Apple Keynote September 2018: Drool over the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR

The 2018 range of iPhones have been finally unveiled — the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. While the XS is an upgrade to last year’s X, the XS Max is a bigger version of X with largest iPhone display. The XR offers the thrills of the iPhone XS for a lower price with an edge-to-edge LCD display and single rear camera setup.

All the 2018 iPhone models feature glass-metal builds and are water as well as dust resistant. The iPhone XS and XS Plus have stainless steel frames whereas the XR has a 7000 series Aluminium frame. All of them feature Qi-standard wireless charging.

The iPhone XS sports a 5.8-inch OLED Super Retina display with 3D Touch, Dolby Vision and HDR10, with the notch on top. The iPhone XS Plus offers a 6.5-inch OLED Super Retina display — the largest ever fitted to an iPhone. The XS’ display is in fact as big as the whole of the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone XR offers a 6.1-inch LCD Liquid Retina display. It lacks 3D Touch, but offers True Tone and a wide colour support. The Taptic Feedback enables accessing the Torch and camera. Precision-milled glass, advanced pixel masking and sub-pixel anti-aliasing allows the display to follow the curves of the device, while a new backlight design enables the display to stretch into the corners.

All the three models are built around the new A12 Bionic chipset, which consists of a custom hexa-core CPU, a quad-core GPU and an octa-core Neural Engine. They will be launched with iOS 12 out-of-the-box.

The TrueDepth camera system uses precision depth-sensing technology that goes far beyond the capabilities and security of two-dimensional facial scanners and enables users to unlock iPhone, use Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more features with a simple glance.

On the iPhone XS and XS Plus, the 12MP dual camera system features dual optical image stabilisation with 2x optical zoom, while a new sensor is twice as fast. Capabilities like advanced depth segmentation using the Neural Engine, Smart HDR enabling photos with HDR and better image detail, advanced bokeh quality in Portrait mode photos and dynamic depth of field that is user adjustable in the Photos app are aided with advanced software.

When it comes to the optics, the XR has to make do with a single 12MP sensor with f/1.8 aperture, supported by OIS. The Smart HDR is the most hyped feature that takes multiple shots in different exposures and combines them to get the bets shot. The camera also relies on software for bokeh photos as well. It can also record 4K videos up to 60fps.

The iPhone XS lasts up to 30 minutes longer than iPhone X whereas the iPhone XS Max can stretch it up to 1.5 hours longer than iPhone X. For the iPhone XR, Apple claims a stamina of 1.5 hours more than that of the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone XS starts at Rs 99,900 for the base 64GB variant, with 256GB and 512GB costing Rs 1,14,000 and Rs 1,24,900. The XS Max starts at Rs 1,09,900 for the 64GB version. The 256GB version will be priced at Rs 1,24,900, while the 512GB version is priced at a staggering Rs 1,44,900. The iPhone XR will be available starting Rs 76,900 for the 64GB variant, going all the way up to Rs 81,900 for the 128GB and Rs 91,900 for the 256GB variant.