Stefan Mileschin

Today at Apples iPhone launch event, we saw the unveiling of three new iPhones as well as the Apple Watch Series 4. We go into more detail about the specifications of the new phones in our separate announcement article. Least to say, the new phones are a major upgrade in terms of their hardware capabilities, and also mark the across-the-board adoption of the iPhone X design for the entire iPhone product line.

I had a bit of hands-on time with the new phones at the event, and I was able to come away with a few impressions of the new models.

One thing that’s pretty evident is that the iPhone XS’ and the XR are pretty much successors to the iPhone X, as they adopt the same design language as their predecessors, along with Apple’s take on “edge-to-edge” displays and the notch design.

In terms of size, there’s quite a bit of mixup in the product line. The new iPhone XS replaces the iPhone 8 as the smallest available phone from Apple, yet this smaller unit is actually identical in size the iPhone X. Essentially this means that Apple no longer offers a really small form-factor phone unless you go with last generation’s units.

Indeed, just looking at the exterior of the phones you would be hard pressed to differentiate between the iPhone X and iPhone XS, and upon closer inspection there’s only two differentiating features between the two units. On the bottom of the phone there’s now only three instead of six holes on the left side. As a reminder only the right holes actually output sound from the speaker, while the left ones hide the bottom microphone. Instead Apple added one more antenna line here, and this feature is mirrored at the top right corner of the phone as well. We don’t know yet as to what the two new antennas are for, other than they’re there for better reception.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13362...watch-4-handon