Five years ago when Apple released the iPhone 5S with the same screen size as the one before, my yearning for a bigger screen was so strong, I’ve left iOS ecosystem and bought myself an Android phone with 4.7” screen and actually used Android phones for a couple of years. I’ve come back to Apple when they’ve released the iPhone 6S Plus, as it was finally as big as I wanted and it was the second generation of the bigger phone, so I was sure it would be good. That’s how my love affair with the biggest iPhones possible started. I’ve upgraded the phone next year and got the iPhone 7 Plus. This time two cameras and Portrait Mode were big additions. Now I’ve had not only the biggest phone, but also the best one.
A year ago after watching some hands-on videos of the iPhone X, I’ve had the sad realisation – this time the biggest phone wasn’t the best one and the best one wasn’t the biggest. But it was an easy choice – of course, I wanted to see what the future of smartphones will be.
Unfortunately, although I’ve loved the device, something about the screen size wasn’t right. The keyboard was too small for a convenient typing, videos felt cramped and it was easier to read books on my Kindle device.
This time when Apple introduced the iPhone XS Max, I didn’t need to watch the presentation until the end, I was already sold – the phone I love with a bigger (much bigger) screen. It also helped that the new iPhone shipped the day we were supposed to arrive at Berlin, so the minute pre-orders started I’ve ordered the iPhone XS Max to pick-up in the Berlin store 1200 km from home (this included changing the location of the Apple Store app to Germany and translating everything to English, as I don’t speak the language).
The minute I’ve turned on the phone I’ve had a big smile on my face – it felt like home. The size of the phone was just right. When I typed the first letters it felt great, my fingers landed perfectly on the virtual buttons, which was a struggle with the iPhone X even after a year.
Camera
After the presentation, I wasn’t impressed with the camera improvements. Of course, it was better, but Apple didn’t advertise those improvements enough in my opinion.
So I was surprised to learn how much the camera has improved year over year after reading John Gruber review.
Being in the different city for the first time it was a nice place to test the camera, especially after I’ve forgotten to charge the camera and it had died in the middle of our walk.
You can just look at the photos of other reviewers and see how much better the photos are. Here are a couple of examples straight from the camera (default Camera app, no edits). This is an amazing improvement even if you compare it to the last years iPhone X. The most prominent feature you can definitely see is Smart HDR, it just makes the photos look way nicer.
Power and Battery
Two years ago Apple started naming the processors inside iOS devices and last year it was called A11 Bionic. This year though, Apple decided not to change the name, but only the number, it’s A12 Bionic, so one could think the improvements are small and you would be wrong.
Everything feels way snappier, apps open quickly and share sheet opens up instantly. But this could be attributed to the iOS 12, which brings improvement to the performance of the older devices as well and I can’t say that my iPhone X was so much slower.
The thing that is definitely different – it doesn’t get hot after heavy load. Previously, on the iPhone X, turning screen brightness to the max and opening a couple of photo editing apps would make the device uncomfortably hot (especially the area around the camera) and I would look at the battery indicator draining right in front of my eyes. With iPhone XS Max, I can edit photos or do some other power hungry tasks and the phone gets just a bit warmer if you are doing it long enough.
The battery life is much better, after all-day heavy use of listening to podcasts and music, editing photos, reading, surfing the web, watching videos, playing some games etc. I come home at 7pm with about 40% of battery left.
Miscellaneous
- Speakers are louder than ever. I often listen to podcasts using speakers at home and before I’ve had the volume turned to the max, but not anymore, it’s loud enough even at about 60-70%.
- FaceID is way faster. I’m not sure if it’s iOS 12 or the new hardware, my guess is it’s both, but you can definitely feel the improvement. I would even say, the difference is almost like the one going from TouchID v1 to v2.
- I’ll have to reconsider the home screen set-up, as the highest row is harder to reach (the device is the same size as iPhone 8 Plus, but now you have screen all the way up).
- The LTE is crazy fast. Here is just one random test done this morning.
Conclusion
If you’ve watched the presentation and weren’t totally impressed with what Apple showed this year, I think you will be surprised. This will be an amazing upgrade from the iPhone 7 or older.
For those of you upgrading from the last year models – camera improvements will be the most noticeable ones
If you’ve been frustrated with the screen size of the iPhone X, XS Max is a no-brainer and will make you feel at home.
P.S. This review was typed entirely on the iPhone XS Max and I loved it