The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets

Name: The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets
Item: The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets
Author: Andrei Frumusanu

by Andrei Frumusanu on October 5, 2018 8:00 AM EST

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253 Comments

Camera - Daylight Evaluation: Zoom and Scenic

The iPhone XS’ come with a brand-new camera module: Apple has increased the sensor size of the main camera sensor by upping the pixel pitch from 1.22µm to 1.4µm. This increases the actual area of each pixel by 48%, which means it equivalently increases the light collection capabilities of the sensor.

Apple hadn’t changed the lens system, and because the sensor is now bigger, it means that the effective field of view has increased, reducing the focal length from a 35mm equivalent of 28mm down to 26mm. Apple didn’t really talk much about this during the keynote nor in the marketing materials of the phone, however I do find it as a great positive of the phone, as in everyday shots you just get more scene to work with, something that makes a lot of sense given the continued inclusion of a 2x telephoto lens.

SmartHDR as Apple calls it, is a new HDR system on the new iPhone XS’. The phone will now capture two subsequent pictures, one at high exposure, and one at low exposure, and apply proper processing to create a natural looking high dynamic range image.

[ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ iPhone 7 ] - [ iPhone 6S ]
[ Galaxy Note9 ] - [ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ Galaxy S8 ]
[ LG G7 ] - [ LG G6 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ Mi MIX2S ] - [ Pixel 2XL ]
[ P20 Pro ]

Starting off with the first scene, I’m actually surprised just as how many phones still have trouble with such a shot and in getting a correct photo exposure. The difficulty in this shot in bright sunlight and clear skies, is that a lot of phones will apply their HDR processing and overdo it in terms of bringing down the highlights of the trees, resulting in outright muted colours that just look odd and more something you’d expect from an overcast day.

The iPhone XS performs excellently in this regard, as it’s able to properly maintain the bright sunlit foliage throughout the scene – something the vast majority of other phones had trouble with. Previously I was a fan of the OnePlus 6’s HDR processing, and the V30 also produced great pictures (Something that the G7 couldn’t reproduce).

The improvements of the iPhone XS over the iPhone X are less so in the highlights, but more in the shadows of this shot. The XS just manages to retain a significantly more details in the dark areas.

In terms of detail retention, the iPhone XS might be a bit better than the X. On the left side of the picture I had quite some blurring on the iPhone X, I’m not sure if this is due to shake or optics, something we can verify in later shots.

In terms of the 2x telephoto lens, the iPhone XS sees huge improvements over the iPhone X. While last year’s iPhone had significant issues in terms of colour reproduction on the zoom lens, the iPhone XS’ result is much more akin to the main sensor’s image. There’s an outstanding difference in colours as well as increased detail retention in the shadows. Other 2x zoom phones also have great difficulty in terms of their HDR processing, and it looks like the XS’ new processing puts it at the forefront in this shot.

Moving onto the next shot, we have again a scenic shot brightly lit up by the sun. Here it’s a lot harder to see the difference between the iPhone X and the new XS – other than the wider field of view of the new module. Both phones do well, although I feel like Apple’s reducing the highlights on the buildings just maybe a bit too much, not properly conveying the brightness of the scene. I feel Samsung is doing better in this regard, but they might overdo it. OnePlus 6’s processing is again a sweet-spot in-between, I feel.

Again on the left side of the image we see some significant chromatic aberrations on the iPhone X, and the XS is able to provide sharp details up until the very edges of the frame, meaning Apple seems to have improved the quality control on the lens glass.

Detail-wise, the main shooter is on par with the iPhone X and this year’s Galaxy phones, with relatively minor differences between all the phones.

Again on the telephoto lens, the XS improves on the X, even when not quite as evident in this shot. The colour balance is better, and the contrast between highlights and shadows is mode defined.

[ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ iPhone 7 ] - [ iPhone 6S ]
[ Galaxy Note9 ] - [ Galaxy S9+ ] - [ Galaxy S8 ]
[ LG G7 ] - [ LG G6 ] - [ LG V30 ] - [ OnePlus 6 ]
[ Mi MIX2S ] - [ Pixel 2XL ] - [ P20 Pro ]

We continue on, and again here we see the main improvements of the iPhone XS’ processing is much better retention of shadow detail and contrast.

This is also the first shot where the XS has an evident advantage in detail over the X: The new phone had a mere 1/2257^th second exposure, shorter than the iPhone X’s 1/1621th second one. Beyond the improvements in the shadows, there’s also a lot more detail overall in the scene. Notice how the brickwork on the cathedral tower is a lot more defined on the XS.

In terms of competition, Samsung is able to get even more details out of the shadows and produce a brighter image overall. While the iPhone XS isn’t the best in terms of bringing out the shadows across the phones, it gives an excellent balance between brightness and image sharpness.

The exposure and colour balance between the XS and X is very similar in this shot. Only again in the shadows does the XS bring out more details. The red chair is a good example of how the wide gamut capture of the iPhone’s can really distinguish themselves from the competition – unfortunately if you don’t have a proper display to showcase this one, it’ll result in toned down colours. Least to say, it looks really iridescent on the iPhone XS’ display.

In this shot, we again see more shadows than in the iPhone X. The iPhone produces a tad lower exposure than the S9, Note9 and OP6 – however I do understand why this is as the sun against the building really blows out on those phones, but I do think the foliage on the competition looks a bit better. Maybe something in-between would have been the best result. I like the Note9’s processing here a tad more, while detail wise both the phones are neck-in-neck.

In this shot, while the iPhone XS has more contrast in the shadows, it actually seems to lose a bit of detail versus the iPhone X – something you can see in the darker brickwork on the left bridge. In other parts of the scene, the XS is superior, and resolves a lot more detail in the barks of the trees on the right.

Samsung and OnePlus both had less issues in the shadow-cast bricks, and both provided an overall brighter image, although if that’s a positive is a thing of preference. Personally I do prefer the OP6’s HDR a lot here as it just does a better job on the brickwork.

Hopefully we’ve had enough sunlit scenes for this page, so moving on to more levelled scenarios.

The very first thing that pops out in this image between the iPhone XS and the iPhone X is that the XS no longer blows out the sky, and we actually see some blue.

While overall exposure and colour balance in the scene is similar, detail retention on the iPhone XS is significantly better. Here the XS is able to resolve cracks and textures on the walls that were invisible to the X.

While the XS stands out against the X in terms of details, it still falls behind the Samsung phones as both the Note9 and S9 do better on the textures of the buildings.

Battery Life Camera - Daylight - More HDR & Portrait

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Speedfriend - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link
So you would expect them to use that powerful SOC to deliver real battery improvements, but somehow they can't. No one I speak to complains that their modern smartphone is slow, but everyone complains about battery life.
melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link
It’s both. The deep dive isolates the SoC to a great extent. It can be done with any phone.
eastcoast_pete - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Andrei, thanks for the review! Yes, these are outstanding phones at outrageous prices. I appreciate the in-depth testing and detailed background, especially on the A12's CPU and GPU. While I don't own an iPhone and don't like iOS, I also believe that, phone-wise, the XS and XS Max are the new kings of the hill. The A12's performance is certainly in PC laptop class, and I wonder if (or how) the recent Apple-Qualcomm spat that kept QC's modem tech out of the new iPhones has helped Intel to keep its status as CPU provider for Apple's laptops, at least for now.
One final comment, and one question: Andrei, I agree with you 100% that Apple missed an opportunity when they decided on a rather middling battery capacity for the XS Max. If I buy a big phone, I expect a big battery. Give the XS Max a 5000 mAh or larger battery, and it really is "the Max", at least among iPhones. At that size, a few mm additional thickness are not as important as run time. Maybe Apple kept that upgrade for its mid-cycle refresh next year - look, bigger batteries.
@Andrei. I remember reading somewhere that the iPhone X and 8 used 128 bit wide memory buses. Questions: Is that the case here, and how does the memory system and bus compare to Android phones? And, in your estimate, how much of the A12's speed advantages are due to Apple's memory speeds and bus width ?
dudedud - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
I was sure that only the A$X were 128bit, but i would also want to know if this had changed.
RSAUser - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link
A12 is definitely not in the laptop class unless you're looking at the extreme low power usage tier.

Just because it is quite a but faster than the equivalent on mobile does Not mean it can compete at a different power envelope. If that were true, Intel would already have dominated the SoC market. It requires a completely different CPU design. It's wwhy they can use it for the touchbar on the macbook but not as a main processor.
ws3 - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link
This review did not compare the A12 with “mobile” Intel chips but rather with server chips. The A12 is on par with Skylake server CPUs on a single threaded basis. Let that sink in.

As to why Intel doesn’t dominate the SoC space, Intel’s designs haven’t been energy efficient enougj and also the x86 instruction set offers no advantage on mobile.
tipoo - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
It's already competing with laptop and desktop class chips, not just mobile fare. It's up there per core with Skylake server, and NOT normalized per clock, just core vs core.

It's like people don't read these articles year over year and are still using lines from when A7 arrived...
tipoo - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
Only the A10X and A8X were 128 bit, on mobile that's still power limited for memory bandwidth.
juicytuna - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Apple's big cores are like magic at this point. 2-3x the performance per watt of the nearest competitors is just ridiculous.
sing_electric - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
I know this is almost a side point, but this really goes to show what a mess Android (Google/Qualcomm) is compared to iOS. At the rate Snapdragon is improving, it'll be 2020/2021 before Qualcomm sells a chip as fast as 2017's A11, and Google is shooting itself in the foot by not having APIs available that take advantage of Snapdragon's (relative) GPU strength.

That's on top of other long-term Android issues (like how in 2018, Android phones still can't handle a 1:1 match of finger movement to scrolling, which the iPhone could in 2008). Honestly, if I wasn't so invested in Android at this point, I really consider switching now.

The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets

Camera - Daylight Evaluation: Zoom and Scenic

Post Your Comment

253 Comments

View All Comments

Speedfriend - Monday, October 8, 2018 - link

melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

eastcoast_pete - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

dudedud - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

RSAUser - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

ws3 - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

tipoo - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link

tipoo - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link

juicytuna - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

sing_electric - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

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