There is an opinion that Apple has the most successful “intermediate” iPhones. A new generation comes out in a fresh design, and the next one is not so much different in appearance, but it gets an improved filling. This means that it remains relevant longer. But this is a theory, not an unambiguous statement.
For example, I did not move from the iPhone 7 Plus to the improved iPhone 8 Plus, I did not like its too large dimensions. Of course, I tried the iPhone X, but soon after the iPhone XS presentation, I immediately got over to it – the difference in speed was very noticeable.
It was a nice iPhone: like the iPhone X, it lived a short life: it was sold for only one year, after which it disappeared from the company’s online store. Was Apple scared that people would buy the iPhone XS instead of the 11 Pro? Quite possible. I would like to share my accumulated impressions.
Protection and durability
I’ll start with the banal things: how sturdy and durable the phone is. Of the additional protection, I only have glass on the screen, that’s all. I do not like cases, they deprive me of pleasant emotions when you take in hand a small, tightly assembled and high-quality phone made of metal and glass.
The protective glass on the screen is a necessary measure. I was a little shocked at how quickly the screen on the iPhone X was covered with scratches. Therefore, I had to additionally protect the new iPhone XS immediately after purchase and glue the glass.
The back panel, of course, was covered with scratches and abrasions. At the same time, I want to praise the phone for its strength and durability: my daughter regularly plays with it, threw it on the parquet or tiles, the iPhone is safe and sound, without cracks and chips.
Naturally, for a year of use, the back of the phone was covered with small scratches and abrasions, but due to the glare body, the flaws are not striking and are noticeable at certain angles. I remember we shot a video about how useful protective glasses are on the screen. We argued, argued, I argued that the glass takes a blow and cracks, well, I backed up my words with deeds: with all my foolishness I threw it on the studio wooden floor. I tested it on my iPhone – the glass is cracked, the screen is intact, only a few scratches on the steel edging are left as a keepsake.
There was another funny case when a shelf on the wall collapsed in our studio toilet. The clever craftsmen attached it so that it crashed, and the Sonos speaker, and the iPhone that I put there. Again, the protective glass shattered as expected, but the case did not crack when dropped on the tile and did not suffer much, only a few marks remained.
On the Internet, you can see videos of how iPhones are beaten and thrown on the asphalt, here I have no doubt that his glass body will have a bad time. But I have no complaints about the phone at all, excellent quality and solid construction.
Small or big?
In the text, I already said that I changed the iPhone X to the iPhone XS. Perhaps it would be more logical to try the XS Max with a large screen. Still, a device of a new format with a different feel.
But Max, in my opinion, turned out to be too large, and the dimensions of the iPhone X / XS / 11 Pro, as for me, are optimal. In addition, there is an iPad for all complex actions like editing text in the browser, but it’s still inconvenient to do it on the phone.
Battery
According to iOS statistics, the battery lost 11% over a year and a half of use. After migrating to the iPhone XS from the one-year-old iPhone X, there was no critical difference in battery life between them. The results were practically the same: with active use, the charging was barely enough for a day.
And together with the iPhone XS, I also used the iPhone XR as a second phone, here XR is strength and power, it calmly lived until late at night. Alas, but the iPhone XS did not differ with such impressive results and sat down already at 16 o’clock. Therefore, two charges a day for him is a common thing. Now I have already moved to the iPhone 11 Pro, so it works for a long time, no less than the iPhone XR, for which Apple is honored and praised.
I did a material about which chargers should be used in conjunction with an iPhone, and I can give the same advice for the iPhone XS. For the fastest possible charging, buy an 18W or 30W adapter, and at the same time a USB Type-C to Lightning cable – and you will be happy.
Memory
For me, the best option in terms of memory was the 7GB iPhone 128 Plus. Neither more nor less, just right. But then Apple decided that such a modification was not needed and offered 64 GB in the “base”, and then the options for 256 and 512 GB. I moved from my 7 Plus with 128GB a few years ago to an iPhone X with 64GB of storage, and then got greedy and again chose the same amount of storage for the XS. Life became difficult, the free space disappeared almost before our eyes.
64GB seems like a lot, but memory is consumed faster than it looks. Part is eaten up by the system, iOS takes about 10 GB. The archive with iCloud photos is also not a fluff and takes tens of gigabytes. The solution is one: output photos and videos to the cloud. I use iCloud Drive, the 200 GB plan is still enough. At the same time, I will back up the same data in the Google cloud in maximum quality using a subscription to the service.
But if you don’t want to spend money on a subscription, then there is only one option: copy numerous videos from vacations and stories with a child from the phone’s memory to an external drive. Another thing is that the method requires unnecessary body movements, but it helps to radically unload memory. Shooting videos in 4K and 60 fps quickly destroys free space: a minute video weighs about 500 MB.
Camera
The quality of the pictures is very good, I also have no questions about video recording, the iPhone perfectly fulfills the role of a camera for all occasions. It’s a shame, of course, that Apple artificially restricted iPhone XS users by depriving the new Night Mode, as in the iPhone 11 Pro.
But you have to sell new iPhones! In addition, no one forbids the use of third-party applications for shooting in low light, increasing the quality of pictures.
The new line of iPhones has a separate ultra-wide-angle module, but this is not a thing for everyone. I hardly ever use it, except that sometimes it is very convenient to photograph the interiors of cars or apartments. But if you are not a realtor and not a journalist, you are unlikely to suffer much from his absence.
Speed
Last fall, when I compared the iPhone XS and the newest iPhone 11 Pro, I was surprised. The speed of the iPhone XS was even faster than the iPhone 11 Pro, the difference was at the level of milliseconds – a trifle, but noticeable. Funnily enough, the old iOS 12.4 ran slightly faster than the new iOS 13.
At first, Face ID did not work well in poor lighting, you sit in a dark room in the evening, rock your child, but the phone does not see you and you have to enter a pin code. But after several iOS updates, the system began to work better, I have no more complaints.
AirPods Pro
I wanted to tell you what useful accessories I used with the iPhone XS, but I didn’t have anything extraordinary. I already talked about charging above, I’ll write about Apple Watch 4 some other time. Remains headphones. My favorites turned out to be AirPods Pro, although, for my taste, they do not have the best sound in their class, and not the highest autonomy.
Nevertheless, I fell in love with them because they take up little space, the compact case is beautiful without further ado. The noise reduction works well, the headphones isolate from unpleasant ambient sounds, charge quickly and fit perfectly into the Apple ecosystem. It is convenient to switch while listening to audio on different devices without unnecessary body movements. Well, they sit perfectly in the ears and do not fall out.
Prices
I bought my iPhone XS from our friends at Biggeek.ru in the fall of 2018, at that time the phone cost 85 rubles.
At the end of 2019, prices for the iPhone XS literally collapsed: it was sold for 50-55 thousand rubles, and in the spring of 2020 I saw even more amazing promotions: the phone could be bought for 35-40 thousand rubles. In my memory, this is the first Apple flagship smartphone that has dropped so rapidly in such a short time. The reason is simple: it was necessary to sell the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, against their background, sales of the iPhone XS stopped, so sellers began to make such discounts, clearing out stocks.
At the beginning of August, the iPhone XS is still on sale, a new 64 GB phone costs about 50 rubles.
A successful phone or not?
Those who bought the iPhone XS in 2018 when it first came out can safely use it for a few more years. Even against the background of the newest iPhone 11 Pro, it looks good, I changed the old one to a new one only because of memory problems, I wanted more volume. Another reason was the desire to find out if the 11 Pro really works for so long – still, in terms of the autonomy of the iPhone XS, it leaves much to be desired. However, given the difference in price between the XS and 11 Pro, you can buy chargers and Power Banks for years to come, without knowing the troubles.
Buy an iPhone XS in 2020? In my opinion, the new iPhone 11 looks more interesting: it has a larger screen, albeit a lower resolution, it works longer, but the photo part is still better. But at the same time, from the point of view of design and materials, the iPhone XS feels like a more expensive thing, and its dimensions are already very comfortable.
Judging by the sales, people are still choosing new, not old models: the iPhone 11 looks more interesting than the iPhone XS in terms of features. At the same time, at the time of its appearance, the iPhone XS was an excellent device, based on the results of long-term use of the phone, I have only one complaint about it related to the very average battery life.
At the same time, there are much more positive aspects: small and convenient, in terms of speed it is not inferior to the latest iPhone 11 Pro, good photos and videos – in general, everything for which top iPhones love.
