Let’s Talk About the iPhone XS (and XS Max) (Premium)

Apple’s newest flagships arrive on Friday and the first reviews are already out. How does the iPhone XS evolve the platform?

Evolve being the key word, of course: The iPhone XS and its larger but otherwise identical XS Max sibling are the epitome of an “S” year for the iPhone. That is, they offer tons of minor refinements over last year’s iPhone X, but no major new features. Looked at more broadly, they are to hardware what iOS 12 is to software.

And, yes, that is a good thing. If you can get past Apple’s marketing hyperbole—which, granted, I have trouble with—you will find that the XS is about an obvious an upgrade as any product Apple has ever released. It takes everything that was right about the iPhone X and improves it, just a little. And it is the totality of those minor changes that result, I think, in a worthy upgrade.

No, not from an iPhone X: If you own last year’s flagship, there is literally no scenario where spending another $1000 to $1450 a year later makes any sense at all. (OK, one caveat to that: If you partake in the iPhone Upgrade Program or a similar carrier-based plan where you can move forward to a new phone every year, going from the iPhone X to the XS may make some sense.)

Those using an older or lesser iPhone—basically, iPhone 6 through iPhone 8 Plus—will have a different things to consider.

First, there’s some math to consider. As always, the older your device, the more attractive that this year’s upgrade will look. But it’s not just the price: Apple’s tag-line for last year’s iPhone X was “welcome to the future.” This year, it’s just the present, with the iPhone X design moving forward intact and unchanged. This is what an iPhone looks like now.

And it’s a sea change for those still using an older-style iPhone, with their prominent “forehead” and “chin” upper and lower bezels and their physical Home buttons. That “tons of minor refinements” bit only applies if you are literally upgrading from an iPhone X, and you’re not. You’re upgrading from an older, less modern looking iPhone. The differences you will see will be more dramatic and, hopefully, mostly positive.

Looked at a different way, that may be a step too far for many. Fortunately, you can take baby steps into this new era simply by upgrading to iOS 12 (for free) on your existing device: This system brings the iPhone X gesture navigation scheme to all iOS-based devices, including older iPhones. And I think that’s a good thing: As I found with my iPads, having a single navigation system across each device is consistent and helps with muscle memory. It will also prepare you for the future.

You could also save some money and buy downwards in the iPhone lineup. I previously described the iPhone XR as the sweet spot in the new iPhone lineup. And if you like the iPhone Home button and are not ready for Face ID, there’s a case to be made for iPhone 8 too. This is a beautiful, elegant phone.

But here, I’ll simply assume that you understand the differences, are interested in a truly new iPhone, and realize how much these things really cost. After all, even the base 64 GB iPhone XS, which retails for $999 could really set you back upwards of $2000 overall. You need to factor in an Apple Care+ subscription, which is $200 to $300 depending on model and coverage, and is absolutely required for this all-glass device. And the $50-ish on a protective case, also required for the same reason. (And you should factor in acquisition costs, too: After all, you’ll need to early $1200-$1300, depending on your tax bracket, to earn enough to actually pay for this device.)

There’s no reason to belabor the obvious: The iPhone XS is expensive. Everyone gets that. And despite one’s opinions about the worth of this purchase, despite that gnawing and painful throb in the back of your head telling that things will never really make you happy, Apple’s sales numbers speak for themselves. It is going to sell many tens of millions of these things by the end of the year. So let’s just look at what you’ll really get this for, ahem, investment. Separate the wheat from the hyperbole, so to speak.

This is what stands out to me.

It’s pronounced “ten-ess” not “ex-ess”. I’m not sure why Apple went with the antiquated roman numeral thing again, but they did. Get the name right.

It’s iPhone XS, not Xs. This is another one that confuses me because even Apple gets it wrong in some places. But the name of these products is “XS” not “Xs”. Just as it’s XR not Xr. How do we know this? Because if you look at the “R” in the square next to the XR logos on the Apple website, you can see it’s a capital R, not a lower-case R. (S looks the same in either case.)

Gold is back, and it is improved. It may seem a bit superficial to focus on this, but it one of the curious omissions from last year’s iPhone X. Apple had melded its gold and rose gold colors into a pretty new gold for the iPhone 8, but the iPhone X only came in black and white. This year, there is an even newer and, I think, more attractive gold option that has a nice dark gold/brown look to it. And it is absolutely the one I’d choose. Even though I would, of course, hide it in a protective cover.

The design is identical. Apple didn’t make any changes to the iPhone X design at all for this new generation of XS phones: The size and shape of the iPhone X and XS are literally identical. Yes, there are minor changes to materials (like the improved glass), and internal changes. But the iPhone X and XS are, for all intents and purposes, identical.

The display is (basically) identical. The 5.8-inch iPhone XS OLED display exactly matches that of its predecessor, with a resolution of 2436 x 1125 and a pixel count of 458 PPI, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, True Tone capabilities, and 3D Touch support. The larger XS has a correspondingly bigger resolution but that same PPI. It offers the same edge-to-edge design as its predecessor, which is a nice improvement over older iPhones. Apple claims one difference: When viewing HDR10 photos, the iPhone XS offers a 60 percent better dynamic range than its predecessor. I’ve not found a review claiming that this makes a difference, however.

Face ID. I’m not a fan of facial recognition personally, and I really like Apple’s most recent Touch ID implementations. But Apple is moving forward, and the Face ID system in XS is apparently “faster than ever before,” according to Apple, which provided nothing qualitative. Reviews suggest the difference is minor to inconsequential. Apple calling it “the most secure facial authentication ever in a smartphone” is both disingenuous and a low bar. And besides the point. It is what it is, and you’re stuck with it.

A12 Bionic. Apple really beat this topic to death during the press event last week, but I’ve come to understand that it was right to do so. Apple’s mobile chipsets are well understood to be the most powerful in the industry, an astonishing feat given the firm’s short history of making its own chips. And the A12 Bionic is impressive. It’s the industry’s first 7 nm mobile CPU design, and it’s a 64-bit 6-core design (2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) with a 4-core GPU and a 2nd-generation neural engine. And it is both faster and more efficient across the board. It puts Apple in a leadership position that is almost impossible to refute. And it deserves more time than I can give it here.

Camera system. With a few exceptions, Apple was surprisingly vague about the improvements to the camera system, given that this is the number one concern for purchasers of flagship smartphones. Here’s the deal: The front camera and rear telephoto lens are identical to that of the iPhone X, and the rear wide-angle lens is slightly better with bigger and deeper pixels and an improved sensor that lets in more light. Bottom line from reviewers: It’s very good, but only barely better than the iPhone X. And not as good as Pixel 2 XL, let alone the expected Pixel 3 XL we’ll find out about soon. If you care about the camera, iPhone XS does not move the needle. (And some of the few touted improvements, like the ability to blur the background of photos later, have been available on other phones, including Samsung flagships, for a while now. Reviewers who know about this stuff are not overly-impressed.)

Battery life. Apple claims that you’ll see about 30 minutes more battery life with the XS (compared to the X). But most reviewers didn’t notice any change, and other phones—including, yes, the Pixel 2 XL—still get much better battery life. I don’t think this is a pro or a con. It’s just something to ignore.

Dual-SIM. This one is huge, and it’s a feature I enjoy on both the Pixel 2 XL (where you can use the eSIM with Project Fi and a SIM card) and the OnePlus 6 (which has a dual SIM card tray). This is the first line of iPhones to support this crucial feature.

Whether any of this adds up to $250 to $600 of improvements over the coming iPhone XR—or even more over the iPhone 7 or 8, or the phone you already own—is unclear. Your needs are, well, your needs.

My personal feelings are, I assume, well understood: I very much value the camera quality and Project Fi compatibility of the Pixel 2 XL, and that’s despite a year of endemic problems with the device’s USB port. So I will be looking to the Pixel 3 announcement next month to see what I can do about moving forward. And heck, maybe OnePlus will finally ship a phone with a truly great camera. I very much prefer the OnePlus 6 otherwise.

But I will almost certainly review the iPhone XS—and the iPhone XR—as soon as is possible. Apple absolutely sets the bar by which the rest of the industry must aspire. And those these new iPhones are evolutionary and not revolutionary, they have absolutely raised the bar year again.