iPhone Xs – Xs Max Displays / Visuals

The iPhone Xs has the same 5.8 inch display, slightly tweaked but same size as before, where as the Xs Max has a gigantic 6.5 inch display. It is a huge phone, roughly the same size as something like the Samsung Note 9 thanks to the bezels being nice and thin. So two very different sized phones here. The iPhone Xs & iPhone Xs Max OLED displays do look better than the iPhone X OLED screen which already looks great. When I was watching Blade Runner on the iPhone Xs & the iPhone XR, I noticed side-by-side improvements on the Xs. At a maximum brightness, the new display looks subtly brighter and richer, which already looked pretty good. The iPhone XR has a lower-res, lower-contrast LCD, so the iPhone Xs is so what nicer & richer. During normal everyday use, Ito the untrained eye, it is hard to tell the OLED from LCD.  The other upside is that OLED screens use less battery power, but then a iPhone Screen Repair which is LCD is some what cheaper the an iPhone OLED screen repair, so the iPhone Xs Screen Repair & iPhone Xs Max Screen repair will, be a bit more expensive.

The new colours were confirmed as well. So same exact silver as the iPhone X last year, same exact space grey as last year. But then the new colour for the Xs is this gold, so it looks pretty classy I guess. I personally probably wouldn’t get the gold as it looks a bit cheesy, but there is only one way to tell on the outside that you have the new iPhone and that’s by getting the gold.

iPhone Xs – Xs Max Specifications

The iPhone Xs is just the same size as the current iPhone X, but it’s really is classic Apple, with the S update like we’ve seen in the iPhone before. It’s a specification improvement, some internal changes, but nothing drastic and no new design. So the biggest spec difference that you’re getting here is it’s rocking the new A12 bionic chip. It’s the first seven nanometer chip versus the X nanometer process from last year. It has nearly 7 billion transistors. All of this basically translates to it’ll be a bit faster. You know, they dropped a couple of quotes, like it’ll be maybe 30% faster, but you’ll notice it in things like launching apps and opening and closing the keyboard and transition animations and things like that. But basically that’s definitely something we’re gonna have to test and see for the full review. Basically what I can be sure of is it will be even faster. Same amount of RAM though, as far as we can tell.

iPhone Xs – Xs Max Cameras

Apple have made some substantial upgrades to the camera on the iPhone XS – Xs Max. The Xs and Xs Max both have the same new cameras. So a pair of 12 megapixel optically stabilised cameras, the primary one being F 1.8, and you get a telephoto as well. And they’re combining these new cameras and lenses with new image signal processing on the A12 bionic chip to take some seriously impressive photos. Now obviously the photos and stuff they show on stage are always going to be awesome, but what’s new this time is also the image processing. We all know image processing means a lot when it comes to smartphone photography and getting good images off these smartphone cameras, like that’s a major reason why the Google Pixel 2 has been so popular, so they introduce big improvements there. There’s improved HDR called Smart HDR, there’s better low light sensitivity, less noise and a really impressive portrait mode. Now in portrait mode, you can go in and edit portrait photos to literally change the F stop of the simulated Bocah, and it’s really good looking. You can see the little lights in the background of the photos changing their blur level. And it’s not just getting more or less blurry like straight up. There actually seems to be like a directional blur based on how far it is in the middle of the centre of the subject. I was really impressed with it and I can’t wait to play with that more. And there’s a bunch of other smaller stuff so there’s technically a new front facing camera, still 7 megapixels, the selfies will also benefit from this new portrait mode and I’m curious since its software based if it will work with a software update to this year’s iPhone X. Make sure you get a good iPhone case as the cameras protrude slightly, so it is easy to crack your iPhone Xs camera glass / lens or your iPhone XS Max Camera glass / lens should you drop your phone.

iPhone XS – Xs Max Other Improvements

iPhone Xs – Xs Max Review – water resistance has been improved to IP68, where as last year’s phone was IP 67 so we’re looking at better waterproofing. Some people think you can literally wash your phone off with water if you want to, but remember that the water resistance reduces the older the phone is as many of the ports and speaker inputs are sealed with silicon based grommets, which lose their effect over time.  Most phones get dropped from time to time and this will also reduce the water resistance of the phone.  If you should have an iPhone Screen Replacement or any Phone screen repair, the new screen will not be guaranteed to be water resistant.

The speakers are now louder and better in an impressive way. From what I’ve heard, they do a much better job with stereo audio separation and things like moving back and forth across the screen and there’s now dual SIM support. The Face ID is supposed to get slightly faster thanks to the a 12 bionic, but probably not drastically. And there’s also now a slightly longer battery life, literally 30 minutes longer on the Xs and 90 minutes longer on the Xs Max. I gotta find out the capacities, don’t really know those yet, but they’re not drastically bigger. But hey, better is better. I’ll take that.  Battery durability should be similar to previous models as nothing has changed yet even though there are rumours that Apple are working towards a fast charge battery, but how will they manage that without messing with the current durability of the batteries, so you should get 3 – 4 years of good service before you need an iPhone XS Battery Replacement or an iPhone XS Max battery replacement.

Should You Buy a iPhone XS – Xs Max?

Honestly, it’s not a must buy for the most people, especially if you have an iPhone X. I think the the biggest difference you’re gonna get is if you go with the bigger iPhone Xs Max. But that thing is going to be expensive. The 512 gig is going to be around £1000. Like that’s the world we live in now. But if you already have an iPhone X, this isn’t some huge must have upgrade. It’s the classic again, the classic S upgrade Apple does with the iPhone and I got no problem with that. Between the smaller and larger, I’m definitely more into the larger phone. That’s just me, but there are still no design changes. Same camera bulge on the back, same stainless steel and glass materials all around. The notch didn’t get smaller or anything. The bezels didn’t shrink, although the notch might feel a little bit smaller on the bigger phone. Um, no 120 Hertz display, no Apple Pencil support. It’s just just a refined upgrade and a new colour. We’ll have to see if it’s worthy or not pretty soon as we work towards the full review, but my gut feeling honestly is I’m thinking that iPhone XR might be the real hit this year. For Apple it’s a bit different.

iPhone Xs Review – First Impressions

Apple has remained faithful to last year’s design. It’s a luxurious glass on glass build with a stainless steel edge. In fact, they’re so faithful that if you put this year’s iPhone next to its predecessor, they look almost identical. Apple tends to find a design that works and sticks with it. The camera bump doesn’t quite match up, though, which should make last year’s cases a bit of a tight fit.

iPhone Xs Review – Display Screen

Apple says that the XS should be more resistant to physical trauma thanks to the new Gorilla Glass 6.  That said, judging by some drop tests we’ve seen on the Internet, you should probably put some protection on it just in case as this is an OLED screen, so a New iPhone XS screen repair will put you back a tidy penny or 2, iPhone Xs Screen Repairs can cost as much as a new mid range phone. On top of that, the Xs Max has a truly excellent screen, actually the same as last year’s. The 5.8 inch OLED display is really bright, has a wonderful sunlight, legibility, and some of the best colour accuracy we’ve seen on the smartphone. The True Tone feature makes things look even better by adjusting the white balance according to the ambient light.
There’s only one glaring issue. You still can’t hide the notch or even watch full screen content without the notch cutting into it. Considering that most Android phones with the notch can pull this off, and it could easily be fixed with software, the only reason could be stubbornness from Apple. Screen time gives you statistics about the time you spend on your phone or in different apps. You can set limits for yourself here too, if you’re trying to break a bad habit.

Water Resistance & Sound – iPhone Xs

The phone has slightly better water protection this year, earning an IP68 rating over IP67. It’s not a huge jump, but it allows for a little extra Peace of Mind in deeper water.  Another example is the headphone solution. This year there isn’t even a 3.5 millimetre adapter in the box. Apple hopes people will switch to Bluetooth headphones or shell out nine bucks for a dongle at the Apple Store.  At least the stereo speakers are improved. The earpiece speaker is bigger and louder, so the setup is more balanced than the iPhone XS
The left and right channels will even switch when you turn your screen upside down, keeping the sound consistent

iPhone XS Battery Life

with the battery of around 2600 milliamp hours. One area which isn’t stellar is battery life. Though it is similar to last year’s iPhone X, the X S scored a 72 hour endurance rating in our proprietary tests, lower than most of the phones we revealed so far this year. However, if you do get low, you can’t charge back up really fast, provided that you spend some money on one of Apple’s fast MacBook chargers. That bulky charger can get you from zero to 55% in half an hour, but the one provided in the iPhones box only charges a 22% in the same amount of time, about as fast as a wireless charger. There have been reports of issues with charging where the phone won’t begin to charge unless you wake it up first. Luckily our unit didn’t have any of these problems, but since there hasn’t been any official statement from Apple yet, we don’t know how many phones are affected. We hope there’s a software fix coming pretty soon.

iPhone Xs Performance

The iPhone Xs runs on Apple’s latest chipset, the seven nanometer A12 Bionic. On top of being faster, it also comes with a more powerful GPU and new neural engine, and a new image signal processor or ISP for the camera. In benchmarks, the iPhone Xs tops the charts, scoring higher than anything we’ve seen from an Apple or an Android phone. Compared to last year’s iPhone X, it looks to be about 15% more powerful. Just remember that since the phone is glass, instead of heat dispersing metal, it will warm up under heavy use.
Some of you which expected battery life improvements with the new processor may be disappointed, but you have to remember we’re getting the same battery life this year with much better performance. So that’s the benefit of the new fabrication process, the new chips that works together with the newest Apple software, iOS 12, to create a lightning fast experience. When using the phone, everything feels much faster than on iOS 11, including animations, app launching times, and browsing menus. iOS 12 introduces a few changes here and there as well.

There’s also a new app called Measure, which uses augmented reality and motion detection to measure objects. It isn’t totally accurate, though.
And finally, Apple’s infrared scanning Face ID, the only biometric way to unlock this phone, is faster now, thanks to AI. And you can add a second face or an alternative appearance too.
The iPhone X S has a similar 12 megapixel dual camera setup as the iPhone X.

iPhone XS Review – Camera

The wide angle camera is F 1.8 while the telephoto sits behind an F 2.4 lens, both with OIS. However this time the main shooter has larger pixels which should allow in more light for less noise and better dynamic range. The camera also benefits from the new image signal processor and the chipset deliminated shutter lag and enables a new smart HDR through image stacking. The camera interface hasn’t really been changed at all unfortunately. To modify the image or video settings you still have to exit the camera and go into the phone settings menu, but regardless, the daylight samples we snapped with the iPhone Xs don’t disappoint. There are plenty sharp with nice rendition, accurate colours and low noise.

With smart HDR on, the camera stacks multiple frames to improve dynamic range and contrast. On top of that, there’s more fine detail captured and sharpening looks more natural. We suggest leaving this mode on when shooting.
When zooming in, the telephoto Cam produces images of almost the same calibre as the wide angle one. There’s just a bit narrower dynamic range and low light. The new sensor working with Smart HDR offers noticeable improvements thanks to the OS, bigger sensor pixels and image stacking. The iPhone Xs succeeds in producing great noise free low light images with even exposure, and that’s why using a higher ISO and faster shutter speeds than the iPhone X. Unfortunately, the iPhone Xs still won’t use the OIS telephoto camera when zooming in low light. It digitally zooms and crops the output of the main camera to achieve the zoom effect, which takes its toll on image quality.

In portrait mode, the results are quite good, separation has improved and the bouquet effect is a bit more natural than it was on the iPhone X camera. The blur strength is adjustable afterwards too.
For selfies, the iPhone Xs has the same 7 megapixel F 2.2 front facing camera the iPhone X Front Camera. Smart HDR is also available here. There’s plenty of resolve detail. They’re not the best we’ve seen in the contrast and colours are very good.
One thing that stands out though is that there’s a touch of skin smoothing, beautification which you can’t switch off. It only appears when Smart HDR is not turned on. The HDR image is really sharp, even better than the iPhone X, but even with HDR off, image quality is not bad at all.  You can take portraits with a selfie camera, and subject separation is excellent.  You can now choose different portrait lighting options for the front Cam too.
It can now record 1080 videos  at 60FPS, but only the 30 FPS ones benefit from smart as she are, and the new Always On video. Stabilisation works well, but the field of view is so narrow that it’s pretty hard to fit yourself in The frame.
4K videos  at 60FPS are quite excellent from both the wide angle or the telephoto Cam. There’s impressive dynamic range OS, plenty of detail, good contrast and nice colours.
4K videos taken at lower frame rates as well as 1080 videos have the same impressive quality. Plus they enjoy additional cinematic video stabilisation and expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR, but on top of the great visuals, the iPhone Xs can capture sound with wide stereo separation. This creates a sense of space skipping richer sounds.

Would I buy an iPhone Xs?

The iPhone X S Without a doubt it’s the best iPhone to come out so far, bringing the best performance on the planet, a flagship level camera, top notch stereo speakers and an awesome OLED display. The only real shortcomings I speak of are the average battery life and the fact that Apple wants you to give them more money for a decent charger and a headphone adapter. Of course the money is the biggest issue here. For this amount of cash you could buy a decent mid range phone and a lot of cool stuff on top of that sample turning into a luxury brand. I don’t know how I feel about that, but regardless, people will
of course by the latest and greatest iPhone, and I also wouldn’t blame them. It smooths out the kinks from last year’s iPhone X and sets the bar for the rest of the smartphone world to aspire to. If you’re a fan of the Apple ecosystem and are due for an upgrade, the iPhone Xs definitely deserves our recommendation. I am sure you agree… that level of convenience makes perfect sense.

Initial Impression – iPhone Xs vs iPhone 11

Design wise they were almost identical to be honest. And even on the back we have a single camera set up on the iPhone XR where the iPhone 11 we had a dual camera setup. Now I do think the single camera setup layout is a little bit outdated now, but again it’s totally OK With the iPhone 11, that dual camera setup is definitely much better. We have wireless charging on both, IP certification on both as well, so they are very, very similar on the outside. The main difference, you know, as far as I can tell is that dual camera setup, which is actually a pretty big deal in my opinion. So in terms of the outside Lightning ports, you know, no headphone jacks or anything like that on the outside, that pretty much covers it. Now this is the bigger thing in terms of longevity.

iPhone Xr vs iPhone 11 – Display Screen

They both have 6.1 inch IPS panels on the front and there really isn’t that big of a difference. As far as I can tell they are both very good. Maybe the iPhone 11 is a little bit better, but honestly I can’t really tell, you know from a day-to-day task. I’ve been using both these phones for a very long time and I couldn’t really tell that big of a difference. The notches at the top of the screen are also almost the same size as well in terms of thinness and thickness. You can also see roughly around the same thing. I don’t really think there’s even that big of a difference here. So that’s another cool thing.

iPhone Software Support & Updates

The iPhone 11 is definitely going to outlast the iPhone X or as far as we know now, there’s still a chance where the Xr is going to be getting extra software versions and hope maybe it’ll last as long as the iPhone 11, but realistically the iPhone 11 is probably going to out last the iPhone Xr. The thing to keep in mind is that the iPhone success is still supported with software, so
in my opinion, even if you do pick up an iPhone Xr or you’re still going to be in a very good situation, you’re still going to have lots of software support for sure for many yer to come and I think that’s a really big thing to keep in mind, so whether you have an iPhone Xr vs iPhone 11, you are still supported with software for a long period of time now. So in terms of that, that is a really, really big thing to keep in mind.

Performance – iPhone Xr vs iPhone 11

Let’s go ahead and do a speed test between them too. So they’re both on the latest version of iOS 15.3 that just came out the iPhone Xr with three gigabytes of RAM. With the iPhone 11 has four gigabytes of RAM, so let’s go and see which one is the fastest one between both of these. OK, there we go. All the Apps work cleared in the background, let’s get into it. Phone calls 321,
Almost the same thing. Not that big of a difference. Let’s do Music 321, the Xr seemed to be a little bit faster.  Now trying scrolling, the iPhone 11 was faster scrolling through, we can see if there’s a difference and it doesn’t really look like there’s a difference. So we’ll just kind of keep scrolling through that one helping out here. Let’s open IOS Mail, iPhone 11 was faster hopping out of this one. Now let’s open photos iPhone 11, Slightly faster there. Let’s get into their Cameras iPhone Xr vs iPhone 11 roughly the same opening the camera.
We’ve kind of been seeing that the iPhone 11 was the faster one each time. But to be honest, I’ve kind of mentioned this a couple of times before the iPhone XR was really fast, but now it’s kind of glitching all over the place. And I think that has a lot to do with iOS 15. For some reason, iOS 15 really hindered a lot of what these iPhones could do. And that was a very weird. I never really understood that I was 13 wasn’t even that big of an update. And the iOS, you know, the iPhone 11 is a very fast device, but I don’t remember it being this much faster than the iPhone Xr or to be honest.

iPhone Xr Camera vs iPhone 11 Camera

Now let’s go ahead on the cameras. Now like I just mentioned, something like the iPhone 11 is going to be the better camera. You have a dual camera set up on the iPhone 11, a wide and an ultra wide sensor where the iPhone XR has a single wide angle lens. They both can do 4K 60 on the back, but the iPhone 11 can do 4K 60 on the front. That is a massive, massive thing to keep in mind. Now something like the iPhone XR camera, you still have quite a bit of capability. You know, like I said 4K 60 on the front. You do have 1080 at 60 on the on the back. So you have 1080 60 on the front, 4K based on the back. I’m confusing myself and it’s still a pretty good camera, you know, I’ve done a lot of camera comparisons with this iPhone as well and it’s done a really, really good job. You know, still takes videos, photos, portrait mode. You do miss out on things like cinematic mode that the new iPhones have, but the iPhone 11 doesn’t have it either, so there’s no point in bringing it up. I still think this camera is really good and I don’t really have too many complaints about it now. It’s something like the iPhone 11 camera. Honestly, I don’t really think there’s like a big difference in terms of like how the camera looks, you know, in terms of like the actual photos or anything, but that ultra wide sensor is a really cool option to have and it’s definitely one of my favourite things about the iPhone 11. It’s one reason why I keep recommending this phone to people is just because it’s that good of a device, has a lot of capability. You still have the same things like portrait mode and things, but you have that 4K at 60 on the front which is a really good resolution to have to pretty much future proof yourself forever. So the iPhone 11 camera is definitely better, but the iPhone Xr camera really isn’t that bad and if it came between both, I mean I’d like the iPhone Xr but the iPhone 11 is definitely the better one too.

Final Thoughts

To be completely honest, when it comes down to both of these, I do think the iPhone 11 is a better one than the iPhone XR. But the iPhone XR is still a very good phone. You know, I haven’t had too many complaints about this phone throughout my several years of owning it. You know, I think the first day I had it, that was like the worst day. But then after that, it’s been getting better and better since I was 15 and has taken a toll on this device, which is very sad. I think the battery life has gone down quite a bit. I think, you know, the actual performance of this one has gone down too, but that’s pretty much the same case with all of the iPhones that came out., so it’s really not even that big of a deal at this point. I think this iPhone still has tonne of capability, so it’s a tonne of quality and I’m still a huge fan of this phone for sure, but the iPhone 11 is definitely the far better one here. I mean, it’s quite obvious this one has a lot of capability. It’s faster, it has better cameras, potentially better battery life, I mean the whole 9 yards. This is a very good phone. I think if I were you, I mean I would probably recommend buying the iPhone 11, but if you own an iPhone Xr or you know, you could still keep it, there’s still supported, there’s not that big of a difference between them. If you’re buying one, the iPhone 11 is one for you, but if you want to buy the best iPhone, go for the iPhone 13, but bear in mind the cost of an iPhone 13 screen repair compared to the cost of an iPhone 11 screen repair is substantially more & note that the iPhone 13 has the fast charge battery, which are not lasting very long at all, so you may need an iPone 13 battery replacement before you need an iPhone 11 battery replacement.  no I am not joking, this is a reality.

iPhone X Summary – OLED Screen

iPhone Xr has a slightly larger display, 6.1 inches versus 5.8 inches. But there is a big, big difference in terms of the technology behind these displays. The iPhone X actually has a much better display compared to the iPhone Xr. Now although we have small bezels on the iPhone Xr, the bezels are not as small as what we’ve got on the iPhone X, and we’ve got LCD technology on the Xr versus OLED technology on the X. Now these actually make a big difference.
Testing times of contrast ratio, you’ve got 1400 to one on the Xr and the X has 1,000,000 to 1. So that just goes to show the difference. In terms of contrast ratio, the Xr has the same contrast ratio as what we had on the iPhone 8 Plus and this essentially means they’re getting much deeper. Blacks on the X as well as much more vibrant colours. You’ve also got 3D Touch on the iPhone X. This is something that you’ve not got on the Xr. Now there is some haptic feedback which is going to try to replicate
3D Touch functionality, but it’s not going to be the same as what we’ve got on the X where it’s actually a pressure sensitive display. And the difference is continue when it comes to the resolution. The iPhone X has a much higher resolution, Super Retina is what Apple call it. And in terms of pixel density we’re looking at around about 458 on that. The X, Ohh we have a pretty low PPI pixel density 326 which is the same as what we had on something like the iPhone 6 as well which came out many, many years ago. So the iPhone
then I’ll just has a slightly more than 720P display. So on a 6.1 inch display you are going to be noticing that things are not going to be anywhere near as sharp as you’re going to have on the iPhone X. So as you can tell, the iPhone X display is much better compared to the iPhone Xr. But we do have of course many other differences. The size difference, the iPhone X is smaller because of the smaller display, so it’s definitely much more manageable in the hand and it also weighs around about 20 grammes less.  The down side to the better iPhone X Oled screen is that iPhone X screen repairs are more expensive than an iPhone Xr Screen repair.

iPhone X Summary – Build Quality & Design

Now when it comes to the build and design, both are very similar. We do have a stainless steel frame on the iPhone X versus the aluminium or aluminium frame on the iPhone Xr, but both of these are going to feel very premium because of the glass panels on the front and back. We do have stronger glass on the X. Our Apple is saying now how much stronger this is, I’m not sure. Apple haven’t specified exactly what type of glass it is. Of course on other devices we have Gorilla Glass 5 etc. So we don’t know exactly what glass this is, but it should be stronger
on the iPhone Xr. Both devices are IP67 water and dust resistant so we’ve got the same IP rating on both. Now on the Xr we do have lots more colour options compared to the X. The X just comes in either space grey or silver. The iPhone Xr comes in a red, yellow, blue, black, white as well as a coral. So plenty of colour choices here for the tent are.
Brand skins are now available for pre-order for the iPhone X are the iPhone Xs as well as the iPhone Xs Max. And of course you can also pick up skins for the iPhone X and many other devices.

iPhone X – Performance & Storage

Now moving on to the internals, this is where the iPhone Xr starts getting the advantages. So first up we do have the Apple A 12 bionic chip versus the Apple 11 that we’ve got on the iPhone X. Now Apple are saying that the A 12 is going to give you up to 15% faster performance, up to 50% faster graphics and up to 50% lower power usage. So this will be quite a big difference in terms of performance, especially going forward when you’ve had lots of updates on things. Considering that the iPhone X is already a yeah, so definitely something to bear in mind. You do have iOS 12 on both of these. The iOS 12 updates should be rolled out from next week on the iPhone at X. So you are going to be getting a similar software experience. Although when it comes to app launch times and just general overall performance, the iPhone X does get the advantage here.
Now for storage, you do get an additional storage option on the iPhone X or 128 gigabytes. You only get these 64 and 256 options on the iPhone X.

Camera on iPhone X / iPhone Xr

Let’s talk about the cameras now. The iPhone X has a dual camera system, both 12 megapixels, both with optically stabilisation. We’ve got F 1.8 as well as F 2.4 for the optical zoom lens and overall it has been a very strong performer in my usage over the year. Now with the iPhone Xr, it just has a single camera. This is 12 megapixels,
It’s optically stabilised and it also has an F 1.8 aperture. However, the sensor is larger compared to last year. It’s the same sensor that we’ve got on the iPhone X S that is for the primary camera. So although when it comes to optical zoom you do have the advantage here on the iPhone X, the Xr does get the edge when it comes to the primary camera. You also have smart HDR which is going to give you much better dynamic range on the X R and both devices also have a portrait mode. So on the
though it’s got a single camera, you still do have a portrait mode and you can’t adjust the blur after the fact. This is something that you can’t do on the portrait mode of the iPhone X. Is this going to come in a software update? I doubt it because it is something that’s enabled thanks to the Apple H12 chip as far as I’m aware. Now, because you’ve got dual cameras, is that gonna mean better edge detection on the iPhone X? This is something we’re gonna have to wait and see once we’ve got the retail version of the iPhone Xr in hand. When it comes to video we also have an advantage here on the iPhone X are both devices can film up to 4K at 60 frames a second as well as 1080 slow motion at up to 240 frames per second. But on the iPhone X all we do have extended dynamic range up to 30 frames a second. So if you are forming on the Xr you’re going to be getting better dynamic range compared to the iPhone X and you also have stereo audio recording. Finally on the iPhone X. Ohh, this is something that I criticised a lot on the iPhone
then because it only records in mono sound, so that was just not as rich as some of the competition that you’ve got out there which do provide stereo recording. This is finally here on the iPhone Xr. Now for the front facing cameras, we’ve got 7 megapixels on both, both with an F 2.2 aperture, but once again because of the newer in tunnels you should be getting better selfies on the F1Xr. You’ve also got a portrait mode on both. In my experience it hasn’t worked too well on the iPhone X. It doesn’t do a great job of edge detection. This should be improved on the iPhone at all and you can also adjust the black and the fact this is something that you can’t do on the iPhone X as with the rear facing camera. The front facing camera on the X are also supports smart HDR and you’ve got X ETP app 60 from the 2nd on the X R you’ve got X ETP app to 30 from the 2nd on the X and moving on to audio.

Both devices do have stereo speakers so you’ve got one in the earpiece and one bottom firing and neither of them have a 3.5 metre headphone Jack. However on the X you do get the dongle out-of-the-box, so this is the Lightning to 3.5 metre dongle.
This is something that Apple are no longer going to be including in their new handsets, so it’s just something to bear in mind. If you do have some 3.5 millimetre headphones that you want to use with your new iPhone X are you’re gonna have to buy the dongle separately. It’s not gonna come out-of-the-box like you did with the X. Now the ten are also has dual SIM functionality, so this is a standard nano SIM as well as an esim. So this is going to allow you to be on two different carriers potentially at the same time and very beneficial if you’re roaming. If you’re out and about you can
have your home number as well as an additional number wherever you are, so that is definitely quite useful. This is something that’s not available on the iPhone X.

iPhone X Battery / iPhone Xr Battery

When it comes to the battery, Apple haven’t specified the exact size of the Xr battery. Somebody is going to have to pop it open to check inside exactly what the milliamp hours of the Xr Now from what we’ve seen so far, the Xr should give you better battery life compared to the iPhone X and in comparison to the iPhone 8 Plus. Apple saying you’re gonna get up to 1.5 hours of more usage. What thats usage is Apple haven’t been very specific, but if we do consider that the resolution of the iPhone Xr is much lower compared to the iPhone X and iPhone XS Max. If you do pick up the iPhone X second hand, it would have probably have gone through lots of charge cycles. So you will be getting overall better battery life on the iPhone Xr. Now both devices do support fast charging, however the fast charger does not come out-of-the-box and they both also support wireless charging which is great.  If the battery has had a lot of use, iPhone X battery replacements or iPhone Xr battery replacements are common place these days & don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Price & Final Comments

Now let’s talk about the price. The iPhone Xr is going to be starting at £750 or £750. This is only 64 gigabyte version now. The iPhone X when it initially released it did come in at £1000 pounds. However, now that it is year old, Apple are not selling it directly anymore. So you will only be able to pick it up from resellers and it’s likely that you we are going to see a price drop of around 20% and especially if you’re going to be picking it up from somebody else secondhand, you should be expecting to pay a very similar price to the iPhone Xr. So if you are currently in the market for an iPhone and you’re not sure which one of these to go for, I’d say it comes down to how important the displays for you. If you are somebody who values a very nice display, then the iPhone X no doubt is going to be the better option. If you can get it for a similar price, you will be getting a much, much better display here on the iPhone X as well as the optical zoom lens. So this is going to help the zoom photography. This is something that you’re not on the iPhone X or however. That aside, the iPhone Xr is gonna give you better performance because of the Apple a 12 chip which means it should also last you longer, so if you buy it right now should last you maybe a year longer than the iPhone X which is already a year old. And also the new camera features. Of course I wanna test these out hands on, but they should also be very beneficial including the better battery life. That’s what I think anyway. What do you guys think of the differences between the iPhone X and the iPhone Xr are definitely.

This is the iPhone 8 Plus Review, Apple’s latest dual camera phone. It’s got an all new glass back, next Gen processor, and even some improvements, its main claim to fame being the dual cameras. That all sounds good, but with the arrival of the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS & the iPhone Xs Max, the iPhone 8 Plus is no longer the top dog, but is there still enough to like here to make the iPhone 8 Plus worth considering?  For a few years after its inception, the choice between iPhone and iPhone Plus was largely about size, but last year
really started bringing features into the mix with the introduction of the dual camera iPhone 7 Plus. Now, if you wanted all the high end Apple hardware you could carry around in one pocket, that meant choosing the company’s larger iPhone options. This year, the presence of extra functionality on the iPhone Plus continues and expands even as this phone launches in the shadow of an even better equipped iPhone X just over the horizon. The iPhone 8 Plus sure looks a lot like the Seven Plus, and especially if you’re only looking at online picks of the two phones, you’re going to be hard pressed to spot any major differences. The layouts the same, the design is nearly identical and while not exactly the same size, we’re talking differences that measure in on the sub millimetre range, but change is still present, maybe most prominently in the move away from a metal unibody design and towards a glass backed construction.

New Look iPhone 8 Plus, Don’t Drop It!

That new glass back looks quite nice and at least with this silver finish we picked up, even fingerprints don’t prove to be too large an issue. We’re still a little concerned though, as glass tends to be a lot less forgiving to accidental damage than metal, but for the moment we’re just trying real hard not to drop or scratch anything. In addition to this, silver, space grey and Gold options are also available, but that still represents less variety than we got last year. And just in case you were concerned that the change in materials meant the iPhone Plus losing its long overdue water resistance, worry not, as the 8 Plus is just as waterproof as its predecessor.

iPhone 8 Plus Review – Display Screen

This year’s iPhone 8 Plus Review sticks with the same screen size and resolution as we’re familiar with from past entries. A good phablet sized 5.5 inch display with 1080 by 1920 pixels. That makes for a more pixel dense, sharper looking screen than we get on the smaller iPhone 8. Colour accuracy is strong and gets the slightest bit off from where we’d like it to be. And this year the iPhone 8 Plus also picks up Apple’s True Tone tech from the iPad Pro line, which lets the phones display automatically adjust its colour temperature to match that of lights around you, helping to keep the screen natural looking in the process. If there’s one downside the display on the iPhone 8+, it’s the brightness isn’t quite as high as it was last year, or even as high as we see it now on the iPhone 8. But while that does take a hit, it’s still better than a whole lot of the other phones we test, so it may not be a deal breaker for you.

iPhone 8 Plus Memory & Processor

Apple’s latest mobile processor, the a 11 Bionic, powers the iPhone 8 Plus, resulting in some of the most impressive benchmarks we’ve ever seen on the smartphone. Really, its only competition comes from the smaller iPhone 8, which squeezes by with slightly higher frame rates, just like plenty of manufacturers. Over on the Android side of the fence, Apples finally upgrading to a 64 gigabyte based storage level for this year’s iPhones, including the Plus. That’s a great place to start, and especially with Apple’s strong cloud storage infrastructure, maybe all you ever need, but if you do want to push the limit even higher, at 256 gig, iPhone 8 Plus is available for £150.00 more than the 64 gig edition.

Connectivity & Sound – iPhone 8+

There’s not a lot new here insofar as connectivity options go, but a few upgrades are still present this year, including the arrival of Bluetooth 5.0, support for new Internet of Things devices, as well as enhanced location services now supporting GPS, like satellite networks launched by Europe and Japan. Apple told us to expect louder sound from the speakers on this year’s iPhones, and while our tests haven’t confirmed a big volume increase, we can’t deny that speaker still sound really great and love that stereo output is sticking around. Of course, love and hate often go hand in hand and we can’t say those same warm things extend to the still absent analogue headphone Jack. Apple hooks up with another pair of Lightning equipped ear pods that sound as nice as they did last year. It just sucks that we can’t use them with all our other hardware, and we like that Apple still throwing us a bone with an adapter for existing analogue headphones, even if we’re continuously worried about losing it. Though the speaker sound good, we wish we could say the same about voice calls. On both this and the iPhone 8 we tested, we found calls plagued by a distracting clicking sound. Something turning off noise cancellation did nothing to remedy. We’re hoping this might just be a software looks that can be patched because it’s really unlike Apple to drop the ball like this.

Cameras – iPhone 8 Plus Review

Even though resolution is staying at 12 megapixels for both of the iPhone 8 Plus cameras, upgrades are still present, including a bigger sensor and refined colour philtre. The effect that has an image quality can sometimes be subtle, but since we were already starting from such a high level that really shouldn’t be a negative. Pictures taken with the iPhone 8 Plus look beautiful, with natural colour reproduction and some commendable low light performance. As we knew to expect from last year, having a two time telephoto zoom lens adds a lot of flexibility to how we frame and capture bridges, and the experience here is just as easy and satisfying to use as it was in the iPhone 7 Plus. Portrait mode makes its return, and this year picks up an upgrade in the form of the still in beta portrait Lighting mode. This allows you to enhance the subject of your pic with a variety of interesting lighting effects and even black out the background for dramatic impact. Right now this is still a little shaky and sometimes the effects work a lot better than others. We’re hoping Apple keeps tweaking things and aim of making the feature even more impressive. Video recording works just as nicely as taking photos, and this year the iPhone 8 some new high end modes, including 4K at 60 frames per second, though that looks quite nice. Just be aware that while most of the less demanding video settings allow you to switch between cameras while in the middle of recording, you do lose that feature in this highest end mode.

iPhone 8 Plus Battery

Just like last year, the iPhone 8 Plus packs a bigger battery than its little brother, and not all that power is wasted on a bigger screen, meaning you can expect significantly longer operational times. With the Plus, we saw an impressive 10 1/2 hours of screen on time during our custom tests. Just keep in mind that a bigger battery also means longer recharge times, taking nearly three hours with the charger that comes with the phone. Luckily, Quick Charge support has finally hit the iPhone lineup, and the iPhone 8+ is ready to go if you’ve got the right adapter, like the one that might have come with your Apple laptop. As if that wasn’t a nice enough upgrade, the new glass back on this year’s iPhones lets US handset take advantage of wireless charging when paired with any compatible charging pad. Though Apple’s late to that party, its implementation here is pretty solid, with the phone quickly and seamlessly detecting and engaging with available chargers. And at least with the official iPhone 8 Plus silicone case we picked up from Apple, you can even use wireless charging while keeping your hardware protected. The iPhone 8 Plus is a very worthy successor to the Seven Plus, delivering improved battery life, so you will not be needing an iPhone 8 Plus Battery Replacement any time soon.

My Final Thoughts

The iPhone 8 Plus has faster performance, and even a slightly better camera. But we don’t love the glass back, but we can forgive it, as at least it enables wireless charging.  If you are unfortunate enough to crack the Glass back, you really only have 3 options, one is to cover the glass back, the other is to build the entire phone in to another housing, this is usually the most expensive option or you can replace the glass back, but a laser machine is needed for that, fortunately we have one, so if you need an iPhone 8 Back Glass Replacement / Repair, you know where to come.  Really, the only outright miss is that issue we have with a voice call quality, but even that doesn’t detract too much from the overall experience. But as we alluded to earlier, for as good a phone as the iPhone 8 Plus is, it no longer feels like Apple’s best. And while it out does the smaller iPhone 8 in a number of key areas, we similarly expect the 8 Plus to be eclipsed by the iPhone X or iPhone XS Max, when that handset lands in just a few more weeks. If you can’t see yourself spending £1000 on a smartphone, or maybe just prefer the more traditional look of the iPhone 8 Plus with the Home Button, you won’t go wrong picking up this model. But if you’re even the least bit curious about Apple’s challenging new vision for the future of smartphones, maybe hold off for another month just to get the full picture on the iPhone X.

The iPhone 8 Review, it looks pretty similar to the previous iPhone 7. What’s different is that you don’t have that designed by Apple in California sign here anymore. It’s a little more minimal, and the antenna bands up here are now gone, and they’re only on the sides. Of course, since it’s the smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus, there’s only just a single camera lens, no dual camera, and the other major difference is that there is a glass back instead of metal and that will get to later, but it basically allows wireless charging. The buttons are all in the same place as usual with all the iPhones. It’s power button here, SIM tray on the right, volume rockers on the side and as well as the mute switch.  Just like the iPhone 7, there’s no headphone Jack anywhere, so that means you have to use the included 3.5 millimetre to Lightning converter, or you have to rely on Bluetooth headphones or wireless headphones that you have. As you can see, the front of this phone looks pretty similar to almost every other iPhone. You have the chunky bezels on the top and bottom. It would have been nice to see this bezelless trend that we were seeing with phones like the LG V30 or the Samsung S8, but I guess that’s why we have the iPhone X.

iPhone 8 Review – Screen

The display isn’t really much different from the iPhone 7 display. You still get a 1334 by 750 resolution. The only major difference is now this functionality called True Tone. It’s a technology from Apple that was first on the iPad Pro, and we can take a quick look over here. This is just a quick way to toggle it on or off. Right now it was off, but what it does is it adjusts the display to the environment you’re in. So if you’re in a harsh lighting situation where things are a little yellowish, the display will also accommodate and be a little more yellow to make it look a little more natural in the lighting that you’re in O. Let’s take a quick look. It might be better if we actually went directly to the settings and so you can see the display right now let’s turn it off and it just got a little cooler. We turn it on and it’s a little warmer and it kind of actually matches the environment that we’re in right now. It looks a little more natural and it’s just a little easier on the eyes.

iOS 11 on iPhone 8

The phone runs iOS 11, which recently was released on September 19th. And as you can see, not much is entirely different from previous the iOS 10. The Control Centre is definitely the biggest change. It looks different. It’s on one screen now, and you can actually customise what you have on this screen by going into the settings. So you can choose what kind of toggles you want here for quick access. The other major difference is this lock screen. It actually looks like the lock screen, right? It’s actually the Notification Centre. So let’s take another look. This is the lock screen, the control centre. But if you go home, when you pull it down, you’re actually taken back to the lock screen. This is now where you’ll get your notifications and you’ll have to swipe through to get your past notifications and more. But one other weird thing is now you can access the camera directly from this screen by swiping to the left. And the same is true you can swipe to the right and access the Today widget. And that’s again, basic functionality that used to be a part of the lock screen, but now it’s sort of baked into this notification centre. And there are other interesting features such as a new App Store. This App Store is now focused more on a magazine style layout where it’s telling you tips and tricks, featured stories of a developers as of the day. So that keeps you coming back. The layout is a little different now there’s a specific games tab. It just overall looks a lot nicer and this theme of big bold fonts is followed through everywhere in iOS 11.

Under The Hood – iPhone 8

Like the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 is powered by Apples, a 11 bionic processor. It’s super fast.  We haven’t seen any issues with that in terms of performance. Apps swipe through quickly and open quickly, and again, it’s just an all around powerful processor. Especially in the benchmark results, they show it beating out Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and Samsung’s processors as well. But we don’t really see a lot of this performance improvement in this device because iOS is already fluid. There’s just not really much going on here that requires so much power. But one thing that May is AR Kit. AR Kit is a new framework introduced in iOS 11, and it basically lets you use augmented reality with the camera in your iPhone. So now there are a lot of error kit apps. For example, Let’s take a look at IKEA Place. It’s a new app by IKEA that lets you basically place furniture in your room so that you can see what it looks like. What you first need to do is move the camera around and this is usually done for most AR kit apps. And now we can sort of browse through IKEA’s catalogue. Let’s pick this chair and it just pops up. It’s a huge chair, so I’m going to move it a little further away. Ohh, too far. Let’s try and grab it. All right, let’s try that again. Let’s grab this little basket here so you can that just gives you an approximate estimation of what that product might look like in your room. So it’s super handy. And there’s a lot of these furniture type ones, one from Wayfair for example, that lets you try out furniture in your room. There are more interesting ones such as AR measure kit, which basically lets you measure random things in front of you with your iPhone. So you don’t really need a ruler, which is pretty handy. There’s also tonnes of games that use they are, and you can, you know, see the true power of the 11 Bionic running.

iPhone 8 Review – Camera

The camera on the iPhone 8 isn’t as known for anything special like the 8 Plus which has the dual camera. But it doesn’t mean it’s a bad camera at all. It takes photos instantaneously as you can see it, and the output is generally really good. There’s always on HDR, which means your photos are automatically exposed into the best of its ability. But one of the more interesting features is that now in the camera you can actually shoot in 4K at 60FPS 4K at 30FPS and 24 FPS gives you that nice cinematic look. But of course, if you don’t need to shoot at such high resolutions, there’s 1080P for 60 and 30 frames per second. Of course, Slow MO is my favourite feature because I like taking slow motion videos, but up until now you could shoot 240 FPS before, but it was shot in 720P, which didn’t look that great, but now you can do it in 1080P and you know, videos just look much better in that kind of slow motion, which is super slower than 120 frames per second.

Wireless Charging iPhone 8

The other new feature on the iPhone 8 offers wireless charging, and that’s because of this glass back. It’s what lets it wirelessly charge. So all you have to do is really just plop your iPhone 8 down on a wireless charging pad and as you can see, it’s charging away. No need for a Lightning port that you need to fumble for in the middle of the night, but what you should know is Apple is using the Cheese standard, which is actually has been around for some time and Android phones have been using this standard for some time as well. So you now have a lot of options to choose from when you’re looking for wireless chargers. Mophie and Belkin have specifically worked with Apple to make a really efficient charger, but here’s a look at the Mofi one that we have here or you should also know, is that currently the iPhone 8 is available. It can take up to 5 watts of a charge. Technically, there’s going to be an update later on this year where the iPhone 8 will be allowed to take in 7.5 watts and the Mophie and Belkin are capable of delivering that 7.5 Watt charger or charge. So that means you’ll be able to charge your iPhone a little faster later in the fall when that update comes.

iPhone 8 Review – Battery

Although Apple does not publish its official battery capacities for its phones, we believe that the iPhone 8 has a battery life is comparable to the iPhone 7. We were surprised that there was no upgrade to battery capacity, considering the other improvements.  On closer inspection, it seems the iPhone 8 battery actually has a smaller battery than the iPhone 7.  Looks like an iPhone 8 battery replacement may be needed sooner rather than later.  iPhone 8 battery is 1,821mAh, according to tear downs of the smartphone. That’s a fair amount smaller than the 1,960mAh power pack inside the iPhone 7, but that does not mean it will not perform comparably to the iPhone 7.

The good news is that the iPhone 8 does in deed perform much like the iPhone 7, but the iPhone 7 was not that dazzling in the first place.  There were a several days when we had to top-up our iPhone 8 in order to get it to last the day.  Under normal use, we say iPhone 8 battery reach its end of the day around 9pm.  I hope this iPhone 8 Review was helpful

Samsung Note 20 Ultra Review – First Impressions

I still remember picking the phone up for the first time just a few weeks ago and thinking they’ve done it. This is how an Ultra phone should feel, Wow, what a beast, better than the Samsung Note 10 Plus, but then they did jump from 10 to 20!  Well even now that the dust has settled, every time I take this out of my pocket, I’m internally nodding my head thinking, yeah, this feels right, but for how long?

It could do with being a bit less slippery, you know I am going to drop this master piece sooner rather than later and I know a Samsung Note 20 Ultra Screen repair will cost me a small fortune.  Maybe the slipperiness is by design???  The camera is huge and does get in the way a bit when trying to game, but I’m nitpicking. For me, it’s almost perfect, and I do not say that about a lot of things. With this phone, the size feels just right. I wouldn’t make it bigger because it only just fits in my hand, but I also wouldn’t make it smaller, because when you’ve used a screen like this, you don’t want to go back. The thickness feels just right, and though it might not look like it the way it is surprisingly evenly distributed, the bezels have practically disappeared.

Samsung Note 20 Ultra – S-Pen and Screen

The S Pen has finally achieved its original objective of feeling truly like pen on paper, although I am still confused as to why. They shift it to the left of the phone, and the screen is so bright that I couldn’t even find a lighting condition in which it wasn’t clearly visible. This display genuinely is a masterpiece. You set a good wallpaper on this phone and it feels like you’re holding an edgeless digital tapestry. Interacting with the screen is a joy too, because Samsung’s haptics are amazing. Plus, it comes with some of the best news that Samsung has ever announced with a new phone that these phones are going to get three years of guaranteed software updates compared to the  Samsung S20 Ultra earlier this year. They’ve toned down their marketing, they’ve toned down their claims, they’ve toned down their price while at the same time actually delivering more value. So what I’m trying to say here is that this feels like, and I don’t use this term lightly, a perfect Samsung phone.

Awesome Samsung Note 20 Ultra Cameras

Samsung Note 20 Ultra review, let’s look at the Cameras. Now, admittedly, it is tough to get excited about a camera that’s almost the same as the one on a phone I ditched a few months ago. But this has one important perk over the Samsung S20 Ultra Camera in that the Samsung Note 20 Ultra Camera feels lighter, faster shutter speed, quicker, less janky zooming, and way faster focusing thanks to the new laser autofocus module. Not perfect focusing still, but far better. Plus, the phone itself is just physically less heavy, so that contributes to this feeling of lightness. The selfies are good too, aided further by the fact that you can now hold your phone further away than normal and still take a Photo by using the S Pen. So these are actually some of the wider selfies you can get right now. It’s still not as reliable as the iPhone 11 Pro Max Camera when you’re taking portraits, for example, but 98% of the time that I’ve taken this phone out to capture something, I’ve been at least satisfied with the result. The 2% of times where I did have a problem were often just because of how this 108 megapixel sensor produces images, because it has a very narrow plane of focus. I found myself a few times taking photos of things that are closer up, thinking I’d got it completely in focus when actually a part of it is ever so slightly out of focus. It’s a camera system that while I’m sure it could be better and one where I’m sure they will find ways to improve it in the future, I’ve got very little to complain about. In fact, probably my biggest complaint is just the fact that it doesn’t seem to know when to switch to the telephoto camera. What I mean is when you’re zooming into things, it should switch as soon as you pass five times zoom to maintain quality, but sometimes I’ve had to get to 11 time zoom before the phone finally realises ohh yeah, we should probably change lenses now. Also, massively underrated feature is the new Samsung Depths. This went from first needing a specialised doc just to work to then needing just a cable to now needing nothing. And it’s probably one of the use cases that truly shows the power of the phone. Being able to show your photo album while playing a YouTube video and doing five other things at the same time really is quite cool.

Samsung Note 20 Ultra Review – It’s Note Perfect

There are things I don’t like, and pretty much all of those things are just Samsung being Samsung, Like how they choose to add these sharp corners on the Note phones to distinguish them from the S phones, it does make the phone a bit more square, but then you get better screen protection.  It is virtually impossible to protect a curved screen and not lose the function of the whole screen, that is why we do so many Samsung screen repairs.  I like how the camera does take amazing photos, but how it insists on smoothing out faces when taking portrait mode shots. Like the fact that Samsung software seems intent on making you swallow every single Samsung service available. And it just bundles in so much junk, so much low quality content, which can’t be good for battery life either. The Game Launcher has these game recommendations and they’re straight out of 2014 with a lot of them not even being available in my country, Even for Samsung’s Internet browser, why are half the recommendations in what I can only assume is Korean? Also, Samsung have just made their phones quite confusing. In some regions this is a 4G phone, in others it’s a 5G phone. In some regions you get the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, literally the best that Android has to offer. But in other regions you get the Exynos 990, which is about as good as the Snapdragon from last year. For some people the base model will have 256 gigs of storage, great, but in others you’ll get 128. I even found out that if you live in some regions like Pakistan or if you go for the LTE variant, the Samsung Note 20 Ultra starts at 8 gigabytes of RAM. In 2020 you can get a phone with light in its name that has 8 gigabytes of RAM. This lineup is so confusing that if you want to know how good the Note 20 Ultra actually is, then you’ve almost got to make sure that you only read articles that are coming from the country that you’re planning on buying the phone in. Otherwise you’re kind of looking at a different phone.

Battery Life, Could It Be Better?

In the UK the Samsung Note 20 Ultra is sold with the Exynos chip.  This chip is not particularly battery efficient day-to-day. I did feel like it was lasting a little longer than my Samsung S20 Ultra Battery did, but just to make sure, for this Samsung Note 20 Ultra Review, I did do a side by side with a brand new Note 20 Ultra. I set both phones to equal brightness and just cycle through applications. And I mean the note was ahead, but very slightly, literally one percentage point. So the battery life is good, not great. But then again, from what I’ve seen from Samsung Note 20 Ultra Review in the US, the Note 20 Ultra over there can last up to an hour more of screen on time. The charging speed is fine, but does slow to a crawl as the battery is nearly full. So the takeaway of all of this is really quite simple. Here’s the Note versus most of its competition and actually right off the bat we can get rid of the Samsung S20 Ultra just because of how this is similar but better. The Oppo Find X2 Pro is actually pretty similar spec wise and does charge way faster than the Note, but I would decide with Samsung mostly because of the screen on this bad boy. I would get rid of the ROG phone as well because the Notes cameras are better and the form factor way nicer. But this is actually quite a close one because I really appreciate the mega battery on the ROG. In fact the Notes cameras are also far more reliable than Sony Experia one too. So let’s drop that and we can also remove the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro. As for the time being it’s a China only model and the Huawei P40 Pro Plus for most users because of the lack of Google Apps. do that leaves us with the OnePlus 8 Pro, a great pro level phone for less. The iPhone 11 Pro Max if iOS is your platform of choice is a great choice. Although it might make sense at the stage to wait for the iPhone 12 series coming soon and the Samsung Note 20 Ultra as my phone of choice right now. If budget isn’t an issue. Providing you’re OK with the fact that this is very much a Samsung experience, the way it takes photos, the software, the slight extra Exynos battery drain, then this really is Samsung’s pinnacle, the culmination of years of redesigns and problem fixes. It does make me dream about what this phone could have been had we had clean Google Pixel software and Google’s image processing algorithm. But we have what we have. And actually I’m kind of curious, where do you go from here? What is Samsung going to bring us next, will there be a Samsung Note 21 Ultra or will they combine the Samsung Note Ultra in to the Samsung S21 Ultra?  I also wonder how the fast charging is going to affect battery life, will the batteries last as long?  We know that the formula for batteries is tried & tested, so what are the going to do to get more power into the battery quicker?  Will the batteries last as long or will we need a Samsung Note 20 Ultra Battery replacement early? I hope you enjoyed my Samsung Note 20 Ultra review, apologies for the little rant, thanks for reading & don’t forget to leave a comment…

Samsung Note 20 Review, Standard Model or Ultra?

Let’s take a deep dive. You will notice that this year there isn’t a choice between a Small / Mini Samsung Note and a Samsung Note Plus. The Galaxy Note 20 Screen is a 6.7 inch screen and it’s almost as huge as the Note 20 Ultra Screen. Where the Note differs visually from the Samsung S20 Screen is that it has a completely flat screen. None of these curved edge shenanigans some will feel that makes it look less premium, but there are a tonne of people out there that have been begging for a flat screen note for years now and they finally get their wish. The flat screen is easier to protect with a good quality phone case.  The curved screen means that the case can not encroach on to the curved section, meaning this section can not be protected & this leads to more

Samsung S20 Screen Repairs than Samsung Note 20 Screen Repairs.

Cheaper Samsung Note 20 Back Battery Cover Replacement

Now the elephant in the room is that plastic back. Here the Note 20 comes straight from the Barbie world living life of plastic and it’s not fantastic. Yes, the trim on the side is metal, but most of your hand will make contact with this warm plastic on the back. It doesn’t feel that bad and I realised it’s kind of silly to complain about it thatmuch in my Samsung Note 20 Review. But still, it does not feel like £1000 phone.  The up side is a plastic back is cheaper to repair than a glass back & will likely absorb impact better, so if you crack the back of your Samsung Note 20 and need a Samsung Note 20 Back Battery Replacement, it will not cost you a fortune.

Samsung Note 20 Review – Screen Suboptimal?

Moving on to other downgrades, the Note 20 screen can only achieve a 60 Hertz refresh rate. Let’s put that into perspective. The £400.00 One Plus Nord has 90 Hertz. The £700.00 One Plus Eight has 90 Hertz. The £800 Google Pixel Four has 90 Hertz. The £1000 Galaxy S20 has 120 Hertz. The £1000 Galaxy Note 20 is back to 60 Hertz. Why, it makes no sense.  It has the same hardware as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It’s even more powerful than the Galaxy S20. So I ask again why? Other than that, the amulet panel looks fantastic. Blacks are deep, colours are accurate, viewing angles are great. You know, Samsung displays just happened to be amazing, so if you do crack your Samsung Note 20 screen, make sure you get a, not a knock off generic screen.

Genuine Samsung Note 20 Screen Repair

Samsung Note 20 Review – Selfie Camera / Back Camera

Let’s talk about this camera. The Samsung Note 20 has a smaller, less obnoxious camera module than the Samsung Note 20 Ultra, which I feel also looks much better. It’s kind of looks more elegant, but still makes a bold statement. It does look twice as small as the Samsung Note 20 Ultra Camera, so you might be thinking it’s worse. Well, it’s not, don’t worry about it. For this Samsung Note 20 Review, we took the Note 20 and the Samsung Note 20 Ultra for some extensive testing, and I can assure you that both produce very, very similar results. The only place where the Note 20 is inferior is in zoom distance and actual zoom quality. The Ultra is better hands down, but if you happen to be one of the 99% of people who don’t shoot at 30 times zoom all of the time, you should be fine. Portraits, wide angle shots, selfies, even video. They look equally fantastic on both phones.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Performance

Let’s talk about performance then. How does the Note 20 hold up? You’d hope it holds up. It’s got the same internals as the Note 20 Ultra. That’s the Snapdragon 865 Plus in the US and select markets, and an Exynos 990 in international models. And you know what it does. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is fast, snappy, and it can run any game on the Play Store without a hiccup. It has 8 gigs of RAM, but that doesn’t stop it from running tasks in the background like a madman. Very often when I open up an old app haven’t used in a while, it starts up right from where I left off. It works great. Now, the specs say that on the Note 20 has a 25 millisecond response time, while the Samsung Note 20 Ultra has a nine millisecond response time…But you know what? I tried and I tried and I tried to find the difference between the two and I just couldn’t. Both feel pretty responsive and fun to use. As ever, there are some slight frame drops and hiccups throughout the interface. You know, typical Samsung interface, and they are made more apparent by the 60 Hertz screen, but that’s about it.

Samsung Note 20 Review – Helps you Decide

Is it worth a buy in 2020? Well, not for £1000 it’s not. But here’s the deal. A tonne of carriers and Samsung partner stores run promo deals on these phones pretty much as soon as they’re released. So if you’re willing to look around, fish around, you probably won’t be paying £1000 for this phone. But if you can find it for 800 bucks, it’s worth it. The display is phenomenal, the cameras are just great, the pen fun as usual and the battery life, is incredible and as I am sure you know, Samsung Batteries last ages, so you will not need a Samsung Note 20 Battery Replacement of may years, but buy yourself a good quality protective case, maybe a good quality Samsung Note 20 Mouse Case so you do not need to get a Samsung Note 20 Screen Repair. So it’s a pretty good phone. Not £1000 phone, but a pretty good phone.  Hope you benefited fro my Samsung Note 20 Review…

If you have recently done an iPhone X Battery Replacement, 11 Battery Replacement or even an iPhone 12 Battery Replacement and the App IOS will not update and displays Unable to Verify Update this may be why. I recently installed new batteries in to 3 iPhone 12’s. I was contacted shortly by the customer saying that 2 of the iPhones would not update.

iPhone Beta Updates

Upon further investigation, I discovered that the customer had Beta Updates activated on her iPhone 12. As many know, Beta releases are Pre-Release versions of upcoming or test software, which may contain bugs or new code, which may cause performance issues and may be unstable. I told her to switch the Beta updates off. This then meant that the phone would be looking for the next regular update, which was IOS 16.6. The customer had automatically update my iPhone enabled, so the next update downloaded and then when it tried to install, popped up with the following error Unable to Verify Update. What was strange is that she already had IOS 16.6 installed, but it must be the Beta version as Beta updates had previous been enabled. This lead me down a rabbit hole of trying to work out what the problem was.

Are you a Guinea Pig?

Why Enable or Allow Apple IOS Beta Updates to be Enabled? Straight up, I have no idea why a customer would have Beta updates enabled, but the more pressing question is why does Apple allow Beta updates to be enabled on the latest iPhones? I would imagine that when switching Beta updates on, that the iPhone owner will have to agree to a whole bunch of terms and conditions which they do not read. Apple knows that literally no one reads the agreement which we all enter in to them to use Apple devices and software. Could Apple be using unsuspecting customers as their Beta testers? Well, I would not put it past them, I mean what better way to test real world applications of your software and devices than to have maybe even millions of your customers as your test subjects?

Does the Beta version of IOS stop updates when Non-Apple components are Installed?

If Apple were not so crap and expensive when it came to post sales repairs, there would not be much of a market, but there is, so they expend countless amount resources on trying to make it as difficult as possible for independent repairers to repair their devices. This leads me to wonder if Apples IOS Beta version is being tested to detect Non-Genuine parts and to then stop the IOS from updating. Anecdotal reports from iFixit and my battery supplier point to this being a possibility. Here is the iFixit thread on this whole issue for more context.

What is the Solution?

As of the date of this article being published, IOS 16.6 still works and updates when an iPhone X Battery Replacement, an iPhone 11 Battery Replacement or an iPhone 12 Battery Replacement have been done with Non-Genuine Apple spares, but not when the iPhone is running 16.6 IOS Beta version. My battery supplier has contacted his battery supplier and they have also updated the battery circuitry / software to overcome this problem when the iPhone is running Beta IOS, which makes me unsure as to the real cause of the issue. Late I have not tested the updated batteries on IOS beta.

Play it Safe / Fix the Problem

This is my take on how to avoid this issue. Firstly you should be using a good battery supplier, one that works to resolve problems like this. I can say without a doubt that most of the cheap batteries out there will not have updated their batteries to deal with this issue. Secondly, it is not not necessary for customers to be running IOS Beta version, simple as that. The only 2 ways to solve this problem if you already have a Non-Genuine Apple Battery installed in an iPhone X, iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 which was running a Beta version of IOS when the battery was installed is to replace the battery with one that has been updated to deal with the Apple Beta version of IOS, or return the iPhone to factor settings and re-install the latest Non-Beta IOS. Remember to ensure the device is backed up to iCloud before you do this.

iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 have similar designs overall, but the two models have some key differences.
One of the most significant differences between the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 is the materials used in their construction. The iPhone 11 has an aluminium and glass design, while the iPhone 12 is made up of stainless steel and glass. The stainless-steel frame on the iPhone 12 gives it a more premium feel and makes it more durable than the iPhone 11.
Another difference between the two models is the size and weight. The iPhone 12 is slightly smaller and lighter than the iPhone 11. Which you would not expect considering the iPhone 11 is made from lighter material. It also has a flatter-edge design that is more similar to iPhone 5, 5s, SE (2020) than iPhone 11. Of course durability is a key consideration, when you consider how easy it is to drop your phone. The flat edge on the iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max provides the screen with better protection, meaning that a dreaded iPhone 12 Screen repair / replacement may not be needed as soon as an iPhone 11 screen repair / replacement.

iPhone 11 Camera vs iPhone 12 Camera, The Differences

The camera module on the iPhone 12 also differs from the one on the iPhone 11. The iPhone 12 has a square-shaped camera module on the back, while the iPhone 11 has a round camera. The iPhone 12 also has an additional ultra-wide lens in its dual-camera system, whereas the iPhone 11 has a dual-camera system with a broad and telephoto lens.
Additionally, the iPhone 12 display has a higher resolution and uses OLED technology, which is known for its deep blacks and vibrant colours.
In short, The iPhone 12 has a more premium design, lighter weight, flatter-edge, and better camera and display than iPhone 11 display.

iPhone 11 Vs iPhone 12: Specs and Features

The iPhone 12 has a more modern, flat-edge design similar to the iPad Pro and the iPhone 5, while the iPhone 11 has a more curved design. The iPhone 12 is also slightly smaller and lighter (164 g) than the iPhone 11 (194 g), making it easier to hold and use with one hand.
Another significant difference between the two phones is the display. The iPhone 12 has a Super Retina XDR display with a resolution of 2532 x 1170 and 460 pixels per inch (PPI), while the iPhone 11 has a Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 1792 x 828 and 326 PPI. The display on the iPhone 12 also has a broader colour gamut and supports ProMotion, which makes scrolling and gaming smoother and more responsive.
Under the hood, the iPhone 12 is powered by Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, which is a faster and more efficient version of the A13 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 11. The A14 chip also enables the iPhone 12 to support 5G networks, which means you can take advantage of faster data speeds and lower latency when using cellular data. The iPhone 11 is limited to 4G LTE.

The camera system is also improved on the iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 has a dual-camera system with a 12-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, both with Night mode and deep Fusion technology for better low-light performance. The iPhone 11 also has a dual-camera system, but it has a 12-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, both with Night mode and Smart HDR. iPhone 12 camera glass / lens repair and iPhone 11 camera glass / lens repair are both fairly straight forward, but require specialised glue, tools and a steady hand.
Other notable differences include the following:
Face ID is faster on the iPhone 12
Battery life on iPhone 12 is slightly better
iPhone 12 is built with a Ceramic Shield front cover, providing 4x better drop performance
Both of the devices run on iOS 14 and have similar features, such as Siri, FaceTime, and Apple Pay, but the newer device, iPhone 12, has more advanced capabilities and performance. Ultimately, choosing the iPhone 11 or the iPhone 12 depends on your budget and specific needs and preferences.
iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12: Storage
The iPhone 11 is available with three storage options: 64GB, 128GB, and 256 GB. The iPhone 12, on the other hand, has four storage options: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512 GB. So, if you need a lot of storage, the iPhone 12 would be the better option, as it offers an additional 512GB storage tier.
Both models also offer cloud storage options, such as iCloud, which can be used to store photos, videos, and other files online. So even if you don’t have a lot of storage on your device, you can still save your files in the cloud.
In general, if you’re looking for more storage, iPhone 12 is a better option for you. In additon to this, there are more differences between these models such as the camera, processing power and many more.

iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12: Battery Life

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 have similar battery capacities. However, iPhone 11 has a slightly larger capacity at 3110 mAh than the iPhone 12’s 2815 mAh. The iPhone 12 has a more efficient A14 Bionic chip and an improved power management system, so it can still offer similar or even better battery life than the iPhone 11 in some cases.
In terms of official battery life ratings, Apple claims that the iPhone 12 can last up to 17 hours of video playback, whereas the iPhone 11 can last up to 15 hours. The iPhone 12 is the winner with 11 hours of battery time for internet use, as the iPhone 11 can be used for 10 hours maximum. The iPhone 12 is rated for up to 75 hours for audio playback. On the other hand, iPhone 11 is voted for up to 65 hours.
The iPhone 12 supports fast charging, with the ability to charge 50% in around 30 minutes, while the iPhone 11 takes around an hour to achieve the same level. The iPhone 12 also supports MagSafe charging, which allows you to charge your device more efficiently and easily wirelessly.
Ultimately, both devices offer excellent battery life, but the iPhone 12 gives you slight improvements in every category. With more advanced tech under the hood and the latest hardware, you can expect that iPhone 12 will be more energy efficient and can give you better battery life overall. We have been noticing that there is a trade off in so far as the life of the battery. It seems that the fast charging is leading to reduced battery life, meaning you may need an iPhone 12 battery replacement before an iPhone 11 battery replacement.
iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12: Price
The iPhone 11 was released in September 2019 current price at the time of this blog is £479 on Amazon for a 128GB, compared to the iPhone 12 which was released in October 2020 for £644.

iPhone 11 Compared to iPhone 12 – Summary

In terms of overall features, the iPhone 12 offers several upgrades over the iPhone 11, including a newer A14 Bionic chip, a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, improved dual rear cameras, and support for 5G networks. The iPhone 12 has a more modern design with a flat-edge stainless steel frame, while the iPhone 11 has rounded edges and an aluminium frame.
It’s worth considering your priorities, whether you prefer the latest technology or a more budget-friendly option.
Final Verdict – iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 both come with almost similar features but with a bit of improvement on the iPhone 12. It’s up to you to judge and determine whether the additional features match the price increase in the newer model.
Additionally, if you are looking for an upgrade, especially on internet speeds, the iPhone 12 is a good option because it comes with 5G internet connectivity.