IPhone XS Max 1.5 Years Later Full Review

IPhone XS Max has been out for about a year and a half and many of you were asking me maybe I should do a year and a half later video on the iPhone XS and XS max and so this is my iPhone XS max I wanted to talk about what it’s like to use as far as it’s designed compared to say an iPhone 11 pro max and if you take a look at my11 pro max next to it you really can’t tell the difference just looking directly at it other than that the XS max has a case on it and so looking at them side-by-side there’s not really a difference until you flip them over and so if I take the case off the XS max of course the camera module is a little bit different but also you have a matte texture on the back of the 11 Pro Maxand that makes a big difference if you’re not using a case with it it’s got a very nice feel to it I think it looks a little bit better it’s not glossy and it doesn’t really pick up fingerprints like the XS Max does so depending on how you use your phone if you’re using a case of course this doesn’t matter and then it just comes down to whether or not you like the camera module on the 11 Pro max versus the XS max but the 11 Pro max does have a little bit better camera module.

I’ll talk a little bit more about the camera later now as far as the XS max design everything else is very familiar of course you have a stainless steel that’s polished on this one around the outside edge it looks really good it’s got all the same buttons everywhere that you would expect and the display is the same thing you would expect with all of the others it’s got fast faced ID so if I pick it up swipe up we’re in right away and speaking of speed this is still super fast today using this next to an 11 Pro Max for example the XS and XSmax still have the Apple a 12 CPU in it so basically Apple’s still using this with an unlocked GPU core in the 20/20 iPad pro it has the same processor for the most part and you really won’t notice any difference so anything from going into music and just scrolling will be super fast maybe we’ll go over go into a game once it resumed here you’ll see that we can get right back into it nice and fast there’s no slowdowns there’s not really anything here well I’m kind of stuck in this but you get the idea it’s nice and fast no problems with that whatsoever and if we want to leave the game go backout use the phone to message maybe go to Safari or even open the camera everything’s nice and fast you’re really not going to notice any slowdown compared with the 11pro max side by side the difference is so slight most people would never notice it from day to day and so using this in 2020 is not a problem.

So we’ll talk more about if you should upgrade from the XS max in a moment but everything from the speakers were you’ve got the stereo facing speakers maybe they’re a little bit better and louder in the 11pro max but it’s not really a reason to upgrade per se and then also reception now theiPhone XS max does have a little bit slower LTE / Wi-Fi because it doesn’t have Wi-Fi 6 but I have a Wi-Fi 6 router in my house and if you have one you still are not going to notice a difference when you’re just doing normal tasks so maybe you’re watching youtube video you’re not going to notice a difference because it doesn’t take a tremendous amount of bandwidth to watch YouTube video so going from say the XS max to the 11pro max with Wi-Fi 6when you’re using that sort of setup really does not make much of a difference in the everyday day-to-day use of it I’ve noticed no difference as far as receptions when I’m using this to make phone calls or using it just forWi-Fi or browsing the internet using LTE there’s really not a difference between the two some people may with different carriers but I’ve noticed no difference on my carrier now one of the biggest differences in 2020 with the iPhone XS max now that the XS max has been out for a year and a half the cameras are still good but they’re not up to the level of the 11pro max so that’s probably its biggest differentiating factor along with the battery which I’ll talk about in a moment so we do have a normal lens and a telephoto lens but we don’t have that wide angle lens or ultrawide angle on the 11pro max now that may not be a big deal for some but for others it will be you still get portrait mode and things like that so here’s a little portrait I snapped and it does a good job and then if we go back to the camera I’m in the camera go back to the camera maybe go to a video it for k60 but for some reason Apple has decided that we can’t change it in the software here within the camera app except for in the newest phone so eventhe iPhone 11 can do this and the iPhone set but not the XS max so this is something that Apple really should add. It’s sort of ridiculous that they didn’t add it but we can’t change between frame rates here but the camera works great in fact I’ve used it.

The XR camera as well as the XS max camera in many videos whenI’m using it outside and no one could tell the difference between the footage of a normal camera that I would use such as a Panasonic gh4or a cinema camera that I’ve used in the the iPhone many people preferred the footage of the iPhone as well and in a recent video I just recorded with theiPhone se the new one to record the whole video and many people appreciated that footage so this camera keeps up with that it is not as good as the 11promax camera and you don’t have that extra lens but it’s close enough for most people that I’m not sure that it’s worth upgrading now on the XS max this is where it feels like the forward facing camera or the true depth camera as Apple Calls it is falling a little bit behind because in 2020 the forward facing camera on the iPhone 11 Pro max is a 12 megapixel sensor whereas we only have a7 megapixel forward facing camera on the XS Max and for most people this isn’t going to be much of an issue because you can still do portrait modes in real time it will blur the background and everything but you don’t have higher resolution video so when we go over to video on the iPhone 11 pro max we can go up to 4k 60 whereas on the XS max we can go to 1080p and this is okay but if you’re recording 4k for YouTube or something else the 11 Pro max is just a leap ahead of it when it comes to that you can also record slow motion selfies or slow fees as Apple calls it and with the XS max you don’t have that it’s actually not a feature I’ve ever used you’ll see it just reverts to the rear camera when you go to slow motion but you can keep it on the forward facing camera on the 11 Pro max.

So the cameras in the front are not too much of a big deal when it comes to the forward facing camera but the video is a very big difference when it comes to that so they’re fine but if that’s your determining factor yes you could upgrade to the 11 pearlmax but if you don’t care about that you’ll be happy with the XS max in 2020even though it’s a little bit behind when it comes to that forward facing camera but one reason some people may want to upgrade from the XS max to answer phone is the battery and the battery is okay in this device and it’s fine for most people maybe 7 hours of screen on time depending on how you’re using it but with the 11pro max you’re going to get about 10 to 12 hours of screen on time so it is a big leap in battery life but if we take a look at the battery this was used for six months and then it was replaced and then use another six months and it’s a hundred percent battery health and so usually this will start to creep down after about six months of use it’s just normal for it to degrade over time and eighty percent after two years is normal and it just depends on use and since I’ve been using the 11pro max since it released and I haven’t been using this it’s just stayed at a hundred so if you store these at about 50 percent battery life they last quite well and so normally seven hours of screen on time some people may get more some people may get less but six to seven hours with normal use charge it at night take it off the charger that’s kind of how I do things put it on a wireless charger charge there’s no problem here put it on a wireless charger charge it and then take it off the charger in the morning and it does fine it just lasts well for me andI have no problems with it so really the battery life and maybe the camera are reason two reasons to upgrade but nothing else is really a reason atthis point until maybe iPhone 12 that may change quite a few things now after using the XS max for a year it really doesn’t feel like a huge upgrade to go from this to the iPhone 11 pro max and in 2020.

If you can pick one of these upI would recommend it if you can get a great deal on it the deal is that Apple Doesn’t sell these anymore new they don’t sell them from the Apple Store you have to buy them either left over or maybe from a retailer that’s getting rid of them because Apple just doesn’t sell them new on their website or in their stores so you’ll have to pick them up elsewhere or maybe picked one up used or refurbished so if you’re going to do that and you can get that get it for maybe half the price of an 11 pro max I would say it’s a good deal if you’re still looking for one and you get it close to new as far as it when it was brand-new over $1000 then I would say skip it and just pick up the new ones so it really depends on what you can find one of these for but I Would highly recommend it if you can get a deal on it and I think it looks great and feels modern compared to today’s phones of course it’s not that old but when you put a case on it most people aren’t going to notice anyway because they’re holding the phone this way and so there won’t be any issue you’ve got fast face unlock you’ve got fast everything else you’re just missingWi-Fi six and a little bit of extra battery so those couple of things I Think maybe make it fall behind a little bit in 2020 but overall it’s definitely recommendable now if you have an iPhone XS or XS Max and you’re planning to upgrade I’d love to hear when you’re planning to upgrade are you planning to get an eleven soon maybe waiting for the iPhone 12.