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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whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
I compared against the 4 other iPhones XS’ in my household and all of them failed the red reproduction test.

I also noticed all the monitors have a warm whitepoint (looks noticeably less than 6500k). When I was next to a tmobile store I stepped in, turned off tru tone, and observed the same.

I will have to airdrop the screenshot to an Apple Store display, but with so many witnessed off spec displays, aka 7 out of 7 out of spec, I am convinced anything in spec is cherry picked.

Off course tru tone is off.

Maybe this reviewer can take a photo of the AMC red next to a calibrated display.
genkihito - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link
The website can choose to send different content to different models of iPhone. or also if the color is in the wide color range, the phones would show the same color differently if one has P3 and one doesn’t.
whiskeysips - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
The iPhone7 was the first iPhone DCI-P3 color gamut.

This is an apples to apples comparison.
tim1724 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
My iPhone XS and my iMac 5K show essentially identical images. It's in between your 7 and XS, but closer to the 7. I think your XS might have a defective display, unless True Tone is doing something funky due to your lighting.
whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
If my display is defective, then all 5 of my iPhone XS’ in the household are defective.

See the following picture that pits 2 iPhone7’s against 2 iPhoneXS’.

https://i.postimg.cc/dJn4hLsK/output.png?dl=1

The iPhones are different colors and have varying production dates using the serial number decoder.

Trutone is off.
Pneumothorax - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link
you need to be using reference photos to compare colors. Not a movie app.
whiskeysips - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link
Are you trying to insinuate that only certain colors, eg reference shades, are supposed to match and any colors in between are allowed to be supposed to be a free for all?

What difference is it if I am comparing an app with many colors on a gradient, or a few shades from the gradient itself?

If you really want to be that pedantic I can pick up 10 shades from the amc app and rectangles of pure color to act as a better reference.

With a discrepancy so large, I fail how this will produce different results.
whiskeysips - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link
If anything a larger collection of colors is easier to discern compared to only comparing two shades at a time.
mmcmah - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Thanks for the great, in-depth review!

Given the problems being discussed on other sites, I was also hoping to see a deep dive on the WiFi and LTE capabilities/issues. Is that something that you are looking into?

Many thanks again.
saleri6251 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Hey Andrei,

So what other phones will you be reviewing for this year? Any chance you'll be reviewing the Pixel 3/3XL?

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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whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

genkihito - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link

tim1724 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

Pneumothorax - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

whiskeysips - Sunday, October 7, 2018 - link

mmcmah - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

saleri6251 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

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