iPhone XS Max Review (7 Months Later) - Still the Phone to Beat? By Brandon Butch

What's up guys, my name is Brandon, and it's been seven months since the iPhone 10s max was released, and I've been using it since day, one as my daily driver, so I wanted to make this update video. This review video, if you will, after seven months of usage to let you guys, know how it's been holding up for me and also give you an update on the issues that I was having for the first few months of owning this phone. So let's kick things off with the design of the iPhone 10s max and, as I said in my initial review, video. This thing is just beautiful, especially in the gold colorway. That is definitely my favorite color for the iPhone 10s max, and you can see. The back of the phone here is still in immaculate condition.

I've been using a case for most of my time with this phone, but I have gone a couple of weeks in a row without using a case, and you can see that there are really no scratches, and it's the same with the screen protector. I use the screen protector a lot on this phone, but I haven't used it like the whole time like right now. Furthermore, I've had a screen protector on here for about a month now, and you can see that there are barely any scratches on the screen at all. Furthermore, I, don't think, there's actually any scratches I've looked under light and everything. So that's really impressive.

Normally you will get some scratches from like being in your pockets and little micro, scratches. You know from your jeans pocket or something like that, but surprisingly I don't have any kind of micro scratch at all on the screen of the iPhone 10s max with some again surprised by now, like I said, the back is in immaculate condition, there's really no scratches or anything at all on the back of this phone, but around the edges. Where there's that gold, you know that different shade of gold there, you can see some typical. You know where that you would typically see after about seven months of usage. It's nothing major! It's just you could tell it is a used phone and honestly, if I were to take some liquid to this, and you know really try to clean it.

I could probably make it look brand new if I wanted to, especially if I was trying to sell this on eBay or something like that, but yeah I, aside from the fact that the iPhone 10s max is very durable, it doesn't really scratch it easily or anything like that. The overall design is great, I mean it is still a little big with that 6.5 inch display, but honestly I've gotten used to it over time, and it doesn't really seem as big to me. It's not like I want to go back to like an iPhone 10 R, an iPhone 10 s or like an S 10 or nesting II I'm perfectly fine with the size of the screen. But again that is going to completely depend on the size of your hands and what you prefer and a phone and speaking of that display, which is an OLED display with the resolution of 12 42 by 2688. It is absolutely beautiful, and I wouldn't say it's better than, but I'd say that it's nearly as good as the Samsung Galaxy S, 10 plus display, and that is a huge testament to these Samsung Galaxy S 10, plus, because the iPhone 10s Mac screen is amazing.

But obviously this is just an HD screen. The Samsung Galaxy S 10 plus has a 4k. You know resolution and display. So obviously it's going to be better resolution. Videos are gonna, look better colors, they're, gonna pop more, but still the iPhone 10s max display is incredible and honestly, the only time you're going to notice that another screen is better is if you had them side-by-side playing the exact same video, and you notice little minor details on their like somebody like myself is going to notice it, but you guys are probably not gonna notice, a difference in resolution.

You know screens when they're this good, absolutely love watching YouTube videos and Netflix and games on my iPhone 10s max here, and I will say. You know there were times when I used the iPhone 10 hours, my daily driver for like a week or two but anyway, so I would go back and forth. I would notice that there was a big difference in video quality on the iPhone 10 R versus the iPhone 10 s Mac, so the iPhone 10 s max definitely plays videos on YouTube and Netflix, and things like that at a higher quality like you can definitely tell the quality is better of the screen, and you know a long time. For a long time. I said that the iPhone 10 dark screen wasn't that bad, and it's still not bad, but compared to the iPhone 10 s max.

You can definitely tell a difference in sharpness and picture audio. Pretty much everything. The stereo speakers on the bottom of the iPhone 10s max are also super, super loud and I. Never have to worry about not being able to hear my music or my videos over a loud background noise or anything like that. I found myself playing videos and music.

You know in a crowded area with a lot of people and background always going on, and I had no trouble hearing it at all. You know, granted I did have to turn up pretty much all the way, but still I could hear it very clear. Now the camera is still my favorite feature on the iPhone 10s max by far this thing is just absolutely amazing. I take a lot of pictures and video with my smartphone, so camera is obviously a huge deal to me and the overall picture and dynamic range of the camera on the iPhone 10s max, especially when it's paired with Apple's new smart HDR feature is just amazing and in my opinion it is the best on the market. Yes, I, prefer it over the S, 10, plus camera and I know it's such an amazing camera.

When some pictures look like they were taken with a DSLR, especially when I use portrait mode with the adjustable both. It really looks like I took it with, like my DSLR camera, that I'm shooting this video on right now. Now pictures are great, but video is probably even better on this camera I've recorded videos and low-light, when it's you know extremely bright outside and even in regular conditions and no matter what the condition the camera always performs extremely, extremely well and by the way, I do record all of my videos in 4k 30, but that's only because I do have 256 gigabytes of storage. But if you don't have that much, you know, I would only record and 1080p. Otherwise, your storage is just going to get eaten alive because a lot of times these videos- you know if it's like a, know, five to eight minute.

Video will be like 2 gigabytes, so that adds up a lot over time, especially if you have music and things like that on your phone, so I would recommend using 1080p unless you have at least 256 of storage and actually seen on the screen here. I recorded three different concerts with my iPhone 10s max and the audio is actually incredibly clear and doesn't really distort at all I compared the audio on my videos with the friend who has an iPhone, 8 plus, and the iPhone 10s max sounded much, much better and made the sound of the iPhone, 8 plus seem kind of like muffled, and you couldn't really hear certain parts. So really it's like everything about the iPhone 10s max camera is just incredible and again, in my opinion, it is the best on the market is definitely better than the Samsung Galaxy S 10 plus, in my opinion, I do like the wide-angle lens on the s10 plus a lot and the iPhone 11 is going to have that later on this year and that's going to end up being the best camera because of that, but still the video quality. You know the video capabilities, the audio everything just makes this the best camera the camera to beat on the market right now, in my opinion, now, when it comes to the performance on the iPhone 10s max, it is still running incredibly well. Even today, seven months later, I haven't really been any hiccups, I don't get any random, reboots I, don't have lagged Enos or anything like that.

I'm currently running the latest beta version, so I've been running the beta versions on my iPhone set of specs, my daily driver for a while now, so I'm, currently on iOS 12 point 3, beta 3 and of course, I will be installing iOS 13 beta. When that does come out here in a few months, so yeah the performance is good and all the other features that come along with it are great as well as hand off and the continuity features are just absolutely features. I could never live without I used these Samsung Galaxy S 10, plus for a while as my daily driver, and that was one of the biggest things I missed the being able to continue what I was doing on my computer on my phone. You know what an airdrop file was. You know for my MacBook or to my iMac to my iPhone or vice versa.

Furthermore, you know if I wanted to take a picture on my iPhone and send it to my computer. Real quick, all I have to do is pull up airdrop and boom. It's on my computer, like that again, I couldn't do that with these Samsung phones, so I just love those features, and they're all still working really well here, seven months later and speaking of things that are done, the best face ID is still the best and most accurate way to unlock a phone in 2019 I used the s10. You know the various ways to unlock there's multiple different ways to unlock the s10, but they were still slower and not as accurate as the iPhone 2 that's max and face ID, and the only real gripe I have with face ID is that sometimes I'll have to like to lean my head over just to unlock it. If it's like laying down on the table or, if I'm at a weird angle, I kind of have to adjust my face and I look really weird doing it.

I wish I had you know more of a wider angle and was able to pick up your face. Like the iPad Pro does, but that's one of my little gripes, you know I also don't like how sometimes you have to put in your password a lot just to use face ID. It doesn't really happen a lot. Sometimes it just happens and if you haven't put in your passcode for a while and yes unlocking your phone with face idea is great, but what's even better about face. I'd is using it to autofill your passwords and Safari and in applications like your banking applications and PayPal.

It's really nice to just be able to scan your face and not have to sit there and enter in your long passwords. So really love that about face idea as well. Now, let's talk about some of the issues I had with the iPhone 10s max for the first few months that I had this phone, and that is the connectivity issue. So I did have connectivity issues with LTE and with my Wi-Fi dropping four months with this phone, but luckily I can say now, and thankfully I can say now that I do not have those issues anymore on my daily driver, iPhones and s-max. So if you guys followed my beta coverage here on the channel, you would know that this was an extremely annoying issue, and it wasn't only me that was affected.

A lot of other people were affected by this, including people. You know creators here on YouTube as well, and basically the Wi-Fi would just randomly drop multiple times a day. LTE would sometimes say there's signal, and you know there wasn't really any signal, nothing would load. Sometimes it would just drop completely and then have to reconnect. You know a couple of minutes later, and it is really, really annoying, and some people thought it was a hardware issue.

I was thinking that for a while as well but again, thankfully I can say now that it has been solved via software now, switching over to the battery life. The battery life on the iPhone 10s max is still amazing. After seven months of usage, you can see here I'm still at 100% battery capacity, which is awesome. I use my phone for about seven hours a day, so about seven hours of usage per day, and I'll still go to bed with about twenty to twenty-five percent. Battery remaining, which is great, I've, also been using wireless charging every night for the past three months or so, and it is super convenient basically anytime I'm, not on my phone.

It's charging via a wireless charger. I have one beside my bed, so I'll just lay it there, while I'm going to sleep, and it wirelessly charges overnight. It's really nice, and I have to worry about unplugging and plugging in a cable. You know what I'm going to sleep and what I want to grab it in the morning. I can just grab it without having to worry about unplugging, a cable or anything like that.

So it's really nice to be able to do that with the iPhone 10s max here. So with all that being said, is the iPhone 10s max still worth eleven hundred dollars over seven months after its release date and I? Say yes, but only if you have the budget for it, especially since a lot of the competitors like the S 10 plus are similarly priced. Obviously the camera, the display the screen size, all that stuff are going to be premiums over something like the iPhone 10s or like the iPhone 10 R, which is what I would recommend. If you are on a budget, we can't afford a $1000 phone. I would say: go for the iPhone 10 are over the iPhone 10s and if you don't like the iPhone 10 are maybe check out these Samsung Galaxy S, 10, II I think those are both great alternatives.

If you don't have quite the budget for an iPhone 10 s max. But again, if you do pick up the iPhone 10 or you will be missing out on a lot of the great features with the iPhone 10 s max, but yeah overall I am super satisfied with the iPhone 10s max absolutely loved. The phone I'm definitely going to be picking up the iPhone 11 later this year, but the iPhone 10s max will always have a place in my heart. I'll probably still use it here on the channel for beta coverage and things like that, but I love this phone I'm glad that the issues got fixed with the connectivity and things like that, and it's thriving its doing really well against the 100% battery capacity, which is awesome. This thing is going to last many more years, so there you have it guys I hope you did enjoy this video if you did make sure that that thumbs up and also leave a comment down below, if you have an iPhone, 10s, 10s max or an iPhone 10 R.

Let me know how your experience has been after 6 or 7 months and, of course, make sure you guys do subscribe. So you can see more videos like this I will be covering iOS 13 I'll have another re review of the iPhone.10 are coming up soon and a lot of good stuff coming to the channel later on this year. Anyways guys, thank you for watching the video, and I'll see you soon.

Source : Brandon Butch