iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and Xr. Let's Discuss

football76 said:
I signed up for the Apple upgrade program (if nothing else 24 months of 0% financing is worth it). Decided on the Xs Max, 256 in silver (though now I'm kicking myself for not picking space grey). All in the bill is nearly $1500. Which, without context, is a sizeable chunk of change. However, in the past couple years I'm finding that I do 70-80% of my work on my phone. When I need to hammer out some documents and go all out on productivity I use my desktop at home. But when I'm out and about, calling clients, sending e-mails, researching, etc. I do it all on my phone. Not to mention all the use I get out of it at home. With two kiddos I take hundreds of photos and videos a week. All my shopping (amazon) is done on mobile, my video consumption habits have shifted towards nearly entirely on my phone (granted still not very much). Streaming spotify at the gym... Carplay... and on and on... In the end, this device gets a lot of use and is integral to my life as a professional and a dad. Apple products work well (my iPhone 7+ has had zero issues) and retain value. So all things considered it's worth it to me.

Let's just hope face ID lives up to the hype...
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That's damn near the same rationale my best bud recited to me when he pre-ordered his XS Max.

He got the Gold 512GB + Applecare + tax = $1850 :eek::eek::eek:
 
football76 said:
I signed up for the Apple upgrade program (if nothing else 24 months of 0% financing is worth it). Decided on the Xs Max, 256 in silver (though now I'm kicking myself for not picking space grey). All in the bill is nearly $1500. Which, without context, is a sizeable chunk of change. However, in the past couple years I'm finding that I do 70-80% of my work on my phone. When I need to hammer out some documents and go all out on productivity I use my desktop at home. But when I'm out and about, calling clients, sending e-mails, researching, etc. I do it all on my phone. Not to mention all the use I get out of it at home. With two kiddos I take hundreds of photos and videos a week. All my shopping (amazon) is done on mobile, my video consumption habits have shifted towards nearly entirely on my phone (granted still not very much). Streaming spotify at the gym... Carplay... and on and on... In the end, this device gets a lot of use and is integral to my life as a professional and a dad. Apple products work well (my iPhone 7+ has had zero issues) and retain value. So all things considered it's worth it to me.

Let's just hope face ID lives up to the hype...
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Everything comes down to personal utility, well that and whether or not you straight have the money. If I made 6 figures, I could probably justify a $1500 without too much trouble.
 
I’ll just throw out there that I was an X hater and Face ID hater when it first came out.

However, when I went to a store and used it I was extremely impressed. I think the size is perfect, and Face ID has generally worked better for me than Touch ID.

I do think the price is a bit much, but they are offering the xr and you can still buy an 8.

Ideally I wish Apple would have redesigned the iPhone SE to be like a mini X. Not doing this seems like a missed opportunity.
 
iOS 12 has major QoL improvements. I've been using it since the beta released and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
My current X is my one and only expensive iPhone. I hope it lasts me years and years because I’m not willing to pay the price again.

I much prefer iOS over Android by a huge margin, but it’s hard to ignore the fact you can get a comparably powerful Android phone for $400 or so.

My $399 Moto Pure 2015 is still very powerful and quite functional.

We need a price war. It’s gotten out of hand.
 
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I can get 50% off an XS through Sprint if I trade in my iPhone 7, however the phone has to be on an 18 month Flex Lease. They give you the 50% off over 18 month worth of bill credits. I don’t want a hard credit check in my credit report for a stupid phone or an 18 month commitment to Sprint (just Incase they implode or get ruined by T-Mobile). Also I wanted more than 64GB since my current phone has 128GB. Going from 64GB to 256 is another +$150 on an XS or XS Max So fuck that, it’s an $1150 phone at that point.

I’m going to buy a XR when they launch. It’s only $800 for the 128GB model. I’ll sell my iPhone 7 for $175 or give it to my kid.
 
///AMG said:
iOS 12 is out and apparently Watch OS 5 is as well.
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tvOS is out as well, updated all the Apple TV's here, now you can swipe between the video wallpapers and it tells you the location of the video which is cool.
 
Ocellaris said:
I’m going to buy a XR when they launch. It’s only $800 for the 128GB model. I’ll sell my iPhone 7 for $175 or give it to my kid.
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Pretty sure you could get quite a bit more for that iPhone 7. Probably $300 pretty easily considering a brand new iPhone 7 128GB is still $550. They're currently going for about $300 on Swappa.
 
exlink said:
iOS 12 has major QoL improvements. I've been using it since the beta released and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
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iOS 12 was desperately needed. It fixed a lot of the random crashes and slowdowns. My X is all around a better phone now, and they seemed to have speed up Face ID as well.
 
I'm on 12 now, like I noted in my other post about updating to it. So far I'm liking it. I don't notice a lot of visual differences (outside of notifications and a cleaned up status bar), but it generally feels smoother under the hood. As in, less micro jerks when switching between apps.
Before I would say, switch tasks to Safari and immediately start scrolling and I'd get a few small jerks before the process fully was loaded up and then it would smooth out (after a second or two). Now it's just smooth all the way through. Granted I'm on 4 year old hardware at this point, but it's nice to a good user experience out of the box. Looking forward to more performance enhancements as iOS 12 develops throughout the year.
 
I dont really notice too much of a change. iOS 11 wasn't an issue for me on any of my devices so I wasnt begging for iOS 12. Though I do like the new camera filters, and the upcoming group facetime.
 
I'm thinking of trading in my Pixel 2 XL for the Xs. This was my first foray into large screen phones and I hate the size after using it for a few months, and I really just can't stand android in general. I much prefer iOS, my 6S was the best phone I ever had.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
I'm on 12 now, like I noted in my other post about updating to it. So far I'm liking it. I don't notice a lot of visual differences (outside of notifications and a cleaned up status bar), but it generally feels smoother under the hood. As in, less micro jerks when switching between apps.
Before I would say, switch tasks to Safari and immediately start scrolling and I'd get a few small jerks before the process fully was loaded up and then it would smooth out (after a second or two). Now it's just smooth all the way through. Granted I'm on 4 year old hardware at this point, but it's nice to a good user experience out of the box. Looking forward to more performance enhancements as iOS 12 develops throughout the year.
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That's exactly how I feel with my 6s Plus. I did pre-order the XS Max since its my first new phone in 3 years.
 
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Disappointed they didn't update the SE, this is a big market that Apple's ignoring.

Look, I get that most folks want a bigger phone.

But I don't, and a decent chunk of the market doesn't. I don't really care what the phone looks like, it's going straight in a case cause I have a toddler.
I wouldn't mind a smaller footprint iPhone Xr, but the Xr is bigger than I want.
iPhone Xs isn't appreciably smaller.

Just give me a smaller phone dammnit.
 
Oubadah said:
Does anyone have any actual data on how much demand there is for SE-sized phones? Was about to enthusiastically agree with you, then realized that I really don't have a clue how popular the SE was, or whether its popularity was because of it's size or merely the fact that it was the only affordable iPhone.
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I honestly don't think they're that popular anymore. I don't know a single person that owns one, but know several that own the 4.7" or 5.5" iPhones. Lately in public I've seen an SE (at least I assume it's the SE and not the iPhone 5/5S) once in a blue moon. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 over the past year out of the hundreds of phones I noticed while at the airport.
 
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Zumino Zufeilon said:
Disappointed they didn't update the SE, this is a big market that Apple's ignoring.

Look, I get that most folks want a bigger phone.

But I don't, and a decent chunk of the market doesn't. I don't really care what the phone looks like, it's going straight in a case cause I have a toddler.
I wouldn't mind a smaller footprint iPhone Xr, but the Xr is bigger than I want.
iPhone Xs isn't appreciably smaller.

Just give me a smaller phone dammnit.
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exlink said:
I honestly don't think they're that popular anymore. I don't know a single person that owns one, but know several that own the 4.7" or 5.5" iPhones. Lately in public I've seen an SE (at least I assume it's the SE and not the iPhone 5/5S) once in a blue moon. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 over the past year out of the hundreds of phones I noticed while at the airport.
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I was more or less going to say the same thing.
Apple has significantly more statistical data on not only all their sales, but also all of the usage data.
I'm sure they more or less weighed out that it wasn't worth the R&D cost to build another phone in the same size of a 5/5S/SE with updated specs, instead going with the much less expensive option of simply allowing users to buy an older model.
Now that the lowest end iPhone model is the 7, it's already a faster chip than the SE at the same price point. People upgrading from the SE have an option that costs the same.
The SE's original purpose was to be a low cost solution to sell to China/India at a much lower price bracket that their flagship phones. It has served its purpose and now it's a model they no longer need to bridge that gap.
Unfortunately for you and other small phone aficionados, the issue for most isn't size, it's cost. And Apple has solved that "problem" with their current line-up.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/13/tim-cook-on-iphone-prices/amp/
 
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Oubadah said:
Wait, you're saying that the 7 is at the same price point as the SE? It's not even close (over here, at least). The SE was selling for $450 here, while the cleapest you can find a 7 is over $800.
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Regional discounts not with standing. And also, price discounts after over a year not withstanding. You can check my second link. US it's $450 vs $450.

EDIT: And to my point, the SE here in the US has been BOGO for a while and sometimes as cheap as $50 or free with contract.
 
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Well I made the leap and got rid of my Pixel 2 XL and got the Xs. OMG I love this thing, its so damn slick. I had to get through all the guys at the Verizon store that use the Pixel talking shit to me about switching so soon but it was worth it. I just can't stand all the little issues with Android, I want a phone that just plain works and I don't have to reset it twice a day when something gets borked.

I wasn't really sold on the face ID but its really intuitive and easy, and I finally decided to use Siri for the first time (I traded in a 6S on the Pixel and never used it on that) but I actually kind of like that too. It seems more seamless than the Google phones version and quicker on the response.

So far I'm very happy with it, Apple really puts time into the feel of the haptics and how the screen responds to your finger that you just don't seem to get on other phones.
 
Went from a 6S to 10X Max. Love it. Probably could have made due with the XS but wanted to go big for the OLED. The screen is damn amazing streaming HD video. A big step up from LCD and its like having a mini HDTV in your pocket!
 
Well, it seems like it wasn't just my imagination that I was suddenly getting really bad reception when I switched phones. Where I sit at work I got full LTE service on my last two phones and could watch youtube no problem, this Xs can't even load my emails. Apparently poor signal strength seems to be happening to enough people for articles to be written about it:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/24/17895772/apple-iphone-xs-max-wifi-bad-signal
 
LigTasm said:
Well, it seems like it wasn't just my imagination that I was suddenly getting really bad reception when I switched phones.
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Yup, it has to do with the antenna manufacturer, IIRC. Or the chipset manufacturer. Something like that. It's between Intel and Qualcomm. If you came from an Intel phone, you'll get better reception with the new ones. If you came from Qualcomm, you get worse.
 
TeeJayHoward said:
Yup, it has to do with the antenna manufacturer, IIRC. Or the chipset manufacturer. Something like that. It's between Intel and Qualcomm. If you came from an Intel phone, you'll get better reception with the new ones. If you came from Qualcomm, you get worse.
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How can you tell what your old phone had as a antenna please ?
 
Saw my friend's $1850 (XS Max 512GB + AppleCare) today. Gotta admit, it's an impressive piece of tech. Ain't worth $1850, IMO, but it's got the best screen I've ever seen on a phone. iOS 12 is pretty snappy, too. I still dislike FaceID and saw nothing to win me back to an iPhone... this year, a least. My Pixel 2 XL is doing great for me.
 
My X has the Qualcomm mode; specifically made sure I bought one with it since my previous iPhone 7’s Intel modem sucked badly. The Qualcomm modem in my X does have slightly better reception than my XS Max. But speed wise they’re exactly the same off of WiFi and LTE from my testing. Still a shame that the newer phones have worse reception than the previous generation’s...
 
exlink said:
My X has the Qualcomm mode; specifically made sure I bought one with it since my previous iPhone 7’s Intel modem sucked badly. The Qualcomm modem in my X does have slightly better reception than my XS Max. But speed wise they’re exactly the same off of WiFi and LTE from my testing. Still a shame that the newer phones have worse reception than the previous generation’s...
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I'd take an Intel WiFi modem over anything else, but are their LTE modems that dodgy?

Or is it something to do with Apple's implementation?
 
IdiotInCharge said:
I'd take an Intel WiFi modem over anything else, but are their LTE modems that dodgy?

Or is it something to do with Apple's implementation?
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The Intel modems in the iPhone 7 were much worse than their Qualcomm counterparts. Intel modems were used for the GSM version of phones in the US (AT&T/T-Mobile). Not only was the reception better with the Qualcomm modems from my experience, but so were their speeds in more spotty areas (30% better). When I got my iPhone 7 (AT&T/Intel Modem) at launch I briefly moved to a more rural area and my cell reception wasn't that great (1-2 bars in my apartment) and my LTE speeds weren't great either (4-5 Mbps). A few months later, my girlfriend at the time decided to purchase an unlocked iPhone 7 (Qualcomm Modem) from Apple. One time when she visited I noticed that she was getting 2-3 bars in my apartment and was averaging 6-8 Mbps off of the same AT&T network. I never saw my phone get 3 bars at my place.

At first I thought my iPhone was defective, but a quick Google search brought up a plethora of articles outlining the Qualcomm modems superiority to the Intel modems in the iPhone 7. After I heard that Apple was again going to source modems from both Qualcomm (CDMA/GSM) and Intel (GSM) for the iPhone X I made sure to purchase an unlocked Qualcomm version. And I'm glad I did because it was the same story with the iPhone X modems.

And keep in mind, these Intel modems were losing to crippled Qualcomm modems in the iPhone where Apple limited Qualcomm specific features such as 4x4 MIMO and LAA because the Intel modems didn't support these features. In fact, the Qualcomm X16 modem found in the iPhone X was a gigabit modem that Apple purposely crippled so that it would be a 600 Mbps modem just like the Intel modem.

Starting this generation with the iPhone XS; Apple is now only sourcing modems from Intel after some legal battles with Qualcomm regarding licensing. Rumors are that Apple has hired one of Qualcomm’s top engineers recently and that they’re likely making their own in-house modem for 2019 or 2020 iPhones.
 
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exlink said:
Rumors are that Apple has hired one of Qualcomm’s top engineers recently and that they’re likely making their own in-house modem for 2019 or 2020 iPhones.
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IIRC it's more than just a rumor. Qualcomm's suing Apple, claiming that their IP was given to Intel. They want nothing to do with Qualcomm anymore. There's all kinds of legal battles going on between the two companies. Qualcomm's trying to get iPhones flat out banned from China. As in, do not use, do not make, and do not sell. They are NOT friendly anymore.
 
I posted this in the news thread for the charging issue but I figure I'll post it here where there may be owners of this phone rather than just Apple trolls:

There is another bug that I'm a bit peeved with and that's with the stereo sound on the XS Max. Twice the ear piece has gone completely silent when playing videos, which results in mono right-channel only audio, and the only fix I've been able to figure out is to reboot the phone. Hopefully that is an acknowledged bug and gets fixed soon.

Anyone else experience this? I found a small reddit thread where others have experienced it but so far a root cause has not been found nor is there a workaround that doesn't involve rebooting the phone. I don't know if it's a certain app or not that is causing it either as I typically only use YouTube without any headphones on. I did not have this happen until just today after having the phone since launch day which has been the first time I've rebooted it. Also, I did set this up as a new phone from the get-go and did not restore any backup to it.
 
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Sonicks said:
I posted this in the news thread for the charging issue but I figure I'll post it here where there may be owners of this phone rather than just Apple trolls:

There is another bug that I'm a bit peeved with and that's with the stereo sound on the XS Max. Twice the ear piece has gone completely silent when playing videos, which results in mono right-channel only audio, and the only fix I've been able to figure out is to reboot the phone. Hopefully that is an acknowledged bug and gets fixed soon.

Anyone else experience this? I found a small reddit thread where others have experienced it but so far a root cause has not been found nor is there a workaround that doesn't involve rebooting the phone. I don't know if it's a certain app or not that is causing it either as I typically only use YouTube without any headphones on. I also did not have this happen until just today after having the phone since launch day which has been the first time I've rebooted it.
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I had this happen once on my iPhone x on iOS 11.

The only other real issue I have happen often on the iPhone X, and it happens randomly in spurts, is the haptic engine not working until I lock/unlock the phone.

Other than that the iPhone X has been a solid phone, and I think these issues are ones that exist entirely due to software.
 
I really hope they find a fix for this signal strength issue, I'm having to put my phone into airplane mode to make it reacquire service 20-30 times a day now. It barely, barely works in most places, constantly drops calls and forget about using the internet. Wifi reception is just as bad, for years I've used my phone for entertainment in the basement while I do my morning workout but this thing can't even detect the router from there.
 
LigTasm said:
I really hope they find a fix for this signal strength issue, I'm having to put my phone into airplane mode to make it reacquire service 20-30 times a day now. It barely, barely works in most places, constantly drops calls and forget about using the internet. Wifi reception is just as bad, for years I've used my phone for entertainment in the basement while I do my morning workout but this thing can't even detect the router from there.
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I’d just exchange it. You are still in the window where they will just give you a new one.

I deployed 14 XS and XS max’s here at work and haven’t heard about any issues from out employees. My network connectivity and speed was actually increased from my old X, especially bandwidth on cellular.
 
AltTabbins said:
I’d just exchange it. You are still in the window where they will just give you a new one.

I deployed 14 XS and XS max’s here at work and haven’t heard about any issues from out employees. My network connectivity and speed was actually increased from my old X, especially bandwidth on cellular.
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Everyone I know that has them from Verizon has the issue, the older CMDA network suffers a lot. AT&T and Sprint are actually faster than the last gen. An exchange isn't going to help it, they all have the same modem.
 
I'm on T-Mobile and my XS Max is only a tiny bit worse with cellular reception than my previous X with the Qualcomm modem. My WiFi is exactly the same though - no issue to report there.
 
If you haven't, update to 12.01 iOS and that will fix your wifi/data issues and charging issues. I love my XS Max Gold 256, best phone I have owned, even over my Note 9.
 
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