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What about buying it in Hong Kong? That shouldn’t have the FaceTime audio disabled...

Right now the problem is if I go to Hong Kong, there is still the possibility I can't get one because of the demand. I travel mostly between the United States and Shanghai, so going out of my way to Hong Kong isn't that great from a cost perspective. Before when I lived long term in Shanghai, I did go to Hong Kong bought a couple Apple products including the Mac Pro. The tax saving in itself was worth the trip since I had other things I needed plus business in Shenzhen. For the iPhone Xs [Max], if I wait a couple months for the demand to go down, then likely the eSIM solution will have already been introduced by Apple, so I won't need the two physical SIMs anyways.
 
What additional features are you looking for?

I'm pretty content about the current features, just wondering if others don't like what it has now? Current hot topic now is that a lot of users are experiencing connectivity issues blaming Apple on using Intel as their sole modem provider and that Qualcomm was much better. I'm sure Apple will patch it up with another software update since they're pretty good at software updates.
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Uh might want to hold off on the note 9

https://bgr.com/2018/09/17/galaxy-note-9-battery-overheats-and-catches-fire-in-womans-purse/ :eek:

If your not happy with XS Max just wait another year, your 7+ just got a breath of new life with iOS12.


I was considering an XS Max initially, but I think I'm either going to wait it out until Black Friday, hoping there will be a good deal on it or maybe wait for the S10 in February next year. And yes, I agree. The iOS12 on the 7+ is a nice touch up.
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I am disappointed that they have the same OLED as in X, but there is no way I am going to switch to Android. F*ck Google. One more year waiting and hoping for a eye-strain free screen.

What other OLED manufacturer would you have gone with if you had a choice? I think Samsung and LG are the current leading suppliers of OLED right now, but don't quote that on me, I may be wrong.
 
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I wear a lot of those mirrored shades, seems those all block the FaceID from working properly.

This is one set of mine. All my Oakleys have the Iridium Lenses, so although not full on mirrored they are quite reflective but FaceID works fine.

92a081d43104563b70af2c778d5da1b1.jpg


Out of curiosity I’ve just tried my Aquasphere swimming goggles which are a lot more mirrored and they don’t work, even after unlocking with the passcode a few times and trying again. Which stands to reason as it’s IR so will reflect in a mirror.

8d0d7c8a7173761a1c74badc81cc206c.jpg
 
Just received my Xs Max yesterday (I’m an iPhone X owner).
I’m experiencing buyers remorse,and thinking about returning it.

It’s just not worth the extra over my iPhone X.
It’s huge and awkard to handle.(I had 7 Plus before X but X seems to be the perfect size).
Don’t know yet,but it’s very likely that I will return it and stick to my X.(it is 4 months old only).

Also recent reports of poor battery performance of Xs and Xs Max vs X are very concerning and very important for me.
 
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No remorse here. Love my max, the display, speed and the large screen and no home button.

On the other note either I’m easy to please or some people are impossible to please.
 
worsto way to buy a sit costs more and you are stuck a sa prisoner; Always buy phoen sin one shot; save slowly over time (put a few dollars a week for it if cannot do it from a paycheck) and you ar efree and own it outright not renting or morgaging a fkn phone and paying extra taxes and whatnot every month.
[doublepost=1537846896][/doublepost]Shame on Apple for eliminating SE as it was their best phone ever; I tried X in January and immediately went back to SE which is greta X was slippery and annoying to use; Now they almost doubled up th eprices for similar phone as X thinking that sheep will come no matter what. I think many people are disappointed in this last iphones. I will simply wait until my SE breaks down and look for a phone that is not big like a brick and give them the money. I have very large hands btw and I prefer smaller phones because I do not like to carry a brick in my pocket or use two hands like a monkey and zombey. Will it be Sony or Google or someone else is to be seen but for now I;m not buying apple phones as they dont have idea how to design better phones anymore just huge bricks slippery and made of glass (which require constant cleaning) basically copying samsung phones; No imagination.

It does not cost more. It costs exactly the same as buying it outright.
 
Is anyone annoyed at the fact that you can't see the battery percentage number on top. It isn't much of a deal breaker, but something as little as that ticks me off, haha.
 
even if Xs Max and Xs were same price,I'd still choose the Xs.;)

X / Xs size is perfect,Max is simply awkward to handle and very uncomfortable in one hand.

Max is still too small for watching movies, reading comfortably etc it's just slightly more comfortable while reading vs X.
but the bulkiness trade off outweighs the slight benefit imo.

I'll return mine tomorrow and keep using my X. :)
 
Who is disappointed with all the new features of the iPhone Xr / Xs / Xs Max? Any of you thinking about waiting for next years iPhone or possibly trying out the new Samsung S10 in February 2019? Or how about even trying a Note 9 or another phone? I am currently on a 7plus and possibly considering keeping it for another year or so. Thoughts?

Looking forward to leaving the iP7 (with Safari & Apple Maps) far behind because of the leaks of the upcoming S10 with Touch ID and hp jack. If it’s not what is rumored I will get a reduced price S9. First, though, I have to take my 7 to Apple next week and get that “no service” extended warranty repair (bad chip). Begun to prepare though. Sold the Watch Monday!
 
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Looking forward to leaving the iP7 (with Safari & Apple Maps) far behind because of the leaks of the upcoming S10 with Touch ID and hp jack. If it’s not what is rumored I will get a reduced price S9. First, though, I have to take my 7 to Apple next week and get that “no service” extended warranty repair (bad chip). Begun to prepare though. Sold the Watch Monday!


With Samsung shifting focus to mid range devices, hope the s10 is everything you want. It would be terrible for Samsung fans if they decide to drop the headphone jack next year.

S9 already lost half its value, you might get a great bargain next year.

Good luck.
 
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It’s just not worth the extra over my iPhone X.
It’s huge and awkard to handle.(I had 7 Plus before X but X seems to be the perfect size).
Don’t know yet,but it’s very likely that I will return it and stick to my X.(it is 4 months old only).

Also recent reports of poor battery performance of Xs and Xs Max vs X are very concerning and very important for me.

This....

Had my X since launch day last year, at the time I thought it felt small compared to my 7 Plus. Got the XS Max last weekend purely on the strength of the bigger screen and how fond I was of the Plus form factor on the previous phones, and now I've got it im just not feeling it. Rather than being usably bigger, it just seems like everything is scaled up and too big, although I guess that could be non-updated apps rather than the phones fault. Even the native apps dont seem that much more usable to me. I'm wondering if my beef is actually more to do with aspect ratio than overall size.

My LTE coverage is also noticeably worse than the X was (EE UK). Haven't noticed any better/worse battery life to be honest. The camera is definitely quite a bit better on the Max if thats important to you.

All in all, if I was coming from a 7 Plus it would be a decent upgrade if you can come to terms with the aspect ratio, but from a X I've concluded its not really worth the upgrade so going to return it and skip this year for the first time since 2010.
 
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The iPhone has plateaued so much. I was underwhelmed by last years phones and mildly underwhelming this year (saved by the Xr). Thats the reason prices are going up and up. Stagnant growth. Even apple was on stage bragging and encouraging people keeping iPhones longer. Add to that they made my 6S literally feel like new again with iOS 12. The overall design (aside from a glass back last year) has been nearly identical for 5 years. Apple doesn't care about you buying a new phone so much as you buying A PHONE, period. They want you in the ecosystem because of services. But in order to curb revenue loss due to no growth they have to up the prices. Last years iPhone 8 is 599. Thats what new phones USED to start at. Now the new phones are at 749 and 999. The watch went up in pricing too. Its just clearly a cash grab to meet their quarterly results before they launch new services.

Read between the lines. Put the kool-aid down for a sec. Apple is changing big time very soon. Tim Cooks defense of the high pricing is a joke. Apple was known for giving us the best, PERIOD. Apple already had premium pricing and thats fine.....now what do we call it ULTRA PREMIUM??? The XS is the most underwhelming update to an iPhone ever. These chips are so far beyond what people use their phones for that apple has now resorted to the old "speeds and feeds" jargon of the 90s. The performance for daily tasks between the X and the XS are nearly identical. Who cares snapchat loads .0005 seconds quicker. Most wont notice. Anyone going on about the speed of the XS is probably having a placebo effect coming from pre-iphone X models since the new gestures are making the phone feel much faster because they are. But that doesn't actually mean your stuff is loading any quicker, its just quicker navigation compared to touch ID and double clicking a home button.
 
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No remorse here. Love my max, the display, speed and the large screen and no home button.

On the other note either I’m easy to please or some people are impossible to please.
I think some people are impossible to please. And I think posts saying things would be different and better had Steve Jobs not died. No one can say that for sure and people need to move on. Wishing he hadn’t died is not going to change anything. I don’t think he was so involved in every design. There has been change, and there will always be change. Decide if you are going to handle it positively or negatively. I choose positive and love my Xs max.
 
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I currently own a 7Plus and that extra screen real estate is a huge plus. I don't think I can ever go back to anything smaller.
I had a 7 Plus before getting my Max, and I loved that phone. But the Max takes it to a whole new level. The camera upgrade itself is amazing.
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The iPhone has plateaued so much. I was underwhelmed by last years phones and mildly underwhelming this year (saved by the Xr). Thats the reason prices are going up and up. Stagnant growth. Even apple was on stage bragging and encouraging people keeping iPhones longer. Add to that they made my 6S literally feel like new again with iOS 12. The overall design (aside from a glass back last year) has been nearly identical for 5 years. Apple doesn't care about you buying a new phone so much as you buying A PHONE, period. They want you in the ecosystem because of services. But in order to curb revenue loss due to no growth they have to up the prices. Last years iPhone 8 is 599. Thats what new phones USED to start at. Now the new phones are at 749 and 999. The watch went up in pricing too. Its just clearly a cash grab to meet their quarterly results before they launch new services.

Read between the lines. Put the kool-aid down for a sec. Apple is changing big time very soon. Tim Cooks defense of the high pricing is a joke. Apple was known for giving us the best, PERIOD. Apple already had premium pricing and thats fine.....now what do we call it ULTRA PREMIUM??? The XS is the most underwhelming update to an iPhone ever. These chips are so far beyond what people use their phones for that apple has now resorted to the old "speeds and feeds" jargon of the 90s. The performance for daily tasks between the X and the XS are nearly identical. Who cares snapchat loads .0005 seconds quicker. Most wont notice. Anyone going on about the speed of the XS is probably having a placebo effect coming from pre-iphone X models since the new gestures are making the phone feel much faster because they are. But that doesn't actually mean your stuff is loading any quicker, its just quicker navigation compared to touch ID and double clicking a home button.
What model are you using now, and have you tried a Max out???

I had a 7 Plus before getting the Max and while the speed of that phone is still fast, it’s the Camera upgrade and the screen. Big beautiful OLED. So many upgrades.

The speed of the A9 A10 and so on are so fast that the speed can only be so much.

It’s software where things can really improve. The hardware side is kind of plateauing.
 
I had a 7 Plus before getting my Max, and I loved that phone. But the Max takes it to a whole new level. The camera upgrade itself is amazing.
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What model are you using now, and have you tried a Max out???

I had a 7 Plus before getting the Max and while the speed of that phone is still fast, it’s the Camera upgrade and the screen. Big beautiful OLED. So many upgrades.

The speed of the A9 A10 and so on are so fast that the speed can only be so much.

It’s software where things can really improve. The hardware side is kind of plateauing.
I got an XR and love it ! Only adjustment is the size. Much bigger than a 6S.
 
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Disappointed with basically the same style
Wish it was new and refreshing
The Max is great overall but not the best it could be. Perhaps an inscreen fingerprint scanner as well as Face ID would have been nice
 
I really like the Xs max really like the screen size.
The only downside is that it feels a tad heavy. But I still like it very much glad I got it.
 
Have had my iPhone Xs Max now for about a month (upgraded from a 7+). Here are what issues I have with it.

  1. The notch, while some apps program around it (shrink the area so not to go into the notch area), others don't and it is bothersome in those apps, since those apps work better in landscape mode, the notch is an issue.
  2. No Face ID in landscape mode....WHY, imo, this should not be that difficult to program in.
  3. Cellular strength, this is where I am totally disappointed, I am lucky to get 3 bars where I live and the area I am in. Never had that issue with my 7+ Sitting here at work, I would always have 4 bars on my 7+, but here, with the SxMax, lucky to have 2.
  4. Wi-Fi strength, when connected to 5Ghz networks, is again, subpar to the 7+
  5. Bluetooth to NON-Apple products drop all the time, even when 2 feet and line of site is not blocked. Listen to SiriusXM to my Bluetooth Google Home speaker at work. 7+ could listen all day, with the XsMax, the connection drops a few times a hour. I am constantly reconnecting it to the device 16-18 times in an 8 hour shift at work.
  6. The swipe up to close an app is just, in my opinion, some time complicated, to have to slide up at the slide bar at the bottom, very problematic in landscaped mode.

Some things that work well or that I like
  1. Face-Id, I will tell you, I was skeptical about it, but it does a good job at replacing the home button for unlocking.
  2. It's an iPhone, it works, for what I do normally on it, like my 7+ did.
  3. Want to like the LED Screen, but to be honest, I don't see much of a difference compared to the 7+ other then I have less bezel at the top and bottom. Don't get me wrong, I don't DISLIKE it, just don't see.
  4. Wireless charging is pretty cool, using s Seneo stand charger, works pretty good with my XsMax.
 
I have noticed crappy cell reception with my XR... I used to get 4-5 bars in my office, now I get 1-2 max, and, I am now getting at least 1 dropped call a day, whereas I don't remember having a single one with my S9+ or Essential... These Intel modems are vastly inferior to Qualcom modems... Apple screwed us making the switch...
 
X, XS and MAX are disppointing to me because:

1. the inconsistent build quality
I've seen and held too many devices that have various issue such as:
- sharp edges
- raised edges
- sharp buttons
- yellowish displays
- reddish displays
- graduated colour displays

2. PWM with current Apple OLED
This causes me eye strain and headaches. A series issue for some users and something Apple should really look into.

3. MAX is too weighty causing some finger fatigue
Mock all you want but the MAX is just over the edge of suitable weight when resting on the pinky finger. I can use Plus and MAX with one hand but the weight of the MAX is tiring.

4. MAX display is a blown up version of iOS with no features to take advantage of largest display.
- no landscape home screen
- no split screen
- no PIP
- no option for smaller iOS view

5. Phone designs feels super fragile
All that glass and weight combined with that high ticket price makes me really edgy, especially with the high repair costs. One drop or hard knock and I fully expect the phone to be badly damaged or toast.
I dont buy such a gorgeously designed device to have to then slap a case and screen protector on to ruin it's look and feel + adding more weight. Also I've spent over £1100 so the extra £200 for Apple care is too much to ask. Give me a metal case iphone all day long.


The XR is disappointing because of the non 1080p display.
Text looks fuzzy when compared with Plus sized iphone


Now, if Apple could have supplied me a MAX without a yellowish hue display and a higher PWM (that I couldn't see) then I'd own one. It's amazing technology but the negatives, especially for the price it demands, does not make it a better phone than my current 7+.

Similarly if Apple had made the XR with a 1080p display this would have been my alternative to the MAX. Again my 7+ looks better to me.

X and XS not really an option because of PWM and narrow display resulting in smaller keyboard.

A very disappointing 2 years in iphone cycles for me. I'm guessing/hoping XR2 will have a 1080p display in 2019 so hopefully I will have an upgrade path. Clearly Apple OLED is not for me. Or I will wait until my 7+ dies then either jump ship or try and find a bargain 8+.

On a positive note I still love my 7+.
 
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I like the width of the "Plus" phones, and I prefer LCD over OLED. I think 8 plus is the phone for me, but I wish I could get the gestures from the X phones on it. I'm still using my 6+...
 
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I have noticed crappy cell reception with my XR... I used to get 4-5 bars in my office, now I get 1-2 max, and, I am now getting at least 1 dropped call a day, whereas I don't remember having a single one with my S9+ or Essential... These Intel modems are vastly inferior to Qualcom modems... Apple screwed us making the switch...
All part of their master plan, when they bring back Qualcom as the modem and everyone upgrades again to get away from the intel modem.
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Disappointed with basically the same style
Wish it was new and refreshing
The Max is great overall but not the best it could be. Perhaps an inscreen fingerprint scanner as well as Face ID would have been nice

Style, do you mean the candy-bar shape? Well, what would you envision the change would be? (serious not sarcastic question) What style would work well with a hand held computer, that hasn't already been used? I think all smart phone manufactures are trying to figure this out. I think this is going to be the style for some time to come, with current technology anyway.
 
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I currently own a 7Plus and that extra screen real estate is a huge plus. I don't think I can ever go back to anything smaller.

Good news for you: the 2019 iPhone 11 is rumored to be 12 inches X 24 inches X 6 inches (30 X 60 x 12 cm), and has been dubbed iPhone King Kong. It will weigh 10 pounds (5 kg), and will require a 500 W charger.

One drawback: both hands and at least one foot are needed to use it.
 
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