Ten days with iPhone XS and XS Max

The iPhone XS is so like the iPhone X that the cases fit each other. Except for a new gold variant, one wouldn’t know the difference at first glance. The iPhone XS Max is also the same, but so very much bigger — too big for some and a lot of nice screen space for others. It’s difficult to recommend that anyone with an iPhone X upgrade: a year later, my iPhone X is just as smooth and sparkling as it ever was. But those coming from earlier variants, including the thick-bezeled iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, would be justified in considering a new iPhone — provided they are happy to pay the asking price, and I’m presuming many will be, as the iPhone X, not cheap either, was Apple’s best-selling iPhone for the cycle just gone by.

Face ID is faster

Almost every phone you buy these days unlocks when you hold it up where it can see you with its camera. But it’s just an image and isn’t considered safe even by the companies that make the phones. Apple’s Face ID is different in that it uses a special ‘TrueDepth’ camera which is one of the main reasons for the notch on the top of the screen. This camera captures an infrared map of your face in its full 3D form made up of more than 30,000 invisible dots projected from the camera.

Face ID on the iPhone X was very hit-or-miss and I often just turned it off, re-registering my face when needed again. There’s a noticeable difference even in the first ten days with the two iPhone XSs. There are far fewer instances when it fails; it’s faster when it works; and works better in lower light — which it can, because of the infra red.

There are still times when you may not be the right distance away or reclining against a pillow and confusing the tech, but I’ve come to realise that if you want this more secure method of unlocking, you’ll have to work with it not against it. Face ID does work with glasses, but some of them, and usually not the reflective variety. You can now also set up Face IDs for others in the family on the same phone.

It’s a visual feast

Photos and video look fantastic on the iPhone XS and Max’s OLED screens — specially the Max because of all that space. The 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screens have Dolby Vision and HDR10 so you can watch beautifully hi-res content. I had no problems watching Netflix on these screens even though there are plenty of other options around because they look so vivid and beautiful. All apps don’t take advantage of the Max’s larger display and that’s a pity but obviously up to developers to fix and this is something Apple has set a deadline on.

The stereo speakers on these phones are loud and deep and rich. The audio quality is probably the best on a smartphone at the moment. The two XS phones come with earphones that connect using the lightning port because there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack any more. This time, there’s no little adaptor in the box, a much criticised omission, which means your favourite older headphones will be out of a job unless you find and buy an adaptor dongle.

More ‘Bionic’ power

Apple is fond of throwing its very own jargon at customers and fans and their ‘Bionic’ chips of recent times is one of these terms. That just sounds good, but this time Apple is also first to market with a 7 nanometer A12 Bionic chip which is supposed to be 15 per cent faster than the previous A11 Bionic.

What’s more, it’s GPU is also more powerful and a reason why one is able to see things so fast and brilliantly on these phones. Comparing with last year’s iPhone X, which was fast and smooth in itself, the two XS phones actually feel faster, seen subjectively. Everything is super fluid to navigate.

This is also added to with the big upgrade to the operating system which has now moved on to iOS 12. In fact, users of older iPhones will also experience faster speeds and get new features and so are encouraged to go ahead and upgrade. Actual benchmark results have surfaced everywhere and also show the new iPhones to be faster than before.

The iPhones cost the earth but they’re also smartphones that last the longest in terms of what they do. You can usually cruise along for at least three years before you need to upgrade. And the XS and XS Max are great examples of that speed and fluidity and power that will see the user through going forward.

Stellar camera system

The camera is a deal breaker for me, personally. While reviewing phones, I have to make a conscious effort to keep my own fondness for top-end cameras out of my mind and judge each one on its own merit. Well, for the iPhone one expects a lot, given how much Apple talks about the camera setups — and I wasn’t disappointed. With the first click one can tell that the camera with its bigger sensor has improved. Photos are better coloured, show more detail, and bring out shadows and highlights well. This is thanks to the ‘Smart HDR’ feature Apple has put in with which many frames are brought together to create a full image. This isn’t the first time anyone’s done it, but the results on the two iPhone XSs are great.

Shot on IPhone XS.

You can see things in shadows without them becoming barely-visible; you can see different tones and variations despite the bright light and things don’t get blown out and whited out. The new cameras (12MP plus 12MP wide angle and telephoto on the rear and 7MP in front) were supposed to allow you to take backlit shots without silhouetting the subject but I didn’t find that always to be the case.

In Portrait mode, a highlight of the iPhone’s cameras, subjects don’t get darkened out. This time, with the Portrait mode, you get a depth of field adjustment slider — provided you’ve taken the photo in the proper light required by the feature and got some depth — with which you can change the amount of background blur, giving a DSLR like effect. Provided you don’t go overboard and max out the blur, it generally looks pretty good. But too strong and you’ll find edges of subjects compromised.

Again, this isn’t a unique feature and most high end phones have it, but the iPhone, as is typical, popularises it. You can get Portrait mode in selfies, which of course is obvious enough, along with Portrait Lighting, which can make changes to the lighting after the fact — sometimes stunningly and sometimes all messed up at the edges. Video recording at 4k is nice and smooth. On the Max, the larger screen in fact allows you to frame video better.

The new iPhones’ battery shows better performance, though of course the Max has the larger of the two. Those tearing the phones down say it’s an L-shaped battery. There’s no external storage as usual but the iPhones now come in larger storage options going up to 512GB which will cost you a pretty packet. There is a Dual-SIM capability with one of the SIMs being an eSIM but we were not able to test how this works yet. The new iPhones are ‘beer proof’ as was said in Apple’s presentation. The water and dust resistance rating is now IP68 and so you can go for a quick swim with it.

So should you get one of the new iPhones? Not if you have an iPhone X unless you desperately want the improved camera or the larger of the XS phones. Otherwise — if you have the money.

Price: iPhone XS and XS Max will be available in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB at ₹99,900 to ₹109,900

Pros: Brilliant display, great performance, much improved camera, great sound, better Face ID, futureproof, opens up AR experiences even more, purported tougher glass and water and dust resistance

Cons: Prohibitively expensive, high cost if glass broken

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