Ahead of the retail launch on Friday, the first hand-picked reviewers have published their thoughts on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max handsets. Launched within a hail of buzzwords and a laser-like focus on a single strategy, Apple’s new smartphones have drawn praise for the camera, but the overall impression is to hold on and see what the iPhone XR delivers.
Apple has debuted a phablet version of the ‘X’ family, as well as updating last year’s launch model. The ’S’ designation for an intermediate update has been used, while ‘Plus’ has been replaced by ‘Max’, presumably to appeal to the Chinese market, which also loves a gold-colored handset. You can probably guess what color model was sent to the majority of reviewers…
Today’s reviews have been for the iPhone XS and XS Max models. When you look at the spec sheets, there is a fundamental change in the physical relationship between the two options compared to previous years, as David Phelan explains at The Independent:
[For] the last few years the larger-sized iPhone has had better camera capabilities. This year, you can choose between the two phones exclusively according to which size suits you best. All this means that apart from screen size and battery size (oh, and price) anything mentioned here about one of the handsets applies to the other one, too.
The screen sizes, by the way, are 5.8 inches for the iPhone XS, like last year's iPhone X, and 6.5 inches for the iPhone XS Max.
In terms of the display, this is the second year of Apple using Samsung’s OLED technology, and the vibrancy remains Bu the extra screen seems to be there to tick a box, there’s not been many considerations as to how the extra dimensions could be utilised in real life. Nilay Patel at The Verge:
There are some software changes for the bigger display that are familiar from the Plus: in landscape mode, certain apps can switch to a sidebar view, and you’ll see tabs (with favicons if you turn them on!) in Safari. But that’s really it. Apple told me that it doesn’t want to overstuff the display because it doesn’t want the interface elements to be too small to tap on, and most people really do just want a bigger interface on a large phone, which makes sense. I just wish I had the option to up the information density on the XS Max just a little.
So yes, if you want a huge screen, get a XS Max. It’s a gigantic, beautiful screen, and I have enjoyed looking at it a lot. But nothing about it is easier to handle than the old Plus phones, and in some cases it’s harder.
As noted, the camera is the same for both units. Apple’s Phil Schiller talked a lot about the changes that software can make to the performance and the output from the optics. Matthew Panzarino looks over the camera technology for TechCrunch, and goes into depth about the maths used by Apple to model various lenses in software, and how this is the real leap forward in the smartphone:
My testing of portrait mode on the iPhone XS says that it is massively improved, but that there are still some very evident quirks that will lead to weirdness in some shots like wrong things made blurry and halos of light appearing around subjects. It’s also not quite aggressive enough on foreground objects — those should blur too but only sometimes do. But the quirks are overshadowed by the super cool addition of the adjustable background blur. If conditions are right it blows you away. But every once in a while you still get this sense like the Neural Engine just threw up its hands and shrugged.
If the top of your ‘wanted features’ is a camera, then the iPhone XS just demanded your attention. These are still the early reviews, and I suspect that Apple will have given the reviewers 48 hours tops before the embargo, so there’s been no true benchmarking yet but the first impressions are good.
With such a short window, genuine battery tests are impossible to conduct - with possibly three cycles at most to gauge performance. Apple’s own ratings are relative to ‘a day’ and ‘a bit more than last year’s model.’ Scott Stein at CNET points this out, as well as the lack of extras that increase your cost (and boost Apple’s average revenue per user:
Its battery life is the shortest of the three new iPhones and only incrementally better than last year's. Despite its still-rich price tag, key extras such as increased storage, USB-C fast chargers and headphone dongles will have you spending even more.
In terms of performance, the initial benchmarks run by Mark Spoonauer for Tom’s Guide highlight the raw power of the processor, comfortably taking the top spot, but the graphics benchmarks are lower than flagship Android handsets:
On Geekbench 4, which measures overall speed, the iPhone Xs Max scored 11,515, while the iPhone Xs hit a slightly lower 11,420. Those scores smoke the fastest Android phones around, including the Snapdragon 845-powered Galaxy Note 9 (8,876) and the OnePlus 6 with 8GB of RAM (9,088).
To test graphics performance, we ran 3DMark Slingshot Extreme, and the iPhone Xs Max scored 4,339 and the iPhone Xs hit 4,244. Both of those numbers are below the Galaxy Note 9's 4,639, but they're a lot higher than the 2,227 turned in by the older iPhone X.
Of course lurking on the horizon is the smaller and cheaper iPhone XR. That carries much of the same technology with a sticker price reduced by $250 . Part of that is by the use of an LCD screen compared to ah OLED screen, but the noticeable difference is the camera. If it’s not topping the feature list you might want to wait, suggests Brian Chen at the New York Times:
Apple did not provide a review unit for the XR because it will be released next month, so I can’t say with authority.
But I suspect it will largely come down to whether you can live with a single-lens camera, which doesn’t do as good a job taking those D.S.L.R.-like photos with a blurred-out background and a sharpened foreground. The XS is about $250 more than the XR.
Chen is not alone. The iPhone XS and XS Max may have refined the concept of the iPhone X, but beyond the camera there is no significant leap forward. The ’S’ designation - iterating out the flaws from the first device launched, and then selling it back to the same fan base - has never been more appropriate. Todd Haselton for CNBC:
The XS is basically a new model with some improvements. Most of those improvements, though, are kind of hard to notice.
Take the screen, for example. It’s still a brilliant, colourful and sharp OLED display that supports next-gen HDR 4K video. It’s one of the best screens on the market, up there with the display on the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. But some of the improvements, like its increased dynamic range, can only be spotted when viewing photos. And even then, I don’t think most folks will notice. This isn’t bad; it just means the screen is still really good and we’re getting to a point where it’s hard to distinguish upgrades.
For the final word I have to go back to Nilay Patel, who may have nailed the biggest problem:
If you buy an XS Max, you might have to say “iPhone XS Max” out loud.
For a company that was famous for sweating the small details, the naming mess is indicative of the whole phone. Its’s bigger, it has more features, it has improved where improvement was needed, but the focus and the finesse that typified Apple products is no longer dominant.
Now read more about Tim Cook’s tunnel vision on iPhone strategy. But first, this…
