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 - Daylight - More HDR & Portrait

I wanted to have a second page of daylight photos because I wanted to spend a bit more time and have a tad more varied scenes for to test Apple’s SmartHDR – please enjoy.

[ 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 ]

This tunnel was a fun little test – the other end was sunlit while obviously quite dark from my side. I thought this would be a good little visual representation of the raw dynamic ranges that the phones would be able to capture.

Indeed, the iPhone XS is able to go a lot further into the end of the tunnel than the iPhone X, or for that matter, most other phones. This is an extreme show-case of Apple’s new HDR processing and how it’s able to play with bright highlights in scenes.

One scenario that Apple showcased during the keynote was a shot directly facing the sun. I’ve had users in previous reviews bombard me with comments as to that’s not how you should take a photo. To them I say: that’s an outdated notion of photography.

As computational photography becomes an ever increasingly common theme in devices, we’ll see more and more scenes like this one where shooting against the sun should be no issue at all.

The iPhone XS dramatically improves the shadow detail, and is able to notably reduce the sun’s halo in this shot, but I do think Apple might have overpromised a bit on the notion of computational photography. The best counter-example of this is to just switch over to what the Huawei P20 Pro was able to achieve in its 10MP AI mode, by far surpassing all other phones in the captured dynamic range of the scene. This facet of smartphone photography really opens up a new area of competition, and hopefully we’ll be seeing some exciting things in the future.

This shot follows the same themes we saw on the previous page, the iPhone XS handles the shadows a lot better and gives a lot more details over the iPhone X.

Samsung again opts for a much brighter picture, but I do think it comes at some cost of detail. Again I think the OnePlus 6’s HDR processing is an excellent middle-ground that would please most people, although Apple has a tad more natural look going for them.

In less direct sunlit environments, the difference between the iPhone X and XS might not be directly visible the thumbnails, however opening up the full resolution image showcases the XS’s significant increase of detail and textures throughout the whole scene. The larger pixels of the XS sensor along with the deeper DTI (deep trench isolation) results in significantly increased spatial resolution – even though the sensor has the same amount of pixels and even has a wider field of view, resulting in less pixels per given object.

Again Samsung tends for a brighter exposure that I think is a bit too much – detail slightly trails the XS. OnePlus bridges the two vendors in terms of exposure and detail.

This scene was mostly in the tree shadows, sun sunlit spots coming through the gaps. By now we should understand where the XS’ strengths are: brighter and more defined shadow details.

I think Apple nailed this shot and it has the best balance of exposure as well as the best detail retention. The OP6 closely followed in terms of exposure, but lost in terms of details. Samsung here just overdid it with exposure and just flattens the scene too much.

[ 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 ]

Finally the last shot, is again a good showcase of HDR of the different phones. The iPhone XS continues to perform very well here, showing the improvements we’ve seen in previous scenes. Again Samsung is brighter, but slightly loses out on details.

Portrait Mode

[ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Galaxy Note9 ] - [ LG G7 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ Mi MIX2S ] - [ Pixel 2XL ]
[ P20 Pro ]

Portrait mode is something that’s been quite the rage nowadays, and the iPhone XS promises to take advantage of its new inferencing engine power to create much better separation maps between the foreground subject and the background, to which the computational bokeh effect is applied.

Shooting in portrait mode on most phones means that the actual shot will be taken with the telephoto module, while the wide main camera is also doing work by serving as the depth sensor. Single-module phones such as the Pixel 2 rely solely on the computational power to discern between the subject and the background.

The results on the iPhone XS showcase a significant improvement in the image quality of portrait mode. First of all, the exposure and colour balance of the shot is just significantly better, something that’s universally valid for telephoto shots on the new XS.

The actual bokeh effect on the XS looks to be applied a lot more graduated, and while it’s still possible to see the edge of the pattern in some cases, it’s significantly improved.

This gradual application is what makes the iPhone’s portrait mode stand out to other phones. Only Huawei and Samsung somewhat manage to go a decent job, while all other phones look quite rubbish to be honest, with visible zigzag patterns around the subject.

Daylight Conclusion

Overall in daylight, the iPhone XS is easily a top-tier performer. One thing that I didn’t bring up throughout is picture capture consistency, and here the iPhone XS just shines. Every time you take a picture, you can be assured you will get a good shot – and there’s little to no difference in consecutive shots.

Apple’s new SmartHDR is a definite win, and allows for much more detail in the shadows, all while retaining good highlights in the scenes. The new sensor module is definitely showing its strengths even in daylight, as every shot that wasn’t in direct sunlight was able to showcase much improvements in terms of details as well as textures. I attribute this to the new sensor’s much improved DTI – something which results in the iPhone XS gaining quite a bit more resolved spatial resolution, even though the megapixel count is the same.

The new slightly wider viewing angle on the main camera is something that I enjoyed, and I hope Apple continues on in this regard. My iPhone X seems to suffer from lens defects in the left part of the scenes – the iPhone XS showcases no such chromatic aberrations and is sharp until the edge of the frame.

The biggest improvement seems to be on the telephoto lens. While on the iPhone X and before, the telephoto lens could result in quite different colours and exposures. On the iPhone XS the new module seems to be perfectly in balance with the main camera, so that there’s just very little difference in the picture between the two.

While sometimes I do prefer OnePlus 6’s HDR, the XS is more consistent in terms of detail throughout the scenes. Samsung’s Note9 and S9 also sometimes can get a better shot, however they have too much of a tendency to overexpose. I think overall, the iPhone XS takes the lead in terms of smartphone photography in daylight just because of its consistent shooting experience.

Camera - Daylight Evaluation: Zoom and Scenic Camera - Low Light Evaluation

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NICOXIS - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
I wonder how A12 would do on Android or Windows... I'm not into Apple but they have done a fantastic job with their SoC
LiverpoolFC5903 - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
Probably nowhere as good as it is projected here.
What is the bloody point of these supposedly super fast SOCs with massive caches and execution units when the OS running on it will be the highly limited, crippled and locked OS like the IOS. No emulators, no support for USB peripherals like gamepads, mice or keyboards, poor excuse for file management, no access to outside apps, no ability to run non webkit based browsers, no ability to seamlessly transfer data to and from windows desktops and multiple other limitations.

All and well getting excited over this SOC but its like Having a 450 BHP ferrari running on a 80 mile speed limiter with an automatic transmission. All that power is useless and will remain unutilised.

Until they allow other OS to run on their hardware, the comparisons are meaningless. I can do a hell lot more on a pithy 835 than I will ever be able to do on an A11 or A12.
iSeptimus - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link
Wow, so much wrong with this statement.
bulber - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
You are wrong and I know you are too narcissistic to realize that. I would pity you but your username tells me you don't deserve any pity.
Barilla - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Fantastic hardware (well, except the notch), shame it's only locked to one OS. Would love to see an Android phone with hardware like that.
Matte_Black13 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
Well Qualcomm is working on quite a few things, new SoC, NPU, and Samsung is totally redesigning their GPU, so...maybe sooner than later (S10)
varase - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link
It'll be interesting to see what comes of that effort - so much of the Android market is feature phone replacements - the actual percentage which represents high end flagship phones is pretty slim.

If a bigger percentage of the Android market is willing to pay for silicon with that increased compute capacity, there may be hope.
melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link
But will they? Microprosser Reports says that each new SoC from Apple cost, the year of introduction, between $34-38. Top Android SoCs cost between $24-28. That’s a big difference. These phones compete wither each other, and price while Apple mostly competes against itself.
melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link
The reason, or I should say, one of the reasons why other manufacturers are copying Apple’s notch, is because it allows a full screen phone. Notice that Samsung has edge to edge, but still retains a shorter screen on both the top and bottom. The notch removes 2-3% of the screen area, depending on screen size, which is very little. Now take the Galaxy 9+, and you’ll notice that when the entire top and bottom cutoffs are added together, it amounts to about 10% of the possible screen size.

It’s why the new Pixel and others are moving to the notch. In the cases where the notch is just being copied, it’s ridiculous, because those companies are still using a chin on the bottom, and the notch is just there to copy the iPhone.
id4andrei - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link
No. They are copying the iphone for the look. If they were copying to maximize screen area they would copy Essential. Apple removed the chin and the notch is needed for face id - they have a good reason. Some copycats(not all) ape the look and keep the chin. A good compromise is the impending OnePlus T. It has teardrop notch and minimized chin that makes it look actually good. Asus is on the other side of the spectrum. They even bragged they wanted to copy the look of the iphone X.

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

Camera - Daylight - More HDR & Portrait

Portrait Mode

Daylight Conclusion

Post Your Comment

253 Comments

View All Comments

NICOXIS - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

LiverpoolFC5903 - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link

iSeptimus - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 - link

bulber - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link

Barilla - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

Matte_Black13 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

varase - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

melgross - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

id4andrei - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

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