IPhone XS max characteristics. Apple iPhone XS Max Review – Specs, Features & Price

Apple iPhone XS Max Review – Specs, Features Price

Here is a detailed review of the recently announced and launched iPhone XS Max. One of the best smartphones out there in the market and obviously the best iPhone to date (the time of this review).

The iPhone XS Max which is correctly pronounced as the ‘iPhone Ten S Max’ was announced in September 2018 and is known to be the biggest smartphone that Apple has ever produced. The device comes With a 6.5-inch all OLED display and, scarcely any screen bezel and the current iconic screen notch it’s also a dominating presence in the hand.

The iPhone XS Max also dominates the. and this includes size and price. Although the iPhone XS Max is the biggest of it’s kind, it is also the most expensive iPhone till date, with Apple dishing out a device with a screen size that is seriously competing for the most premium of Android flagships.

Apple finally decided to take the screen game a little bit further by manufacturing a device with a supersize display, which makes the iPhone XS Max the first generation of the new and larger form factor.

The iPhone XS Max houses more screen for video and gaming on the move and runs on the latest version of the iOS 12 developer beta as a baseline.

Design

We compared the iPhone XS Max to a whole lot of other phones during our review, and we come t notice that the iPhone XS Mas was quite thicker and less planted in the hand than the rest of them; despite being thinner than all of those phones. So, you see the design is quite deceptive.

One of the amazing things about this device is that it manages to squeeze a whole 6.5-inch display into a body that’s a touch narrower and shorter (at 157.5 x 77.4mm), which is less than an iPhone 8 Plus, that only houses a 5.5-inch display.

The device is covered with a steel frame around the outer part and the new invented glass on the front and back, which is a lot tougher than the glass found on the iPhone X, and this happens to give the iPhone XS Max a supremely premium feel and look.

The iPhone XS Max resistance to dust and water has been upgraded, instead of the 3 feet depth submerging like the iPhone X, it can now go as deep as 6 feet and can survive it for 30 minutes without suffering any ill effects. According to Apple, the device’s dust and water protection have been tested in a number of liquids which includes, salt water, milk, chlorinated water, wine, and beer.

Talking about ports, this device does not have any headphone jack on it. You have a centralized Lightning port alongside speaker and microphone holes on the base of the iPhone XS Max. It comes with a pair of Apple EarPods that has a lightning connector in the box, and the current design does not let you plug in your Apple EarPods and the charger at the same time. But, fortunately enough, the iPhone XS Max also allows a wireless charging, this means you can still be charging while listening to a music.

Located at the right side of the device is the power/lock key and it’s a lot easier to tap on the button with your thumb or forefinger, meanwhile, the volume keys are located below the physical mute switch on the left of the handset. The SIM card tray is still located in the same position. But, there’s a new feature introduced, the device is now dual SIM enabled, coupled with an eSIM embedded inside the device.

Camera

The Apple iPhone XS Max camera is similar to the XS, it has a dual-12MP camera at the back and a 7MP camera at the front for a selfie coupled with 2688?by-1242?pixel resolution at 458 ppi. It also has a quad-LED dual-tone flash coupled with a scratch-resistant sapphire glass that helps keep the device away from harm.

The main 12MP sensor located behind a f/1.8 lens, while just like on the iPhone X, the telephoto behind a f/2.4 lens, both optically stabilized. The iPhone XS Max main camera offers an equivalent field view of 26mm lens (in 35mm camera terms).

The device camera has a new Smart HDR feature which blesses the camera with a new image signal processor with 4-frame buffer for zero shutter lag. Coupled with the 4 frames, the camera captures interframes, together with a long exposure, all of which are summed up into a single photo that has an improved dynamic range.

The XS Max camera features another improvement, and that is the stereo recording for the video capture. It is not the regular stereo audio, this one employs wider sound separation for a richer sound and a better listening experience. Probably what Apple calls wide stereo.

Performance

Most times a lot of people believe that Apple is exaggerating most of their items because there’s always lots of unnecessary swooning over it. The statement is partially true considering those who have totally fallen for the Apple’s ecosystem. Nevertheless, there’s actually little that has been exaggerated about its performance.

Within this device is an A12 Bionic chip which is Apple’s new innovation. There is a lot of amazing pieces of stuff packed in the A12 Bionic and this is what gives the real boost to the iPhone XS Max. The A12 Bionic chip is a 64-bit SoC chip which has six cores; Two of these performance cores produce 15 percent extra power. while the remaining four cores are dedicated to efficiency which was claimed to use up to less than 50 percent.

There is yet another four-core GPU designed for graphic-heavy apps. When compared to any top line up Android phone, the iPhone XS Max delivers superior performance.

We even conducted some test on Opening of apps and the iPhone XS Max response time was relatively faster than the iPhone X. We also moved ahead to test the speed with games and we played graphic-intensive games and we chose the Fortnite for that. Firstly, our gaming experience on iPhone XS Max is a lot better than that of the iPhone X. It’s perhaps a shade better than the Galaxy Note 9 as well.

According to Apple, the Neural Engine was made much more powerful in its A12 Bionic chip. And the neural engine has eight cores, which Apple claim is 9 times faster than the iPhone X. The A11 Bionic chip used on iPhone X had only two cores in its neural engine.

The iPhone XS Max is very fast, efficient and extremely capable of carrying out any task throw at it and this is made possible as a result of the combination of the much-improved iOS 12 with the iPhone XS Max processor.

Battery

The iPhone XS Max house a 3,174mAh battery capacity, which is a lot larger than the 2,691mAh inside the iPhone 8 Plus, and this makes it technically the biggest battery Apple has ever used on a phone.

Apple claims that the battery offers an additional 1 hour 30 minutes extra time over the iPhone X. We don’t actually know how Apple arrived at that particular figure, but the iPhone XS Max can carry you through the day on a single charge with moderate to high usage.

Nevertheless, if you’re the kind who doesn’t run many activities at the same time on your device, then you can go for the iPhone XR, which also has a big screen and a lower budget. It may likely be more suited for your usage pattern.

The iPhone XS Max battery keeps you going all through the day even with intensive activities like streaming videos and playing games.

You can also use the Wireless charging to conveniently top up your iPhone XS Max, but you will need to purchase this separately. It was rumored that the fast-charging block will be added to the new iPhone XS inbox but didn’t actually happened.

iPhone XS Max Price

iPhone XS Max with a 64GB, will cost you 1,099 (£1,099, AU1,799) iPhone XS Max with a 256GB will cost you 1,249 (£1,249, AU2,049) iPhone XS Max with a 512GB will cost you 1,449 (£1,449, AU2,369)

Verdict

Apple iPhone XS Max is an exciting new addition to the ‘X’ family, and one of the reasons is its exciting hug screen the device offers, which makes it even a more perfect device for fans who enjoy movie-watching, game-playing and a lot of other kinds of stuff that you can only enjoy on a device with a large display. Though the device is sure expensive, yet it offers you a super, supersized experience, which most fans don’t mind paying double of the current price for. So, if you are the type who enjoys gaming and movie-watching, then the iPhone XS Max is the perfect device for you.

Compare The New Features Of iPhone XS Vs iPhone XS Max Camera

The new iPhone XS camera brings incredible improvements to mobile photography. In this article, we consider the iPhone XS vs iPhone XS Max camera features. We also compare these options to the iPhone XR. You’ll discover how these cameras unlock new creative possibilities, so you can take better photos than ever before! We’ll also help you decide which new iPhone is best for you and your photography needs.

Table Of Contents: iPhone XS Vs iPhone XS Max Camera

Click any title link below to go straight to that section of the article:

iPhone XS, XS Max XR Camera Features

The three new iPhone models launched in September 2018 are: iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. “X” is the Roman numeral, pronounced “ten.”

iPhone XS: 5.8-inch display. Dual-lens 12MP camera with optical image stabilization.

iPhone XS Max: 6.5-inch display. Dual-lens 12MP camera with optical image stabilization.

iPhone XR: 6.1-inch display. Single-lens 12MP camera with optical image stabilization.

The iPhone XS and XS Max have identical dual-lens cameras (shown below). And there are some great new features to discover in the Camera app.

The XR camera (shown below) only has a single wide angle lens. But it offers a similar amount of creative control to the iPhone XS and XS Max.

One of the most exciting new iPhone camera features is the advanced Portrait mode. This updated feature now lets you adjust the depth of field in your photos. This means you can control how blurred the background appears.

Another new feature is Smart HDR. This allows you to capture stunning HDR photos of moving subjects.

Neither of these options have been available on previous iPhones. But these features come as standard on the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR.

All three iPhones feature an edge-to-edge display. This provides maximum screen space for your photos. And they all continue to offer fantastic camera features such as Live Photos, Pano Mode, Time Lapse, Slo-Mo and Burst Mode.

It’s also worth mentioning that all three iPhones are water resistant for up to 30 minutes. So you can shoot out in the rain, capture stunning puddle reflections, and take beautiful photos of water, without worrying that your phone will be damaged if it gets wet.

Now, let’s take a detailed look at the camera features on the new 2018 iPhones… and how they can help you take amazing iPhone photos.

Single vs Dual-Lens

The iPhone XR camera has a single rear-facing wide angle lens. But the iPhone XS and XS Max have two rear-facing lenses – just like the iPhone 8 Plus camera, iPhone X, and iPhone 7 Plus. This dual-lens system consists of a wide angle lens and a 2x telephoto lens.

The telephoto lens lets you take high quality zoomed in photos without using digital zoom. Digital zoom isn’t recommended as it reduces the quality of your image.

A telephoto lens is also perfect for portrait photography. It avoids the unflattering distortion created by a wide angle lens.

On the iPhone XS and XS Max, the wide angle and telephoto lenses work together to create a depth effect. The camera uses software to analyze the image and create a shallow depth of field. The result is a picture with a sharp subject against a beautiful blurred background.

In the past, iPhones with a single wide angle lens didn’t have this depth effect feature. But with the new iPhone XR, you can create a shallow depth of field – even with its single lens.

The depth effect results will be similar on the iPhone XR and XS models. But the quality of the bokeh (background blur) is likely to be superior on the XS iPhones.

All new iPhone models have optical image stabilization on their rear-facing lenses. This minimizes blurring caused by unsteady hands. And it helps you capture better quality photos in low light.

Advanced Portrait Mode With Depth Control

All dual-lens iPhones, including the iPhone X, 8 Plus and 7 Plus, have a Portrait shooting mode in the Camera app.

Portrait mode lets you create beautiful blurred backgrounds in your iPhone photos. It’s perfect for shooting professional-looking portrait photos with a shallow depth of field.

Portrait mode is now available on all three 2018 iPhones – including the single lens iPhone XR. And it has some new advanced features that offer amazing control over depth of field.

Apple has been working on improving the quality of the background blur in Portrait mode. But the most exciting advancement with these new iPhones is that you can adjust the depth of field. This means you can control how blurry the background appears.

This is a major breakthrough that gives you DSLR-like control over your iPhone camera. And the best thing about it is that you can change the depth of field after taking your photo.

When you’ve taken a picture using Portrait mode, open it in the Photos app, and tap Edit. The Depth slider lets you adjust the depth of field, from f/1.4 to f/16.

The f/numbers relate to the aperture value which controls depth of field in a photo. f/1.4 creates a very blurred background, while f/16 has more of the background in FOCUS.

The Portrait Lighting feature available on the iPhone X camera and iPhone 8 Plus camera, is available on all three new iPhones. Portrait Lighting lets you apply different light effects to your photos. Options include natural, studio and stage light.

The great thing about Portrait mode is that it’s non-destructive. If you don’t like the shallow depth of field effect, you can remove or adjust it after you’ve taken the photo. You can also change or remove the Portrait Lighting effects at any time.

Smart HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) has been available in the iPhone Camera app for several years. It allows you to create more balanced exposures with detail in both shadows and highlights.

HDR works by capturing three images at different exposures. It then combines them into a single well lit photo.

The HDR feature generally works well, but it struggles to deal with moving subjects. Any movement in the scene results in a “ghosting” effect. This is because the position of the subject doesn’t match up when the three images are merged.

But the Smart HDR feature on the iPhone XS and XR models takes HDR photography to a whole new level.

Smart HDR allows you to capture stunning HDR photos of moving subjects. The subject will appear sharp, with no ghosting effect. And the image will be well lit throughout, with detail and color in the shadows and highlights.

This new feature works by taking many photos at different exposures. The camera’s software analyzes the images and creates a seamlessly blended HDR photo.

Front-Facing Camera With Depth Control

All three iPhones have a 7-megapixel TrueDepth front-facing camera. You can use Portrait mode with the front-facing camera to create a shallow depth field.

So you can shoot self-portraits with beautifully blurred backgrounds and different lighting effects. The advanced Depth Control feature lets you adjust the depth of field after you’ve taken a photo.

The front-facing camera is capable of facial recognition. Since the Home button has been removed to make way for the edge-to-edge screens, Face ID now replaces Touch ID.

Improved Video Quality

The new faster image sensor allows you to shoot better quality videos on the iPhone XS and XR models. You can capture amazing color and detail, even in low light.

And the iPhone XS models have four microphones, allowing you to record stereo sound.

iPhone XR vs iPhone XS vs iPhone XS Max Camera: Pick The Best iPhone Camera For You

So, you’ve discovered the features of the iPhone XR camera, iPhone XS camera, and iPhone XS Max camera. But perhaps you’re still not sure which iPhone is best for you.

Let’s recap the main iPhone camera features of each new model, so you can make the right decision based on your photography needs.

iPhone XS Camera

The iPhone XS has a 12-megapixel dual-lens camera. This consists of a wide angle lens and 2x telephoto lens. Both lenses have optical image stabilization. This makes it easier to capture shake-free photos in low light.

The wide angle lens is perfect for shooting landscapes and other wide open scenes. The telephoto lens lets you take high quality zoomed in photos. And it’s great for portrait photography as it avoids the wide angle lens distortion.

The dual-lens on the iPhone XS allows the camera to create stunning bokeh (background blur). The new Depth Control lets you adjust depth of field after taking a photo in Portrait mode. You’ll also have access to a range of Portrait Lighting effects.

The TrueDepth front-facing camera also has depth effect capability. This allows you to control the depth of field for self-portrait photos.

The new Smart HDR feature allows you to create stunning HDR photos of moving subjects. Use it to capture more color and detail in both the shadows and highlights, while freezing the movement of your subject.

The iPhone XS has a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge display. This is the smallest of the new iPhones, so it’s perfect if you like a compact device.

Compared to the iPhone X, this phone offers up to 30 minutes more battery life each day.

iPhone XS vs iPhone XS Max Camera

The iPhone XS Max camera is identical to the iPhone XS camera. The only difference between these two iPhones is their size.

So if you prefer a larger screen, go for the iPhone XS Max. Its 6.5-inch edge-to-edge screen is incredible for shooting and viewing photos!

The iPhone XS Max has the biggest screen of any iPhone ever produced. Yet its body is smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus. This is because of the edge-to-edge screen, making the most of the available space.

Compared to the iPhone X, the XS Max offers up to 1.5 hours more battery life each day.

iPhone XS vs iPhone XR Camera

The iPhone XR has a single-lens camera, rather than the dual-lens found on the XS models. It has the same 12-megapixel wide angle lens with optical image stabilization. But it doesn’t have the telephoto lens for zooming in on your subject.

Previous single-lens iPhones don’t have Portrait mode in the Camera app. But the iPhone XR is different. The XR uses software to create a depth effect. This means you can use Portrait mode to blur the background in your photos.

You can use Portrait mode on both the rear and front-facing cameras. And just like the iPhone XS models, you can adjust depth of field after taking a photo. You also have access to Portrait Lighting settings.

This is an incredible advancement in single-lens iPhone cameras. But keep in mind that the background blur isn’t likely to be of the same quality as you get on the XS models.

The new Smart HDR feature is also available in the Camera app of the iPhone XR.

The iPhone XR has a 6.1-inch edge-to-edge display. It’s larger than the iPhone XS, but smaller than the XS Max.

Compared to the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone XR offers up to 1.5 hours more battery life each day.

So, to ask the big question: iPhone XS vs iPhone XR camera. Which is the winner?

The iPhone XR is more affordable than the XS models. So if you’re on a budget, and you’re not bothered about having the telephoto lens, this iPhone is a perfectly good option.

You’ll be able to take stunning photos with great detail, and you’ll have the option to control depth of field.

However, if you enjoy portrait photography or creating blurry backgrounds in your photos, the iPhone XS or XS Max would be a better option.

iPhone XS vs iPhone X Camera

The iPhone X has Portrait mode and a telephoto lens. However, it doesn’t have Smart HDR. It doesn’t have advanced Portrait mode with Depth Control. In both of these ways, the iPhone X just can’t compare to the iPhone XS.

Also, Apple announced the discontinuation of the iPhone X. This means that the iPhone X will no longer be sold by Apple. While you can still purchase it from other retailers, why not go for one of the new iPhones instead?

Is It Worth Upgrading From Your Current iPhone?

All of these new iPhones have incredible cameras. But is it really worth upgrading from your current device? Well that depends which iPhone you currently own.

If you have the iPhone 8, iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, or earlier, you’ll be blown away by all three of the new iPhones.

The ability to control depth of field will take your iPhone photography to a whole new level. And the Smart HDR feature makes it much easier to capture perfectly exposed action shots. And if you upgrade to one of the XS iPhones, you’ll be able to zoom in on your subject with the telephoto lens.

If you have the iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone 7 Plus, you’ll already have dual-lens functionality and Portrait mode. So is it worth upgrading?

You probably wouldn’t want to upgrade to the iPhone XR from these phones, as you’ll lose your telephoto lens. But if you shoot a lot in Portrait mode, the Depth Control feature definitely makes it worth upgrading to the iPhone XS or XS Max.

And if you enjoy taking action shots, the Smart HDR feature can help you capture better photos with more detail.

When comparing the iPhone XS vs iPhone X camera, the iPhone XS wins out.

iPhone XS Max review: Apple’s supersized smartphone

Its massive screen is beautiful, but has it lost some of the charm that made the iPhone X so good?

Apple’s top of the line smartphone has been supersized in both screen size and price, but is the iPhone XS Max really worth the eye-watering £1,099-plus asking price?

Last year’s iPhone X was a massive leap forward in design for Apple after years of resting on its laurels. This year the iPhone XS Max is essentially that winning design stuck in a photocopier on 112%, which doesn’t sound a lot but makes quite a difference.

The iPhone XS Max is all about its massive, beautiful screen, which iseasily better than any other, apart from Samsung’s top-of-the-line displays. At 6.5in diagonally the screen is essentially the same size as that on Samsung’s monster-phone the Galaxy Note 9, which has a 6.4in display but with a different width to length ratio. Both are high-end phones with around 103cm 2 of screen area and a screen-to-body ratio of around 84%, and as such dwarf the competition.

Apple’s biggest achievement is that the colossal screen has been squeezed into a body that isn’t that enormous. The iPhone XS Max is certainly a big phone, but at 7.7mm thick it’s thinner than all of the current top-end phones, including the 8.8mm thick Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

At 157.5mm long the iPhone XS Max is also shorter than even phones with much smaller screens such as the 6in Google Pixel 2 XL (157.9mm long), the 6.2in Samsung Galaxy S9 (158.1mm long) and is a full 4.4mm shorter than the Note 9.

The thing is the iPhone XS Max is actually one of the more difficult super-sized phones to handle. That’s partly because it’s marginally wider than the competition at 77.4mm wide, which is 1mm wider than the Note 9 and a full 3.6mm wider than the S9. But the biggest difference between the iPhone and the rest is Apple’s use of rounded sides.

Yes, they look and feel luxurious in stainless steel, but they’re difficult to get a solid grip on with your fingers. Others taper to an edge of some sort along the sides, which gives your fingers purchase.

Unless you have abnormally large hands, the iPhone XS Max is therefore almost exclusively a two-handed phone, even with Apple’s reachability, which brings the top of the screen down to the middle – try and use it with one hand at your peril, as this metal and glass sandwich will smash if you drop it.

All-day battery, but nowhere near two

The iPhone XS Max has Apple’s latest processor, the six-core A12 Bionic, which the company says is 15% faster than last year’s A11 Bionic and up to 50% more efficient. But it is the integrated AI chip that is up to nine times faster than the old one that apparently makes all the difference.

In day-to-day operation it’s not noticeably faster than the iPhone X, which already feels snappy and responsive with iOS 12. But as with other recent iPhone upgrades, the raw power will only likely come into its own with new software, speeding up AR experiences and other bits and pieces behind the scenes.

The battery life of the iPhone XS Max was slightly disappointing. It will get through the daylight hours without issue, but it won’t rival the Huaweis of this world. It lasted just over 27 hours between charges, starting at 7am on day one and lasting right through till past 10am on day two.

That was while using it as my primary device sending and receiving hundreds of emails, messages and push notifications, listening to five hours of music on Bluetooth headphones, watching an hour of Netflix and shooting around 10 or so photos a day. The Lightning connector in the bottom is still the fastest way to charge the phone, with a full charge taking around two hours using an optional fast charger and USB-C cable.

For perspective the iPhone X lasted for 30 hours under the same conditions, while last year’s Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro lasted 50 hours. This year’s Samsung’s Galaxy S9 only lasted 26 hours and the Note 9 only 25 hours, so it seems we’ve taken a step back in battery life in 2018.

iOS 12

Apple’s strength is that it pushes software updates to phones for a long time. The iPhone 5S, released in 2013, runs the same version of iOS as the iPhone XS Max.

The differences in how they behave come down to the gesture-based navigation that was introduced with the iPhone X last year, and not a lot has changed because iOS 12 concentrated on optimisation over new features.

The big addition is a set of wellbeing tools, alongside much better group notifications, which can be dismissed in one go. Siri Shortcuts, an extra app you can download, also allows power-user automation should you want it, setting up custom routines and trigger words you can utter to Siri.

One of the downsides with the iPhone XS Max is how little Apple has made of the large screen in software. There’s no split-screen multitasking or anything of that ilk. A few of Apple’s apps have a few more features compared to the smaller iPhone XS.

When in landscape there’s a slide-out inbox selector in Mail, chat selector in Messages, Reminders and Contacts get a split-screen view, while Calendar gets an iPad-style Day, Week, Month, Year selector and new view. The Settings app also adopts an iPad-style view in landscape. But these changes aren’t as useful as the enormous wealth of productivity features put into phones with screens this large by Samsung.

Face ID

Face ID continues to be the only biometric security system on Apple’s iPhones. It works just as well as it did on the iPhone X for me, but wasn’t noticeably faster. Those wearing glasses may have difficulty, as will some with sunglasses, although it works perfectly fine when wearing a set of Oakley TwoFace XL Prizm Polarized sunglasses.

Camera

The dual camera system on the back of the iPhone XS Max has been improved since it first appeared on the iPhone X and 8 Plus last year. It features the same combo of 12-megapixel cameras, one wide angle and one with an effective optical zoom of 2x, but both image sensors and algorithms have been updated.

The result is markedly better low light performance, which still doesn’t quite beat rivals from Samsung or Huawei, but comes much closer. Detail preservation in images at full crop is also much improved, coming much closer to that of Google’s Pixel 2 XL.

The improved HDR mode, which is now on by default, is also better at dealing with high-contrast scenes, meaning shots into the sun and other bright areas are not as much of a problem.

Portraits are now noticeably better too, particularly the shallow depth of field effect around hair and other extremities. The bokeh is also now adjustable after the fact, which is fun.

The selfie camera is good, but not quite as rich in detailas some rivals. Video is also good, with better stabilisation than previous iPhones.

Overall the iPhone XS Max’s camera is rival for the very best in the business.

Observations

• I got hand cramp placing my little finger under the bottom of the phone to support its weight, which I haven’t experienced with any other phone
• When your hands are warm they stick to the glass back for an easier grip, but it’s pretty slippery when they’re cold
• You can swipe side-to-side on the gesture bar to switch apps without invoking the recently used apps cards
• Weirdly, restoring some apps such as Evernote from the background took an abnormal amount of time
• The eSim for dual-SIM support (two phone numbers on one phone) won’t be activated until later in the year
• The holes in the bottom of the phone are no longer symmetrical, get over it
• There’s a surprising amount of stereo separation from the speakers, which is all the better for annoying your fellow bus passengers

Price

The iPhone XS Max comes in black, silver or gold, costing £1,099 for 64GB of storage, £1,249 for 256GB or £1,449 for 512GB.

For comparison, the 5.8in iPhone XS costs £999 for 64GB of storage, 6.4in Samsung Galaxy Note 9 costs £899 for 128GB, the 6.2in Galaxy S9 costs £869 with 128GB of storage, 6.1in Huawei P20 Pro costs £669 with 128GB, the 6in Google Pixel 2 XL with 64GB costs £549, the 6.3in OnePlus 6 with 64GB costs £469.

Verdict

The iPhone XS Max is big, beautiful and expensive. Its primary selling point is that enormous, gorgeous screen, which is really only useful for watching video or viewing photos.

But in maximising the screen, Apple has lost some of the charm that made the iPhone X and its replacement the XS so good. It is much more difficult to handle, heavier and bigger in your

The camera is great, battery life is OK, there’s wireless charging and a myriad of other features. It oozes opulence in a way other smartphones just don’t. But the same can be said of its smaller sibling. And there’s there’s the slightly smaller and cheaper 6.1in iPhone XR arriving later.

If you want the biggest iPhone, and can stomach the eye-watering asking price, then this is it. Just try not to drop it.

Pros: massive, gorgeous screen, decent battery life, water resistance, great camera, Face ID

Cons: no fingerprint scanner, very expensive, no fast charger in the box, no headphone socket, massive body

Other reviews

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iPhone XS Max Review

The iPhone XS Max is the bigger version of the iPhone XS. It packs an updated camera, huge 6.5-inch display, new A12 Bionic chip and runs iOS 12. Should it be your next phone?

By Max Parker Contact via

Verdict

It’s expensive and won’t be for everyone, but the iPhone XS Max is a great phone in just about every area.

Cons

Key Specifications

It’s an ‘S’ year for iPhone revisions. That means instead of complete redesigns, refinements and spec-bumps are the order of the day. Despite this being the case, the iPhone XS Max feels like a more significant revision than the smaller iPhone XS. This is because it offers users an iPhone X design in a ‘Plus’ size. In short, this is the device that many wanted last year.

It’s not the only exciting large phone we’ve seen this year and it has some strong competition. The Samsung Galaxy S10 arguably does more with the big screen as does the Huawei P30 Pro. There’s also the OnePlus 6T, a phone that’s half the price of the XS Max.

iPhone XS Max – Design

The most significant update to the iPhone line this year is the iPhone XS Max. Where the iPhone XS feels like the smallest jump between new iPhones, the Max version genuinely offers something different.

The iPhone XS Max packs all the design tweaks and material choices that debuted with the X: a stainless steel rim, glass back and the near edge-to-edge display. If someone stretched out an iPhone X then this would be the result.

There are some issues, though. This is a big phone and I feel that Apple should have done more to better deal with its size. For example, with the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung has used curves to almost disguise the size of the device and make it feel smaller.

The iPhone XS Max takes no such tack, and as a result feels thicker and more difficult to manage. Holding it one-handed has proved an impossible feat for me, and reaching up to pull down the notification panel constantly leaves me with the feeling that I’m going to drop the device. While it’s no bigger than previous Plus-sized iPhones, the larger screen and lack of bezel makes it much trickier to get to parts of the screen.

It’s heavy, too: weighing 209g. The XS Max is bulkier than the already weighty iPhone 8 Plus (202g), Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (201g) and OnePlus 6T (185g).

Apple claims the glass that features on both the front and back of the handset is the strongest ever. It remains glass, however, and if you were to drop this device on a hard surface it will almost certainly crack. I’d suggest using a case.

The review unit I was testing was of the gold hue – an addition that joins the Silver and Space Grey options. It’s different to any gold product Apple has shipped before, with a softer, almost salmon-look on the rear and super-bright, shiny sides. After a week with the phone, I can’t decide whether it’s classy or tasteless. It has a 70s vibe and wouldn’t look out of place at a disco. The way the gold colouring has been applied to the stainless steel sides makes them a little harder to grip than the silver version.

iPhone XS vs iPhone XS Max

Water-resistance has been upped from IP67 to IP68 (giving you 30 extra minutes of resistance), and Apple has said it has tested the device against beer – a welcome addition if you’re clumsy after a few bevvies. The XS Max doesn’t have a headphone jack and Apple also no longer includes a dongle in the box to add support for your older wired cans.

iPhone XS Max – Display

The standout feature on the iPhone XS Max is the display. At 6.5 inches, not only is it the biggest screen Apple has ever included on a phone, but it’s more sizeable than even those that feature in high-profile rivals. It’s larger than the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 9, 6.3-inch OnePlus 6, and dwarfs the 5.5-inch display on the iPhone 8 Plus.

Like the iPhone X, the iPhone XS Max ditches LCD screen tech for OLED like many of the best Android phones and the benefits are immediately obvious. Blacks are deep and inky; colours pop with vibrancy; and viewing angles are excellent. Pair that with an (almost) edge-to-edge style and you’ve got one of the most immersive panels on the market. I’ve already lost countless hours watching Dolby Vision HDR content from iTunes and Netflix, and this isn’t something I’d usually do on a phone. It’s likely that this phone might replace an iPad the next time I travel by plane.

The display also supports Apple’s favoured DCI-P3 wide-colour gamut and, new for the XS and XS Max, can display 60% more dynamic range in photos shot with the device. Brightness has been bumped up next to the iPhone X, too.

Where Apple’s display annoys is in the complete lack of customisations on offer. With a Samsung, Sony or LG device, I can tune colours to my personal preference. With the iPhone XS, I’m stuck with Apple’s interpretation of how the display should look. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but offering the user a level of customisation can be helpful.

Apple True Tone remains a feature in the XS Max and, once again, it matches the colour and temperature of the display to your environment. It results in a screen that’s softer on your eyes, reducing bright white hues and making content easier to read.

The difference between having True Tone on and off is only really perceptible if you compare it to a phone without it, but it becomes natural over time. Be warned: I’d turn it off if you’re doing photo or video editing, since it will alter colours and make them look a little off.

Of course, the biggest controversy with the display remains the notch – a small-ish cut-out at the top of the screen, where the bevy of Face ID sensors and front-facing cameras sit. In the year since Apple first introduced a notched-style device, it’s become increasingly popular for Android manufacturers to follow suit, with many making it part of the design.

Last year, it appeared that Apple embraced the notch. This year, the company seems more than happy to hide it with the XS Max. For example, the default wallpaper cleverly makes the notch invisible; it’s barely visible on any of Apple’s press materials. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company feels all these Android copies have soured its presence.

iPhone XS Max – Performance

I feel that the following words have been present in every iPhone review I’ve ever written, but the XS Max is a very fast phone. However, the differences between the XS Max and the iPhone 8 Plus, for example, aren’t as pronounced as they have been in previous years.

Powering the iPhone XS Max is Apple’s A12 Bionic SoC paired with 4GB of RAM – the first mass-market 7nm chip you’ll find in a phone. Huawei, too, has announced its own 7nm chipset; however, at the time of writing, there isn’t a device packing it available.

Being a 7nm chip, as opposed to the 10nm chip of the A11 Bionic, allows a greater number of transistors to be packed inside the silicone. This leads to a more efficient chip. The headline features for the new chip are a 15% faster CPU, 50% faster GPU (both when compared to the A11 Bionic), a new neural engine for AI, and a few other benefits such as Gigabit-class LTE.

So, since the CPU is only judged by Apple to be 15% faster, it probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that general snappiness doesn’t feel that different. It remains fast, but the jump I’ve experienced in previous generations just isn’t as noticeable this time round. The jump in CPU performance is mirrored in synthetic benchmarks, with only a slight improvement in Geekbench 4. See below for more detailed benchmark scores.

There are more significant improvements in graphical performance – but, again, they’re hard to really feel. Apple is pushing AR (augmented reality) heavily here, and in some instances it’s cool. But for much of the time, it just feels like a throwaway gimmick.

Each and every ‘intensive’ game I played during the review process ran without any dropped frames or issues of any kind. Games such as Fortnite and Asphalt 9 open up marginally faster than on the iPhone X and iPhone 7, but in all honesty, there’s very little in the App Store that can take advantage of all this horsepower.

This appears to be a deliberate move on Apple’s part, with the company ensuring its handsets continue to be ahead for speed over the next few years. When you consider that Apple has only just stopped selling the four-year-old iPhone 6S, with that phone still able to run exceptionally well with iOS 12, it’s clear the company is planning for the future.

The A12 Bionic also has an updated ‘secure enclave’ inside it, and combined with the CPU improvements this leads to faster, more reliable Face ID.

Whether or not Face ID is a viable alternative to Touch ID will likely be down to your personal taste. Personally, I prefer it: it’s faster, works in a wider range of situations, and allows for a cleaner design. Others, including numerous folk who have used the phone during the review period, think differently. They’d revert to the fingerprint sensor without a second thought.

Moving away from the A12, there are plenty of other performance boosts with the iPhone XS Max.

The speakers are louder and clearer than any previous iPhone, comfortably matching the best-sounding Android handsets out there. It’s still the same setup as before: there’s one downward-firing speaker next to the lightning port, and another one pointing towards you housed in the notch. However, Apple has levelled out the sound so that the downward speaker is no longer the more powerful.

Gigabit-class LTE is available for supported carriers, and there’s an extra antenna on the phone to handle this. I’ve compared both Wi-Fi and data speeds to an iPhone X, and Samsung Galaxy S9 seems to achieve the best speeds, with the iPhone X and iPhone XS Max on a par with one another.

Dual-SIM support is finally included – but, in typical Apple fashion, it comes with some caveats. Unless you live in China, the iPhone XS Max won’t come with two distinct SIM-card slots. Instead, it uses a single traditional slot and a secondary eSIM that appears to FOCUS on roaming. It will work similarly to cellular iPads, letting you alter carriers and plans easily and quickly through a tab in Settings. However, carrier-locking still applies and networks will be able to restrict how dual-SIM support works.

iPhone XS Max – Software

Like all of Apple’s other iPhones, the iPhone XS Max runs iOS 12. All versions of iOS 12 across devices are virtually identical, and Apple hasn’t really added anything here to make the most of the larger display offered by the device. Ultimately, this feels like a missed opportunity.

I’d love to be able to use two apps side-by-side (a feature offered natively on Android); having Safari open in one window and an email app or YouTube in the other. Having such generous screen real-estate available without such an option is bizarre. In addition, you can’t pop-out a video player and have that always visible – again, this would have been a handy feature.

The only real differences in the way apps behave are those you’d find on previous ‘Plus’ phones. Apps such as Messages or Mail will switch to a more information-dense layout on turning the device into landscape orientation. You get two panes of information in Messages, for example, so you can view your current conversation along with other threads in your inbox.

The rest of iOS 12 is as you’d find it on every device from an iPhone SE to iPhone 8. Apple’s latest software update focuses its efforts on improvements to speed, with actual new features kept to a minimum.

Messages are finally grouped together

Notifications are now grouped together in threads, so if you receive 30 WhatsApp messages in quick succession then they won’t completely take over your phone. The fact that this hasn’t been a feature up until this point still baffles me, but at least it’s here now.

iOS 12 also sees the introduction of Screen Time: a new area in the Settings app designed to encourage more measured use of your device. Well, that’s the idea. In reality, its useful for tracking how much time you spend in apps and setting timers to stop you wasting three hours a day scrolling through

Once you get past the embarrassment of having your daily/weekly smartphone usage stats layed out in front of you in technicolor graphs, there’s much you can do to alter things for the better. For instance, I’ve set up my device so that I can no longer use and Instagram for more than 30 minutes each a day. Once that time is up, the app icon darkens and you can’t get back in until the following day – unless alter the settings, of course.

Instead of receiving a much-needed overhaul, Siri’s functionality has been improved with a new Shortcuts app. This is a re-skin of the Workflow app Apple purchased a few years back, letting you string together – often complicated – commands that you can engage with your voice. For instance, you can set up a morning routine where it will turn on your lights, increase the temperature and play a certain music playlist.

Routines in the Siri Shortcuts app can get increasingly powerful, and there’s already a pretty thriving Reddit and YouTube community offering up new and interesting recipes.

Even with Shortcuts, Siri’s actual accuracy and knowledge remains disappointing. It will often completely ignore what I say, or say it hasn’t heard me correctly when I’m still speaking. It languishes comfortably behind Google Assistant.

Due to the lack of a physical home button, your primary interaction with the iPhone XS Max is through gestures. Swipe up from the bottom to go home; pull down from the top-left for notifications and top-right for Control Center. It’s mostly straightforward, although trying to pull down the Control Center proves tricky due to the large display. It appears that this method of navigation requires more thought.

For more on the latest iPhones check out our best iPhone list.

How we test phones

We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

The iPhone XS and XS Max Review

There’s very little to change in last year’s iPhone X. The X was easy to use one-handed, yet had the biggest screen ever shipped in an iPhone. Its OLED display showed near perfect color, while its cameras were able to shoot photos that took advantage of that perfect color. The A11 Bionic chip never held anyone back.

Off the top of my head, I can barely rattle off three issues with the iPhone X:

• The screen scratches very easily.
• The notch looks unsightly, despite being replicated by competitors.
• The price puts the phone in a new price territory.

For all intents and purposes, the iPhone X was an Apple experiment. (They skipped the iPhone 9 just to show off the tech, after all.) Judging from this year’s iPhone lineup, it’s logical to think it was a successful experiment.

I bet Apple learned more from the iPhone X than they had in many previous iPhone generations. For one, Apple surely gained insight into the iPhone’s price elasticity (how much demand changed given the increase in price). The market’s appetite for Face ID, the front camera notch, and the all-screen design were likely next on the school list.

So how do you make the iPhone better while checking off to-dos on the very short complaint list? How do you take what the iPhone X taught you and ensure you learn from your past compromises?

If Apple’s September keynote is any indication, you don’t do it by improving — or fixing, in more clear terms — anyone’s complaints.

No, you improve the most popular camera in the world and you lay the groundwork for the future. And you double down on the notch and the price.

In a nut, that’s the iPhone XS and XS Max.

Editor’s Note: This review will highlight the iPhone XS Max specifically, as the author opted for the larger iPhone XS variant. As the iPhone XS and XS Max have effectively identical specifications — notwithstanding a slightly longer battery life and a larger 6.5-inch display in the iPhone XS Max — this review should be applicable to both the iPhone XS and XS Max.

The iPhone XS Max’s Large Display

There’s effectively no difference between Plus-sized and Max-sized iPhones when it comes to body size. The Max is 0.9mm shorter, 0.7mm narrower, 0.2mm thicker, and 6 grams heavier than the previous generation iPhone 8 Plus. I’m assuming the negligibly smaller body is thanks to OLED’s ability to shrink bezels around the display, but I have no confirmation of that.

If you liked the iPhone 8 Plus’ size — or the iPhone 7 Plus or 6 Plus — you’ll like the size of the iPhone XS Max.

There does seem to be some added grippiness in the XS and XS Max generation, though. As noted by Shawn Blanc — and a few others — you’ll notice a grippier naked iPhone XS body right out-of-the-box. Again, this seems like an area where nobody was complaining, yet is a welcome improvement, especially in the larger XS Max.

The other immediate impact of the larger XS Max screen is the software keyboard. There are a few notes in comparison to the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus that I’ve noticed in my short usage:

• The iPhone 8 Plus keyboard looks ever so slightly narrower than the XS Max when compared side-by-side.
• Like the iPhone X, the “123” secondary keyboard button is significantly larger on the XS Max, with the emoji and dictation buttons moving to the bottom of the display.
• The iPhone XS Max keyboard reserves the same amount of space at the bottom of the display for the emoji and dictation buttons as the iPhone X.
• Despite the emoji/dictation row being the same distance from the bottom of the display, every single key is both wider and taller on the iPhone XS Max, resulting in a keyboard that takes up more vertical space than on the iPhone X. The iMessages app tray at the top of the keyboard is also taller on the iPhone XS Max.
• The top of the keyboard area lines up almost perfectly 1 with the iPhone 8 Plus keyboard on the vertical.
• Landscape keyboards are identical between the iPhone X and XS Max. The XS Max just has more grey space between the edge of the display and the edge of the keyboard.

These last three points are significant, at least to me. Apple has effectively combined all the best elements in its iPhone keyboards to date in the iPhone XS Max. They’ve made no change on the location of the iPhone XS Max’s keyboard — it’s still the same distance from the top and bottom of the iPhone’s body — ensuring the device isn’t top-heavy and unbalanced when you’re typing. They’ve included the extra large “123” keyboard function button in the bottom left for quickly jumping to secondary characters and figures. And they’ve maintained the sizing of the emoji/dictation bar from the iPhone X.

This tells me a few things. First, Apple feels it nailed the placement of the keyboard not only on the Plus-sized iPhones (which makes sense — they’ve had four generations of Plus-sized keyboard experience to fall back on) but also on the experimental keyboard on the iPhone X. That emoji/dictation bar that some folks discussed in the early iPhone X launch days changed only in relation to the changes of the Plus-sized keyboards. Apple knows it nailed the all-screen software keyboard — both portrait and landscape — and it’s sticking to its guns.

Typing on the smaller iPhone X.

Typing on the larger iPhone XS Max.

The resulting experience is everything you’d expect it to be. The XS Max’s keyboard is easily the best iPhone keyboard ever created. It’s fast, expansive, and, insofar as QuickType and Autocorrect don’t get in the way, is the most accurate iPhone keyboard to date. I’m willing to bet, for many users, the size and feel of this keyboard is going to be the most underrated feature of the XS Max over the next year.

The iPhone XS Max, more than any previous iPhone, feels like it was made with the expectation of Apple Watch ownership. By that, I mean that this phone does not feel like the kind of phone you want to whisk out of your every other minute of every day. I’ve owned Plus-sized iPhones in the past and never felt this way. Perhaps it’s the extra large screen. Perhaps it’s the pending repair bill if you drop the big, beautiful display. Perhaps it’s the enticing new Apple Watch Series 4. Whatever the case, the iPhone XS Max feels like it was built with no regard for size and the expectation that you have an Apple Watch on your wrist.

I haven’t noticed too many other significant changes in my short time with the XS Max.

• The lock screen number pad is a touch larger, for when Face ID misfires.
• There is no extra row for extra icons on the XS Max home screen, despite the greater vertical screen space.
• The notch is identically sized, meaning the screen “horns” (upper right/left corners) are larger.
• The sleep/wake, volume, and mute switch are all the same distance from the top of the phone body in both the iPhone X and iPhone XS Max.

The amount of space wasted in the “horns” isn’t comical, but does look out of place. I’d like to see Apple modify this area in some capacity to better use the extra screen width.

And unfortunately, we’ll all still shoot an extra thousand inadvertent screenshots this year when trying to lock or unlock our iPhones.

The iPhone XS Antenna Lines

I’m sure the placement and asymmetry of the iPhone XS antenna lines will give Jony Ive nightmares. I share the sentiment many others have stated: The faster LTE speeds are worth the compromise of oddly placed antenna lines.

But that doesn’t mean these antennas look good. They ruin an otherwise elegantly designed phone.

The New A12 Bionic and Neural Engine

This feels like one of the smallest year-over-year speed boosts we’ve seen in iPhone history, especially considering it’s an “S” year.

But my experience with the iPhone XS Max over the weekend hasn’t been marred by an inconsequential speed increase. I’ve seen speed boosts all over iOS 12, from snappier execution in the share sheet, to faster jumping between apps, to quicker exports out of Lightroom CC. Heck, when I grabbed my wife’s iPhone 8 Plus and sent myself a message through the share sheet, it moved so slow that I thought something was wrong with the phone. I think it’s a stretch to say there’s no noticeable speed increases in the iPhone XS generation.

Apple spent a ton of time talking about the Neural Engine’s ability to run 5 trillion operations per second and the impact it has on machine learning throughout the iPhone experience. I don’t doubt the Neural Engine’s capability — especially in relation to augmented reality experiences and the new iPhone XS camera (more on that in a bit) — but this, to me, appears to be the hallmark ground laying feature for the future.

Apple has fought this “planned obsolescence” argument for at least a few years now, and there’s no bigger right hook than iOS 12. iOS 12’s impact on five year old phones is nothing short of jaw-dropping, as the company has now released an entire mobile OS that boosts performance more for Apple’s least-desirable customers (read as customers who upgrade less often) than for its most loyal annual upgraders.

The iPhone XS generation continues this trend, and it comes in the form of this Neural Engine and A12 Bionic chip. Sure, Apple touts 15% gains, 50% lower power usage, and 50% faster graphics in the latest Bionic chip. But this, combined with the Neural Engine’s machine learning capabilities, provide more than ample headroom for future iOS releases to take advantage of.

The iPhone XS Camera System

The Neural Engine churns out 5 trillion operations per second and Apple effectively decided to put this to best use in the iPhone XS camera system. I’m sure the Neural Engine is used throughout the iPhone in ways we hardly understand, but the single biggest selling feature of the Neural Engine is in this new camera system.

There is only one major hardware improvement in the new iPhone XS camera system. We’ve got the same 12MP sensors on the back and the same 7MP sensor on the front, and all lenses have the same apertures as in the iPhone X camera system. Apple flew a “deeper pixels” feature under the radar, which as John Gruber discovered, is the same as increasing the wide-angle back camera’s sensor by 30%. This is tremendous news and will give any photographer pause and gives the iPhone XS substantially better low light performance.

Apple used the term “computational photography” multiple times on stage in early September. My understanding of computational photography is basic, but in effect, Apple is using the smarts around the camera system to improve images rather than using the actual camera system to improve imagery.

One is governed by physics. The other is governed by… something. But it’s not light physics, that much I’m sure of.

Really, this is Apple’s only real foot forward. The iPhone can’t get thicker (think inches thicker) to accommodate a larger lens. And larger sensors require larger lenses, so this pushes Apple into another physical boundary.

No, the best foot forward is to improve the computer around the camera system and use machine learning to almost “create” images rather than “shoot” images.

There’s a lot to digest here.

Smart HDR

As per Apple, the A12 Bionic Neural Engine gives the iPhone camera system the power to constantly shoot frames, even when you’re not firing the shutter. So, as you’re composing your image in the camera viewfinder, the iPhone XS is actually snapping a gazillion photos.

In the split second that you fire the shutter — which is now instantaneous, as the camera has already captured the image you’ve fired the shutter for — Apple’s Neural Engine kicks in and analyzes the four photos captured at that very instant. It grabs the best aspects from each of those four images and combines the results into a single Live Photograph, complete with accompanying video and sound. (For Portrait Mode photos, it’s shooting far more photos and analyzing much more data.)

Despite an overall underwhelming improvement in hardware (if you disregard the 30% larger sensor we learned about after the fact), the difference in results between the iPhone X and XS are jarring.

Note: All photos in this section were shot on the iPhone X or iPhone XS Max (as noted) and are unedited, straight-out-of-camera photos.

iPhone X photo on the left. iPhone XS Max photo on the right.

Of all the photos my wife and I shot over the weekend to test out the new cameras, the above photo really brought out the color improvements in the iPhone XS. Perhaps this is just a misfiring of the auto white balance of the iPhone X on the left, but the iPhone XS Smart HDR features allow the iPhone to capture wider dynamic range, and thus brings out far truer-to-life colors. Notice not only the improved colors of the leaves and the reeds in the foreground, but also the enhanced detail and color in the fence and the house behind the trees.

iPhone X photo on the left. iPhone XS Max photo on the right.

Another photo where the iPhone XS color simply blows away the iPhone X. These aren’t perfect compositional replications, but the improvements in the iPhone XS color are on full display here. Of more importance, at least to me, are the details in the highlights and shadows in the clouds. The iPhone X’s clouds are more polarizing, as they jump from white puffs to deeper grey colors faster. The iPhone XS’s clouds maintain their colors through larger ranges and appear softer and more vibrant. Amazing.

iPhone XS Max photo on the left. iPhone X photo on the right.

Finally, we have another where the softer clouds take immediate effect in the iPhone XS shot on the left. dramatic are the oranges in the clouds just above the horizon, while the iPhone X’s oranges fade in and out of a peach color and don’t have the same impact.

If we jump in and do some pixel peeping, there’s a tremendous improvement in detail as well (which isn’t always the case, as we’ll see). Thanks to the Smart HDR features, the iPhone XS is able to use overexposed — or at least more exposed — photos to bring out details in the reeds and the pine trees in the shelterbelt. If you can take these images and throw them onto a 27-inch Retina display, you’ll be able to quickly see how much more detail there is in the farthest off points of the image.

And just to bring home the argument about vastly improved detail in the iPhone XS camera system, check out these sunflower shots compared side-to-side. I don’t even need to tell you which is the iPhone XS and which is the iPhone X.

iPhone XS Max photo on the left. iPhone X photo on the right.

Between the vastly improved detail and color on the left, I’d be happy with the year-over-year improvements in the iPhone XS camera system.

Wider Field of View

Again, as some keen eyed reviewers have already pointed out, there’s a not-insignificant difference between the iPhone XS and iPhone X field of view. Generally speaking, the iPhone X has housed a full-frame equivalent focal length of 28mm for as long as I can remember. The actual focal length is minuscule, but the full-frame equivalency brings it on par with popular cameras like the Leica Q.

The iPhone XS field of view is slightly wider at 26mm. You can find this information either in the Photos app or in the Technical Readout page in the latest build of Halide manual camera app.

My work in all of these images was handheld and not with a tripod with dual iPhones, so the results aren’t perfectly scientific. That said, I worked hard in this comparison to take the photo from the exact same position.

iPhone X photo on the left. iPhone XS Max photo on the right.

It may not be immediately noticeable, but look at the amount of extra detail in the chalk lines on the concrete in the immediate foreground. There’s an extra foot or two of real life real estate there.

And again, this doesn’t mention the improved color in the backlit trees and the golden clouds.

Portrait Mode

What started as a gimmick and a hit-but-mostly-miss feature, Portrait Mode has improved exponentially since its debut. The iPhone XS promises the best Portrait Mode yet, again thanks to its Neural Engine.

So much of Portrait Mode depends on lighting, on the busyness of the subject and the subject’s background, and on your timing when you fire the shutter. It’s still best suited for photos of people rather than objects, and it really struggles with free space, say, between a person’s bent arm and their body.

Here’s a comparison of Portrait Mode on the iPhone XS (left) and the iPhone X (right), both of which have a few notable differences.

iPhone XS Max photo on the left. iPhone X photo on the right.

• As already discussed, the iPhone XS handles color in the sky’s highlights vastly better than the iPhone X.
• The iPhone XS has a warmer white balance, bringing out a fuller skin tone than the iPhone X.
• If you pixel peep, the iPhone XS has a much improved FOCUS fall off away from my wife’s head. The iPhone X’s FOCUS fall off is still far better than previous Portrait Mode iterations, but the fall off is more abrupt and less pleasing.
• Portrait Mode on the iPhone XS handles stray hairs significantly better than I remember.

But here’s the one glaring observation I have for this set of comparison portraits: The iPhone X portrait appears to have more detail in my wife’s face, while the iPhone XS really shows off its processing work on her skin.

Sure, her skin is more sterile and less fulsome in the iPhone X shot, but there are lost details in the iPhone XS portrait. The smallest blemishes on my wife’s left cheek have seemingly been whisked away, while the tip of her nose is dramatically smoothed out. Same goes for her forehead.

There is a tremendous loss of detail in my wife’s face in the iPhone XS portrait.

I looked at the photo and almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So I snapped a photo of my daughter. The smoothing was the same. I snapped a few comparison photos of a wilting hydrangea in our front yard, and the comparison was more in line with what you’d expect.

iPhone XS Max photo on the left. iPhone X photo on the right.

The iPhone XS photo on the left has significantly more detail than the iPhone X shot on the right, seen most prominently in the detail on each petal and on the stems at the heart of the flower.

Clearly, Apple is doing some major processing on skin tones and blemishes to make faces look more true to life. If my tests are any indication, Apple is sacrificing detail for improved contrast and color, and they seem to bank on users viewing these images on smaller iPhone and iPad screens, not on large 27-inch Retina Displays like the one I’m writing this review on.

Depth Control

The term “computational photography” comes to life in Apple’s newest Depth Control feature. In short, Portrait Mode photos can now have their background blur changed after the fact and the resulting background blur (bokeh) now has characteristics in line with the characteristics of high end camera lenses.

I’d be more impressed with this feature if it hadn’t already been available. Focos has had this feature available for quite some time, and apps like Darkroom and Halide have allowed photographers to apply edits to the foreground and background in different capacities. Focos even allows you to shape your bokeh based on characteristics of specific lenses, like the heralded Leica Noctilux, Leitz Elmar, or older Olympus Zuiko lenses. For me, personally, I’d rather have control over the shape, highlights, and color of my bokeh rather than Apple computationally adding in what it thinks is best.

Depth Control can be accessed on any Portrait Mode photo as soon as you hit the “Edit” button and you can move anywhere between f/1.4 and f/16.

Apple could have really impressed me if they created sun stars on backlit subjects as you moved towards f/16. As it stands, the current capability just sherlocks what was already available on the App Store.

Photography Wrap-Up

It’s clear Apple has made monumental leaps forward in the iPhone XS camera system. Color, in particular, is far and away improved thanks to Smart HDR, while finer details can be picked up in your subjects thanks to new access to higher exposed photos in the Smart HDR system.

Apple has made some opinionated decisions in how the Neural Engine processes faces in the new Portrait Mode. Color, again, is improved, as are how Portrait Mode handles details around your subject’s face. Depth Control is neat — even though it was already available on the App Store — and likely can be taken further to include more forms of photography. But the overall loss in detail on Apple’s Portrait photos could push portrait photographers to their dedicated cameras if they don’t like the final result.

Some Final Notes and Observations

It’s hard to garner an opinion on every aspect of a brand new iPhone in three or four days, but here are a few final observations from my short time with the phone:

• The iPhone XS water resistance has been pushed to IP68, allowing you to dunk it (or lose it) in water up to 2 meters for 30 minutes. Of course, further tests have shown iPhones can survive longer than this, but Apple is playing it conservative like always.
• Videographers will be pleased with the new improvements in the camera system as well. Videographers can capture stereo sound. At 4K@30 fps and lower, videographers gain access to Smart HDR processing for video. Extended dynamic range features are being wrapped into the video camera as well, allowing you to shoot all sorts of environments that the computer can process.
• All the same Portrait Mode features (including Depth Control) are making their way to the front-facing TrueDepth camera as well.
• Face ID is indeed quicker on the iPhone XS, but it’s not by much. Rather, the more significant improvement is in the angles that the iPhone XS camera can pick up your face. I’ve found I can be at all new angles to the iPhone and it’ll unlock for me. This improves how much you need to lean over the iPhone when it’s sitting on a desk. Also, the introduction of Password Autofill in iOS 12 means I’ve been using Face ID much more than in iOS 11. It could be that Face ID feels faster because I’m seeing it in action that much more often.
• The stereo speakers, especially on the iPhone XS Max, are loud. We’re now to the point where I never see myself needing to blare the iPhone’s speakers at full blast. For any of those types of situations, the HomePod will do.
• I’m not sure if the extra 1.5 hours of battery life in the iPhone XS Max is noticeable, especially when comparing a year-old iPhone X battery to a brand new iPhone XS Max battery. That said, the Max is indeed lasting longer through the day, and is especially noticeable when the A12 chip is under load. I can almost see the battery indicator drop in real time when editing photos in Adobe Lightroom CC on the iPhone X, and this certainly isn’t the case with the iPhone XS Max.
• The iPhone XS and XS Max ship with dual SIM capabilities. I have no reason or any way to test these new capabilities, but it’s worth a mention for those who have a home and work smartphone, or for those who travel a lot.
• The iPhone XS does not ship with a Lightning to Headphone Jack Adapter or a larger battery charger, both of which have sent some people into a frenzy. As an Apple customer, you can choose to feel nickel and dimed, or you can realize that Apple’s not in the business of holding up old technology on a pedestal (especially in regards to the headphone jack adapter; the battery charger I have no answer for). As an Apple shareholder, I expect this will continue to push the sale of more Airpods.

A Touch of Revolution

I live in a small community, where everyone seems to know everyone. By this iPhone generation, my photo has been on the local carrier’s page often enough for most people to know I buy a new iPhone on launch day every year.

The resulting question is always the same: “Josh, is that super expensive iPhone worth it?”

Let’s be honest: the answer is no almost 100% of the time. The iPhone XS and XS Max are designed for Apple’s most loyal customers and most fringe users who need more camera, need more speed, or who want the iPhone X form factor in the larger Plus-sized body.

And of course, the big asterisk at play here is the iPhone XR. You’re getting almost the same phone for a fraction of the cost, so long as you’re happy with an LCD screen (I’m sure most people won’t care one iota).

But unlike global politics, the latest iPhones aren’t as polarizing as a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Users jumping from an iPhone 7 are going to experience massive performance improvements, massive display improvements, and even more massive camera improvements. And as we’ve shown above, iPhone X users are also going to see significant camera improvements if they make the upgrade.

My actual answer to that question is this: Apple has done such a great job in designing its iPhones in the past, they’ve learned that an iPhone has a lifespan far greater than the regular two or three year upgrade. Apple even highlighted this lesson on stage. The company has developed extensive recycling programs to move old iPhone parts back into the system, and they debuted this recycling program with a bevy of iPhone 5s graphics.

The iPhone 5s. Thanks to iOS 12, it’s still a viable iPhone. If you’ve gone the extra mile to install a new battery, it’s clear Apple expects a now 5-year-old iPhone to operate for at least a few more years.

That’s the light that needs to be shone on the iPhone XS and XS Max. This is an iPhone generation that is going to be around for years to come — maybe even a decade to come. Inside are current-day expensive features that will become cheaper to produce over time, and which will continue to operate efficiently over time thanks to the latest improvements in iOS 12. This iPhone XS generation has been designed not just for today, but for the next 10 or more years of use.

So, as much as the iPhone X was tomorrow’s iPhone yesterday, the iPhone XS is now next week’s iPhone today. Or next year’s iPhone today.

Whatever the case, “planned obsolescence” and “Apple” should never be used in the same sentence again.

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