I have a 6s and for fun, watched a video showing off the X vs. the 6s. Now, not a perfect compare due to the X not being an Xs of course, but they both had the last 12 os. I was sort of bummed/relieved to see the 6s neck in neck in terms of speed/reaction time, and actually launched some apps faster than the X. Makes me think it might be okay if I continue to skip a phone upgrade, at least for the time being. I am sure my wife will be relived. :)
Because of that battery-drain scandal, Apple is offering $30 replacement batteries for the 6S’ until the end of the year. Take advantage of it, but don’t wait until December. Probably gonna be a rush.
Also, every app looks perfectly normal on the XS Max, but many of them are just upscaled X versions. So everything is bigger, but they don’t take advantage of the extra space. I expect that will change over time.
It’s weird, I was expecting the XS MAX to be bigger than the 6S+ but the size is actually the same. The display of course pretty much fills the space except for the notch (and a bit lighter I think, which is nice).
— Alan
It’s identical to the plus models in size, yeah. Just no bezels. That is exactly what I wanted since the X was announced.
I do find it surprisingly heavy, the double glass and steel edges add up.
What is this right handed bias shit. Control center is all the way on the top right of the screen with no option to switch it to the left side.
You can take your sinister ways widdershins right back to Android, daemonkin!
My max left China today, so I am guessing I won’t see it for another week. (UPS updated: says Wednesday).
Anyone get a watch? Much more curious about that.
Edit: I really want the watch now. Marquees Brownlee’s review: https://youtu.be/naIaW4pk_-o
I ordered my watch from BH. Was supposed to ship today, it didn’t, and now the entire site is on holiday till the 3rd without any warning when I ordered last week. So that’s fun.
I came here to post the same thing. Starting to get used to it on day 2 but this thing is dense.
This will be the first time in years that I buy a case (looking at getting an apple leather one). It should make it safer to shift around in my hand when repositioning to reach far opposite corners.
Oh I would absolutely get a case or skin. These phones are insanely slippery and it costs $550 to replace the base glass, as it’s bonded to everything other than the display and battery.
I really like Apple’s modern leather cases. If you haven’t used one for a couple generations, they have vastly improved metal buttons now that feel really great. Clicky.
If you aren’t up for a case, the dbrand vinyl skins are excellent too. They don’t offer much protection but they are grippy. Just be sure to get one that covers the sides also.
I keep my iPod Touch 6 on 9.2, if only for the “slide to unlock” thing, that was a goner starting iOS10. Looking as iOS updates are mostly oriented toward phones as far as feature, that she’d have to cope to the 32bocalypse, I’d stay in the 9.2 comfort if I were her.
But I also don’t use ever an iOS device to enter sensible data in the web browser, so if that sort of security issue is in her mind, maybe upgrading is the better move?
I have always bought the Apple leather cases for my phones, I think they look great, get better with age, and have a nice feel to them. I already have the forest green version for my Max.
That said, I have gone caseless on my X for the last several months. It is a slippery phone, but I am careful with it, case or not, and love the look and feel of the phone without one. Except the camera bump, which I really hate at times.
I ordered a watch on release day and according to UPS it went from Japan to China on Friday and is scheduled to be delivered by end of day on Monday. Pretty crazy.
Interesting. I was surprised to hear than anyone uses Apple mapping, as I just assumed it was a drastically inferior product to Google Maps everywhere. In Toronto that’s certainly the case. It would be a good product compared to a 2003 GPS, but Google Maps is almost magical by comparison.
I used Google Maps for the first time in awhile yesterday (with CarPlay). It suggested the same route Apple Maps did, except the last portion. It told me to go on a road where a high school was getting out. Apple Maps said to take back roads.
Google Maps said the back way was about about the same travel time. One huge plus for Google is that shows alternate routes time difference right in the map. I really liked that.
I took Google’s suggested route by the HS. It was already showing that portion as red. It took 5 minutes longer than Google predicted.
Outside of the alternate route times, it has a worse interface than Apple Maps, and wasn’t any better than Apple in traffic and time predictions. Of course I need to use it for awhile to see which is really better.
Living in a big city in the US, Apple Maps is quite good. Not as good as Waze though.
Really surprised at how the camera’s processing (essentially a 6-shot HDR) improves unedited photo quality. Took some photos at an improv show and stage lighting generally makes things either blow our or get lost, but had good detail across the lighting range for the most part.
These were shot simultaneously with both phones held in one hand, side-by-side. No editing:
iPhone X:
iPhone XS Max:
Certainly in cases like this, where the detail isn’t lost to over/underexposure, you could edit the X shot to look good as the XS Max. But nice not to have to.
This thing makes me look like I’m a real photographer. My cousin put together a cheese dish tonight for dinner and wanted to take a picture of it, so I took it with my phone for her. Look at these shots, all I did was set it to portrait, no other changes.
But can it capture macro of jumping spiders?
Waze just updated to support CarPlay. Wish I had a CarPlay compatible car to try it out!