Last year, Cupertino-based tech giant Apple announced the iPhone X with a display notch. Now today, at an event at Steve Jobs Theater, Apple has announced the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max.
Both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are actually the same phones that are only differentiated by their screen size, screen resolution, battery, and of course, dimensions and weight. In terms of design and build, both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are exactly the same. The front and back of both these iPhones is covered with glass, whereas the side frames are made out of “surgical-grade” stainless steel.
Like last year’s iPhone X, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max also feature an all-screen, bezel-less design. The iPhone XS sports a 5.8-inch Super Retina HD OLED display whereas the iPhone XS Max sports a 6.5-inch Super Retina HD OLED display. The former has a resolution of 2436 x 1125 pixels whereas the latter has a resolution of 2688 x 1242 pixels. However, the display on both the iPhones have a pixel density of 458 ppi. And yes, both these iPhones come with a notch.
Under the hood, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max come with A12 Bionic which is a 7nm chip. The A12 Bionic has a six-core architecture that consists of two performance cores and four efficiency cores. It also comes with four-core GPU that Apple says is up to 50% faster than its predecessor. On the software front, these new iPhones run iOS 12 which is the latest version of iOS. You can read more about iOS 12 features here.
For photography, both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max come with dual cameras at the back — one 12 MP wide-angle camera and one 12 MP telephoto camera. The wide-angle camera has f/1.8 aperture whereas the telephoto camera has f/2.4 aperture. The telephoto camera offers up 2x optical zoom. That said, both these 12 MP cameras also come with optical image stabilization.
Moving on to the front, you get a 7 MP TrueDepth Camera which is also found on the iPhone XR. The front camera has f/2.2 aperture. That said, both the front and rear cameras come with Portrait Mode with “advanced bokeh”. Moreover, they also come with Depth Control that allows users to adjust the background blur in real-time as well as after taking a picture.
Just like last year’s iPhone X, this year’s iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max also don’t come with a fingerprint scanner, hence, you will have to rely on Face ID that uses face recognition to unlock the phone. Face ID uses an array of sensors like flood illuminator and infrared camera to face recognition. All these sensors located inside the notch above the display. Having said that, Face ID can not only be used to unlock the phone, but can also be used to authenticate purchases on Apple Pay and secure the apps.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max also come with dual SIM support. However, this dual SIM functionality is not offered by providing two SIM slots in the phone. You still only get one SIM slot, with support for second SIM offered through eSIM. However, Apple has said that the variants it will sell in China will actually come with two slots for SIM cards.
Lasly, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are offered in three storage variants – 64 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB – and come in three different colors – Silver, Space Gray, Gold. These two new iPhones also come with IP68 certification which means they can survive in water at a depth of 2 meters for up to 30 minutes.
Apple didn’t reveal the size of the battery on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but, it did say that the iPhone XS will last 30 minutes longer than the iPhone X, and the iPhone XS Max will last 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone X.
These new iPhones also come with dual SIM support and are available in three colors – Gold, Silver and Space Gray. They are IP68 dust and water resistant and come with up to 512 GB of internal storage.
Commenting on the launch of these two 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.” Schiller further added.
Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max Specifications
- CPU: 6-core A12 Bionic with Neural Engine
- GPU: 4-core GPU
- Operating System: iOS 12
- Display of iPhone XS: 5.8-inch Super Retina HD OLED display (2436 x 1125 pixels) with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, HDR, 3D Touch and 458 ppi pixel density
- Display of iPhone XS Max: 6.5-inch Super Retina HD OLED display (2688 x 1242 pixels) with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, HDR, 3D Touch and 458 ppi pixel density
- Rear Camera: 12 MP (wide-angle camera, 6-element lens, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4μm pixel size, OIS) + 12 MP (telephoto camera, 6-elements lens, f/2.4 aperture, 2x optical zoom) with Portrait Mode, Depth Control, Portrait Lighting (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono), Smart HDR for photos, 10x Digital Zoom, 4K video recording at 24/30/60 FPS, 1080p video recording at 30/60 FPS, 720p video recording at 30 FPS, 1080p Slow-Motion video recording at 120/240 FPS, Stereo Recording and Quad-LED True Tone Flash
- Front Camera: 7 MP TrueDepth Camera with f/2.2 aperture, Portrait Mode, Depth Control, Portrait Lighting (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono), Smart HDR for photos, Animoji, Memoji and Retina Flash
- Internal Storage: 64/256/512 GB
- SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM + eSIM / Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM in China)
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac with 2×2 MIMO, NFC (with reader mode)
- Other: Face ID, IP68 dust and water resistance, Stereo Sound
- Colors: Silver, Space Gray, Gold
- Battery on iPhone XS: Li-Ion battery with Qi Wireless Charging, lasts up to 30 minutes longer than iPhone X (up to 20 hours of talk-time, up to 12 hours of Internet use, up to 14 hours of video playback on Wi-Fi, up to 60 hours of audio playback on Wi-Fi)
- Battery on iPhone XS Max: Li-Ion battery with Qi Wireless Charging, lasts up to 1.5 hours longer than iPhone X (up to 25 hours of talk-time, up to 13 hours of Internet use, up to 15 hours of video playback on Wi-Fi, up to 65 hours of audio playback on Wi-Fi)
Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max Price and Availability
- Price of iPhone XS: Starts at $999
- Price of iPhone XS Max: Starts at $1099
- Availability: Pre-orders start from September 14. Goes on sale from September 21
Click here for more details about the India price and availability of these new iPhones.
