GADGETS | ‘Eks-ess’ or ‘ten-ess’? Apple unveils the successors of the popular iPhone X

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Apple presents its followers with the iPhone XS, pronounced “iPhone ten-ess”, and its “more than plus-sized” best friend, the iPhone XS Max.

Pinoy Apple fans stayed up late on a school night as on the other side of the globe Apple unveiled their new – or should we say, updated – lineup of iPhones in the morning of September 12th in the Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

Apple Chief Executive Tim cook opened the keynote Emmy’s style – with a playful theatrical video of him ceremoniously being presented the presentation clicker, which he then waves to the audience as he enters live onstage. He proceeded to introduce the reveal of, according to Cook, their two most personal products: the Apple iPhone and the Apple Watch. Here’s the rundown.

iPhone XS and XS Max

As expected and per tradition since the iPhone 3G, a major iPhone release is followed by an “S” version. A year after the launch of the dramatic iPhone X, Apple presents its followers with the iPhone XS, pronounced “iPhone ten-ess”, and its “more than plus-sized” best friend, the iPhone XS Max.

Form factor-wise, the XS and XS Max do not differ much from the iPhone X. The XS comes with a 5.8” OLED display while the XS Max in 6.5”. The iPhones maintain their predecessor’s all-screen elegance with support for HD, 3D touch, facial recognition, and millions of pixels to enjoy pictures and movies with. They come with gold, space gray, and silver variations and 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options. The cameras have twin 12-megapixel lenses at the back. Apple even threw around the term “computational photography”, which could only better anyone’s Instagram game. Under the hood, the new iPhones are the new and powerful A12 bionic chip.

iPhone XR

Apple thoughtfully threw in a budget friendly-ish option for the rest of us who are holding on to our 2 to 3-year-old iPhones. For those who find the $999 starting price of the iPhone XS a bit ridiculous, the iPhone XR (ten-arr) looks as sexy as its XS siblings for about $250 less. It’s the same size as the iPhone 8 Plus but with significantly larger screen at 6.1”. The price difference from the XS comes mostly from its sporting a “liquid retina” LCD screen instead of OLED. Apart the bells and whistles, the iPhone XR runs on the same hardware technology. The iPhone XR comes in all 6 colors of the Apple rainbow: white, black, blue, coral, yellow, and red.

Apple Watch Series 4

Apple further integrates itself into our lives with the Apple Watch Series 4 as our “intelligent guardian”. Updates include a new S4 chip, 40mm and 44mm size variants, and a digital crown with haptic feedback. The smart watch can now tell when you fall and will automatically call emergency services if you are immobile for the next minute. It will alert you if your heart rate is too fast or too slow. And this is perhaps the coolest thing we’ve heard all night – it can perform an electrocardiogram whenever you want! Our editors think it’s rad they don’t have to be 35 and up to get a free ECG in the company’s annual physical exam. Starts at $399.

The keynote concluded with an iOS 12 launch on September 17th. We’re still crossing our fingers that this is the year Tim Cook is going to make Steve Jobs proud.

New Apple iPhones: (from left) XR, XS and XS Max
by Marvi Torres, contributing writer
Contributing writer at TechSabado.com | Website

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