Michael Grothaus 14/09/2018 - 8:26am

It’s a spec-bumped iPhone X.

Apple today introduced a trio of new iPhones: the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR.

The iPhones share some similar characteristics, including an edge-to-edge display, the lack of a Home and Touch ID button, and a Face ID from the camera system.

But there are also several differences in the new iPhones. Here we’ll look at the new iPhone XS–the successor to last year’s iPhone X.

iPhone XS Specs

  • Display: 5.8-inch OLED display with a 2436x1125-pixel resolution at 458ppi
  • Dimensions: 143.6mm x 70.9mm x 7.7mm
  • Weight: 177 grams
  • Storage: 64, 256, or 512GB
  • Processors: A12 Bionic
  • Front camera: 7 MP photos and 1080p HD video.
  • Rear camera: Dual lens 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras, Dual optical image stabilisation, Optical zoom, 4K video
  • Battery: Up to 12.5 hours battery life mixed usage.
  • Other: Face ID, NFC, Wireless charging, 3D Touch.
  • Color options: Silver, Space Gray, and Gold

The iPhone XS is the smaller of Apple’s two new flagship phones. It features a 5.8in display with a 2436x1125-pixel resolution at 458ppi. It’s an OLED display too, so the colors, whites, and black stand out. As with the bigger, iPhone XS Max, Apple has also used a new type of glass, which makes it the most durable display ever. That display also has a 60% greater dynamic color range, which means images and graphics pop.

Apple has also beefed up the water proofing for the XS. It’s now certified IP68 waterproof, which means the phone can be submerged in up to 2 meters of water for 30 minutes and it will work fine. The XS also has a new speaker array, which allows for wider stereo sound when playing games and watching videos.

On the front TrueDepth camera, Face ID is now faster. The rear camera also had received improvements, including bigger, deeper pixels; a f/1.8 wide lens, a f/2.4 telephoto lens (both are 12 MP). Its image processor is also 2x faster. The rear camera also features Smart HDR for better photos with more detail and color. You can now also adjust the background depth of field. And when shooting video, you can record sound in stereo.

As for internals, the XS features a new A12 Bionic 7nm chip with 6 cores. The CPU is 15% faster and 40% more energy efficient. The GPU now has 4 cores and is 50% faster. Finally, the Neural engine now has 8 cores for machine learning and is almost almost 10 x faster. Apps launch 30% faster on the Max and Machine Learning runs nine times faster on 1/10th the energy.

Finally, the XS features Dual Sim Dual Standby (DSDS) technology that allows people to use two phone numbers with one iPhone. DSDS works by using one physical SIM and one eSIM.

Announcing the new iPhones, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said:

“iPhone Xs is packed with next-generation technologies and is a huge step forward for the future of the smartphone.

Everything is state of the art including the industry-first 7-nanometer A12 Bionic chip with 8-core Neural Engine, faster Face ID and an advanced dual camera system that shoots Portrait mode photos with Smart HDR and dynamic depth of field. iPhone Xs is not one, but two new iPhone models, and iPhone Xs Max offers the biggest display ever in an iPhone with the biggest battery ever in an iPhone, delivering up to an hour and a half more battery life in your day.”

The iPhone XS will be available on September 21 and cost £999 (64GB), £1149 (256GB), or £1349 (512GB).

Related Content: 

Apple's iPhone XS Max Detailed: Specs, Price & Release Date

When Apple introduced the iPhone X last year people raved about its beautiful design and edge-to-edge display. However, the iPhone X only came in one size–a 5.8in display. And though this screen size was bigger than the previous iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5in display, many people lamented the fact that there was no “Plus”-sized iPhone X.

But that’s all changed this year. That’s because one of the three new iPhones Apple introduced today was the new iPhone XS Max. Yep, Apple is ditching the “Plus” branding in favor of “Max” to denote it largest iPhone.

So just what is the Max like? We took a look to find out.

iPhone XS Max Specs

  • Display: 6.5-inch OLED display with a 2688x1242-pixel resolution at 458ppi
  • Dimensions: 157.5mm x 77.4mm x 7.7mm
  • Weight: 208 grams
  • Storage: 64, 256, or 512GB
  • Processors: A12 Bionic
  • Front camera: 7 MP photos and 1080p HD video.
  • Rear camera: Dual lens 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras, Dual optical image stabilisation, Optical zoom, 4K video
  • Battery: Up to 13.5 hours battery life mixed usage.
  • Other: Face ID, NFC, Wireless charging, 3D Touch.
  • Color options: Silver, Space Gray, and Gold

The iPhone XS Max features Apple’s biggest display ever at 6.5in with a 2688x1242-pixel resolution at 458ppi. It’s an OLED display too, so the colors, whites, and black stand out. Apple has also used a new type of glass, which makes it the most durable display ever. That display also has a 60% greater dynamic color range, which means images and graphics pop.

The larger display also means Apple was able to build in a horizontal mode to the Max so apps can be used in landscape orientation. This allows for apps to show more elements, like side lists. It’s a feature only found on the XS Max.

Apple has also beefed up the water proofing for the XS Max. It’s now certified IP68 waterproof, which means the phone can be submerged in up to 2 meters of water for 30 minutes and it will work fine.

The Max also has a new speaker array, which allows for wider stereo sound when playing games and watching videos.

On the front TrueDepth camera, FaceID is now faster. The rear camera also had received improvements, including bigger, deeper pixels; a f/1.8 wide lens, a f/2.4 telephoto lens (both are 12 MP). Its image processor is also 2x faster. The rear camera also features Smart HDR for better photos with more detail and color. You can now also adjust the background depth of field. And when shooting video, you can record sound in stereo.

As for internals, the Max features a new A12 Bionic 7nm chip with 6 cores. The CPU is 15% faster and 40% more energy efficient. The GPU now has 4 cores and is 50% faster. Finally, the Neural engine now has 8 cores for machine learning and is almost almost 10 x faster. Apps launch 30% faster on the Max and Machine Learning runs nine times faster on 1/10th the energy.

Finally, the Max will feature Dual Sim Dual Standby (DSDS) technology that allows people to use two phone numbers with one iPhone. DSDS works by using one physical SIM and one eSIM.

Announcing the new iPhone, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said:

“iPhone Xs is packed with next-generation technologies and is a huge step forward for the future of the smartphone. Everything is state of the art including the industry-first 7-nanometer A12 Bionic chip with 8-core Neural Engine, faster Face ID and an advanced dual camera system that shoots Portrait mode photos with Smart HDR and dynamic depth of field. iPhone Xs is not one, but two new iPhone models, and iPhone Xs Max offers the biggest display ever in an iPhone with the biggest battery ever in an iPhone, delivering up to an hour and a half more battery life in your day.”

The iPhone XS Max will be available on September 21 and cost £1099 (64GB), £1249 (256GB), or £1449 (512GB).