Things to Know About Apple’s iPhone
By Patrick Lucas Austin
September 25, 2018
Last year’s iPhone X was a groundbreaking device, in part due to the removal of what made the iPhone so iconic. Gone was the fingerprint-scanning home button, and in its place was an aesthetically controversial “notch” to make room for the Face ID security (and Animoji) functionality. It was also groundbreaking in terms of price. It may have debuted alongside the $699-and-up iPhone 8, but it was the first thousand-dollar smartphone from Apple, a price a surprisingly high number of people were able to stomach for the sake of having the coolest phone on the block.
With the new iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple is trying to tell us something: like it or not, this is the future of the iPhone. All screen, no buttons, and a single port that grows increasingly frustrating to deal with. Also, you’ll probably need two hands to hit the corners. Fortunately, there’s also a lot to like about the iPhone XS, at least on the inside. Apple’s “S” line of devices, typically revisions of the design from the year prior, are usually about internal updates and improvements rather than radical design changes. The iPhone XS maintains that same pace, bringing some much-needed software revisions along with it, though without anything truly novel.
At first glance, the XS is almost comically identical to the iPhone X before it. Side by side, you’d be hard-pressed to figure out which is which. It has the same rounded stainless steel frame and glass back, the same 5.8-inch OLED display, and the same Super Retina HD screen as the previous iPhone X. The rear cameras still jut out. The iPhone XS Max bumps that display up to 6.5 inches, adding a few more pixels to maintain the 19.5:9 aspect ratio.
Videos look fantastic on the iPhone XS, and if you watch them cropped, you won’t notice the notch at all. The audio output has been greatly improved thanks to the now-identical speakers at each end of the iPhone. You’ll get true stereo sound, a welcome improvement over the X. Still, if you want to take advantage of every inch of that display, those videos will be forever marred by the garish Face ID notch that removes a sliver of screen space. Why make the display so gorgeous if you’re just going to mess it up?
The battery life on the iPhone XS is similar to its predecessor. Apple made some impressive strides with its new A12 Bionic processor, making it more efficient than the A11 Bionic that came before it, as well as more powerful. You’ll enjoy more impressive gaming graphics, as well, but don’t expect a miracle. Apple claims the XS will last “up to 30 minutes longer than iPhone X,” which seems reasonable enough. I never found myself scrambling for an outlet during normal use, and enabling low-power mode when I was unable to recharge helped ease my anxiety of partying in the city without a working phone. Battery management is more sophisticated, and won’t leave users wondering whether or not they’re dealing with a faulty power supply when their iPhone starts bugging out.
Identity problem aside, the iPhone XS is still a beautiful device. It’s sleeker and more aesthetically pleasing than the competition thanks to how simple it looks. Compared to rival devices like the Note 9 or Pixel 2, the iPhone XS radiates elegance, while the rest are simply smartphones with rounded corners or curvier screens. Available in black, white, and now gold (gotta stay fresh), it looks and feels more like a luxury product than a device many of us will use mostly for sending emojis and memes has any right to be. The dedication
to form is admirable, but it also makes the XS look a bit staid, and makes me wish there were at least a few more colors to make it pop when not hidden in a case. (The upcoming mid-tier iPhone XR will be offered in a wider array of colors.)
Things to Know About Apple’s New iPhone 6
By Jack Linshi September 9, 2014
Apple Pay, a mobile payment system on the new iPhones, is trying to replace wallets.
In Apple’s first push into the payments game, the iPhone 6 is equipped with Apple Pay and a Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna that allows you to tap your phone against a sensor to make payments. Credit cards from participating companies—Visa, Mastercard and American Express—can be linked to your phone’s Passbook. Several merchants, like Disney, Chipotle and Seamless, have signed on with more
to come.
On the security front, your card information is encrypted, and each transaction has a one-time payment number. So if you lose your phone, you can simply cancel its payments as opposed to the card itself. Apple also emphasized that neither the retailer nor Apple will know what you purchased, where you purchased it, or how much you paid.
The phones’ cameras are the most advanced iPhone cameras yet.
The iPhone 6 has an eight megapixel iSight camera, a
1.5µ pixel sensor and a ƒ/2.2 aperture lens. “That’s a nerdy way of
saying, we’ve made the iSight camera a lot better,” according to Apple.
There’s an all-new feature called Focus Pixels that’ll help the iPhone cameras focus faster and better than ever. This means better video, and slow motion functions, too. You can even take “burst selfies,” with the iPhone 6 able to take up to 10 photos per second.
Battery life on the new iPhones is equal or better to the old models.
The iPhone 6’s battery life is roughly comparable to that of the iPhone 5: it features 10 more hours of audio, and four more hours of 3G talk. Both have standby battery lives of 10 days.
The iPhone 6 Plus, however, offers the best battery life of any iPhone to date. It has 80 hours of audio and 24 hours of 3G talk, and its standby battery life is 16 days.
The new phones have barometers to sense elevation.
The iPhone 6 has an air pressure sensor to tell you how high up you are. That will help it better record your fitness activity in that running a mile uphill will be adjusted to count more than running a mile on flat ground. This fitness data can be stored, accessed and analyzed in the iPhone’s new built-in Health app, a hub to record your health data and link third-party apps that also track your
movements.
The iPhone 6 is much faster.
With 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the iPhone 6’s Wi-Fi speeds are up to three times faster than those of the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 6 also has faster LTE than the iPhone 5s, and it can make use of more frequency ranges than other iPhones, making for better roaming capabilities.
Landscape view is improved.
Landscape views on the new phones will now be compatible for Mail, Weather and even the Home screen. A second pane will appear in landscape for some apps, like Mail. Keyboards on landscape will also be modified to make typing easier: additional
characters will be placed on the sides of the traditional keyboard so users don’t have to tap an extra button to access them.
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