Apple announced 3 new iPhones this September: the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS, and the iPhone XS Max. These new phones follow similar designs to last years iPhone X which was the bestselling smartphone on the market. However, there are some key differences with the screens, internal specifications, cameras, and most important of all the price.
The iPhone XS is Apple’s flagship phone out of the three with iPhone XS Max being a larger version of it and the iPhone XR being their lower budget option. All three phones look similar and it can be difficult to tell them apart, but there are some differences. Let’s start with the screen. The iPhone XS has an OLED screen while the iPhone XR has an LCD display. Last year’s iPhone X also had an OLED screen, but the resolution was not as high as this year’s iPhone XS. The internal specifications are much better on this year’s iPhones. The iPhone XS and XR have A12 Bionic Chips that have a 6-Core CPU, a 4-Core GPU and 4GB of RAM on the XS and 3GB of RAM on the XR. According to Apple, these specifications result in much faster and better performance on the new iPhones.
Better tech specs seem great, but is it still a phone or is it a laptop at this point? A few years ago, and some would argue even now that the average laptop on the market comes with a 2-Core CPU, minimal graphics performance, and 4GB of RAM. Comparing these internal specifications to the new iPhones, it seems as if the iPhones are much better than the average laptop out there. In fact, they probably outperform a number of laptops on the market. So, what is the point of these average laptops anymore if smartphones can do their jobs better?
Another interesting aspect of these new iPhones is the price. Most iPhones in the past have sold their base models for about $650. The new iPhone XS starts at $999 and the iPhone XR which is their lower budget phone starts at $750. You could essentially buy a powerful laptop with that kind of money. The prices are getting ridiculously high and the tech specs are improving, but what does this mean for the market? Companies are going to continue charging absurd amounts for their phones and average laptops are likely to go obsolete, leaving powerful laptops and phones on the market. This could be problematic for people who can’t afford these expensive products. At the same time, it results in a waste of so much technology. Millions of people will be throwing away old phones and laptops to upgrade to new ones which only adds to the problem with global warming. More powerful phones seem like a good idea, but in reality, creating a phone that is as expensive and powerful as a laptop might only cause problems.