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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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 - Low Light Evaluation

Low-light conclusion

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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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