Six reasons why the new iPhone XS, XS Max and XR are better
Apple presented this week three new copies of its iPhone X-series. But are the new features that are sufficient to make the switch? Judge for yourself.
1. Bigger and with notch
The compact smartphone format of the iPhone 6, 6s, 7 and 8 and the iPhone SE is now a thing of the past. The iPhone XS ‘the smallest brother of the new generation’ has a few millimetres extra in length and width on the iPhone 8. The XS Max is about the same size as the 8 Plus, but has a larger screen, including notch (the notch at the top). Don’t you think that notch is so pretty? Bad luck, because all new models have one. Although the overall design on the front of the new models is the same, the iPhone XR does have thicker screen edges than the XS and XS Max. The XR leaves 11mm on the sides, a bit more than 9mm from the XS.
2. Get rid of the Touch ID
Also, past tense: The Touch ID. All new devices will switch to Face ID; you do not need your finger to unlock your phone. Reportedly, the Face ID on the new devices would be a lot faster than on the iPhone X, and that’s a good thing. Face ID on the iPhone X is slower than Touch ID in the later generations.
3. ‘Really’ waterproof
Fun novelty: the XS and XS Max get an ip68 rating. This would allow the aircraft to be under water for two-and-a-half hours. Interesting detail: Apple claims that it has also been tested with salt water.
4. ‘Kind of’ dual sim
The new iPhones all have dual sim functionality. Or something that has to continue. In the models that come out in the Benelux, there is still only one physical SIM card in the XS, XS Max and XR, but they do have dual sim functionality based on an e-sim. Anyway, it is good news that you can also use the same device for work and private use with an Apple smartphone if you want to. And if, for example, you often travel outside Europe, you can also integrate a foreign device on your iPhone in addition to your regular subscription.
5. Screen: three sizes, two types
The iPhone XR has a 6.1 “LCD, where the XS and XS Max respectively have a 5.8” and 6.5 “OLED screen, which is one of the points where the cheaper device and the more expensive variants differ significantly from each other. You can see that especially at the black value: oled can take the pixels out and they are completely black, with the XR’s LCD you see a gray glow, especially in the dark, but the screen of the XR still appears to be contrasting at first face and also the viewing angles are more than fine.
6. Smarter shooting
In the camera area, the differences between the iPhones are crystal clear. The XS and XS max have the same cameras. The XR too, only this smartphone lacks the secondary telephoto lens on the back. The primary camera, with the wide angle of view, is the same as in the XS and XS Max. This applies to physical hardware, but also to functionality. In portrait mode you can now adjust the degree of background blur. That is no new function for us, since it is already in various Android phones, but it is nice that it can now also with these iPhones.
Computational Photography is the magic word in the camera area: with AI difficult situations can be recorded well. That’s where Apple’s Smart HDR comes in. Every time you take a photo, four frames are buffered, and additional frames with different exposures are generated that are made so quickly in succession that you should not suffer from motion blur.
