These are small things, but it’s hard to imagine the Apple of even just five years ago forcing such tradeoffs onto its customers. And the phones still ship with USB-A cables, even though modern MacBooks use USB-C. So, if you still used wired headphones, you’ll have to buy your own dongle for them. You might recall that iPhones don’t have headphone jacks anymore. You could hardly be blamed for choosing more affordable options like an older iPhone or a mid-range Android handset, even with the knowledge that you're not getting the best-of-the-best internals.Īnd if you weren’t already annoyed by the price, this might send you over the edge: Neither the iPhone XS nor the XS Max ship with a lighting-to-3.5mm adapter in the box. But a thousand dollars for a phone is also a huge expense for the majority of the population. And while I don’t really notice the “notch” at the top of the iPhone XS (the cut-out that houses the front-facing camera and 3D sensors), I find this same cut-out jarring when I’m using split-screen mode on the iPhone XS Max.Ī lot of people will make the argument that these powerful mini-computers are worth the inflated cost, especially since it's something you use all day every day. Personally, I still think the size of the iPhone XS is the way to go. I found the difference between the iPhone X and XS’s battery life to be negligible but the iPhone XS Max’s battery never gave me the kind of anxiety I get at the end of the day with a smaller phone.įor some, the iPhone XS Max’s big display-the biggest ever on an iPhone-will be worth the occasional fumbles and the times you just need two hands just to hold the thing. The iPhone XS, meanwhile, only lasts a half hour longer. It’s supposed to last an hour and a half longer than an ol’ iPhone X. The iPhone XS Max has a larger battery than the iPhone XS, given its larger physical size. If you’ve already decided that you’re getting one of these new phones, but don’t know which one to pick, it really comes down to battery life and bigness. As I used these new phones, I found myself struggling to define, exactly, what felt new about them. Just don’t expect to feel the kind of feelings, as you’re sliding this phone out of your pocket or purse, that you’d get with a radically redesigned piece of hardware. Others will buy one of these because they want to have the newest thing. Some people will upgrade because they’re due for an upgrade. This year’s phones don’t spark strong feelings-except maybe chagrin that they cost so much. For the $1,000 you’ll spend on this phone, you’re earning back seconds of your time, getting photos you can adjust after you shoot them, and experiencing sophisticated computer vision in mobile apps.īut aside from one of the phones having a giant display, the iPhone XS and the larger iPhone XS Max don’t feel much different from last year’s iPhone X. This chip powers faster FaceID unlocks, better photos, and advanced AI. One of those new features is an impressive new chip, one of the first of its kind in a smartphone. This year's new iPhones? They're last year's phone design with some new internals. They’re well-designed, satisfying, and covetable.

Apple’s iPhones, in particular, trigger a personal connection to an inanimate object.

We feel frantic when we think we’ve misplaced them. We use them both to deeply connect and mindlessly scroll. Smartphones, for many of us, are emotional objects.

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