Apple iPhone Xs review: A pocket powerhouse

Like all Apple products, the Xs is far from cheap - although Amazon has just brought the price down

Pros
Faster than the iPhone X
Great camera and superb video recording
New gold colour looks fantastic

iPhone 11 latest: With the announcement of the iPhone 11 imminent, it might be time to hold fire on that iPhone Xs purchase. It's still a wonderful phone with fabulous cameras, a superb screen and market-leading performance but the next version of the phone will, inevitably, be even better. And, given Apple's iPhone sales woes of late, there's no guarantee the new models will be any more expensive than the previous ones.

Aside from the price, however, which remains under tight wraps, we pretty much know what's coming with the next iteration of Apple's iPhone 11 thanks to the usual merry-go-round of leaks and rumours. It's all-but-certain, for instance, that this year's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will come with three cameras on the rear, housed in a rather ugly square "bump" in the top left corner.

If you want to know more, rock on over to our iPhone 11 rumours piece, where we've condensed all the leaks and rumours about the new phones into one handy guide. But you could do a lot worse than cast your eye over my original iPhone Xs review, which will also give you a good grounding ahead of the big launch on 10 September.

Our original review continues below:

The Apple iPhone Xs can be summed up in one fairly brief sentence: it’s basically the same phone as the Apple iPhone Xs Max, but with a smaller screen and a smaller battery.

That’s pretty much all you need to know, although to get the full picture you’d have to go away, read my iPhone Xs Max review, and then come here to look at the pretty pictures. I’m not going to leave it at just that, of course, because you’ve come here to read a review of the iPhone Xs and that’s exactly what you’re going to get.

READ NEXT: Apple iPhone Xs Max review
Apple iPhone Xs review: What you need to know

Let’s take it from the top down. The Apple iPhone Xs is one of three phones launched by Apple in 2018, and it sits in the middle of the range in terms of features, performance and price. At the “bottom” of the 2018 iPhone range is the iPhone XR, which is the cheapest iPhone, then you have this phone – the iPhone Xs – while at the top of the range is the iPhone Xs Max.

To look at, the iPhone Xs is almost identical to the 2017 iPhone X, which Apple has now retired. It has the same front-filling AMOLED 5.8in display, the same dimensions and the very same notch at the top of the screen. It’s marginally heavier but that’s not noticeable.