iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR announced

I'm waiting for reviews until ios 12 public release is out. If it fails, sticking with beta sounds good idea.

 

Well, leave it to apple to numerically number every iPhone to date, then call the 10 the X. What do they expect people to call it. I might as well call Mac OSX OS10. even though everyone calls it osx. Leave it to the douchy marketing team there!

 

Well for years people said the old iphone`s slowed down as they got older, then we found out it was true, But apple said the slowed the processor down to make it easier on the old battery`s but forgot to mention it to consumers.

John.

 

Where can I get the new "special" 6.4” version?

 

Apple's iPhone XS keynote was about story, not specs
The Verge
Published on Sep 14, 2018
Processor is back! After a long week of Apple coverage, Dieter Bohn dives into the question: Why does Apple keep doing these big hype-y keynotes? Apple does more than just present the phone, read the specs, and let us come take pictures of it. It tells a story.

iPhone XS vs iPhone X - Should you Upgrade?
SuperSaf TV
Published on Sep 14, 2018
Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max vs iPhone X Full Comparison including hands-on Size, Design, Camera, S Pen(??), Battery & Price.

 

iPhone XS/XS Max/XR and Apple Watch Series 4 Reactions!
Brian Tong (no longer at CNET)
Published on Sep 13, 2018
Apple started on a high note and ended with a thud when it got to the iPhones. How many Good or Bad Apple’s am I going to dish out? It’s the aftermath of Apple’s September Event. No AirPods 2 and AirPower was a letdown, but they might be delayed even longer than we think.

Spoiler

You can help support my independent work at https://www.patreon.com/briantong THANK YOU

 

XS Max and Note9. I reckon X users will not trade their phones for XS,XR or XSM.

 

I’ll probably catch a lot of slack from here, but I pre-ordered the Xs Max, and Watch Series 4. Upgrading from a 7+ and Watch Series 2

I try android every other year or so, but always end up coming back to the iPhone.

Truth is, between my full time job in IT and then my second full time job trying to get my startup off the ground, I just want something that works reliably, has good privacy, and gets regular updates.

 

Privacy has a limit though, it has more privacy than android but in reality iOS is riddled with Telemetry that tracks you all the time with a note saying "Apple knows what's better for their comsumers" Try a free version PhoneClean by iMobie to cleanup more garbage from iOS and make your device feel like new. 3utools is a swiss knife for iOS device, really cool SW.

 

I'm not an iPhone guy but I don't get this sentiment at all. iPhones are luxury goods. My $400 wristwatch didn't tell time better than a $50 wristwatch, but it looks and it feels nice and it was my money, my choice. A BMW 3-Series may not hold any more passengers or cargo than my Civic, but people still buy them because they like the experience better. See also: lattes versus black coffee.

An $1100 smartphone, whether it's a Galaxy Note or an iPhone Max, is the same. It doesn't do stuff that cheaper phones are incapable of doing, but it offers a really nice user experience. And if someone has the money and is on the phone a lot, and prefers the screen quality and everything else that goes along with a modern flagship, what's insane about that?

 

It's catching flak. You cut slack and catch flak

I'm the opposite side of the same coin. The vast majority of lawyers use iPhones, and my family's's table are iPads, so I'm a natural fit for an iPhone...but I honestly prefer Android phones and keep being that one guy in the room with a Galaxy or Pixel.

 

It's just a personal opinion, I would never spend more than 500$ on a phone, and even that price, it is too much really. That whole idea of "premium feel", "user experience" and "how much is too much" are all subjective and variable, so there is no argument to be made on either side as there is simply no definite basis other than people are free to spend their money the way they see fit.

 

Of course it's subjective, just like pub food versus a sushi restaurant. That doesn't mean that someone is "insane" for having a subjective preference and spending their own money for something they subjectively prefer.

 

Investors happy: Apple continues to increase average iPhone price

Consumable by the consumer is the rising iPhone price for years.Consumable by the consumer is the rising iPhone price for years.
In recent years, the average selling price of iPhones has risen continuously, the new lineup 2018 from the iPhone 7 up to the iPhone Xs Max increases the unweighted value once again by 20 percent, which are good news especially for Apple's upcoming quarterly results - the victims are the iPhone buyers... And the supply chain

--------------------------------------------------------

Apple supply chain makers facing uncertainty over new iPhone sales
DIGITIMES | Monday 17 September 2018

Taiwan's makers in the iPhone supply chain are likely to face increasing uncertainty over their sales outlook for the fourth quarter of 2018 due to the high pricing of the just-released next-generation iPhone devices, according to industry sources.

Most of the makers are concerned that prices of new iPhones, starting at US$749, US$999 and US$1,099, respectively, for the three new models, are too high, and therefore could affect sales momentum of new Apple devices.

 

So? It's not like the Pixel or Galaxy Note lines are getting cheaper each generation...

That's what people said about the iPhone X, and it turned out it was Apple's best-selling phone for the past year.

https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-sec...sales-show-wall-street-analysts-got-it-wrong/

Regardless, as a business, Apple has always chased profit margins more than market share. Look at the Mac division. It may not be what you or I personally want to buy (I'm a Windows-and-Android guy, myself), but let's not pretend Apple's market strategy is bad business for the company.

 

I'm Not Ordering a New iPhone
PAINFULLY HONEST TECH
Published on Sep 13, 2018
I've had every iPhone but the OG iPhone. I couldn't be less excited about what Apple's offering this year. I'm not ordering one.

Note 9 After 72 Hours | Buh Bye, iPhone
PAINFULLY HONEST TECH
Published on Aug 27, 2018
I've been waiting for Samsung to perfect the Note phones for 9 generations now. With the Note 9 they just may have done it. Is this the end of the iPhone for me? Maybe. Here's what I think about the Note 9 after 72 hours.

Spoiler: Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: The Perfect Smartphone

PAINFULLY HONEST TECH
Published on Aug 31, 2018
The Note 9 is turning out to be one of my favorite phones not just of 2018, but probably ever. There's not a whole lot bad to say about it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/samsung-galaxy-note-9.821960/#post-10796566

 

iPhone XS Max vs Samsung Galaxy Note 9
SuperSaf TV
Published on Sep 12, 2018
Apple iPhone XS Max vs Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Full Comparison including hands-on Size, Design, Camera, S Pen, Battery & Price.
The Apple iPhone XS Max features a 6.5" Super Retina OLED Display, Apple A12 Bionic Chip, upto 512GB Storage, IP68 Water & Dust Resistantance, 12MP dual rear camera, 7MP Selfie Camera and Face ID
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 features a 6.4" Super AMOLED Infinty Display, S Pen with Remote Bluetooth, 8GB RAM upto 512GB Storage with MicroSD, IP68 Water & Dust Resistantance, 12MP dual rear camera with dual-aperture, 8MP Selfie Camera with AF, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810, 4000mAh battery, Iris Scanner, Facial recognition, Fingerprint scanner and Intelligent Scan.

 

Yeah, I know. But no trees grow to heaven. A backlash may come. The Q is when

As usual. He spead the same words last year as well. Or was it early spring this year?

Apple CEO Cook Justifies Premium iPhone XS Max Pricing, Says Innovation Is Expensive Hothardware.com | 09.18.20018
“If you look at even at the phone that’s priced over $1,000, most people pay about $30 a month for an iPhone or $1 a day,” Cook explained. “People want the most innovative product available, and it’s not cheap to do that.”

Does this justifies their increased (inflated) prices?

------------------------------------

Forget tariffs, Apple highest luxury tax ever has already pushed prices to the breaking point
The Apple Tax is real Macworld | SEP 17, 2018 12:39 PM
Meet me in the middle
Over the years, Apple has picked up a reputation for overcharging its customers who are hypnotized by its flashy cases and pretty curves. While it’s true to a certain extent—Apple certainly chooses materials and manufacturing processes that add to the MSRP—for the most part, Apple provides a value in its products. When I spent a thousand dollars on the iPhone X or $400 on my Apple Watch, I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth. It wasn't a bargain, but it was worth the price of admission.

Apple
The new iPhones aren’t actually made of gold, but they may as well be.

But this year feels different. It’s not just that Apple is charging the most it ever has for its phones, it’s not even close. This year’s iPhones have a mean selling price of $1,082.33 and median of $1,099 versus a mean of $907.33 and a median of $900 last year. That’s the biggest jump ever by a wide margin. Just look at how much the lineup has ticked up this year:

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 explodes inside woman's purse in New York
The Note 7 was recalled two years ago for a default that made the devices go up in flames. The new Note 9 may be set to follow the path its predecessor made, though, as a woman in New York has filed a case against Samsung, claiming her new Note 9 exploded in her purse.

Samsung gained a notorious reputation for spontaneously combusting devices two years ago, the Galaxy Note 7 having to be recalled due to a defect that made the devices run at temperatures just a touch higher than ideal. Couple hundred degrees more, in fact. It would appear that yet another Samsung flagship has taken the path of fire, as a Note 9 owner in New York claims their device suddenly went up in flames.

While the account does seem a tad inflated, we’re not going to go into that, as we have a feeling Samsung’s lawyers can do a much better job. That in mind, it’s unlikely the South Korean OEM stops selling the Note 9 over this isolated incident. Of course, there's also a chance we have another Note 7 fiasco on our hands, although we wouldn't bet on that.

In short, from Todays smartphone world Exploding (prices on) phones, LOOL

 

Well, Apple might innovate to launch their lingerie with their logo sticking out on the front or in the rear along with some innovations such as better cooling your planets on your body.
But what does Apple do with 90%+ profits anyway, When they are bringing older tech to their products aside from fancy Touch Bar and Face ID?
As for Note9, maybe they will make a fan mod like ROG. We have hit a wall where CPU and GPU has somewhat reached their max operating freq./speed but without cooling, older CPU/GPU will trump the new parts in real world usage aside from benchmarks.

 

Those "average" prices assume that they'll sell one XS Max 512gb for every base-model XR they sell. I sincerely doubt that will be the case. Sales don't distribute evenly between each model in the lineup. That's like assuming that Toyota sells one Avalon for every one Corolla.

Their current pricing scheme isn't a dramatic departure from past years, nor is it a dramatic departure from Samsung's list prices for its Galaxy S, S Plus and Galaxy Note flagships. It's just another incremental increase, just like the $1000/$1250 Galaxy Note 9 is an incremental increase over past Notes. There's absolutely no evidence that Apple's near some sort of "breaking point" with some vast consumer rejection of their products over pricing.

I don't own a BMW or a Porsche, but I'm not going to pretend that their business models are about to fail because they don't offer anything at the price point of my Civic Si. Selling luxury goods at luxury prices when you have a positive brand image is simply good business, even though it means that people who don't want luxury goods won't buy your product.

 

If Apple actually cared about giving Desktop like experience using a dock like Samsung,Huawei,HP etc.. then everybody will buy it because its worth 1000$ wherein you can theoretically replace your iPad for an iPhone XS that fits in your pocket/palm.

 

About a third of the people I know have Samsung flagships. I've never met someone with a Dex Dock. The percentage of flagship smartphone owners where this is the make-it-or-break-it issue as to whether their phone is "worth" the price...it's a vanishingly small percentage.

For most purchasers of high-end smartphones nowadays, the key issues are screen quality, screen size, and camera quality. The AMOLED iPhones compete well with Samsung flagships on those fronts, and their pricing is typically just a half-step above Samsungs (when comparing MSRP to MSRP), which isn't a new dynamic.

 

Yes it is. Apple offered their "flagship" device EVERY year for 650$ up until the iphone 8 came along, with a 50$ price bump. That is incremental. They were able to offer a "flagship" device for so long, at a relatively "fair" price of 650$. To jack up the price from 650-700 to 1000 is NOT incremental, it is a straight up cash grab leap. The XR is not a flagship, it is a budget phone, and even the "budget" phone is priced 50$ more than last year's flagship (up until the X was released). The XR is the biggest slap in the face. It offers a meager, if any, improvement over the 8 plus, and is more expensive! It is a shocking, bold move for Apple. I think it's going to bite them in the rear eventually. Or, maybe not.

Then again, who really buys phones any more? Most people I know either lease or "buy" then trade in at 50% value and start all over again. As long as they get interest free loans spread out over 24-30 months, they're not really feeling the pain. Still ridiculous in my book.

One thing is for sure: I will not be padding their pocketbooks any longer. If they continue to stick to this insane strategy, I'm going to have to find an android alternative. Silly of them to crush the SE when it was such a great selling device, but then again, they can't have their "lesser" (yet stellar) device cannibalize sales from a 1000$ phone.

 

There are enough lemmings in the applesphere to make it a smashing success. I bought my 8's for this exact reason. I knew apple had nothing left in design of new stuff. so their rehash of the x and its lack of features I want was enough for me to jump on the 8 before it was too late.

 

Did you install iOS12? I skipped it and went to iOS 12.1. Also, found the slowdown was similar to iOS 11 after the update. Tried GB4 thrice and upon third run the score was the best iPhone 7 managed eventhough re-indexing was taking place in background, also do note memory management is better on 12.1 than 12. On 12 I saw only 34MB free RAM and stuttering when launching more apps from home. 12.1 has 500MB free RAM and I launched all apps and performed like a champ.
I suppose spectre patch is slowing down ARM chips.

 

The XR starts at $749. The 8 Plus started at $799 at launch. So no, it's not expensive than the 8 Plus.

The XR is not a "budget phone." It has an A12 Bionic processor (same as the XS Max), the same main camera as the SX Max, and just one gb of memory less than the XS Max (3gb instead of 4 gb, and 3gb of memory is still considered high-end for an iOS device). It has 64 gb onboard storage, same as the $999 iPhone XS. Really, the only two differences between the XS and XR are the screen and the lack of secondary rear camera. And neither of those things makes it a "budget" phone, unless the non-Plus iPhone 8 was also a "budget phone," since it had a sub-1080p LCD screen and a single rear-facing camera.

If it's not the right phone for you, don't buy it. But it's not like Apple killed your puppy or something. Just buy something else. You can get smoking deals on the Pixel 2XL right now, even though the screen-quality issues that plagued it at launch were addressed long ago. And early camera reviews are suggesting that while the iPhone XS has the best camera ever put in an iPhone, the nearly-year-old Pixel 2XL still beats it, and is still the best cameraphone on the market.

 

Here iphone 8 costs 1100$ 250GB, iphone X costs 1200$ for base model and 1500$ for max model 256GB(iph X). As somebody who is used to buying iPhones like raidriar, he can't even use Android full time and will switch to iOS. You're better off on iphone 8 because 8 plus is too large unlike iphone X.
If you still want custom iphones with tons of storage, headphone jack and wireless charging try Strange parts iphone 7 with maxed out storage, headphone jack and wireless charging.

 

4 New Security Features For Apple A12 And S4 That Weren’t Mentioned Onstage
Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup comes with several new features that suit an ‘S’ upgrade. The company has improved camera performance, introduced a new color option and updated its mobile processor.

Apple’s A12 And S4 Processors Extend Passcode Seed Bit Key Protection To DFU Mode, Extending Protection Down To Bootrom
Apple’s Gather Around event for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR focused on a lot of new upgrades. However, as the company’s events are for the general public, Apple often chooses to withhold information. The information that it does share is often directly marketable. As the A12’s CPU did not receive any major performance boosts this year, Apple chose to devote less stage time to the processor.

The iPhone XR is the new budget iPhone | TechCrunch

The iPhone XR is the new budget iPhone – Kopitiam Bot


No iPhone SE? No problem: This is the 'budget' iPhone to get - CNET

Edit.
Apple made a big mistake by killing its smallest and most affordable
www.businessinsider.com | SEP 19, 2018, 7:33 AM
The image above shows Apple’s iPhone lineup for 2018, which includes the three new iPhones introduced this month: the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. ... Apple no longer sells the iPhone 6S, iPhone X, and most notably, the iPhone SE. The iPhone SE was Apple’s last 4-inch...

 

Whether it's actually a budget phone and whether it's called one by certain tech blogs are two different issues. No phone with an A12 Bionic, second best camera on the market, AND high end case materials should be called a "budget phone."

Some auto blogs called the Porsche Cayman a "budget Porsche" when it launched, but it's not actually a budget car by any sensible definition of the term.

 

Exactly, just a mildly less expensive version of the other one. All are boring to me. And I like Apple phones. Nothing excited me in the least.

 

Its a expensive phone under a mask called Budget. None calls 749$ a budget phone, so 100$ will be called a Free Phone from now onwards.

 

I would call the iPhone XR "mainstream," not "budget," and I suspect it's actually going to be the volume seller for Apple this generation, with the XS and XS Max being more halo/enthusiast devices. Kind of like the Galaxy S9 versus the Note 9.

 

More likely if android charge 700$ for budget phone, no wonder iphone XR will be the cheapest budget phone.

 

I would call them all premium devices...the colored premium device, the small premium device and the bigger premium device. Mid range, budget, cheaper, etc should not be used when describing an apple product. NONE of them are BUDGET/CHEAP/MID RANGE, including their computing devices.

 

(The Note 9 Qualcomm 845 + 8GB in the 1st video is slightly slower than the Note 9 Exynos 9810 6GB in the 2nd video)

iPhone Xs Max vs Note 9 Speedtest! Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, Geekbench tested!
GizmoSlipTech
Published on Sep 22, 2018
The new iPhone Xs Max features the A12 Bionic chip, which has been optimized and improved, but how well does it stand up to a top tier android phone like the Galaxy Note 9? This performance review speedtest is going to be freaking epic! Let's get started!

iPhone XS Max vs Galaxy Note 9 SPEED TEST
SuperSaf TV
Published on Sep 22, 2018
Apple iPhone XS Max vs Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Speed and Performance test, Apps, Gaming Speed tests + RAM management.

Note 9 with Qualcomm 845 + 8GB memory

Note 9 with Exynos 9810 + 6GB memory

 

Nothing new there, the iPhone is faster. Not to mention smoothness of the OS overall. I used the note 9 and x side by side in the store when I bought our 8s. The x was just smoother and faster overall. I dont even look at benchmarks because they are not real world use. Using the devices side by side you can really see the difference in the fluidity of the OS overall on IOS.

 

There's no question iPhones load apps faster, but in my experience with both ecosystems, that speed benefit is often then lost because you're waiting for your stuff to sync after opening the app (news stories, emails, etc) because iOS seems to do a lot less of that syncing in the background. Factoring that in, I just don't see that it's enough to be a major factor either way when compared to the other perks of each ecosystem.

As for smoothness in my experience, iOS 12 is awesome (even on aging hardware) but iOS 11 was decidedly not awesome.

 

Just giving my observations using the two phones (iPhone x and note 9) side by side. The iPhone x is faster and smoother overall compared to the note 9.

 

Apple's SoC is second to none, it is the one thing they absolutely nail time and time again.

 

Don't compare Samsung phones use Nokia,Pixel,HTC or Xiaomi phone's UI. Samsung UI stutters after couple of months, I don't know why it happens. Maybe Touchwiz or samsung exp UI is the cause.
I hate animations of iOS. I turn it off. The motion or animations makes me sick. Maybe its motion sickness!

 

Ah, maybe that is part of it. I turn off all of the animation and alerts / notifications I don't need.

I don't get stutters, at all on my Android devices, and my current Samsung S7 Edge is old, and it never has stuttered.

I do clean out the cruft on a regular basis, the same as I do on Windows, so that might help keep things running smoothly. Plus I don't have a bunch of crap installed, just what I use. If I stop using something I uninstall it, and don't reinstall it until I need it again.

I haven't had to do a "clean install" on Android or Windows, I just keep the software / configuration tuned and tidy.

 

HMscott put up the iPhone xs vs note 9....I gave my observations on those two phones. Simple.

 

Snapdragon or Exynos version?
If you tidy it up every week then slowdowns are absent. I tried the Samsung in a store and it was smooth but using more apps in background caused micro-stutters just like nvidia optimus and at the same I tried Nokia/Pixel 2 which didn't have these issues at stock settings.

Alright.

 

Even MacOS and iOS work better when cleaned up on a regular basis - with optimized tuning I did the same with those OS's as with Android, Linux, Windows - all of them have their idiosyncratic behaviors.

There are optimal tunings to any OS and applications, with so many options available - the defaults are usually not optimal on any OS or device, so exploring the OS and the application settings fully - and I do mean fully - is a requirement for optimal operation on any OS / application.

Taking a reading of smoothness from the demo in a store isn't accurate, there have been lots of people playing with it, and some think it's funny to screw them up for others, so I wouldn't even bother trying to test usability with anything other than fresh out of the box or completely reset phone, and taking the time to get to know it over a few weeks of tuning and usage.

All new computers, smartphones, etc, will be doing lots of updates - downloads - and you yourself will be cramming all of your personal data and configuration overlaying it, then you'll be installing tons of apps, games, benchmarks, etc.

All of those variables working together can be a recipe to screw it up, so you have to be careful - to be aware of your own contributions - to slowing it down or to improving it's performance.

I run up to a dozen app's at a time, online apps / offline apps, networking filters + security software, and I don't get any glitches - unless I mess up a setting with tuning.

My favorite thing to mess up regularly is to Greenify / Sleep one too many system services from an update, then my alarm messes up - I wake up and the phone is hung in the middle of killing a process it can't kill, so I go into the Greenify app (or OS settings) and remove the system process from the list of Zzzz's, then the alarm works again reliably all of the time, until the next update when I may once again tune too many background processes.

Every time someone tells me their computer / smartphone is a POS, and they let me have a look at it to figure out what is wrong with it, we both come away entertained. They have a well tuned clean running computer, a new perspective on what a wonderful device they have, and I gain further insight into the human condition.

It's a poor golfer that blames his clubs, or blames the course, you learn to adapt to both - learn each contributing factor's strength's and weakness's and play them with each other to get the best experience from both.

Figure out how to have a good experience, through your own mastery of the device and software, don't blame the device for your own shortcomings - it really gets in the way of finding the root cause - fixing the problem - and having a nice day.

 

I always use any device at worst case scenario and if it performs very well then its good to me. Since I will be tuning them up once I get all apps installed to get best performance most of the times.

 

Worst case scenario is "not working well", or "broken", right? You are kind of not giving it the best chance for success if you do that.

If it's not running right, I fix it, then it's running right, and it's all good.

All these smart devices today are so complicated, a fine balance of everything doing what it is supposed to, so contriving a "broken state" without the contravening fix is a self-failing situation.

If it's not working, it's not the device's fault, it's my opportunity to find the root cause and correct the fault, in this case - Wednesday.

 

I agree that all OS need tuning, but i'll also state that IOS seems to (in general compared to a majority of android devices) have the best optimize defaults when you compare oobe. I love the idea of android, but my last few experiences with it have not gone well as far as phones go. I do chalk most of the issues I had to bad hardware but it's hard to justify going back (if you have had issues) when you use your phone to make money and up time on your phone is just as important as up time on your equipment in a datacenter.

 

Also I will state that since I now wear hearing aids, the ones that work with the iphone (mfi) work really well, so that's probably going to lock me in for the foreseeable future. Horray! for progressive hearing loss at 35.

 

Not likely. For me worse case scenario would be, how the device will perform under a noob. First I test it that way before optimizing.
I like my way of doing things, its not 100% foolproof but works on the devices I own. Others think I'm way more demanding when phone just works.

They aren't optimized as people think it is. At express default settings it is no different than W10 or Android at telemetry.
So many damn options in Settings app make me wonder when Apple say iOS is optimized for ease of use. iOS 11 was garbage. So many options under accessibility for brightness,audio etc.. makes me feel Win 10 has done great work to categorize each section. iOS is a mess. iOS 9 and 10 were okay to me.
Grab a copy of PhoneClean,3utools and iMyFone Umate Free to get rid off cache and telemetry. 3utools is a swiss knife for iphones.

 

That's too bad, you're missing out on a lot by not running Android or Linux / UNIX, if you have any interest in computers - programming - gaming - exploring to learn, it's the way to learn a lot.

iOS is a closed environment, a hostile environment to creative programming, it's an OS for those that are captivated by shiny things.

It's not that iOS couldn't be great, but Apple doesn't care to make any of their computers or OS's great, Apple just wants to captivate people's minds and make those minds give the money.

And, Apple is good at doing that.

Eight year iPhone user switches to Android. Here's why.
Cult Media
Published on Apr 28, 2016
Eight years of loyalty using Apple’s revolutionary mobile product finally came to an end for Justin. See why buying the next iPhone made little sense to him anymore.