Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The iPhone XS offers the same self-aggrandising , bright OLED concealment and surprisingly portable chassis as the older X , but adds a faster processor and subtly but demonstrably dear camera performance . It ’s ace - tight , look wonderful , and is a pleasure to use . The only downer is that punishing damage ticket , but if you could look past that , this is a tremendous alternative for those upgrading from a pre - X iPhone , and particularly ( in our view ) from one of the older Plus models like the 7 or 6s . The iPhone 11 or 11 Pro models might be more tantalizing though .
yield that 2018 was a ‘ tock ’ year for the iPhone ( or , in Apple argot , an ‘S ’ update ) , many of us expected a comparatively quiet and minor iPhone refresh after the firework of 2017’siPhone X. Here ’s our iPhone XS review .
Of course , Apple does n’t really do subdued phone launches , and two of its late-2018 newbies are gripping : if nothing else the XS Max and XR have tremendous screens ( the biggest and secondly - swelled Apple ’s ever offered ) and the latter ’s price tag propose a comparatively low-priced entry point to the new generation of all - screen iPhones .
But where does that leave the third Modern French telephone , the iPhone XS ? Rather outshone . Physically , it ’s the same design as the iPhone X , and the 5.8 in edge - to - bound screen that looked so fancy in fall 2017 has now got bigger ( and in one case cheaper ) alternatives to vie with .
The iPhone XS , then , is not 2018 ’s glamour update . But you do it what ? Glamour is overrated . And in this review , cover the XS’sdesign , newcamera feature , speed examination , pricing and more , we ’re go to reason that this is a fantastic pick for those upgrading from an iPhone 6s Plus or 7s Plus – as long as you are mindful that young phone arejust about to be reveal .
If you ’d like to see the gimmick compare to one of its great rivals , seeGoogle Pixel 3 vs iPhone XS .
iPhone history
This iPhone has been interchange with a newer manikin . Find tie below to our reviews of all iPhone poser , include the latest generation.iPhone 16is require to launch in September 2024 ( seewhen is the best time to buy a new iPhone ) , whileiPhone SE ( 4th generation)andiPhone 17are likely to come along in 2025 . Find out aboutApple ’s September event detailsandhow to follow the Apple September event bouncy stream ; or for other Apple products , learn more about all thenew Apple merchandise fall this yearandwhen is the next Apple upshot . You might also like ouriPhone buying usher , best iPhone dealsandcomparison of every iPhone that is available to bribe today .
iPhone XS: Price & Availability
Do n’t countenance comparisons with the ( sincerely eye - watering ) XS Max fool you : the XS is a badly expensive telephone set in its own right . Itstartsat a coolheaded grand and you could drop more on it than aMacBookif you get the high-pitched entrepot capacitance .
Note : The iPhone XS is no longer in the Apple transmission line - up due to theiPhone 11 range . However , you could still discover it at other retailers.and you could peruse our roundup of thebest iPhone XS dealsor grease one’s palms from the following companionship :
When will the iPhone XS be replaced?
We articulate that the iPhone XS was launch in September 2018 , and eagle - eyed calendar fans will have spotted that the one - twelvemonth day of remembrance of that event is not far away . This September we will see thenew iPhones for 2019 , and the existing models ( including the XS ) may either get a price cut or be discontinued .
As we ’ll discourse in this review , the iPhone XS is an excellent handset and those who corrupt it now wo n’t be let down . But at the same time , you should be aware that the phone ’s replacement ( or at least replacement ) will be unveiled in September 2019 .
iPhone XS: Design & Build
The iPhone XS is in most respects physically very to the X from 2017 . That will make X proprietor less potential to promote , but for the eternal sleep of us it should n’t be take as a criticism : the X was a beautiful and commodious equipment to hold , use and look at , and the same things are true of its successor .
The phone is svelte , lightweight and cleanly designed : it ’s all about the screen , and the rest of the computer hardware have out of the direction .
There ’s no Home button , and almost no bezel around the edge of the showing : this is a nearly all - screen handset . Compared to older - trend phones , you ’re let far more screenland for your chassis intensity / weightiness , although there is a payoff in no longer get access to a hardware button , and therefore take to learnnew gesturesfor many vulgar functions , from screenshots ( easy – now it ’s the side clitoris and volume up ) to Reachability ( really fiddly – swipe down on the gesture ginmill ) .
In a lot of means the XS makes most sense as an upgrade poser from the 6s Plus or 7 Plus . It ’s a fair bit smaller than those devices , but in the same ballpark ; it has a bigger screenland that those devices , but again it ’s in the same ballpark . Size - wise , the transition is smooth . You just have more space in your pocket , more space on screen , without really being witting of it .
The buns of the XS , as on all of the iPhones released in 2017 , is made of glass , thereby enabling wireless charging . But Apple tell us the chicken feed has been reinforce , and is now less prone to crack and scratching . We have n’t prove our samples to death just yet but can at least report that we have n’t noticed any scratches in our first calendar week of enjoyment – then again , the same was rightful of iPhones we ’ve used in the past .
It ’s deserving noting that although the design is almost very , some X case might not jibe the XS . assure our roundup of thebest iPhone XS casesto check that you get one that does .
Water and dust resistance
We ’re also , for that matter , loath to examine too closely Apple ’s claim that the XS is dust- and water - resistant to the ( effectively maximum)IP ratingof IP68 , up from IP67 on the iPhone X. ( The business firm boasts , indeed , that you do n’t even need to worry about spills from afternoon tea , coffee and yield succus . )
But we ’re inclined to take the society ’s word for it , since it seems that it may have been underreporting its devices ’ capabilities in this area . We ’ve get a line numerous anecdote of deluge iPhones ( various models ) get by better than expected according to their ratings , and none at all of them arrest worse .
Teardownssuggest little has vary this time around in full term of internal waterproofing , and our sensation is that the house simply prefer not to make claims until it is absolutely sure it can back them . The iPhone X was probably IP68 too , in other word , but if anyone asks we did n’t tell you that .
Colour options
The last physical change is that there ’s a young gold finish that was n’t available on the X. That ’s on top of the ash gray and Space Grey option .
As you may see in our photos , it ’s a fairly muted atomic number 79 , but has the faintest jot of garden pink on the back . And while the bluff lustre of the banding may put off some ( Space Grey is much less blingy ) , we rather like it .
iPhone XS: Specs & Features
An ‘S ’ model typically means the same aim as the previous year , but with some hardware upgrades rather . But is the XS really that unlike to the X ?
Screen
It feels apt to start with the screen , since that dominate the machine so perfectly , but be warned that here too not much has changed from the X. Once again , that is n’t a spoiled thing ( unless you ’re looking for reasons to justify an rise from 2017 ’s flagship ) , since it ’s an excellent display .
It ’s a 5.8 in OLED screen at a resolution of 2436 x 1125 and a pixel tightness of 458ppi , and while those figures can be bettered by other phones out there ( including the XS Max , of course ) , they ’re quite adept enough to be going along with .
The screen door is large enough for comfortable immersion in game and films – the snick can disrupt this a little , although we found we learn to zone it out quite early on – while the OLED technology means richer blacks and better colour fidelity at wide viewing Angle ( as well as improved great power efficiency ) . The picture is burnished and acuate , and the colours vivid and exact .
color facts of life will be assist by the inclusion of True Tone ( again , as on the X ) , which adapt CRT screen output to report for environmental lighting conditions .
And finally , Apple has retained its 3D tactual sensation tech so you could hard - military press on app ikon to access nimble function crosscut and on emails and web linkup to see a preview – even though the omission of 3D Touch on the still - comparatively - expensive iPhone XR hints that the company might no longer be full commit to the concept .
Processor, memory and storage
The iPhone XS is a degenerate and strongly specced smartphone , and we should say before we start that it is immensely faster than necessary to carry any and all of the apps on the App Store , and that real - liveliness economic consumption ( thanks partly to the smooth efficiency of iOS 12 ) is almost impossibly slick . All that ’s in interrogation is future tense - proofing – how long is the XS likely to last before we begin to notice a slowdown ?
A good while , we ’d say .
The XS has a newfangled ( Apple - designed ) A12 Bionic processor chip with six CPU cores and what Apple calls the Neural Engine , backed up by 4 GB of RAM ( up from 3 GB RAM in the X and 8 Plus , and 2 GB in the 8) . The latter might not go much , and Android headphone often admit 6 GB or even 8 GB , but Apple ’s optimisation between its phone and their iOS software is so slick that it can get by with less without compromise on performance .
you’re able to prefer from 64 , 256 or 512 GB of entrepot with , as common , no selection to total more with an SD card .
Apple preserve Chrysanthemum morifolium about the precise specs of its chips ( even the RAM is not announced formally ) so the good way to assess those numbers is to put the XS through our rigorous bombardment of research laboratory tryout .
We lead off by assessing general processing speed in Geekbench 4 ’s CPU benchmark : the XS averaged 4,815 point in individual - pith and 11,082 in multicore . The latter is up 6 pct from the iPhone 8 Plus , which score 10,456 ( once we update it to iOS 12 to make the comparison fairish ) .
TheJetStreamonline JavaScript benchmark evaluates how well a gadget can treat web app . The XS immortalize an extremely in high spirits score of 265 , compared to 233 for the 8 Plus .
Graphics
Finally we moved on to nontextual matter performance , where we hope for great things : the GPU in the A12 has four cores , compared to three in the A11 .
Across GFXBench Metal ’s four longstanding onscreen run ( T - Rex / Manhattan / Manhattan 3.1 and Car Chase ) , the XS recorded scores of 60/58/49/32fps – extremely solid efforts throughout – while the new Aztec Ruins mental testing control scores of 40 and 25fps in Normal and High . It produces playable framerates in even the most demanding graphic tests .
However ! While telling , this does not appear to be perceptibly better than the previous coevals . For comparison , our ( iOS 12 ) 8 Plus scored 60/58/54/32/39/28fps across the six tests , although have a low - res screen would usually give it a small advantage . And we actually saw higher scores when we examine the XS Max , which has the same GPU as the XS plus a higher - res screen .
What ’s happened to our supernumerary core of performance ?
Macworld US madesimilar findingswith the 3DMark bench mark , which showed almost no improvement in graphical performance using the mellow - end Sling Shot test . Our colleagues theorize that the turgid assets of high - stress graphics tests intend memory bandwidth and stash are the bottleneck , rather than GPU carrying into action . Sure enough , the simpler Ice Storm Unlimited test showed an 18 percent betterment compared to the X.
Cameras
The XS ’s camera are mostly the same as on the X : the front lens continue 7Mp with an aperture of f/2.2 ; the dual 12Mp rearward lenses are f/1.8 ( broad - slant ) and f/2.4 ( telephotograph ) . Optical zoom still tops out at 2x , and there ’s dual OIS ( optical image stabilization ) and 4 K video at up to 60fps .
It ’s a terrific photographic setup , and our stock test shot of St Pancras show up estimable detail and faithful color reproduction . That ’s what we expect from iPhone cameras these day .
Also as on the X , you get Portrait Mode on the front - facing camera , thanks to the TrueDepth camera used for Face ID . We find this messier around the edges than the quite crisp bokeh effect you get from the rearward cameras , but selfie shot train in received mode are good .
( We did n’t notice this in our examination , but there have been complaint that the selfie tv camera on the XS applies an overweening ‘ smoothing ’ beauty filter in orderliness to invoke to the Asian securities industry . The companyapplied a fixin iOS 12.1 , but even before this it did n’t strike us as a significant progeny . )
In terms of major changes , Apple says , a little vaguely , that the pixels are deeper and larger for better picture faithfulness and low - twinkle functioning . for certain enough , a sound zoom on our standard low - light trial scene revealed a clean , still image with less noise . ( Something appears to have been lose in color faithfulness , however ; the X has got closer to the right yellowness of this novelty case . )
But most of the changes are to do with the intelligent processing made possible by the Neural Engine mentioned before . This throw welfare when shooting in complex ignition conditions .
Having the issue ’s face in darkness and a bright light generator behind , for exercise , would ordinarily be a formula for catastrophe , but the gimmick ’s new Smart HDR mode is much cleverer about assessing the wide-ranging experimental condition and hold the correct place setting where appropriate : our tests confirmed that the XS is capable of shew out of the blue detailed faint areas and bright lighting in the same shot .
In the below shot , for example , the Sunday is chirp through the branches of the tree so directly that we ’re getting lens system flare , but we can still make out good detail on the shadow leaves .
These are betterment that will happen behind the tantrum – in classical Apple stylus – and lead to good pic without your necessarily bonk why . But one face of the XS ’s cagy image processing calls for more of your input .
If you take an image using Portrait Mode , it ’s now possible to conform the degree of bokeh ( depth effect or in simple terms , blur ) afterwards . open up the shot in Pictures and hit the Edit release , and you ’ll now see the option to amercement - tune the focal length from f/1.4 up to f/16 , the blur effect adjusting in real time as you do so .
What you ca n’t do is bring bokeh retrospectively to shots that were not taken in Portrait Mode , so you still call for to design onwards . But it ’s skillful to have more control over this extremely esthetic – and therefore subjective – gist .
Battery life
The XS issue forth with a 2,658mAh shelling , which is a little smaller than the 2,716mAh one you ’ll rule inside the X. Yet , thanks to the improved great power efficiency of the A12 chip , Apple claims it ’ll last 30 minutes longer . The estimates are 12 hours of internet use and 14 hours of wireless video playback .
Our subjective experiences were decent enough : follow a full charge , a lightish Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s use left it on 54 per centum at bedtime , and we did n’t feel we were having to top it up a lot .
But the phone ’s carrying into action in a stately battery run was n’t so neat . In Geekbench 4 it live just 4h 47 m , scoring 2,853 ; Samsung ’s Note 9 lasted 7h 27 m on the same test , albeit using a much big ( 4,000mAh ) electrical capacity .
Now , do n’t panic . First , remember that this is a stress test , and not representative of the times you should expect in real - human race use . And at risk of exposure of venturing into fanboy territory , it could be argued that tests of this case are n’t alone average to iPhones , which tend to have smaller cellphone yet achieve becoming real - world bombardment animation thanks to iOS ’s efficiency . But we ’re still a little disappointed the XS did n’t do better .
The XS is capable of wireless charging although as with other Apple handsets you ’ll need to buy awireless charging padseparately – we ’re still waiting onAirPowerand no third - political party accessory is bundled . This characteristic is commodious but not super tight ; even after the boost contribute in the iOS 11.2 update Apple machine are limited to 7.5W ( it was just 5W before that ) , liken with up to 15W on Samsung handset .
Connectivity & Audio
As well as the expected Bluetooth 5.0 , the iPhone XS offers Gigabit LTE , which Apple has been surprisingly loath to hype up , reflect that it is not yet offered very widely . But if you’re able to get reporting it will yieldfar high connection speedsthan on the X.
You also get dual SIMs , but note that this is not proffer by means of twin computer hardware tray . rather you get a undivided SIM tray plus eSIM functionality , and Apple recount us you could even have multiple eSIMs on top of the hardware SIM .
Finally , the XS has stereo speakers as on late devices but Apple say these have been tweaked for a ‘ encompassing ’ consequence – the stereo effect is more pronounced than in past generations when subjects move from one side to another of a recorded video , for instance .
Full specs
iPhone XS: Software & Apps
The XS is based on iOS , and if you corrupt now it will come withiOS 12pre - set up . It will be able-bodied to set up free iOS updates for the foreseeable future including 13 ; the iPhone 5s is still receive updates five years on from its launch .
iOS 12 was on the side bill before of launch as a stability upgrade , and sure enough it run exceptionally smoothly and commit all compatible sound and tablets a velocity bump compared to iOS 11 . ( That ’s considerably more noticeable on older computer hardware , of class . ) Nevertheless , it still plant space to let in a number of significantnew featuressuch as smart exposure search , custom ‘ Memoji’,Screen Timeand group FaceTime conversation .
iOS 13will become available to the cosmopolitan public in September 2019 and is already availablein beta manikin ; it ’s been announced that the XS will be able to run iOS 13 .
iOS is in oecumenical a unattackable and drug user - friendly OS , with a immense library of apps . Android has an even huger library , mind you , although neophyte to Apple ’s store are dependent to a more rigorous vetting routine , and this , coalesce with the trouble of installing apps from unofficial sources , means it is extremely rare for an iPhone owner to find their twist infected with malware .
It ’s rarefied for an Android owner too , to be fair , but not quite as rare .
Verdict
The XS Max is bigger , the XR is cheesy , and the X is for the most part the same and came out a class before it . Why would anyone corrupt the iPhone XS ?
Because it ’s the sweet spot of the 2018 range . It might experience like a boring choice by equivalence with the newspaper headline grabbers , but if budget allow it ’s the poser that will make most sense for a fortune of people .
As with the X , you get a big , bright , 3D cutaneous senses - equip organic light-emitting diode screen within a toppingly portable chassis – it ’s big but nottoobig . You also get a dual camera , which the XR ca n’t match .
And you could now add a speed bump ( albeit quite a small one ) , safe future - proofing and a far smart television camera apparatus – we love being able to adapt the bokeh result of Portrait Mode shots afterwards , and tv camera carrying out is demonstrably better under various type of difficult lighting . That ’s without even refer weewee resistance , which may be unspoiled … or may only now be getting the credit it deserve last year .
The XS is super - tight , looks rattling , and is a pleasure to use . The only downer is that penalize price rag , but if you may look past that , this is a marvellous choice for those upgrading from a pre - X iPhone , and particularly ( in our view ) from one of the older Plus models like the 7 or 6s .
Tock updates are underrated , in our opinion . extremist launch like the iPhone X get all the attention but it ’s often the next installment that consolidates the new features into a more rounded , reliable package .
The wrench in the work is the newiPhone 11 professional .
