In a special live event, Apple has revealed the next generation of its popular iPhone. There will be two new 2018 iPhones, all in the iPhone X range. They will be called iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max and they will be released later this month. These names were leaked last night accidentally by Apple on their own website, and Apple confirmed them today.
Apple calls the iPhone XS the “most advanced iPhone we have ever created.” It’s available in gold, silver, and “space gray” and features a screen made of the most durable glass ever in a smartphone. The screen is a 5.8-inch OLED touchscreen, which is the same size as an iPhone 8 Plus. The larger XS Max will have a 6.5-inch touchscreen. It’s not yet fully waterproof, but it is for up to two minutes in most types of liquid. That includes beer.
They are most proud of their A12 Bionic Chip, which features a 6-Core CPU, 4-Core GPU, and 8-Core Neural Engine based around “dedicated machine learning.” The previous A11 chip only had a 2-Core Neural Engine, and while that was capable of 20 billion computations per second, the XS is capable of 5 trillion. In other words, it’s a lot faster and can do a lot more. The machine learning side is capable of advanced AR, useful Siri shortcuts, and new tricks with the camera.
The camera itself works with the A12 Chip and Neural Engine to do 1 trillion operations per photo. It has a 12MP wide-angle camera and a 12MP telephoto camera, with optical image stablization. It features what Apple are calling Smart HDR, which essentially takes a lot of a extra photos at a time in order to give you, the photographer, the best one possible. This is especially useful if your subject moves a little while you’re taking it. Apple are particularly excited about the Depth of Field slider, which is available after pictures are taken.
Pre-orders begin this Friday, September 14, and will ship September 21. The new iPhone XS and XS Max will be available worldwide on September 28. Each will start out at $999 and $1099, respectively.
