This year’s biggest flagship smartphones from the Apple camp is here. The company has announced not one, but three smartphones this year – iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the sort of less pricey iPhone XR.
The key highlight of this years iPhones is its front and back glass design with an edge-to-edge display. Apple has completely dropped its Touch ID fingerprint scanner and instead opted for the Face ID security, which adds the infamous notch on the display. Thus, we could say goodbye to our beloved physical ‘home button’. Along with the upgraded processor, another addition is the support for dual SIMs which will probably make its way to India.
What’s new in iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
Both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max use surgical-grade stainless steel with the most durable glass (as per Apple) in the front and back of the smartphones. Both are water and dust resistance with an IP68 rating. These phones are water resistant to a depth of 2 metres for up to 30 minutes.
The iPhone XS flaunts a 5.8-inch all-screen OLED Super Retina HD display with a screen resolution of 2436 by 1125-pixel at 458 ppi. Whereas the iPhone XS Max flaunts a much bigger 6.5-inch all-screen OLED Super Retina HD display with a screen resolution of 2688 by 1242-pixel at the same 458 ppi. Thus, there ends the difference between the two phones. Every other feature and specification remains exactly the same for both the phones including 3D Touch and HDR display. They both run on the latest iOS 12.
Both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are powered by an A12 Bionic chipset, that also the first mobile processor to be made on a 7nm process. It packs a hexa-core CPU, quad-core GPU and a neural engine which can offer advanced, real-time machine learning. For storage, you could choose from 64GB, 256GB and 512GB options.
Cameras and FaceID
Coming to photography, both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max boasts a dual rear camera setup. It’s a combination of a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera featuring f/1.8 aperture and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera featuring f/2.4 aperture. This cameras also features 2x optical zoom and up to 10x of digital zoom, along with dual optical image stabilisation, Smart HDR and a Quad-LED True Tone flash.
As always, Apple has bundled in a few tricks in its camera. The enhanced bokeh effect offers a sophisticated background blur to Portrait mode photos. With Depth Control, you could adjust the depth of field in portraits after you shoot. This camera can also record 4K videos at 24 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps.
Up in the front, both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max come with a 7-megapixel TrueDepth camera featuring f/2.2 aperture and Retina Flash. It also bundles an Infrared camera, Dot projector and Flood illuminator for 3D facial detection. Thus offers one of the most secure facial-authentication ever in a smartphone.
As we mentioned earlier, both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will come with dual SIM dual standby technology. One of the SIM you could put is a nano-SIM and other would be an eSIM. The dual SIM iPhones would initially be available in China and it may find its way to India, as both Reliance Jio and Airtel can offer eSIM.
For connectivity, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max supports 4G LTE Advanced, 4G LTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling, 3G and 2G. Other connectivity options include 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC with reader mode. Both have a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can offer up to 20 hours of talk time for iPhone XS and up to 25 hours of talk time for iPhone XS Max. They also support fast-charging with up to 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes. You could also wireless charge the iPhones with a compatible Qi charger.
What’s about iPhone XR
The iPhone XR is a budget-friendly (as per Apple standards) smartphone which still packs almost all the features from its bigger sibling. It’s somewhat an upgrade to the last years iPhone 8. It’s built with aerospace-grade aluminium with a durable front glass. It got an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. You could choose from six colour options including Blue, White, Black, Yellow, Coral and Red.
Most of the internal part of iPhone XR remains the same, including the A12 Bionic chipset and the Face ID tech. In the camera department, the mobile boasts a single 12-megapixel wide-angle rear camera. It features f/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilisation, 5x digital zoom, Smart HDR for photos and Quad-LED True Tone flash. Connectivity options remain the same as that of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
How much iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR cost in India
Now to the big question, how much these three iPhones cost in India? iPhone XS will come in three variants with price starting at Rs 99,999, that’s for the 64GB storage variant. The 256GB storage variant will come with a price tag of Rs 1,14,900. Whereas the 512GB storage variant of iPhone XS will force you to pay Rs 1,34,900.
Coming to the more costlier and bigger iPhone XS Max models. The 64GB version of the iPhone XS Max will have a price tag of Rs 1,09,900. Whereas the 256GB version of the phone gets a price tag of Rs 1,24,900. Finally, the most costlier model among all the three, the 512GB storage variant of iPhone XS Max will sell at a price tag of Rs 1,44,900.
Finally, to the affordable range among the three, the iPhone XR will start at Rs 76,900, that’s for the 64GB variant. The 128GB storage variant of the smartphone has a price tag of Rs 81,900. Whereas the 256GB of the iPhone XR comes with a price tag of Rs 91,900.
As for availability, all three iPhones will be launch in India on 28th September 2018. They will be readily available through all major online and offline stores across India.