iPhone XS in 2022 – worth it? (Review)
Iphone 10.. The phone that had been apples move to the edge to edge display, bringing along with it that famous notch and face id. The iphone 10s, of course, kept this design and brought a much larger option in the 10s max mixed in, of course, with the general yearly improvements to the performance and camera system. The phones were quite similar to the 2017 iphone 10., so apple. This time around did something they hadnt done in years. They immediately discontinued the iphone 10 and replaced it with a more budget oriented option in the iphone 10r, a phone with the old display tech in lcd with the design and notch of the iphone 10s. This made for a great compromise between the old and the new for those wanting to save a little bit of cash, and it set up apple for the future to continue building on their lineup to make it what it looks like today: hey hows it going im. Josh from 91 tech and its hard to believe, but the iphone 10s and 10s max are somehow turning four years old this year, yeah no four years old, but luckily these phones dont feel quite that old, at least not to me, and at least not yet so Today lets take a look at them and see how they hold up in 2022. For starters, as always, timestamps are in the description below, and for those of you watching this that actually own the iphone 10s and are wondering, if maybe you should upgrade.
I do think you should be good to go for the foreseeable future, though, depending on how long youve had the phone, i could totally understand potentially wanting to upgrade, especially if your battery health is starting to degrade. The iphone 14 or 14 pro might be worth investing in when those phones come out and personally, if you were going to upgrade, i would try to at least get an iphone 13 pro. The 13 is great too, but 120 hertz, with the pro really brings it to that next level. By making everything on the display just feel buttery, smooth and fast so itll be a proper true upgrade to your iphone 10s. For anyone looking to buy an iphone 10s right now, potentially we will be taking a look at the used market a bit later on, but first well be going over the device itself so again feel free to skip ahead. If you would like to this, here is, of course, my gold iphone 10s max, but it wasnt my first iphone 10s. I actually bought one at launch back in 2018 and was fairly underwhelmed. Having been upgrading from my only year old, iphone 10., it wasnt a major upgrade, but in hindsight that was completely understandable, given the giant jump from the iphone 7 to the 10 and the 10s fits pretty well between the 10 and the more significantly improved iphone 11. Pro coming in 2019., it does, however, leave the iphone 10s and tennis max as a bit of the forgotten phones from recent years.
They were only around for about 12 months and didnt, shake up the design, but then again even cutting as far forward as the iphone 13 pro from late 2021 and the designs havent actually shifted drastically at all, with only a smaller notch and flat size. To speak of along with other fairly minor changes, so it all leaves the iphone 10s, even if its often forgotten feeling very much modern and premium, and you would hope so, given its cost of a thousand dollars plus back in the day. And while the phone might not hold up to the modern flagship, it still manages to pack a punch offering strong performance and decent camera quality in todays world, with the biggest flaw to the device being, in my opinion, battery life, the iphone 11 pro in 2019 would Massively massively improve in the battery department, it was quite the upgrading cameras as well, if youd like to hear more about the 11 pro or the iphone 11, which apple is still selling for 500 ill link. Those reviews of mine in the description below but for now lets begin this by taking a look at the design of the iphone 10s and 10s max a design less refined than what we have today, but definitely not too different to start. I absolutely love the design of the iphone 10 and 10s youve got these glossy glass, backings and stainless steel frames. That came with the iphone 10 originally, and the 10s has three colors silver space gray and the all new gold which looks absolutely gorgeous glossy glass, as opposed to the frosted glass on the 11 pro does mean more fingerprints, but the phone isnt, quite as slippery in The hand – and it still looks really really nice and youll – probably want to use a case regardless as glasses, glass and glass breaks that camera module.
There is the last one to be a simple long oval as weve long moved on to the square shaped camera bumps. This was also the last flagship iphone to not have a centered apple logo. Turning to the front of the iphone, we have the 5.8 inch iphone 10s and 6.5 inch iphone 10s max, actually the smaller phone. There is the iphone 10, but it looks identical from the front so well just call it the 10s here both of these phones have absolutely gorgeous oled displays. They are only 60hz, as was the norm for apple only up until late last year. So, while youre not getting the buttery smooth frame rates of the new iphone 13 pro, everything else about the phone display is roughly equivalent its still absolutely gorgeous. The pixel density is right about the same youre. Getting those vibrant, deep colors with the oled apple calls it their super retina oled display. This is a really nice looking phone and whether you like or hate the notch personally ive, never minded it much. I think it works here, especially considering this phone is four years old. Just remember what all those other 2018 phones with notches look like something interesting is that the iphone 10s is the final iphone to ever receive 3d touch. You remember 3d touch where the display could sense when you were physically pushing harder and in doing so, would prompt you for more options. Now this is achieved with haptic touch, which is literally just long, pressing or short pressing, depending on the situation, though, technically 3d touch does still exist in modern ios.
It just doesnt really add anything to the experience. I missed 3d touch a lot. It was one of those more unknown and subtle features that really added a lot to the iphone and how you could potentially use the phone. It had so much promise when it came with the iphone 6s, but unfortunately, apple never really did a whole lot with it, and the few things they did do have, of course, been mostly replicated regardless. Although one nice feature ive always missed from my iphone 10s on my 13 pro, you have to hold on to the spacebar in order to gain control of the keyboard cursor, whereas with 3d touch you can just push down anywhere on the keyboard to move it around. Its a small thing, but its one of those features i used to use constantly and i do miss it. I suppose it serves as a welcome reminder that not everything has gotten better in cell phones since the old days, even if most things have the iphone 11. Pro, as mentioned, was a big upgrade in a few key ways, mainly boiling down to battery life and the camera quality. Part of the reason the 11 pros battery was bigger was because of the removal of 3d touch which, as much as i liked 3d touch was probably a worthwhile sacrifice. So lets talk about that battery my biggest complaint with the iphone 10s. Maybe some of you have had a better experience than me, but i also know im not alone here when i first got my smaller iphone 10s.
It was very similar to my iphone 10 in battery life, which already wasnt great, because that phone would struggle here and there to get me a full days use if i was on it a whole lot. I felt it was good enough for the year ive used it, but naturally, as time goes on batteries due to great and so now approaching, four years down, the road theres a very real chance that those still using the 10s could be struggling with their battery health. Without even realizing it to check your battery health, its simple enough just go to settings battery battery health and there youll see a percentage thats. How much of the original capacity your battery can still charge to once you get down to the mid 80s, or so you might start to notice a drop in longevity and it usually gets really bad as you get to and drop below 80 percent with either poor Performance or random, shutdowns being the result apple can replace the battery for you for 70 through their store. If you would like so thats always an option, and it very well could breathe a new life into your device if thats something you need, but even brand new. The batteries were never fantastic, including on the larger 10s max and okay. It may sound like im being a bit hard on the battery, but its only because of just how much better the 11 pro got, and even the 10r was better than the tennis.
If you go onto apples website and use their compare feature, you can see, they have the iphone 10s and 10s max rated for 14 and 15 hours of video playback time respectively, while the smaller iphone 11 pro, which is only a year. Newer is rated for 18 hours, 18 hours, thats four more than the iphone 10s and three more than the 10s max, and the 11 pro max is rated for 20 hours, good enough for 5 hours longer than the 10s max. This is an absolutely absurd leap in battery performance and, while i did recently talk about it in my iphone 11 pro video its worth mentioning again as it truly is one of the biggest iphone upgrades in recent memory, its major and was a really underrated feature to Be honest: this doesnt mean that the 10s is going to have poor battery life for everyone with average use. It should last the day, no problem assuming its in decent health, but theres no question that youre getting a much a better experience on a newer iphone in the battery department. The other big upgrade with the iphone 11 and 11 pro were the cameras, and while it was very much needed, the iphone 10s is still very much today capable of taking some great shots here. You can see some of the photos from the phone that i took myself from about 2018 and 2019 when i had the phone along with probably a few modern ones mixed in there, and i have to say i think these have aged really.
Well honestly. They look great, i think the more tech can find tend to get a little wrapped up in the small specifics of photography today when it comes to smartphones, but in the big picture, even slightly older phones are still extremely competent, much more so than say the four Year old, iphone 6, when the 10s came out like the 10s over the iphone 6 is a huge difference. The iphone 13 pro to the iphone 10s theres still absolutely a difference, but its not nearly the same. The iphone 10s and 10s max share the two same optically stabilized camera lenses on the rear, both being 12 megapixels, with one being a wide lens versus the other being a telephoto that gives you a two time, zoom its kind of funny how small this camera module Feels now compared to say the 13 pro but thats where were at at this point, the telephoto is necessary on the iphone 10s for portrait mode, which is a slightly odd move. As on the iphone 10r, with only one lens, you can still take portrait mode shots. Just with the wider lens thanks to software processing and on the 11 pro you could do the same, but here you do need to use the telephoto lens. If you want to get a portrait shot and hey those photos, do look pretty darn good. You can even see a lot of the qualities that newer, iphones are still great with like this was a photo.
I took really early on when i got the iphone 10s, but that drop off with the bokeh to mimic the look of a dslr camera. The further. The subject is from the camera, the more itll start to blur the edges and stuff of his coat and whatnot thats all there. It looks really good. It shows how well these smartphone cameras are holding up so many years later. Generally speaking, the wide lens is going to be the best camera to take photos with the two times. Zoom is nice for when you need it, the iphone 11 and 11 pro the next year would bring an extra ultra wide lens to iphone. For the first time, giving a 0.5 times zoom, but while its really nice, i dont think youre actually missing out too much the double camera setup. On the back of the iphone 10s, you can always take a couple steps back to get that wider image. Video can be filmed in 4k at 60 frames per second, of course, which looks great and stabilization does really well here, too, just panning and walking around a bit following my dog around even in lower light situations. You know it does really well so far so good. So wheres the supposed big upgrades that came with the 11 pro well, the iphone 10s, absolutely excels with most shots outdoors in good lighting, its those lower light situations where it really begins to suffer the easy way to show.
This is with the lack of night mode. Photography, which is a feature that was new to the iphone 11 and 11 pro and gives you a significantly brighter photo in dark situations and, as you can see here, theres just no, comparing the two. The eleven pro blows, the 10s out of the water, but in all fairness, this is a very low light situation and the difference wouldnt be quite so obvious most of the time, but even as i take photos with more and more light, its pretty clear that the Iphone 10s just doesnt hold up to the same standard when it comes to lower light photos. The 11 pro can consistently take a much cleaner picture with less grain, more detail, less blur is just going to be better, and this does also translate to, of course, just regular indoor shooting taking a picture of someone on your couch, while the iphone 10s can do A good job if your lighting isnt great your picture, might end up being a bit noisy around the edges and whatnot its just the reality of the situation. So, if youre, really wanting strong camera performance and were maybe thinking about getting the 10s, the 11 or better would probably be the way to go for that. But that being said, and even only a decent lighting conditions, the 10s generally does a really great job. Its still very much a solid camera four years later, just one that is well four years old and obviously wont hold up to the caliber of newer smartphones.
The selfie camera on the iphone 10s and 10s max is 7 megapixels and it takes a pretty good selfie. In my opinion, although its worth noting the iphone 11 and 11 pro did upgrade this to 12 megapixels, so thats, another better camera feature all in all. The iphone 10s holds up fairly well in the photography department and with the context of it being a 2018 smartphone. Its difficult to complain, as you saw, a lot of those photos, have aged really really well honestly, i feel like i could go out with this phone and be totally happy with it for most situations. Speaking of aged really well thats, actually a great way of describing the internal hardware and technical specifications being specifically apples, a12, bionic, chipset and four gigabytes of ram on both size options. The a12 might be getting older in age, but the performance is still ridiculously strong. As apple has been ahead of the cpu game for years now, these phones are still very much fast and ive experienced no slowdowns since using both the iphone 10s and fairly recently, the iphone 10r. When i was reviewing that phone, its quick spiffy smooth. Whichever word you want to use to describe fast, i dont even know. If fast is the right word per se, is it all just kind of happens? It works open, an app and it opens so. I have to go home and it goes home. Multitask, go to a previously opened app and typically its still open.
In the background, this isnt a slow phone and it shouldnt become one for a good bit of time. If ever apples optimization with ios just keeps getting better. What feels like every year – and so this phone, at least for the basics, may never actually feel too slow difficult to say, but apple has been absurdly good, with ios support, recently, updating phones, even as old as seven gears, with the iphone 6s and 6s plus. I wouldnt expect quite that long here, just because its literally an unprecedentedly high number but theres also no indication that couldnt be the case as of yet so either way. I think its a safe bet that the 10s will receive, at least until late 2024 for updates, and even if it doesnt dont forget that would still bring it to about six years of ios support, which is insane especially when compared to phones across the aisle. On the android side, for only two to three years tends to be the norm more often than not, while the iphone 10s is fairly future proofed and strong in most categories for those still using it today, this doesnt mean that it should still be worth buying. For someone considering picking up a used iphone, mainly because of well, in my opinion, the battery life, which could be quite bad if you buy used as well as the big camera upgrade that came the next year. If we do go over to ebay.
com, we can see the smaller iphone 10s at 64 gigabytes, going for not too much over 200 american dollars in decent condition, which is honestly not bad whatsoever. The 10s max seems to be closer to the 300 to maybe 350 mark. Although honestly, i was seeing a very wide array of prices much wider than usual when it comes to used and refurbished iphones. If you want to take a look at your own local online marketplaces like craigslist and facebook, you might be able to find an even better deal if you can find a good condition. Iphone 10s for around 200 bucks with no screen burn in which is basically blemishes on the screen, typically caused by the phone displaying a single image for too long, and the phone has good battery health id say its not a bad deal for a phone almost guaranteed To get multiple, more major, ios versions in the coming years, the 10s max at not much over 250 dollars would be, in my opinion, possibly the best find as battery life will at least be a bit better on that phone, but ultimately its up to you and If youre, comparing this to say the iphone 11 pro on the used market, just looking around a bit, that phone does seem to be a decent step up in price. As mentioned before, link to my 11 pro review is in the description below buying from the used market is always going to be risky and, generally speaking, id encourage people to buy new simply because if something goes wrong, i dont want to be the guy responsible for Someone buying a used smartphone with that being said, i do have to say theres some real value here.
This phone, for the most part, has held up really really well. The display on the 10s is gorgeous basically on par with the newest iphones. The design is so premium, the 10s doesnt look like nor feel like a four year old phone and honestly, it still really feels like a flagship is what it feels like, and even if its not current the premium quality and the build and design has aged. So so well, and as a result, this previously thousand dollar phone in many ways still feels like one all these years later. The iphone 10s and 10s max are still solid phones in 2022, not without their flaws, but even so im happy to say they hold up. Quite well and arent at all bad value off the used market. The iphone 10r is also another interesting phone to look at link to that again in the description, but i do think weve talked enough about iphones for one day so now ill turn this over. To you guys any of you still using the iphone 10s or 10s max hows it working for you make sure you, let me know down in the comments below. Hopefully i wasnt too hard on it. I didnt want to be too easy on it either, but i figured id rather downplay how strong a phone is than overplay it, and the truth is that battery life isnt great compared to newer iphones and the lack of night mode on the camera is quite disappointing.
But the base hardware and experience here is still so solid. I do know that theres a lot of people still out there using and loving the iphone 10s on a daily basis. If you found this video interesting or helpful, maybe hit that like button and consider subscribing for more content. Just like this, you can follow me on my socials if you want to, for some reason at 91 underscore tech and with all that being said, thank you. So much for watching, i really do appreciate.