Picked up an iP XS yesterday...

Brahmzy

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 9, 2004
Messages
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Freakin awesome phone. Came from a 7. Major step up. The OLED screen is tits.
The XS Max is a beautiful device too - jaw dropping. Too big for me, but if you’re a big-phone person, it’s a beauty.

Anybody get a new iP yesterday?
 
Got one after jumping from the 7 as well. It would've been nice if it had been a huge upgrade over the X, but it's a huge upgrade for me. And Smart HDR might pay off in the long run if it delivers Pixel-style photo quality... it's been great so far.
 
Got one after jumping from the 7 as well. It would've been nice if it had been a huge upgrade over the X, but it's a huge upgrade for me. And Smart HDR might pay off in the long run if it delivers Pixel-style photo quality... it's been great so far.
I tried my buddy's iPhone XS Max and SmartHDR is definitely a noticeable upgrade. The stereo speakers are also really nice, but at max volume there is some minor distortion. Other than those two changes, the phone didn't feel any better than my X. Surprisingly, my X had better reception than the XS; hopefully Intel is still not lagging behind Qualcomm's modem from last year...

The XS is definitely a fantastic upgrade for those on the 7 and maybe even the 8, but not worth it for X owners. Also, I used to always use the Plus version of the phones but honestly feel that the X with the full front screen is the perfect size. The screen on the XS Max is just too tall now with the 18.5:9 aspect ratio opposed to the older Plus phones where it was still semi-reachable.
 
I sold my S9+ today and bought an XS. No regrets so far. Initial impression is great. Nice having a one handed phone again.
 
Face ID is pretty fantastic to be honest. I thought I'd miss the finger print reader, but I don't miss it at all. Face ID works pretty damn well. I'm really happy with it.
 
You just wasted a whole lotta money bro. Wait until it breaks and you have to wait 4 weeks for Apple to fix it. GL

And have fun spending extra money on adapters and cables to use headphones.
 
You just wasted a whole lotta money bro. Wait until it breaks and you have to wait 4 weeks for Apple to fix it. GL

And have fun spending extra money on adapters and cables to use headphones.
Repairs? Haven't had to repair a single Apple product for the past decade. Unlike my Galaxy S4 which conveniently shat the bed 2 weeks out of warranty and my Galaxy S8+ that decided to break it's mic 2 weeks after I bought it. Samsungs are the only phones to ever fail me - not Apple, HTC, Google, OnePlus or Essential. Thankfully none of my other devices have exploded either. :ROFLMAO:

Also, 4 weeks for repairs? Where did you pull that from? The longest I've seen a repair take was 4 days and that was only because they had to order a new screen for an old Apple Watch. I've never heard of anyone waiting longer than a few days, let alone 4 weeks.

The lack of a headphone jack is a pity for some but after not having one for 2 years it's a non issue for me. Have been enjoying the wireless lifestyle and haven't looked back. More and more phones are ditching it every year, clearly indicating the market for it is shrinking.

But to each his own.
 
The lack of a headphone jack is a pity for some but after not having one for 2 years it's a non issue for me. Have been enjoying the wireless lifestyle and haven't looked back. More and more phones are ditching it every year, clearly indicating the market for it is shrinking.

But to each his own.
To be fair many of the other manufacturers are starting to remove the jack as well to cram more into the devices.
Apple was just one of the first to execute, at the end of the day customers went about their day with bluetooth headphones or using the connector.
 
You just wasted a whole lotta money bro. Wait until it breaks and you have to wait 4 weeks for Apple to fix it. GL

And have fun spending extra money on adapters and cables to use headphones.
LOL
 
I do think it's kind of funny that chrome works better on an iPhone than a flagship Android phone.
 
I tried my buddy's iPhone XS Max and SmartHDR is definitely a noticeable upgrade. The stereo speakers are also really nice, but at max volume there is some minor distortion. Other than those two changes, the phone didn't feel any better than my X. Surprisingly, my X had better reception than the XS; hopefully Intel is still not lagging behind Qualcomm's modem from last year...

The XS is definitely a fantastic upgrade for those on the 7 and maybe even the 8, but not worth it for X owners. Also, I used to always use the Plus version of the phones but honestly feel that the X with the full front screen is the perfect size. The screen on the XS Max is just too tall now with the 18.5:9 aspect ratio opposed to the older Plus phones where it was still semi-reachable.

That's my thinking. It's not even so much a slam against the XS as that the X was such a leap forward for iPhone hardware that this year's upgrade was destined to be a hard sell. Hell, Apple managed to ship the first 7nm chips and there's still only so much performance it could wring out of the technology.

I kinda like the screen on the XS Max (I've tried it at the store), but it's definitely for a certain class of user, the sort who regularly watches Netflix or just wants as close to a tablet as they can get in their pocket.
 
Freakin awesome phone. Came from a 7. Major step up. The OLED screen is tits.
The XS Max is a beautiful device too - jaw dropping. Too big for me, but if you’re a big-phone person, it’s a beauty.

Anybody get a new iP yesterday?

Now you know Android users experience all these years ;)
 
Switched over from a Pixel 2XL to an iPhone XS Max. No regrets, picked up a 44mm watch too. I haven't been back on an iPhone since iPhone 4. It's been about 7 years.

All the apps I used on Android are just a lot less glitchy on iOS. Even Inbox by google runs a hell of a lot better lol.
 
Now you know Android users experience all these years ;)

Sort of. Up until a couple of years ago or so, the reaction was "this OLED screen is neat, but it's so oversaturated it looks like a box of crayons exploded on my screen."

Apple might've used OLED earlier, but not that much earlier... I definitely have memories of Samsung phones with lousy color accuracy that looked good in the store, but didn't hold up well if you wanted authentic pictures!
 
So after trying out my buddy's XS Max over the weekend I decided to pick one up for my own extended try out. I've had it for about 3 days now and I'm still completely split on if I like the size or not over the regular 5.8" model.

Previously I used to get the Plus models as they typically offered more than just increased screen size and battery life such as a second telephoto camera and an additional gigabyte of RAM - but that's not the case anymore. While the 6.5" screen almost seems excessive at points; for media consumption it's amazing.

Also, I still can't get over how much improved the camera is over the previous generation. Props to Apple; this has to be the largest upgrade in terms of camera quality they've ever put out.
 
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I upgraded from an X to the XS Max. I've been really happy so far, but work pays for it so I might be a little biased. There are some things that I dont see many people talking about that are huge for me.

  • Battery life - Way better. With my X, I would make it through the day easily but with the Max, I still have 30%-ish when I plug it in before I go to bed.
  • Cellular data speeds - This is a huge improvement. In places that I was getting 15-20 down, I'm getting 3 times that now.
  • Notch size - The notch is annoying, but its the exact same size as the X. Since the screen on the Max is larger, it looks much smaller on the larger screen since they didn't scale up the notch at all.
  • Face ID - I have had my phone since Friday and I have yet to have a failed face id attempt. My X wasn't bad, but it would get a hiccup every now and then on face id.
  • Video Recording - This isn't new with the XS, but these phones are STILL the only phones that can record 4k 60fps. I took the kids to the county fair this last weekend and recorded about an hour combined between all the recording. They look amazing.
  • Display - Displaymate gave it the title of "Best phone display ever" and I agree. Its hands down the best display I've ever seen. The colors are insanely accurate. I don't know how Samsung users can stand having all the colors on their display so blown out.
  • Speakers - Holy crap are they good!! These are the best speakers since the HTC M7. I wish I had one around to compare. I don't need a bluetooth speaker anymore in my bathroom to listen to music when I shower. They get loud, they stay clear, and the stereo sound stage is really good. You have to hear it to understand.
 
My younger bro recently retired his SE for a new XS 256 GB last night, and initially had some problems moving his SE backup over to the new phone. Turns out he hadn't updated iTunes yet, and as a lot of you probably know, new iOS devices have a minimum iTunes version requirement for them to be recognized. Drove me nuts 'til I thought about that.

That's when I remembered my distinct distaste for iTunes on Windows (at least macOS makes it a more integral app), and how he couldn't keep everything backed up on iCloud's free tier (which would've made the transition a lot smoother if he had about 64 GB of storage there).

I suppose I'll be familiarizing myself with the XS and the iOS way of doing things through him soon enough. Maybe I could just borrow the old SE instead, but the screen on that thing is painfully small (and devoid of Force/3D Touch, for apps and OS features that utilize it).

  • Display - Displaymate gave it the title of "Best phone display ever" and I agree. Its hands down the best display I've ever seen. The colors are insanely accurate. I don't know how Samsung users can stand having all the colors on their display so blown out.
You're assuming that every Samsung user insists on the default "Adaptive Display" mode, which does notoriously oversaturate everything by default instead of dialing in that proper TrueTone balance. There's also "AMOLED cinema" (DCI-P3), "AMOLED photo" (AdobeRGB) and "Basic" (sRGB).

I recall limiting myself to Basic to see if I'd get used to it over time, but it feels like it actually undersaturates things a bit. It's one of those reasons why I think Android seriously needs a proper color management system with ICC profiles and all, especially since Nougat apparently broke X-Rite's ColorTRUE app to the point that I can't profile my Note 8's screen with my i1Display Pro - and even then, the profiling only works in the ColorTRUE gallery. Oreo sure didn't fix it.

The push for these HDR-capable screens and formats only highlights the importance of properly mapping sRGB content (like all these Web pages) into such a vast color space. I'd sure hope that Apple thought about that, but only a trip to that lagom.nl LCD test page will tell me for sure.
 
Two weeks later, I don't have any regrets. My XS is flawless. There are some iOS things that take time to get used to but that's about it. Battery life is so much better than my S9+.
 
I'm waiting to see if there are any deals on Black Friday like when I bought the 7 Plus at Target, got $250 gift card. Hopefully that will be the case, been 2 years on the 7+.
 
You just wasted a whole lotta money bro. Wait until it breaks and you have to wait 4 weeks for Apple to fix it. GL

And have fun spending extra money on adapters and cables to use headphones.
I've done a lot of iphone/mac repairs at the local mac store and it's almost always turned around in a day at most. One time they needed a part for the macbook and it took a week. Service hasn't been an issue for me. This is from someone switching to a pixel.
 
I picked up an XS Max to replace an iPhone 8 and the XS feels so much faster than the 8. The battery life is so much better and the camera is outstanding. No regrets at all. this phone is just a work of art and a masterpiece.
 
Fantastic phone. Switched over from pixel 2XL and no regrets. Thing runs like a dream. Apps definitely work noticeably better on iOS compared to the android counterparts. Doesn’t matter when an app opens half a second faster, if the operability of the app isn’t as good, I can’t give enough damns.
 
Played with the XS Max couple different times this week at Best Buy. I'm no iOS fan, but man, that's a nice friggin phone. The size is same as my 2 XL, but a much larger screen, with very minimal bezels.

And the rounded shaped corners feels very good. Just a beautiful phone.

But iOS is so hard for me to get comfortable, so used to stock Android OS of Pixel's and OnePlus. But iOS on that XS Max did indeed feel SMOOTH and FAST.

But I am very tempted.
 
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The one thing I notice all the time is how awesome Face ID is compared to Touch ID. I thought I would hate Face ID but it has worked 100% of the time. I could be lying on my side, or have a hat on, or in complete darkness, or have half my face covered by a blanket and it will always work to identify me and unlock. I literally haven't had it fail yet.
 
The one thing I notice all the time is how awesome Face ID is compared to Touch ID. I thought I would hate Face ID but it has worked 100% of the time. I could be lying on my side, or have a hat on, or in complete darkness, or have half my face covered by a blanket and it will always work to identify me and unlock. I literally haven't had it fail yet.
Yeah, so over the button/fingerprint nonsense!
 
Yeah, so over the button/fingerprint nonsense!
As a former iPhone X and current iPhone XS Max owner; if I was given a choice of FaceID or TouchID I’d still give the edge to TouchID. While FaceID is definitely a great alternative (and apparently more secure), TouchID was still faster, more convenient, and more reliable for me.

FaceID still occasionally has issues when I stand in direct sunlight or when I’m laying in bed on my side. Not to mention nothing was faster in unlocking an iPhone than literally pressing the home button because TouchID managed to scan my fingerprint and unlock my phone in that fraction of a second.

But I’d only want TouchID on the front of the phone; I’m not a fan of rear fingerprint sensors regardless of their exact placement on the back. With my Essential phone I still often end up only placing a portion of my finger on the reader causing an error.

I know we’ll never see a TouchID only phone again because that’s not how Apple operates. But with Apple’s focus on security I could see them bringing it back (under the screen) to be used in conjunction with FaceID as a two step authentication system. And it wouldn’t surprise me if in the options they’ll let you choose between FaceID only, TouchID only, and FaceID + TouchID.
 
I like FaceID a lot more than I thought I would. It's extremely convenient at times like when my hands are wet from washing dishes or dirty from working on things and I need to unlock my phone fast, bingo! But I also wish we had both TouchID and FaceID. TouchID is still a little bit faster and the convenience of both would he a home run.. Maybe they should make the Apple logo on the back a fingerprint sensor. ;-)
 
I upgraded from an X to the XS Max. I've been really happy so far, but work pays for it so I might be a little biased. There are some things that I dont see many people talking about that are huge for me.

  • Battery life - Way better. With my X, I would make it through the day easily but with the Max, I still have 30%-ish when I plug it in before I go to bed.
  • Cellular data speeds - This is a huge improvement. In places that I was getting 15-20 down, I'm getting 3 times that now.
  • Notch size - The notch is annoying, but its the exact same size as the X. Since the screen on the Max is larger, it looks much smaller on the larger screen since they didn't scale up the notch at all.
  • Face ID - I have had my phone since Friday and I have yet to have a failed face id attempt. My X wasn't bad, but it would get a hiccup every now and then on face id.
  • Video Recording - This isn't new with the XS, but these phones are STILL the only phones that can record 4k 60fps. I took the kids to the county fair this last weekend and recorded about an hour combined between all the recording. They look amazing.
  • Display - Displaymate gave it the title of "Best phone display ever" and I agree. Its hands down the best display I've ever seen. The colors are insanely accurate. I don't know how Samsung users can stand having all the colors on their display so blown out.
  • Speakers - Holy crap are they good!! These are the best speakers since the HTC M7. I wish I had one around to compare. I don't need a bluetooth speaker anymore in my bathroom to listen to music when I shower. They get loud, they stay clear, and the stereo sound stage is really good. You have to hear it to understand.
Sweet, that all sounds fantastic, I'm currently on a 7 and am holding our for some holiday deals. Sounds like a great upgrade.
 
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