iPhone XS and XS Max review: The best phones Apple has made, if you're willing to pay

The new Apple iPhone XS and XS Max.
The new Apple iPhone XS and XS Max. PHOTO: APPLE
The new models come with the best and biggest displays ever in an iPhone. PHOTO: APPLE

Are the new iPhone XS and XS Max worth their hefty price tags? I tried out both and here is my take.

DESIGN

The iPhone XS and XS Max look just like their predecessor, the iPhone X. Not that this is a bad thing, considering how many phones there are in the market that mimic the iPhone X design.

Both use a surgical-grade stainless steel structural band, which comes in three finishes of space grey, silver and gold (version tested) to complement the front and back glass for a solid build. Both feel great in the hand.

While I am usually not a person who likes gold in his gadgets, I find the new gold colour to be quite subtle. It looks more bronze than gold to me, and a gold iPhone XS or XS Max is something I wouldn't mind carrying around.

Their water resistance has increased to IP68, meaning they can withstand submersion in 2m deep water for 30min, compared with 1m for 30min for the iPhone X. In addition, both phones are said to resist coffee, tea or soda spills.

You can use the iPhone X's case on the XS but the camera hole will not align nicely with the rear dual-camera module. That's because the module is a wee bit larger than that of the iPhone X's.

DISPLAY

The major differences between the iPhone XS and XS Max are in physical size and screen size. Both are 7.7mm thick but the XS Max is 13.9mm taller and 6.5mm wider than the XS.

The iPhone XS retains the 5.8-inch display of its predecessor, while XS Max's 6.5-inch display is the largest ever on an iPhone. But both actually have the same pixel density of 458 pixels per inch.

The displays of both phones are fantastic to look at, with vivid colours and great contrast. High dynamic range (HDR) movies like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Wonder Woman look absolutely gorgeous on them. You can pick out details even in the dark areas.

The audio delivered from the bottom speakers and front-facing speakers has a stereo effect regardless of how you position the phone.

One downer though is that the audio jack to lightning adaptor is no longer included in the box.

SPEED

The latest iPhones use Apple's new A12 Bionic processor, which features a six-core fusion architecture with two performance cores that are up to 15 per cent faster, and four efficiency cores that are 50 per cent more power-efficient than the A11 Bionic chip of the iPhone X.

In the GeekBench 4 benchmark tests, there is little to differentiate between the iPhone XS and XS Max. The former scored 4,788 points in the single-core test and 11,371 points in the multi-core test, while the latter scored 4,779 (single-core) and 11,366 (multi-core) points.

To compare, the iPhone X scored 4,200 (single-core) and 10,144 (multi-core) points. It might not sound like much in terms of improvements but even the impressive Samsung Galaxy Note9 scored 3,760 points (single-core) and 9,094 (multi-core) points.

  • TECH SPECS: iPhone XS Max

  • PRICE: $1,799 (64GB), $2,039 (256GB, version tested), $2,349 (512GB)

    PROCESSOR: A12 Bionic six-core chip with embedded Neural Engine

    SCREEN: 6.5-inch Super Retina Oled (2,688 x 1,242 pixels)

    CAMERAS: 12-megapixel rear dual cameras (wide-angle f/1.8; telephoto f/2.4), TrueDepth Camera (7-megapixel front-facing camera f/2.2)

    WEIGHT: 208g

  • RATING

  • FEATURES: 5/5

    DESIGN: 5/5

    PERFORMANCE: 5/5

    BATTERY LIFE: 4/5

    VALUE FOR MONEY: 4/5

    OVERALL: 5/5 (ST Tech Editor's Choice)

  • TECH SPECS: iPhone XS

  • PRICE: $1,649 (64GB), $1,889 (256GB, version tested), $2,199 (512GB)

    PROCESSOR: A12 Bionic six-core chip with embedded Neural Engine

    SCREEN: 5.8-inch Super Retina Oled (2,436 x 1,125 pixels)

    CAMERAS: 12-megapixel rear dual cameras (wide-angle f/1.8; telephoto f/2.4), TrueDepth Camera (7-megapixel front-facing camera f/2.2)

    WEIGHT: 177g

  • RATING

  • FEATURES: 5/5

    DESIGN: 5/5

    PERFORMANCE: 5/5

    BATTERY LIFE: 4/5

    VALUE FOR MONEY: 4/5

    OVERALL: 5/5

Playing the games Fortnite and PUBG Mobile felt as smooth as playing them on my computer.

The embedded Neural Engine - used for machine learning or artificial intelligence in operations from photography to augmented reality (AR) - now features an eight-core design that allows it to do 5 trillion operations per second, compared with 600 billion per second in the A11 chip.

This allows AR apps to run much smoother and more seamlessly, which I can attest to after playing the golf-like AR game elemenTao, which lets players use fire, wind, water and earth to move a silver ball into a hole using your table as the landscape. I also tried the IKEA Place app and "putting" furniture in your room has never been easier.

CAMERA

If you look at just the specifications, you might think that Apple hasn't upgraded the cameras. But the image sensor has been upgraded with deeper pixels for improved image fidelity and larger pixels for better low-light sensitivity, even though the megapixel count remains the same.

Comparing photos of the same scenes taken with the iPhone X and both new iPhones, I found that images shot using the new iPhones to have a higher dynamic range and are slightly sharper.

Even when taking photos with the sun behind a subject, the new iPhones managed to keep a person's face bright while not overexposing the background too much. In night scenes, their photos exhibit less noise.

The biggest plus of the iPhone XS and XS Max is the ability to change the aperture size after you have taken a photo in Portrait mode. By changing the aperture size, you can adjust the background blur, or bokeh effect, accordingly.

While this feature might have been available in some smartphones before, I feel the implementation here looks more natural in terms of the bokeh effect.

The improved TrueDepth camera also allows you to adjust aperture size after taking Portrait selfies - something you cannot do with the iPhone X.

The Face ID in the new iPhones also feels a split second faster compared with that in the iPhone X.

BATTERY LIFE

The iPhone X lasted 8hr 40min in our usual battery stress-test, whereby we looped a 720p video at full brightness and full volume and with Wi-Fi turned on.

Put through the same test, the iPhone XS lasted 9hr 30min, while the XS Max lasted 10hr 20min.

However, battery mileage depends on usage habits. I found both iPhones having around 50 per cent battery life left at the end of a work day, despite my regular monitoring of Facebook and Instagram updates, typing and sending messages in WhatsApp and Telegram, and constantly checking e-mails.

XS or XS MAX?

The iPhone XS Max's 6.5-inch display might sound huge, but it actually has the same surface area as the 5.5-inch iPhone 8 Plus. So, it is not overwhelmingly huge. And I have to admit that watching movies, browsing the Internet and playing games on the larger XS Max is a much better experience, especially for those with increasing hyperopia like myself.

But certainly, the smaller-sized iPhone XS still makes for better one-hand operation. So you have to choose between one-hand operation or a better viewing experience. Personally, I would pay the extra bucks for the bigger screen size and better battery life.

Verdict: There is no doubt that the iPhone XS and XS Max are the best smartphones that Apple has ever released. And you will not go wrong with either iPhones as long as you are willing to pay for it.

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