone XS and XS Max have a wider screen ratio than that of the traditional iPhone, neither of the two phones will be as big as it seems . The iPhone XS, for example, which has the same 5.8-inch screen as the iPhone X, is actually smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus 5.5-inch. The XS Max is definitely bigger than the other iPhones that preceded it, but keep in mind that its extra screen size will come more from the height than from the extra width. This means that it should not be much harder to hold than any larger iPhone.

Apple also claims that the XS and XS Max incorporate a brand new camera system, although the specs seem largely identical at a high level. Wide angle and telephoto cameras still have 12 megapixel sensors with optical image stabilization; but the wide angle camera now uses a new sensor with larger pixels, and the telephoto lens has a wider aperture, so both cameras need to do better in low light. The selfie camera on the front is supposed to be also faster, but the aperture and the number of megapixels have not changed.

The biggest upgrade may be the way these cameras take pictures. Apple presents a new method called "Smart HDR" that looks a lot like what Google does with the Pixel: it takes many photos and assembles them into one properly captured image. This is not entirely different from the HDR methods used by Apple in the past, but this year's sounds seem more of all that. Which, if it works, is good. And for Google, it really worked.

Apple also adds other features to its portrait mode effects, which automatically isolate a subject and make the background blurry. You can now refine these photos even more, by precisely adjusting the blur of the background, which could allow you to make the effect more subtle.

There is also another novelty that many people will not see, but that could be a solution for buyers in some countries: the dual SIM card support. Both phones support the use of two phone numbers and data plans, using a single physical SIM card and Apple's integrated e-SIM card. This means that operators will have to add support for e-SIM for this to work (and many have been reluctant to); but it's still a big addition, since Apple has never offered this before. In China, where the e-SIM is not allowed for any reason, Apple also manufactures a special version of the XS Max that includes two physical SIM trays.

The battery life of both phones will improve, with an additional 30 minutes for the XS and an extra hour and a half for the XS Max. They also support each of the gigabit LTE speeds.

The last time that Apple introduced a new size of the iPhone was in 2014, with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Both models represented new sizes for Apple, which had spent the previous two years manufacturing phones with four-inch screens. While Apple was content with its small phones, the door opened to Android competitors, whose size and popularity increased. This has continued to happen and Apple has generally followed the trend. With today's announcement, it could even outperform, placing an undeniably important part in a big world of telephony.

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