iPhone XS review

Seems pretty similar to the iPhone X until you look real close...

The iPhone XS is the follow-up to the iPhone X, Apple’s previous showcase for everything new and shiny in iPhone land. So what's the difference?  

The iPhone XS is the same size, the same price, has the same underlying screen tech. But some parts are better than ever. A new camera ramps-up the quality of your pics at day and night, and there’s a more powerful engine under the hood.

The £999 starting price is enough to induce vertigo in some, and battery life is passable and nothing more. But when was the last time we didn’t have to charge an iPhone every day?

The iPhone XS’s job isn’t to offer something brand new. That is down to the bigger iPhone XS Max and the mid-tier iPhone XR. This phone looks and feels just like the iPhone X. It’s shiny steel on the sides, glass on the front and back. 

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The iPhone XS is also the smallest of the three new iPhones, the obvious choice if you can spend big and want classic iPhone pocket-ability. It’s no monster-size phone, despite the oversize price.

The iPhone XS’s notch doesn’t look unusual anymore either. Androids of all sorts have them these days. And your colour choices are the familiar white/silver, Space grey and gold.

So what’s special about this phone? Apple still has the most advanced face unlock feature going. Most Androids just use a front camera. Some have a bit of IR jazz as well, for better results in low light.

Apple's Face ID uses 3D scanning and it'll recognise your mug if your head is tilted or if you wear glasses. It’s quite brilliant, and is even designed to keep up if you start growing a beard, wearing glasses or put on a few pounds. Thankfully, the iPhone XS won’t tell you if it notices the latter, but who knows what the next version of iOS has in store.

The iPhone XS also has great little speaker system. There’s one driver on the bottom, another in the earpiece. This duo is loud, and like the Galaxy S9 phones there’s even a hint of real bass to make kick drums sound vaguely as they should.

The usual Apple annoyances remain, mind. There’s no headphone jack and the included earphones somehow manage to make ambient noise sound even louder than when they’re not worn. And non-expandable storage means you should be fairly careful about the model you pick. A grand only gets you 64GB, and the top-end 512GB version is an extra £350. Ouch.