The First Impression of iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS MAX Latest launch by APPLE iPhone

 iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR turned out to exactly as the leaks suggested. But then it is one thing reading about the features and quite another holding the new phones in your hand. Soon after Tim Cook wrapped up his keynote at the Steve Jobs Theatre inside Apple Park we jostled our way to the demo zones for a hands-on with the three new phones. Here is what we thought in the few minutes we got to spend with each device.

Apple iPhone XR 

This is the new iPhone out of the three, given that this is going to bring in a new design. In fact, this 6.1-inch phone has the front of the iPhone X and rear of the iPhone 8. The iPhone XR is just the right size when it comes to a large phone and renders itself to unhand operations. The fact that this is an LCD phone is not all that visible, especially when you are holding iPhone XR next to an iPhone XS.

The aluminium, however, is very different from the metal on the iPhone XS series. If that didn’t catch your attention the colours on offer certainly will. There are quite a few colours on offer from a loud yellow to a not so subtle peach. These colours make the red look boring. But this might actually be a selling point for the phone, especially among the young crowd.

This phone is more affordable because of the change in metal and screen quality. The other factor that brings the price down is the fact that there is just one camera at the back. This 12MP camera is certainly not bad, but is limited in capability when it comes to its pricier cousins. However, it does let you take portrait shots and even play around with depth as this one too uses the A12 Bionic processor. However, the portraits on the iPhone XR are limited to faces and the feature does not work for pets or flowers.

It is good that Apple has not compromised with processing power on the iPhone XR and that is not one corner it cut to bring the price down. Still, priced at Rs 76,900 in India, the iPhone XR would be a tricky sell. While in the US, users will have clear visible discount in comparison to the iPhone XS series, in India the iPhone X with its discounted price and dual camera might be good competition for the iPhone XR. Globally too, it needs to be seen how users balance the larger screen to a single camera when it comes to picking up this phone.

Apple iPhone XS 

The Apple iPhone XS is an upgrade on the iPhone X. And that is exactly what it looks like. In fact, it is an S series phone and there are no design changes to speak of. The Retina display is improved and the speakers are better, but both these changes were hard to make out in the noise demo zone.

The big difference is clearly the A12 Bionic chipset, the first 7 nano meter processor in an Apple phone. This will empower the iPhone XS to do much more than before, especially when it comes to executing machine learning tasks. With some of the new games that uses these capabilities of the A12 Bionic processor, the experience was smooth. The graphics rendered really fast and there was no stutter, though the games were clearly very resource intensive.

The other big feature users will be looking for is the upgrades in the camera. Now, both the 12MP cameras on the iPhone XS have optical image stabilisation. Also, syncing with the neural engine, this camera takes creativity to a new level. Once a photo has been shot in portrait mode, you can into edit and change the depth of field of the photos. This is quite unprecedented. Also, the neural engine is able to analyse photos to the extent of being able to offer what Apple calls Super HDR with better details across the image, even when you are shooting against the sun. Apple claims this also helps improve FaceID.

Apple iPhone XS Max 

The Apple iPhone XS Max is the largest iPhone ever made. It has a 6.5-inch screen, but is still the same size of the iPhone 8 plus. Holding it in your hand you do feel that this is a heavy phone — is it 208 grams, 31 grams more than the iPhone XS. While the large size might not appeal to everyone, this is not a phone you cannot manage with one hand, unless you have really tiny hands.

The phone has the same external features as the iPhone XS, but when it comes to viewing videos or even reading on a website, the extra real estate of the screen will come in really handy. I have a feeling even gamers are going to like this phone more. The audio quality has been bumped up to match the screen and this could well be the best audio output ever in an iPhone.

Also, this offers the largest battery on an iPhone ever, given that this is also the largest iPhone. Apple claims this phone will last 90 minutes more than the iPhone X, that is despite the larger screen. However, I was expecting more given that this phone is quite large in comparison to the XS.