iPhone XR, XS, XS Max Announced – An Honest Opinion

Well if you’re an “Apple FanBoy” then you should stop right now and do something better with your Apple device cos your battery lasts 3 hrs (that’s what she said).

Apple recently became a Trillion Dollar company and I’m not gonna emphasize on how that happened, but to sum up the past few years, it relies “Heavily” on the Business model of “Create a Problem and Sell the solution”. Fast forward to 2017, we got the iPhone X after iPhone 8, cos 7 ate 9 (get it?) Enter 2019, the year where Uber has started planning on bringing flying taxis while Elon Musk already put one in the space; Apple here introduces us to the technology of “Dual Sim”. I mean Apple got Swiftkey recently, this is too much for Apple fans to handle man gee, Give them a break Tim Cook!!

The new iPhones

So the new phones are named iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR which stand for Expensive and Stupid, Maximum Expensive and Stupid and iPhone X Refurbished/Refresh?? (See where I’m going?). Anyway, the cheaper among the three musketeers is, of course, the XR, and only XS and XS Max seem to have received a decent upgrade if any and let’s not forget the Dual Sim feature. But a decent upgrade is merely a small amount considering you’re paying a stupid amount of money to buy a phone. Oh wait, its major user base is the stupid demography, makes sense!!

Let’s talk Specs

So Tim Cook quoted some really big numbers on the Keynote, let’s see if the following table knock I mean make sense.

Feature	iPhone XS	iPhone XS Max	iPhone XR
Screen	5.8” OLED	6.5” OLED	6.1” LCD
Resolution	2436*1125 px @ 458PPI	2688*1242 px @458PPI	1792*828 px @326PPI
Splash, Water & Dust Resistant	IP68 Certfied	IP68 Certfied	IP67 Certfied
Chipset	A12	A12	A12
Camera	Dual 12MP Rear 7MP Front	Dual 12MP Rear 7MP Front	12MP Rear 7MP Front
Storage Options (GB)	64,256,512	64,256,512	64,128,256
Battery	Sucks	Sucks	Sucks as usual
Price	1.5 Kidney	2 Kidneys	1 Kidney

The Upgrades

So, design wise there have been minor improvements in screen size and resolution along with IP68 certification which OK. But the battery is also a big deal for iPhone users as it tends to drain out faster than a regular Android priced similarly. To make it fishier, Apple has chosen to display reference values such as 1hr more battery than the iPhone X and such comparative numbers in battery section of new iPhones which makes me question what does the R stand for in XR again? but of course, it’s Apple.

Coming to the newest “Dual SIM” feature, which rest of the world started using since 2000 thanks to “Technological Marvel” BenefonTwin phone, released by Benefon. It took Apple 18 years to adapt to the Dual SIM technology but also it’s not exactly Dual SIM you see. It’s a combination of an eSIM and a physical nano SIM so, well played Apple.

The selling point of the XR (doesn’t even have a 1080p display) here has to be the 5 colour variants and it’s iPhone for everyone price as quoted by Tim Cook which is $749 or ₹76,900 for the 64GB model. And from there it tops at $1,499 or ₹1,34,900 for the 512GB XS Max. In other words, the newer storage options are so high that even some of Apple’s MacBooks don’t even come close, man I’m gonna store all my movies on my phone and maybe even edit/store my YT videos on the fly as well.

Should you buy one?

Well well well, if you wonder what really has been upgraded? it’s not the company’s motto nor is it the consciousness of the consumer (you never know) but the price and maybe a few minor improvements here and there. If you’re just a regular consumer who wants a good phone at a decent price then please take a look at the Android Hemisphere, you’ve got great options such as OnePlus 6 and Galaxy Note 9 or maybe even budget options which don’t cost an organ. If you’re a hardcore Apple fan, do go for it as we’ve already established what the S stands for.

Please don’t get offended, if you are offended then, I don’t care. Do check out more tech Youtuber’s thoughts on the same for more in-depth review. See you guys in the next one!!