Apple iPhone XS review

25 Sept 2018
Same. But different. And yet the same. The iPhones are masters at being that, especially the S series. What Apple obviously can't do is come up with clever names. Worse, the XS may as well go down in history as the worst labeled phone ever. Two letters but one is a Roman numeral. What could go wrong?

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Two things:

1-Where did you got the "tempest" name? I know the Vortex was rumored for the big cores, but tempest for the efficient ones doesnt seems right given the patron (zephyr, mistral).

2-Apple is using LPDDR4X at 2133Mhz, so Huawei isnt the first there either.

    Anonymous, 25 Sep 2018It's interesting that GSMArena are finally acknowledging th... moreYou're definitely out of your mind.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • j5$
      • 26 Sep 2018

      SpiritWolf, 26 Sep 2018Camera is OK at best. Oversharpening halos, no detail (usua... moreYou're too generous.
      The only acceptable photography device is large format.

        • O
        • OwO
        • UD{
        • 26 Sep 2018

        So what's new about this iPhone XS?

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          • Anonymous
          • gBV
          • 26 Sep 2018

          "The telephoto camera on the iPhone XS is the same as on the X."
          Gsmarena, did Apple confirm this? I don't think so, so don't say that! They always can improve the quality of the lens. Same specs don't mean same camera!

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            • Anonymous
            • gBV
            • 26 Sep 2018

            Gsmarena, you didn't explain Smart HDR correctly. When you enable the option that an additional non-HDR photo is saved, you'll see that sometimes you just get a single photo and not two. These are the cases when the photos are not labeled with "HDR" despite having "Smart HDR" enabled. This means that Smart HDR doesn't always use multiple exposures for every photo. Sometimes it just uses a single photo that has been exposed for the highlights. This isn't that different to Google's HDR+ as sometimes HDR+ only uses 2 frames (instead of 8).

            And there is no HDR On option anymore. When "Smart HDR" is enabled, it won't combine multiple exposures for EVERY photo. When you disable "Smart HDR", you get manual HDR settings: HDR off and "HDR". When you choose "HDR" manually, this is identical to Smart HDR, so it won't combine multiple exposures for every photo. I have tested that.

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              • Anonymous
              • 0Cc
              • 26 Sep 2018

              Anonymous, 25 Sep 2018It's interesting that GSMArena are finally acknowledging th... moreYou got it completely wrong. They said Apple does not regard Android as competition. And this is only due to the fact that Apple users are addicted to Apple gear and will not go anywhere, while Android users have an open mind and are not stuck in an ecosystem, they need customization, great battery life, always-on screens to reduce dependence of smartphone, great cameras and great prices. All of these to be more productive and efficient instead of just owning a cool gadget as a status symbol.

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                • The Hunter
                • 8Zg
                • 26 Sep 2018

                This phone has worse battery life than Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, a 3 years old phone, I will never choose a phone with that horrendous battery life.

                  Camera is OK at best. Oversharpening halos, no detail (usual for 12 mp snapper) and visible noise in shadows.

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                    • someone
                    • Bct
                    • 25 Sep 2018

                    "Apple is known for the meticulous attention to detail for its software, the extended iOS support (the 2013 iPhone 5s was just updated and made faster!)" .... ROFL ... if you call ios 11 as attention to detail and meticulous software update then God save you !!!!
                    And 5S got updated because those owners spent one year using buggy phone with ios 11. It was more of a payback time for apple. Otherwise why wouldn't they do the same in all previous years where they just supported 4 years of updates ????? ... lol people just go behind apple

                      The fact that Pixel 2 is still better than this camera only makes me wonder how incredible the Pixel 3 camera will be. O.o

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                        • AnonD-82756
                        • nF5
                        • 25 Sep 2018

                        My samsung keystone 2 is better than this

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                          • Anonymous
                          • mx1
                          • 25 Sep 2018

                          Anonymous, 25 Sep 2018It's interesting that GSMArena are finally acknowledging th... morein fact android is way superior. Ios is iphone's main drawback

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                            • Anonymous
                            • Js{
                            • 25 Sep 2018

                            AnonD-762416, 25 Sep 2018What I don't get is, why isn't the big one called XL when t... moreThey had 6 and 6s. Now X and Xs.
                            Xs Max should have been named Xs+, but Apple believes it has amazing battery life to be called Max like Asus does

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                              • Anonymous
                              • Js{
                              • 25 Sep 2018

                              Low light shots are awful.
                              The bricks of the buildings are completely obliterated by Noise Reduction.
                              You can not see where one brick limits.

                              Too bad for only 500 of ISO.

                              Note 9, Xz3, U12+, Xz2 Premium can do much better.

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                                • Dave Granger
                                • 8vJ
                                • 25 Sep 2018

                                The battery life has dropped since the last gen? Maybe this was a dodgy unit?

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • PWA
                                  • 25 Sep 2018

                                  This was a FAST review lol

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                                    • AnonD-762416
                                    • JbS
                                    • 25 Sep 2018

                                    What I don't get is, why isn't the big one called XL when the small one is XS?

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 8rD
                                      • 25 Sep 2018

                                      It's interesting that GSMArena are finally acknowledging that Android isn't a viable competitor to iOS. How long have we been saying this for?!

                                        [deleted post]Not really, but it's mainly because of lower screen brightness.
                                        Still, at 400nits, the sunlight legibility is great, and we can only safely say that it could be on par with the iPhone Xs if it was as bright at 650nits max brightness level.

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