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

253 Comments | Add A Comment

253 Comments

Camera - Low Light Evaluation

In low-light scenarios, we should see the new iPhone XS showcase significant improvements thanks to the 50% better light capture ability of the new sensor. Apple’s still only employing a f/1.8 aperture lens on the XS - so while it will improve over past phones, at least on paper it’s still at a disadvantage to say Samsung’s latest phones, which have an extra-wide f/1.5 aperture available to them.

[ 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 ]

In this first shot, we immediately see the new iPhone’s advantage over last year’s flagship. There is a lot more definition in the grass, less noise throughout the image, and less blown out lights in the scene.

Unfortunately, Apple is as expected still at a great disadvantage to Samsung here, as the latter is just able to give more light onto the whole scene, and the most evident, more colour to the grass. In terms of raw low light capture, the Huawei P20 Pro is still far ahead here, thanks to its massive sensor that is able to collect significantly more light.

At first glance, the iPhone XS didn’t shoot a much brighter picture than the iPhone X in this construction scene. Opening up the full resolution images however shows that the new XS showcases much better details and lower noise. It’s not enough to compete with the S9+, and certainly not with the insane ISO25600 shot of the P20 Pro.

It’s interesting to see the improvements over the years from the iPhone 6S on – which barely manages to capture anything in this scene.

The next shot is probably the only one that I found to be really problematic for Apple. Both on the iPhone X and the new XS, the resulting images weren’t consistent in consecutive shots. In four shots in a row, the iPhone XS kept changing the colour temperature. The same thing happened on the iPhone X, so I think this was part of Apple’s exposure / colour balance algorithm.

Colour balance aside, the exposure is similar between the X and the XS, and all the improvements of the new sensor go directly into improved detail and noise reduction throughout the scene, which is significantly better again compared to last year’s iPhone.

Here Apple is very close to Samsung, showcasing a bit better shadows, but still losing out in details in some parts of the scene. The P20 Pro is yet again the low-light kind here, as it just have that much more dynamic range work with.

Again, the iPhone’s new sensor comes into play in these concrete trucks. The XS makes very good dealing of the blown highlights present in the iPhone X shot. Samsung is able to produce more vibrancy in the blue of the trucks. Huawei’s multi-exposure computational photography night mode is the best of all phones here as it’s just able to bring out that much more from the shadows.

Apple's use of SmartHDR in this picture is extremely evident, as it really brings down the highlights of the lamp and brings out more shadows throughout the scene. The XS provides better detail, but it’s not as big of a difference as we’ve seen in other shots.

Apple’s usage of HDR here puts it ahead of the Samsung devices, trading blows with the P20 Pro, winning in some regards, while losing in others.

Finally, I wanted to test the iPhone XS to its limits and see what it can do in essentially impossible scenarios of low light.

Exposure-wise, the iPhone XS is no better than the X here. It provides better sharpness and less noise, however the image is still too dark to be of any use. I wish Apple would introduce a more innovative low light shooting mode, such as LG’s pixel binning mode. Huawei’s ISO51200 capture of this scene is just so beyond any other current phone, that it really raised the bar in what we’d normally expect to see in a smartphone.

Low-light conclusion

The new iPhone XS sensor is a great improvement to Apple’s lineup. Its advantages over the iPhone X are clearly evident in every single low-light shot, showcasing greater detail and sharpness while reducing noise. SmartHDR doesn’t seem to be something that’s solely for daylight shots, as Apple and the iPhone XS seem to make use of it in some low-light scenarios, giving the camera a further advantage over last year’s phones.

While Apple has showcased some really good progress, it’s can still lag behind low-light image quality of Samsung and Huawei’s P20 Pro. The former’s bigger aperture is just a sheer hardware advantage, while the latter enormous sensor makes use of innovative image processing to really raise the bar in terms of extreme low light photography. Here the iPhone XS is good; but it just can’t keep up.

Camera - Daylight - More HDR & Portrait Camera Video Recording & Speaker Evaluation

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Glindon-P - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Wider color range only works at 30fps because the camera actually records 2 frames at different exposures (at 60fps) and combines them.

As far as higher FPS slow mo I’m sure it boils down to taking in enough light at high frame rates to be usable enough or just not something enough users care about. Anecdotally I’ve only used it just to test it and never again.
varase - Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - link
480 or 960fps slow mo is basically a gimmicky misnomer - how long can they sustain that frame rate before all the buffers fill up?

How many takes does it require to actually capture the action you're trying to film within the window that that high frame rate actually operates?
Star_Hunter - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
In past iPhone reviews NAND performance was looked at, I assume since it wasn't included this year that it remains the same?
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
NAND is something on the to-do list in terms of revamping the test methodology - currently it's a mess both on iOS and Android.
whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Can Anandtech take an photo of how the iPhone XS reproduces the following image on their review model?

https://i.postimg.cc/q7wty6zY/Image-1.jpg

I have (5) iPhone XS has very poor color production on the following image, especially compared to my older iPhone7, see the example below:

https://i.postimg.cc/fbgFNbb1/226_E617_D-_A701-43_...

All of my iPhones also have a white point that appears significantly lower than 6500k judging by my eye. I do not have a colorimeter, but they do seem significantly off with certain content.

Unless the review models are cherry picked, I do not see retail units reaching the same quality.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
How exactly are you expecting to test colour accuracy of an image through a photo?

As far as I'm aware, the phones aren't cherry-picked and they were sealed and the battery was uninitialised.
whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
The reference image is a screen shot of the content to be displayed so source content should be preserved.

The color differences in the camera photo do reflect what I see with my eyes to a significant degree.

That is, on my iPhone7 and all my monitors in the house, the screenshot appears deep red at the top with a greyish red on the listed content.

On all the iPhone XS's in household, the content appears light red at the top, with the listed content becoming a distinct shade of brown instead of a greyish red.

I appreciate reading my post. The displays on my models do not seem all that accurate to me.
PhilJohn - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Have you properly calibrated the other phones and monitors in your house with a colorimeter? You'd be surprised at the awful D.e on most monitors out of the box.

When the displays were tested for colour accuracy they were marked very highly, so it could very well be that the XS is showing the CORRECT colours.
whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
So you are saying that all my previous iPhones I have retired, my current macbook, my spouses iMac, all the TV's in the household, and my two (non-Apple) desktop are all incorrect?

AMC's brand color is red. The XS screen shows something similar to dried blood or a brown-red.

Did the app designers also have incorrectly calibrated monitors? The XS calibration is the problem, not the other way around.
PhilJohn - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
And you've got night shift and true tone off? It could just be you have a dodgy OLED panel, check it against the ones in a store and exchange it if so.

But you'd be surprised how awful most consumer electronics are for colour calibration, people like "pop" and "vivid" even when it's totally oversaturated and nowhere near accurate.

The calibration charts in this article should point to the XS having exceedingly accurate colours.

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

Camera - Low Light Evaluation

Low-light conclusion

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253 Comments

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Glindon-P - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

varase - Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - link

Star_Hunter - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

PhilJohn - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

PhilJohn - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

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