iPhone Xs Review: It Just Gets the Job Done Well (like every new iPhone)

Post date: Mar 12, 2019 4:29:24 PM

iPhone Xs Review: It Just Gets the Job Done Well (like every new iPhone)

Nico Villalobos January 22, 2019

Once again it’s time to review Apple’s latest and greatest iPhone.

Another year another new iPhone that looks just like the old iPhone. Boring right?  The iPhone Xs actually perfects the revolutionary iPhone X of 2017. It keeps the X’s signature glass front and back design, liquid retina display and Face ID; however, the iPhone Xs has lots of internal hardware changes. It also has a bigger and more expensive brother called the iPhone Xs Max, which features the exact same design and hardware in a larger 6.5 inch screen.

The Good

Camera

The camera on the iPhone Xs is the best smartphone camera that money can buy! The new f 1.8 and f 2.4 dual camera system produce amazing photos and even record video in 4K. It takes photos extremely fast, while capturing an appropriate amount of light and focus. The camera app is simple and just works. It includes a clear shutter button, camera switcher, flash options and a shortcut to your camera roll. The iPhone Xs continues Apple’s streak as the best camera phone manufacturer.

Sample Photos:

Software and Performance

The iPhone Xs runs iOS 12, the newest version of, Apple’s smartphone operating system. iOS 12 seems built for this phone! It is extremely fast and responsive no matter the task. Whether you’re taking photos or playing an intensive game like Fortnite, the iPhone Xs will keep up with ease. iOS 12 doesn’t bring too many changes from last year’s iOS 11 but that’s not a bad thing. iOS 12 speeds up the experience of using the phone while fixing most of the pesky bugs from iOS 11. iOS 12 also brought a few new features such as group Facetime calls, more Animojis, a better photos app and the ability to see and limit your screen time in settings. The iOS basics such as the app store, iMessage and the simplistic home screen that we love to hate still remain nearly unchanged. Overall the changes from iOS 12 are minor but extremely positive since they helped speed up the phone’s performance while sprinkling in a few new features.

Design

The iPhone Xs comes in gold, space gray and silver. The phone’s 5.8 inch display sounds a lot larger than the 4.7 in display of older iPhone such as the 6-8; however, the phone does not feel large in the hand and is easy to use with one hand. Even Though the iPhone Xs looks just like the iPhone X, I still love this design. The glass back, stainless steel band holding it together and the front display still look and feel amazing in hand! I love using this device without a case.

Display

The display is nearly the same 5.8 inch beautiful AMOLED liquid retina display used in the iPhone X. The well calibrated screen is extremely sharp and produces accurate colors at many viewing angles. The only downside of the display is that it might not get bright enough under extreme sunlight.

Battery Life

The iPhone Xs lasts about a full work day with moderate usage (about 5.5 hours of screen on time in my experience). It’s slightly better than iPhone X and it’s around the industry standard for battery life. Be sure to charge the phone mid day if you have a long night planned!

Hardware upgrades

The iPhone Xs features a new A12 bionic chipset, new camera sensors, an improved cellular chipset and more antennas. This means that Face ID is much faster than the iPhone X and speeds over your provider’s LTE network could nearly double! Thanks to the new chipsets, 4X4 MIMO antenna technology and 256 QAM software. While these upgrades may appear minor on paper, they add lots of speed to the iPhone experience in real the real world. I’ve seen my LTE speeds nearly double on the AT&T network!

Special Features

The iPhone Xs allows you to use two phone lines on the phone at the same time! Using a new technology called E-Sim, you could have two lines on a single iPhone Xs. Imagine having your work and personal phone numbers all on one phone. I have personally used two lines on my iPhone Xs for the last few weeks and noticed that it makes battery life a bit worse. That means I have to charge an hour and a half before I normally did when I only used one phone line on the device. Apple implements this feature masterfully as you can turn off either line with a simple on/off switch and even choose which number you’re calling from with a simple button in the phone app.

Somewhere-in-the-Middle

What it means to have an iPhone

iPhones are seen as status symbols since it was such a unique phone during its original launch in 2007. In 2007 no other phone was in the same galaxy as iPhone. In 2018 this has slightly changed. iPhone has seen great competition over the last few years, so it is not that much better than other smartphones on the market today; however, some still think of the iPhone as a luxury and a gold standard due to its unique secure messaging platform between iPhones called iMessage (Blue Texts) and Facetime. Those platforms only exist on Apple products such as iPhone so they add to the iPhone’s luxury status as they work well but only work on Apple products. This exclusivity and status is great for iPhone users but disappointing for other smartphone users who communicate with iPhone users constantly with the 90s based green buble standard text messages. I dream of a day where those proprietary communication platforms are used by all smartphones not just iPhone.

The Bad

Pricing

The phone starts at $999 for 64 GB of storage. Ouch! That’s the same price as a new Macbook! $999 for a phone with only 64GB of storage and minor upgrades is ridiculous! Apple may have priced out a piece of the market with this high price. If you’d rather not shell out $999 upfront you can finance the device through your cell phone provider for 24 months at 0% APR adding $41.62 to your wireless bill for two years. I wish Apple started their pricing at $649.99 like the good old days of my childhood.

The Verdict

The iPhone Xs is one of the best smartphones money can buy. Its beautiful display, premium design, simplity, accurate camera and speed make it a solid simple choice for most consumers; yet, you still have to ask yourself is $999 worth it? If you have an iPhone X I think the answer is no since the phones are very similar; however, if you have an iPhone 7 or older or an Android phone I think the answer is yes. The iPhone Xs will provide you with the most premium smartphone experience known to humankind, so I highly recommend the iPhone Xs and am happy to have purchased it.