It’s that time of the year again. The beginning of fall is when a lot of the new flagship smartphones get announced. Samsung already announced their newest Note device, the Galaxy Note 9, while Google will announce the Pixel 3 in early October. However, September is the month of Apple, and they’ve announced their latest lineup of smartphones. And the follow up to last year’s iPhone X is the iPhone XS (pronounced ten – S). Aside from the XS, Apple announced the iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR. You can read more about them here and here, respectively. And with that out of the way, let’s begin!

Design

Starting with the design, Apple is clearly distancing itself in the luxurious market. Although you can clearly blame that on the high price, the design is also another big reason for that. And if you’ve held the iPhone X before, you’ll feel right at home with this one too. The glass back has a good feeling in the hand, and it’s a big fingerprint magnet. The camera setup is in the same position, and it will still wobble when placed on flat surface. Overall, they’re all just small upgrades over the previous iPhone X, as it has been the case with previous S devices. On the front, the display is also the same panel as on the previous model. The 5.8” Super AMOLED display has 1125 x 2436 resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. And yes, the notch is still here. Finishing with the color, you have a new Gold option besides the regular Space Gray and Silver.

Features

The biggest improvements are on the inside, and Apple is proudly presenting that. Starting with the chipset, the XS features the new Apple A12 Bionic processor. It’s up to 30% faster than the previous A11 chip found on the iPhone X, as per Apple’s claims. For the RAM, Apple finally goes up a bit, increasing the RAM to 4GB. That should be better for multitasking, especially with the excellent optimization in iOS. Furthermore, the internal storage can be chosen at 64, 256 or 512GB. This way every user can choose their preferred option depending on their needs. Finally, the battery is also getting a small bump. Although there is no official information about its exact capacity, Apple claims it can hold up an hour and a half more than the iPhone X. A small upgrade, but an upgrade nevertheless.

In the camera department, everything is nearly the same. On the back, you have the same 12MP + 12MP combo. The primary sensor has f/1.8 aperture, while the secondary, telephoto shooter has f/2.4 aperture. Both are optically stabilized, and both are taking excellent pictures. The same is true for the front – you’re still getting the same, excellent 7MP camera with f/2.2 aperture. For video, the only bump is on the front, since you can shoot in 1080p at 60 frames per second. The rest is, again, the same as last year.

On the inside, the iPhone XS will ship with the newest iOS 12. It has many new great features, like the Facetime with up to 32 different users and the personal Animoji. Aside from that, there are also improvements in the performance, or up to 2x faster app launch on heavy load.

Price and availability

The iPhone XS is available for preorder through Apple’s website. Prices start at $1000 for the 64GB model, up to $1300 for the 512GB model.

So, what are your thoughts on the iPhone XS? Share them in the comments below.