This is the iPhone XS – pronounced ‘10-S’, not ‘excess’ as you might think. It looks identical to 2017's iPhone X, and you might think that not a lot has changed – but it’s inside where the differences lie.
This is a weird situation for a review; usually, when looking at an ‘S’ variant of an iPhone we’re asking the question of whether it’s better than the now-cheaper model from the previous year.
In 2019, however, Apple made the choice to discontinue the iPhone XS to make way for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro (which is its direct successor) and iPhone 11 Pro Max. So while we can draw comparisons they won’t help you make an informed choice unless you pick up an iPhone XS from a third party - which will be cheaper than one of the new flagships.
That pricetag drops even more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday - including the weeks leading up to those discount holidays. Keep checking our best Black Friday iPhone deals page for the latest offers.
The devices change over time, too, thanks to software updates. The iPhone XS package is about to get a lot more tempting now that iOS 13 is landing imminently.
Apple's latest operating system, which will be available to the iPhone XS, brings many new features like Dark Mode and a range of app speed increases, so you can make the most of your iPhone experience.
Each three has new and improved specs over the 2018 iPhones, but the latter two are also more expensive.
Alongside the iPhone 11 range announcement, Apple confirmed that it would no longer sell the iPhone XS – it's being dropped from the company's line, but that doesn't mean you can't buy it. Retailers and carriers will still stock it for a while to come, so if this review gets you excited to own it, that's still a possibility.
In 2018, the iPhone XS launched alongside the iPhone XR – it’s a more affordable handset than the iPhone XS, but packs in many of the same features, making it in many ways more impressive. Plus, unlike the iPhone XS, it's still on sale.
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- New gold color option
- Same design and similar features as last gen
Usually in this section we'd talk about all the new features that the phone brings – but in this case there really aren't that many, with Apple resolutely sticking to the strategy of launching an 'S' phone with little changed other than speed improvements and a few other performance bumps.
That's not to say it isn't impressive, and useful, new hardware in the iPhone XS, but most of the benefits won't be instantly discernible to the average user.
One change that is easy to spot is the new color: the gold variant is more mocha than anything else, with a touch of copper in the shade, and brings another option in addition to the Space Gray and silver options.
We can only surmise that this was possible because the chassis of the iPhone XS is so similar to that of the iPhone X, so it wasn't expensive or time-consuming to alter the process to add in a new hue.
A12 Bionic chipset

The iPhone XS and XS Max both have the same chipset inside
- Loads of power
- Neural Engine brings enhancements throughout
- Notably more powerful AR capabilities
Apple is proudly talking up its new chipset, and with good reason: it's one of the most powerful on a smartphone, created as it was using a 7nm process.
That may not mean much to most people, but essentially it means that more transistors can be chucked onto this hexa-core CPU, which has two 'power' cores and four more that are optimized for efficiency.
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iPhone XS Repair iPhone XS Screen Repair iPhone XS Repair near me iPhone XS Repair Orange County CA iPhone XS screen Repair Orange CA iPhone XS Back glass Repair