New iPhones are stellar – and steep
Even if you can afford one, should you buy it?
The radical changes came with the iPhone X last year. So, while the elegant new iPhone XS Max that I’ve been testing since Wednesday (along with the XS) has, by far, the largest display and is the most expensive and best iPhone ever, Apple’s latest handsets, good as they are, don’t move the needle all that much.
The cameras are superb, but they were excellent before.
The robust A12 Bionic processor means the handsets are faster, snappier, primed for immersive augmented reality, and, in theory, more power-efficient – that’s hard to judge in a few days – with Apple claiming marginally better battery life. But it’s not like previous models, which Monday got a performance boost with iOS 12, which were poky.
And while the latest screens are beautiful, iPhone displays have long been brilliant.
A year ago, Apple launched the X as the first model to exorcise the home button, go all-in on Face ID facial recognition (at the expense of the Touch ID fingerprint system) and, oh yeah, crack $1,000. Those of us who bought the X – it became Apple’s most popular phone after its release – had to learn a few new gestures, which, thankfully, were fairly intuitive.
By now, most X buyers have made peace with all that and may have even gotten used to the notch at the top of the display that consists of the front camera and sensors that make Face ID even possible – and that remains on the newest models. And Face ID, in my experience, typically works well.
If you didn’t buy then but are ready to buy the $999 (or more) XS or XS Max at $1,099 (to start) now, you’ll face the same relatively minor learning curve the X crowd had to deal with a year ago. (The third new iPhone, the XR, isn’t coming until Oct. 26; Apple hasn’t supplied review units.)
The only recourse for those of you who want a new iPhone but haven’t come to grips with the disappearance of Touch ID and the home button is to buy either an iPhone 7- or 8-series device still in Apple’s lineup.
The good stuff
Those big displays: If you’ve read the specifications, you already know the iPhone XS Max has a beautiful edge-to-edge 6.5-inch OLED display, the largest ever on an iPhone – it makes the iPhone XS, despite its own large 5.8-inch screen, look relatively puny.
Even so, thanks to reduced bezels, the XS Max has a smaller footprint than the iPhone 8 Plus, whose screen size is 5.5 inches. It also is slightly smaller than Samsung’s rival Galaxy Note9, which has a 6.4-inch screen. The upcoming XR will have a 6.1-inch screen.
Apple says the XS and XS Max displays are fortified with what Apple claims is the most durable glass yet on a smartphone. Short of trying to smash or scratch the device, I’ll have to take their word for it.
The camera: Both the XS and XS Max have dual 12-megapixel rear cameras, one wideangle, one telephoto, just like the iPhone X. But through other enhancements that include larger pixels and what Apple refers to as Smart HDR, the company is promising even better pictures. It can be difficult to detect differences that, to the subjective eye, are subtle improvements.
But the cameras can compensate for a photographer’s shortcomings, like if you were shooting with the sun washing out the background of your subject. Which is not to say you still can’t take a bad picture.
Apple has improved the portrait mode feature by letting you adjust the depth of field and “artful” background blur, after you shoot, even on the front camera. While Apple is not the first company that lets you change the blur effect after the fact its presence on the new iPhones is welcome.
Coffee resistance: Yes, previous iPhones have been water resistant, as is this one. But Apple says the latest device can withstand everyday spills of wine, tea, beer, soda and other liquids. To put it to the test, I intentionally spilled coffee on the XS Max. I wiped the phone dry and was good to go.
Stereo recording: You can now capture stereo audio when shooting a video, thanks in part to four built-in microphones. I tested stereo recording during a Paul Simon concert over the weekend inside Newark’s Prudential Center. The resulting audio sounded really good, just as you expect to hear on a live album. iOS 12: Granted, this isn’t an XS- or XS Max-only feature since the upgrade also freshens older iPhones, including models dating to the iPhone 5S. But iOS 12 offers a number of useful features, from Screen Time reports and time limits that promise to help tame digital addiction to video effects in FaceTime and iMessages. Dual SIM: This is a feature that you’re not going to be able to take advantage of immediately. But dual SIM technology will let you have two numbers on your single device – one perhaps for your job, another that’s personal. You will need carrier support, which comes later.
My gripes
The price: If you buy the iPhone XS or XS Max with maximum storage capacity of
512GB, you’re looking at $1,349 or $1,449, respectively, or well within the price range of a new, medium-spec’d MacBook Pro laptop. Even “cheaper” phones aren’t exactly cheap, with the
64GB XS and XS Max versions fetching $999 and $1,099, respectively, and the 256GB version $1,149 and $1,249.
Though I haven’t tested it yet, this is the reason that some of you may want to hold out for the iPhone XR next month. It starts at $749 and has most of the features of the XS and XS Max, save a second rear camera and a screen that, while very good, isn’t as fancy as these higher-priced iPhones.
What, no adapter? It’s bad enough that the iPhones of the last few years did away with the standard-sized headphone jack. But Apple no longer includes a $9 adapter in the box that you can use with your existing wired headphones. It smacks of stinginess. Fast charging and yet ... The new iPhones support faster charging, and that’s great – about a 50 percent charge in a half-hour, Apple says. Unfortunately, you’ll only see such results with an optional USB-C accessory and not the slower charger included in the box.
As with earlier models, wireless charging also is supported.
Something crazy
As I said, Apple’s radical changes came last year, so it was expected that the changes in the new iPhones are mostly of the incremental variety. That doesn’t mean, though, that we couldn’t wish for something more, like, say, a fingerprint sensor – or Touch ID – built into the display. Put that on the wait-until-next-year wish list.
And is it crazy to want certain features Apple has long resisted in the iPhones, notably expandable storage?
All told, the iPhone XS and XS Max are the best iPhones Apple has ever made, and I expect those of you who buy them will be thrilled.
As for if the cost justifies the means, well, maybe you should wait until the XR appears next month.