iPhone XS Max hands-on review

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Apple iPhone XS Max

One of the most frequent criticisms we’ve heard about the iPhone X is that its 5.8-inch screen simply isn’t big enough. Last year, big-screen lovers had to opt for the less fully featured iPhone 8 Plus to get the most real estate. Not anymore. Apple’s new iPhone Xs Max has a much bigger screen than the iPhone X, and all the same top-shelf features. It’s the perfect option for people who want to upgrade from older Plus models.

We do think the name is a bit of an unfortunate mishap. Apple should have stuck to the traditional Plus moniker, as Xs Max (pronounced ten-S Max) sounds like the name of an Android phone from five years ago. Naming issues aside, let’s dive into what it’s like to hold this phone.

Large-screen iPhone X

The iPhone Xs Max is big, beautiful, and bold — especially with the new gold color option (silver and space grey are also available if you want something less flashy). It has a massive 6.5-inch screen, but the body is about the same size as the iPhone 8 Plus. If you’re coming from a Plus device, you should feel right at home. If you’re not, this phone will feel cumbersome. It requires two hands to operate, as we struggled to quickly reach parts of the screen with one.

It looks exactly like last year’s iPhone X, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The back is minimal, with the elegantly placed vertical dual camera. We do wish the camera was flush on the back, but we’ve been wishing for this for quite some time. The glass — which Apple said is its “most durable” — feels nice to the touch, and the metal frame feels high-end. The Xs Max is heavy at 208 grams, but it certainly helps make it feel worth the price tag.

The button and charger placements remain the same — there’s also still no headphone jack — and the notch on the front carries the TrueDepth camera for Face ID. This unlocking method is said to be faster and more secure than ever before thanks to the new processor inside the Xs Max, but we were unable to test it.

The Xs Max’s screen is the star of the show here. It’s a beautiful 6.5-inch Super Retina HD OLED screen, with colors that pop and mesmerizingly deep levels of black. It supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so you’re getting accurate color representation, that makes supported content look absolutely stunning. We watched a few scenes from Ready Player One, and it looks realistic, as though we were very much a part of the virtual world.

It’s the perfect option for people who want to upgrade from older Plus models.

The 2,688 x 1,242 resolution means you’re getting the highest resolution iPhone available (458 pixels per inch), and everything on the screen looks incredibly sharp and crisp. There’s also support for True Tone again, which adjusts the screen colors to match the temperature of the light in your surroundings.

It’s a fantastic screen, and the Xs Max’s size makes it the perfect option for consuming media. Apple also improved the water resistance on the device, bumping it up to IP68, which means you can leave it submerged up to two meters for 30 minutes.

Strong performance, iOS 12, and better battery life

Apple’s latest processor is the A12 Bionic, and it’s powering all the new iPhones. It includes a “next-generation Neural Engine,” which now has eight cores, and overall the chip can process 5 trillion operations per second. That essentially means the iPhone Xs Max can handle seriously intense computing tasks, and complete them faster than ever before. It may well be the most powerful smartphone available to date.

We played Elder Scrolls: Blades, a new game from Bethesda arriving later this year, and were blown away by the level of detailed graphics. It’s one of the best-looking mobile games we’ve ever seen, and it’s astoundingly smooth on this phone. Walking around and moving the camera is fluid, with zero stutter or lag. We also tried an ARKit 2.0 game, which managed to seamlessly layer detailed graphics over the real world. Granted, all of this was done in a controlled demo, so we’ll definitely need to do further testing to see just how far the A12 Bionic processor can take us.

iPhone Xs Max Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

With the removal of the home button, you now need to use gestures first introduced with the iPhone X to navigate the operating system. It’s one of the best gesture systems we’ve used on a smartphone, and we didn’t run into any performance problems moving around the OS, or with opening and switching between apps. The iPhone XS Max runs iOS 12, which drops September 17, and you can read our guide on everything that’s new with the latest version.

It looks exactly like last year’s iPhone X, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Battery-wise, Apple claims the iPhone Xs Max can last up to 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone X, which means you can expect about a full day of use. We’ll need to use the phone for a few days to see more precise measurements, and whether Apple’s claims ring true.

Wireless charging is available again, but we’re still bummed to see no fast-charging cable included in the box — you need to buy it separately.

Solid camera improvements

The iPhone Xs Max has two 12-megapixel cameras on the back: a standard f/1.8 lens and a telephoto lens with a f/2.4 aperture. The second lens is capable of up to 2x optical zoom, and it’s used for Portrait Mode photos. The camera sensor is said to be bigger than last year’s iPhone X, so you should see slight improvements overall.

Two key improvements enhance the camera experience over the iPhone X: Depth Control and Smart HDR. The former allows you to adjust the level of bokeh — or background blur — in Portrait Mode photos. It works really well, and it’s a great option if you want to tweak the photo exactly to your liking. It’s a feature we’ve seen on other Android phones before. You also still get the same Portrait Lighting features from last year, but all of these should work better than ever thanks to the A12 Bionic. In the few tests we did, the camera was capable of identifying the edges around a subject accurately. We’ll need to do more testing to see how it fares.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

We’re more excited to test Smart HDR. Essentially, it captures a lot of photos at the same time, and then with the help of the A12 Bionic processor, the camera chooses the best of each to create one photo with excellent dynamic range. That means you won’t need to worry about photos being overexposed or underexposed in dynamic lighting conditions – it will look just right. The example photos we saw looked absolutely stunning, which is why we can’t wait to take the iPhone Xs Max out for a spin in contrasting lighting.

Apple also said you can record stereo sound with the camera, and there’s extended dynamic range, but we haven’t had a chance to see this in action.

The front-facing, 7-megapixel camera (with f/2.2 aperture) snapped a few nice selfies in our testing — including Portrait Mode selfies, thanks to the TrueDepth camera on the front. Expect to be able to create Animojis and Memojis with iOS 12 on this device as well.

The camera didn’t have any shutter lag, and the photos we took in the event space looked good, but we’ll need more time to fully test the iPhone Xs Max and see its full capabilities.

Apple iPhone XS Max Compared To

Apple iPhone XS

Apple iPhone XR

Apple iPhone X

Apple iPhone 7

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Apple iPhone SE

iPhone 6S Plus

Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 5C

Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 4S

Apple iPhone 4

Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB

Apple iPhone (4GB)

Price and availability

The iPhone Xs Max starts at $1,100, which is a lot of money. Most people will likely be satisfied with the iPhone XR, the third iPhone announced today that has similar features, except for the OLED screen and second camera on the rear. You should only consider the Max if you want the extra screen real estate, but the slight bump in battery life makes it a good choice too. Pre-orders start September 14, and the phone goes on sale on September 21.

It’s the most expensive smartphone from

Apple

to date, but keep in mind this is very much an “S” model iPhone. The upgrades are modest over last year’s iPhone X, but it certainly is quite a jump if you’re coming from anything older than an iPhone 8. We’ll be testing the new crop of iPhones over the next two weeks, so stay tuned for our final thoughts on whether the Xs Max is a worthwhile upgrade.