Hello, my name's Tom and this is Proper Honest Tech.
Earlier this week, Apple announced it's range of phones for this year, the iPhone 13,
the 13 Mini, and the two Pro models. The internet is, understandably, awash with videos right now
talking about the new phones and everything that they can offer. In fact, it's about 1:30 pm here
in the UK on pre order day, and about 20 minutes ago I was able to pre order myself a 13 Pro.
But, what you might find interesting, as someone who runs a YouTube tech channel,
is that my 13 Pro will be replacing not a 12, not even an 11, but this, an iPhone XS.
And the fact that I've had this phone for 3 years now got me thinking. Because, prior to this,
I would upgrade usually each year, maybe skipping a particularly boring generation here and there.
But 3 years with the same phone? This was new to me. And it got me thinking about why I've
stuck it out with the XS for so long, and why, even this year, I was only about 80%
certain that I was going to be making the upgrade.
Because not everyone has the ability to spend more than £1,000 on a phone these days. In fact,
for many, spending half of that is still way too much, which is why the budget smartphone
market is as large as it is today, albeit populated almost entirely by Android devices.
But what if you really want to get into the Apple ecosystem, but stretching to £489,
the cheapest overall cost I could find on the Apple website for an iPhone 11,
a 2 year old device, is a stretch too far? You could opt for the iPhone SE, which comes in at
around £389, but loses many of the more modern features like Face ID and an all-body display.
So, in my review of the device that I've been using now for 3 years,
I'm presenting the iPhone XS as a viable alternative to anyone in that situation,
looking for an iphone at the cheaper end of the market. The iPhone XS has of course been
discontinued by Apple, so any device that you buy is going to be either a very old item of
new stock, or more likely a refurbished unit, but there are deals to be had,
with a base model 64gb iPhone XS, the exact model that I own, available for less than £300.
But, is it worth it? Or should you try and find the extra cash to get
a brand new iPhone SE or 11? Let's talk about it.
The iPhone XS was launched in 2018, and was the flagship model for iPhone in that particular year,
launched alongside the XS Max and the XR, a strange line of slightly scaled down phones
that Apple has kind of done away with ever since. It features a 5.8 inch retina display which covers
the entirety of the front of the device, save for the notch, but that notch is still present,
even today with the 13s. You've got Face ID on the front, and a two camera system on the rear,
with both a wide and a telephoto lens, offering 2 times optical zoom. 4g is supported,
which for many of us is still the only really viable phone service available,
newer models do of course offer 5g if that's supported and widely implemented in your country.
On the inside is the A12 bionic chip, comprising of a 6 core CPU,
a 4 core GPU and an 8 core Neural Engine.
It supports wireless charging, HDR content, and has a 1 million to one contrast ratio.
These are of course, all just specs though, and I won't add any more just now,
you can head over to the Apple website and use their compare tool if you want to see more.
Because the issue with specs is always that, on paper, they don't mean much.
The proof is in the usage of the device, as even a moderate improvement in chips can have a huge
impact on a power user of a device, whilst having little to no impact on the average user.
So, the question is, is the iPhone XS still good, now in 2021?
The answer in my opinion is, yes, absolutely.
Obviously, I don't have my 13 Pro yet, so I can't do a side by side comparison of the two,
I may do that when it arrives, although it feels like a bit of a pointless comparison,
the 13 Pro is of course going to wipe the floor with the XS in terms of performance.
But what I've found, after 3 years of usage, is that this is the first time
where I've not felt utterly compelled to upgrade, which is pretty impressive.
You see, in the past, upgrades are usually very necessary, down to the phone that I'm
currently using beginning to show it's age in a couple of key ways. The first
way is typically the device slowing down overall, struggling to open apps quickly,
perhaps even struggling to run some of the more processor-heavy apps altogether.
But, overall, that hasn't been happening with the iPhone XS.
Thanks I believe to the processors in these phones improving so much that they stand the test of time
much better, and far tighter integration with iOS, the iPhone XS still feels pretty slick and smooth,
in my mind at least. Sure, the occasional app does hang for a second or two when you open it,
but this is rare, and the overall performance of this phone is still really, really good.
The second key issue that usually forces an upgrade, is battery performance degrading
significantly. For me, this has started to happen, although a change in my lifestyle
has perhaps made this less of an issue this time around. I'm finding that in general,
I can get around a full working day of use from my iphone xs, maybe 6 or 8 hours of it being used and
picked up regularly, before I need to think about reaching for the power cable or wireless charger.
That's definitely the signs of a battery that isn't as healthy as it once was, but it's still
not awful. And thanks to things like charger packs, and the fact that my work now means I
stay home much more, the battery issue hasn't been such an issue that it's forced me into upgrading.
Oh, and one other thing that I use my iPhone XS for a LOT, is carplay, both wired and wireless,
we've got two cars with a connection method each, and I have to say that the iPhone XS is utterly
flawless, in either configuration. Again, a lot of that is probably down to Apple's implementation of
Carplay, but the fact that Siri loads and responds quickly, Maps open and refresh immediately,
music and podcast plays away wirelessly with no connection issues ever, is really impressive.
So, what are you NOT getting, by choosing the XS, compared to say the SE or the 11? Well,
you're not getting a NEW phone, you're getting a reconditioned one,
let's get that clear first. But beyond that, let's compare.
You're not getting the largest display, this comes on the 11, but you're definitely getting a larger
screen than the one you get on the, now very aged looking iPhone SE. You're also not getting an
Ultra Wide camera, but you are getting a Telephoto one, compared to just the wide camera on the SE.
You're getting an A12 Bionic chip, compared to an A13 Bionic chip on the other two models,
which does mean less overall power. But as I've explained already in the video,
I don't see this as a massive issue, and that A12 Bionic is still going to be able to keep up
the pace for the majority of apps that you might want to run for the next couple of years at least.
If you're big into mobile gaming, you're going to notice the weaker chip on some
of the newer games, but that's going to be the case for all of these devices.
Other than that, you're getting a Super Retina HD display,
rather than a Retina HD Display on the SE, or a Liquid Retina HD Display on the 11.
Let's be real, iPhone screens generally always look very good, and when you consider that all
3 have the same P3 colour range, all 3 have true tone and all 3 have the same max brightness of 625
nits, we're comparing apples with apples for the most part here, excuse the pun.
The rest of the comparison list honestly reads much the same,
with many of the same features being found across the board, or if anything, the XS having features
that the SE simply doesn't have. The majority of the features that this DOESN'T have are
features that none of these devices have. LIDAR, variable screen refresh rate, 5G connectivity,
all that good stuff. But in fairness, we're then back towards the thousand pounds, dollars or euros
mark if you want to enjoy those features, and that's not really what we're talking about here.
So, honestly, 3 years on and my iPhone XS is beginning to feel like a bit of a perfect iPhone,
in terms of price to value ratio. Yes, you're going to have to buy refurbished, and you are of
course going to want to do this from a reputable company who have done things like ensured the
screen is in good condition, given it a thorough clean and serviced the battery. But I've seen a 64
gig version of the Iphone XS, refurbished, selling for about £260 here in the UK, which is insanely
cheap as a means of getting into the iPhone ecosystem. Yes, we'd all like to own the latest
Pro model, but if that's not achievable for you, I'd definitely recommend at least exploring the
iPhone XS before you think about going for the 11, and definitely before you consider the SE.
They might be new phones, but are they really the best value you can purchase today, in late 2021?
What do you think about the iPhone XS? Did you own one a year or two ago? Do you still own one?
Or would you consider picking one up, now in late 2021? Drop me a comment and let's talk about it.
And as ever, I hope you found this video useful, if you did, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.