Apple iPhone XS Max review
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- Anonymous
- gM{
- 12 Oct 2018
Audio Quality, 11 Oct 2018Please include audio quality thru bluetooth. Almost everyon... moreIt is very bad. Don't know why some are praising the less hassle of going wireless but quality is shit. Unless you pay another hefty $$ over branded equivalent to phone price for decent audio. And the battery recharges, as if 3hrs over 5w charger wasn't enough pain!
I don't recommend this piece of iTrash! I will get mine swapped for note9
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- Audio Quality
- 2Au
- 11 Oct 2018
Please include audio quality thru bluetooth. Almost everyone use bluetooth instead of wired in pairing our phones with our car audio system and in our home as well. Thank you and more power.
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- iDroid
- gM{
- 09 Oct 2018
Taymond, 09 Oct 2018Hi, I just bought Apple Xs max last week, there is some so... moreOh no..this is just a feature called "u r touching it wrong".
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- Taymond
- sR1
- 09 Oct 2018
Hi, I just bought Apple Xs max last week, there is some software issue on the left screen , when I try to touch the screen on the left side upper corner screen , it is not responding , I have to touch a lot of time ., Hope Apple will do something about it as soon as possible.
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- S Yu
- tLG
- 08 Oct 2018
Nick Tagataka, 06 Oct 2018"take the sample with the backlit wall panels and the shrub... moreI think the XS in 1st row 3rd sample chose a shutter speed too low, I speculated in another post that the OIS couldn't reliably handle 1/4s, I rather think it's a failed merge due to one or more of the exposures used in the HDR being blurred, but the ISO isn't high, and a fact to support that theory is that the XS smeared too evenly across the frame in that sample, you don't see a difference in detail due to the different settings used in different exposures that were exposed to different lighting conditions in the same frame used to merge the the same HDR output. So you can see that in the darker corners of the building(top left corner, and in the balconies etc.), in the most poorly lit tree to the left, and in the similarly lit grass near that tree, the XS instead gains an advantage while the P20P smears even more seriously.
As for that monochrome, I honestly can't remember where I read about the 1/2.3" but nobody ever disputed me, not that the size of that monochrome is a crucial factor, a slightly smaller secondary sensor can't really explain much of anything.
I'm open to the possibility that the 40MP also exposes on its own in 10MP auto, but then how do you explain the 40MP shots in low light that are so horrible that they can't be binned to 10MP to produce even mildly comparable results to 10MP auto? Also even DxO says that "As with previous high-end Huawei smartphones, the main sensor is supported by a secondary monochrome sensor which helps further increase photon capture.", I'd think that Huawei wouldn't have missed a chance to advertise on that and ensured that DxO has insider information.
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- Anonymous
- DGV
- 07 Oct 2018
I'm glad that I don't work for Samsungs or Huaweis chip division... Ouch
"Apple has the time, money, and dedication to design its own chips and this has been one of the best decisions the company has made over the last decade. Having full control over your hardware and knowing how to use it pays off tremendously for the iPhones."
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- Anonymous
- IW@
- 07 Oct 2018
Kaloyan, 04 Oct 2018Hey. We've updated the battery and selfie camera sections o... moreMaybe GSMArena can redo the selfie shots indoors, at higher ISO levels (ISO 200/400), and not at bright outdoor conditions which are using very low ISO's where 'noise reduction' or a covert beauty mode is less obvious. By comparing under more typical selfie situations (shot indoors in lower indoor lighting at higher ISO's), the selfie shots will better show whether it is plain aggressive 'noise reduction' or 'covert beauty mode'. How to know if it is indeed just more 'aggressive noise reduction' and not a covert beauty mode? Intentionally throw off face detection. First, shoot an indoor selfie which shows a complete face, then follow through with another selfie which covers an eye or two plus nostrils or mouth with a masking tape (with the purpose of throwing off face detection). If the results in facial textures/detail retention are markedly different between the two, despite identical lighting/subject framing conditions, then clearly, there is covert beauty mode going on, being done by the latest iPhone XS/XS Max.
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- Anonymous
- KhD
- 07 Oct 2018
If not hurry, better wait for 5G phones...
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- Anonymous
- KhD
- 07 Oct 2018
Whackcar, 03 Oct 2018DXOmark just scored it 105... Gsmarena might want to mak... moreIf you don't like notch, HTC U12+ is a better option.
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- Anonymous
- IW@
- 07 Oct 2018
Anonymous, 06 Oct 2018Where have you been? Missed all the news the past few days?... moreYou obviously don't have 10 years experience postprocessing photos. End of story.
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- Anonymous
- s}q
- 07 Oct 2018
V40 is another good option.
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- Nick Tagataka
- TCn
- 06 Oct 2018
S Yu, 03 Oct 2018I remember you showed me some samples of Note9's oversharpe... more"take the sample with the backlit wall panels and the shrubs (second row first sample)"
That's exactly what I was referring as "scenes where iPhone managed to capture sharper details than both Note 9 and P20 Pro" - In this scene both P20 Pro and Note 9 aggressively smears details across the frame, whereas iPhone XS manages to retain a lot more of them albeit noisier. In higher ISO situations like the third sample on the first row(a photo of a building taken from far), the photo from iPhone just doesn't cut it. All details on the foliage is lost through NR and is really being the definition of oil painting. Note 9 and P20 Pro does a far better job in this scenario.
And finally the monochrome sensor on P20 Pro is only 1/2.8 inch long in diagonal, and that one doesn't work together with the main color sensor unlike the one on Mate 10. So when taking a photo, P20 Pro is entirely relying on the non-stabilised 1/1.7 inch RGB sensor and the lens with a fixed aperture of F1.8.
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- Anonymous
- nCH
- 06 Oct 2018
Anonymous, 06 Oct 2018I don't know about the others, but I see clear evidence of ... moreWhere have you been? Missed all the news the past few days? Expert photographers have already debunked beautygate. Apple might tweak the settings a little bit, but nothing sinister happening at all. Next.
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- Anonymous
- J8y
- 06 Oct 2018
Its cheap. This isnt a huawei that loses its value faster than fresh pastries, just look at how much the iphone X is still worth,
I bought both XS and Xs Max, both 256GB, i prefer Xs because of the nicer size, max is a tad big for most tasks.
Still i recommend the X, its awesome and has no noticeable drawbacks, i strongly urge buyers to get a used X over the Xr, last years flagship is still the worlds third best phone. Im typing this on my 256GB iphone X, iits too good to stop using it.
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- Anonymous
- IW@
- 06 Oct 2018
I don't know about the others, but I see clear evidence of 'smart blurring' (sophisticated noise reduction, with tone mapping and edge enhancement [sharpening]) in ALL of the iPhone XS Max selfies (HDR or non-HDR) much like what happens when you postprocess a JPEG with 'Irfanview's blur effect + MEDIAN FILTER + unsharp mask or if you use 'Neat Image' noise reduction program. (Well, at least from my calibrated 28" 4K UHD monitor.)
Given that there is more noise at higher ISO's (the usual social/indoor selfie shots are taken usually above ISO 200), then this sophisticated jpeg postprocessing can likely result in more obvious 'face smoothened' selfie photos at higher ISO's (usual selfie situations indoors).
Whether or not Apple accepts it as a permanent 'beautification mode' that can't be turned off, a permanent 'AI mode' or just plain 'raw jpeg processing output' employed only by the selfie camera and not the main rear camera, it's clear there is something going on with the selfie jpegs that were not there in the previous iPhone releases.
Users were right in claiming there is something fishy going around with the new iPhone XS Max's selfie shots.
- Kaloyan
- 3FJ
- 04 Oct 2018
Hey. We've updated the battery and selfie camera sections of our review. We hope the new information sheds some light on the issues.
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- MasEnha
- txp
- 04 Oct 2018
Don't upgrade unless really necessary. It's still not announced yet, however 5G phone will be coming soon. Next year's iPhone possibly have 5G and current phones would be left behind.
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- Anonymous
- 7th
- 04 Oct 2018
Deviant, 03 Oct 2018Dear GSM arena I think you should do your audio test even... morehttps://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/10/major-complaints-about-the-iphone-xs-are-stacking-up/
- Whackcar
- tZt
- 03 Oct 2018
DXOmark just scored it 105...
Gsmarena might want to make an article about it... Just saying.
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- S Yu
- tLG
- 03 Oct 2018
Nick Tagataka, 02 Oct 2018I'm honestly impressed with iPhone's new camera and its Sma... moreI remember you showed me some samples of Note9's oversharpening, but in this set of comparisons it seems totally fine.
I don't know if P20P's processing "helped" here, take the sample with the backlit wall panels and the shrubs (second row first sample) for example, there's boosted contrast of the backlit panels which is the cheapest win because they're just a uniform white, there's no detail to retain on them, so it rewards smearing. In pulling highlights P20P generated more artifacts around the light sources. There's notably more detail retained in all the ground, wall, and ceiling tiles in the XS sample. In the foliage the XS render is vastly superior in most cases (like the trees afar and in the window reflection, and especially the mid distance shrubs), in the nearest, darkest shrubs the P20P does have higher contrast, but still the XS retains much more detail, many more individual branches could be seen.
All that and the fact that the P20P is a 1/1.7"+1/2.3"BW while the XS is only a 1/2.3"(1/2.5"?) bayer.