The 10-point review of the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max: modest steps forward

Apple's iPhones have become increasingly predictable, and this year's iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are as iterative as the flagship phones: a modest "S" update of the iPhone X's last year and a larger version "In favor of the gaudier suffix" Max. "Meanwhile, a month of waiting for a similar model, but more affordable, called iPhone XR, has placed everyone in a pattern of waiting.

If you already have an iPhone X, you will probably find that the two new phones XS are competent, but disappointing for their price, while those who do not have the right would be well advised not to give their opinion on the XR. In the meantime, here are the 10 essentials to know about the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max.

1. The body of last year, now in two sizes

The size of the iPhone XS is almost identical to that of the old iPhone 6, 6s, 7 and 8 phones, while the XS Max version replaces the Plus versions. Both have glass bodies and almost full screens. They are IP68 sealed. So they can be submerged under water for 30 minutes to 2 meters deep, from the 1 meter depth of the iPhone X. Apple also boasts them as beer resistant and made from especially strong glass. Independent tests confirmed the old claim, but they split on the old claim, suggesting that a protection case remains a worthwhile investment.

At this point, the physical signature differentiator between the XS models and the less expensive XR models is the metal core. In the XS, this is polished stainless steel in silver, in gray or in gold – the latter being a new option for 2018. Slightly pearly in the back, it is undeniably 'rose gold', with a Noticeable pink hue under most yellow lights. more depending on the angle and lighting.

Most users will hardly notice the metal as it will be covered by a holster. I recommend the inexpensive Ultra Hybrid from Spigen, which has protected my iPhone X from the damage caused by falls over the past year, even though demanding buyers can expect an updated XS version reflecting a tiny change to the holes of the XS microphone. there are now three rather than six, straddling a new antenna bar that improves cellular performance under certain circumstances.

2. Best of Breed Screens, except for notch

Both XS models use Apple's OLED Super Retina displays, which provide dark blacks and vivid colors that for most eyes are slightly better than Apple's old Retina LCDs. The XS display is 5.8 inches on the diagonal with 2436 x 1125 pixels, while the XS Max display is 6.5 inches with 2688 x 1242 pixels. Apple has unified them at the same 458 PPI, so you will have trouble seeing an individual pixel. This image shows the exact difference in size between them, although in person, the display of the XS is sufficient for most people.

Each screen is interrupted by a "notch" – a black bar of constant size containing a front camera, a speaker and sensors. The world (and competitors) acclimatize since Apple debuted on the iPhone X, and although there is no chance that it will disappear on an S model, it is not ideal .

In landscape mode, the notch seems to have discouraged Apple from adding a horizontal splash screen to either XS phone, although it has been included on earlier Plus models. In portrait mode, the notch cramps or forces the removal of useful details from the status bar. The videos and games are fantastic on the beautiful, colorful and detailed Super Retina screens – with the exception of warnings, which you can turn into parallel black bars for videos, but not for games. You'll get used to it, but it's not optimal, and you will not miss it once it's all over.

The biggest problem with the iPhone XS screen is the impressive reformatting of iOS Apps for the big screen. Unlike older Plus models, which have seen a fairly complete redesign of larger screens from Apple, Max applications tend to have oversized gaps on the left and right sides. Even Apple's default wide-screen keyboard misuses all of the added real estate. In addition to offering a little more space for text and images, which may not be well-designed to use, Max's larger screen does not provide a better experience.

3. Front camera settings and face ID, small but welcome

When Apple upgrades an iPhone hardware component, it usually uses the "new generation" expression to signal the difference. This has not been done with this year's TrueDepth front camera system or with its Face ID signature feature, but there are small improvements on both fronts.

As most iPhone X users will attest, the speed of face recognition could be improved as Apple's latest authentication system did not prove to be as fast and reliable as fingerprint scanning. Touch ID. False negatives are much more common with face ID than tactile ID, so you're much less likely to unlock when first using an iPhone X than any iPhone based on ID touch.

In dozens of tests done in various lighting and proximity conditions, I found that the face ID of the XS models was a bit better than that of the iPhone X – sometimes a faster index, sometimes more likely to unlock. I would call the XS better and less likely to produce false negatives, but not enough to make me feel different by day and by night.

Both models of the iPhone XS have the same raw front camera specifications: a 7-megapixel resolution and an aperture at f / 2.2, but a faster image processing architecture allows the camera to capture pictures at a time. In addition, Apple now uses depth data from front and back cameras to allow users to dynamically adjust background blur (bokeh) on shots.

In practice, this means that the photos taken by the front camera seem a bit better exposed than before and can benefit from a blur in the background that, during my tests, tended to to be at least a bit artificial. Apple has also improved the dynamic range of videos to 30 frames per second, added the 1080p recording option to 60 frames per second and the video stabilization enabled for the front camera, bringing the selfie recording closer to what you expect high resolution rear cameras.

4. Biggest changes on rear cameras and Smart HDR

While Apple was describing the iPhone XS as having a new rear camera system, the details are more complicated than that. The XS and XS Max share rear view cameras with dual dual lens and identical lenses that superficially resemble those of the iPhone X: 12 megapixels with a f / 1.8 wide-angle lens and a f / 2.4 aperture telephoto lens.

But there are indeed deeper changes: the wide angle lens now has a 26mm field of view instead of 28mm and the sensor behind it is 30% larger than before. In addition, like the front camera, the two rear cameras are connected to the faster XS A12 Bionic, which includes a new neural chip optimized for faster image processing. Thanks to under-the-hood improvements, the XS is faster to lock on the "right" subject and optimize sharpness as needed.

As with the front camera, the rear view camera has an enhanced portrait mode that exceeds last year's iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus feature, allowing not only to blur the background, but also to control the amount of blur and superior quality. separation of fine details, including hair. In my tests, hair (and such fine materials, such as spider webs) were even less perfect, but there was at least a small improvement from one year to the next. other. macOS Photos will support the post-photo adjustment of the blur in the background later this year.

Another new feature of the iPhone XS is what Apple calls Smart HDR, a trick that extracts color details from a larger number of overexposed and underexposed images than before. . Plus, thanks to the wider wide-angle sensor and wider lens, the rear camera can capture more light, resulting in better images in low light.

On a large series of tests, the XS cameras showed the following real changes with respect to the X:

• The images were very often sharper on the XS, due to faster autofocus (noticeable with moving subjects) and a slightly more aggressive sharpness algorithm or better implementation of the HDR details. Macro images were more frequently usable and sharp.
• XS images generally had higher contrast and dynamic range, so white, black, and saturated colors seemed stronger, while more gradients were also evident.
• XS images tended to be brighter than X images, which were warmer and, in some cases, more natural.
• XS wide images are slightly wider than X-images, especially without any new distortion, and do not seem abnormal despite their wider perspective.
• Probably due to the Smart HDR, it is difficult for XS images to show underexposed areas, sometimes removing the traditional "black shadows" visible in photos and sometimes making them less interesting. It would be nice to have more control over the exposure system at this point.

On the video side, Apple now supports 60 FPS 4K video recording on the iPhone XS and iPhone X, the XS getting an exclusive 4K mode that reduces frame rate from 30 frames per second to 24 frames per second to improve light collection capabilities. Even without the function enabled, the XS captures significantly more light and offers more accurate color rendering in video mode than the X. Neither fantastic – the 4K low-light video is still very grainy – but the XS is changing from 'dark and stained "to" not stained, but lighter and smeared. "

5. moderately improved audio

Each iPhone has two speakers: one at the top of the screen, the other at the bottom. Originally, the first was only used to use the iPhone as a handset and down for calls with speakerphone, but on the iPhone X, they were balanced to work as a stereo pair for music and videos.

The models of the iPhone XS go even further by offering a "wider stereo playback", which, in practice, slightly improves the quality of the speakers: in stereo, the sound of the left and right channels was the same on the X and XS lighter sounds, thanks to a little more detail in the treble and treble. XS Max offers a similar sound quality but gets a stronger notch at its peak, enough to officially sound "too loud" for most nearby apps.

Apple has also updated the iPhone XS to allow stereo recording during video, the first time an iPhone is able to record a two-channel audio recording without an accessory. Although some users may really appreciate the feature, it can dramatically increase file size, so it can be turned off in the device settings.

Last but not least in terms of audio, Apple continues to include Bluetooth 5.0 in XS models, an improvement introduced in the iPhone X last year. Although that does not mean much at this time, it will probably improve XS performance with a future AirPods Bluetooth 5.0 version, which has been in use for at least a year.

6. A12 Bionic: A better chip that some people can appreciate

Apple sometimes promises massive year-to-year upgrades to its A-series processors, but the transition from the A11 Bionic to the A12 Bionic is more evident in marketing and benchmarks than in practice . The A12 is the first 7 nanometer processor on the market, a historic achievement that most consumers will not care about. It basically says that what's inside the chip is, once again, smaller than ever, so more transistors can be stuffed inside.

The iPhone XS models slightly outperform the iPhone X. On several tests, the iPhone X averaged around 4200 and 10400 in the single and multi-core benchmarks of Geekbench 4, while the XS and XS Max averaged 4800 and 11000, with surprisingly lower scores for the XS Max. Overall, the benchmarks showed a single-core bump at around 14% and a 6% multi-core bump – tiny by Apple standards, and disappointing given that iPhones are getting closer to parity of processing with the MacBook's middle of range.

In most test conditions, the XS had a second or second advantage in opening applications and graphics performance extremely similar. However, Geekbench GPU benchmarks show a wider difference: the iPhone X averaged around 16,000, while the two XS models averaged 22,000, an improvement of nearly 38%. This is not necessarily obvious in most games, but if iOS continues to have more Fortnite console ports, the XS models will be well suited to play them. Depending on how the software of the previous titles was written, they may or may not reveal differences without optimization patches.

Apple has also made improvements to the neural engine of the iPhone XS, a separate processor dedicated to AI tasks. Apple promises up to 9 times improvements here, which can be used to speed up augmented reality applications, image processing and background tasks such as facial analysis. Although it is difficult to quantify all these changes, the AR Room Racer application has shown that the iPhone XS was significantly faster when it came to judging real locations. , definitely smoother when I was walking around a table with a virtual stunt track. synchronization between the AR object and the real world movements. AR users will definitely notice the improvements.

On the other hand, all the hardware of the iPhone XS has not been faster or more fluid. For example, I noticed that the GPS system was late in registering turns and movements, a problem that I would have had to solve with a hardware problem if I was not there. I had not seen similar and fortunately temporary problems with new iPhone and some iOS. beta. There is every reason to expect improvements to address these issues through software updates.

7. Wireless enhancements that you probably will not see

The biggest change to the iPhone XS is perhaps the one that has received little attention, but that has required a new non-trivial design of the antenna system of the device and lower microphone grids. Apple has added Gigabit class LTE support via cellular carrier aggregation, a way phones can use more radio frequencies at a time to achieve higher transmission speeds. In short, if you can imagine that your phone tunes to four radio stations (87.9, 88.1, 106.5 and 106.7) at the same time and you use all the data, that's what XS brings to the table.

Theoretically, this means that the iPhone XS can download a gigabit of data at a time, about half of what older 5G devices promise, which is extremely fast by historical cellular standards. In actual tests, however, your likelihood of seeing this improvement will depend on the city, carriers and mobile towers where you test, and if you've been following news or other iPhone XS reviews, you may have had problems. information on this subject. A "study" claimed, based on extremely limited data, that new iPhones were already showing significant speed increases in testing compared to older models.

In fact, speed data is skewed by the very recent improvements to cell towers, which may be as obvious on last year's iPhone X (and the upcoming XR) as on iPhone models. XS. All of these phones support LTE Advanced, a relatively new collection of LTE enhancements that allow speeds up to 600 Mbps, but only XS models support Gigabit LTE cellular tower enhancements for even higher speeds fast. A year ago, you'd be lucky to see 90Mbps speeds on a tower, but in my iPhone X and XS tests this week, some connections reached the 130-140 Mbps range on older phones and more recent.

Another way of saying it is that the extra speed offered by LTE chips for iPhone XS Gigabit will probably not matter much for most users. However, as the new 5G telephony towers grow, with faster, more backward-compatible 4G hardware, XS owners will be closer to 5G speeds than X and XR owners. Still, waiting a year or more for an iPhone 5G could give you access to vastly faster speeds.

8. battery

On paper, the iPhone XS and XS Max's batteries have both changed since the iPhone X. The XS has a 2,659mAh battery slightly smaller than the X 2,716mAh cell and the XS Max one 3.179mAh battery, the biggest ever iPhone It's still bigger than the iPhone 7 Plus's 2,900 mAh battery and the 2,675 mAh battery of the iPhone 8 Plus, although it also has a more screen big 1 inch.

What these cells actually provide depends on how you use your phone. Apple promises 12 hours of Internet use on the XS against 13 hours on the Max, 14 hours of video playback on the XS at 15 on the Max and 20 hours of talk time on XS versus 25 on the Max. In practical terms, this means that the iPhone XS is roughly comparable to the iPhone 8 and X and that the XS Max is slightly more durable than the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 8 Plus.

Despite the biggest batteries, there are no gigantic performance gains this year. Apple said the XS would have a battery life about 30 minutes longer than the iPhone X, but in my daily use, the iPhone XS was roughly comparable to the X, maybe a just a little bit lower. The iPhone XS Max offers an experience closer to that of the Plus type, but for most tasks, the difference is not as deep as between the increasingly smaller phones in the 6, 6 and 7 series.

Apple has improved the efficiency of the Qi inductive charging system, so those who use optional wireless chargers will see a 30-minute faster refill and will find the XS and Max easier to center on the charge coils. That the iPhone 8, 8 and X The wired charge – at least with the 5 watt wall socket packaged and the USB-A cable to Lightning – is unchanged.

9. What is really missing

Few features are obviously missing on the iPhone XS and Max, but since they will be launched at the end of 2018, some things will start to look dated in the next 12 months. Both devices continue to ship with USB-A cables and 5-watt USB wall chargers, despite the availability of USB-C cables and larger chargers that can be refilled faster. They both support wireless charging, but there is no wireless charger in the box either.

Another defensible omission is support for next-generation 5G wireless networks – a decision undoubtedly made by Apple for technical and commercial reasons beyond the scope of this review. Nearly zero people are concerned about this now, but Verizon and AT & T are going on their first 5G rounds this year, and other carriers will be doing so in several countries next year. In April 2019, there will be many options for 5G smartphones, as well as 5G services in some areas of the United States and other countries. By investing in an iPhone XS or XS Max, you are now able to access 4G speeds until you are ready to deposit an additional $ 1000.

On the service side, it would be good to see Apple offer a set of higher iCloud backups for all its devices, especially those that are very expensive. The company ignores this demand every year and could argue that anyone who is willing to pay $ 999 for a phone can get more for iCloud, but go ahead, correct it already, Apple.

10. Prices and conclusions

Before the day Apple officially announced the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, it was said that Apple was abandoning the price of the XS for the Max model starts at $ 999, which would make sense for consumers. But that did not happen and, as a result, the two new models tip the scales this year. The XS can have capacities of 64 GB (999 dollars), 256 GB (1149 dollars) and 512 GB (1349 dollars), the XS Max being available at 1099 dollars, 1249 dollars and 1449 dollars.

I am not an apologist for Apple, so I will not tell you that I think these prices are reasonable or justifiable. They are not – they strike me as a test of what the market will support, regardless of the actual cost of the components that they include. Unlike last year, when the iPhone X was "next year's smartphone" at a high price, both versions of the iPhone XS look like contemporary phones at unjustifiable premiums.

The hard reality of the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max is that both are very good phones that are not nearly as exciting as they could have or should have been for their price tags. For $ 999, the iPhone XS is a little faster than last year's model, maybe a little longer and takes better pictures. There is no reason for an iPhone 8 or X user to upgrade, and considering the price (not to mention the iPhone XR), it should also be easy for others. If you add $ 100 more, you get a 0.7 inch bigger screen with a slightly bigger battery, but no other benefit – even the benefit of properly optimized software.

In a nutshell, this year's XS models are not "excessive" – ​​they are a little disappointing, and to call them "future" in light of what is happening in cellular space today would be dishonest. If you really need an upgrade this year, I suggest you wait for the iPhone XR which, at a starting price of $ 749, will include most features and offer better value for money. Otherwise, consider missing out on this year's cellular upgrade cycle, as the smartphone world will change dramatically in 2019, and a little patience will soon pay off.