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iPhone XS Max I know why I want to return my Max and go for the XS.

cardfan said:
The Max phone should be superior to the smaller XS. More room. Higher price. Chip should be faster. Should have more RAM and better camera & speakers. iOS should be made for it but it's clearly not. Could have pencil for it but nope.

That said, I appreciate the bigger screen. Looks great. But it's a gimped phone that could be much better especially given the higher price for no apparent reason. Perhaps it's first gen issues. It's not deserving of an S. It's definitely not a Plus.
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Historically that is not the case for bigger phones. Android or iPhone. They have all been just bigger phones not superior in any particular way. People just prefer the larger screen. That shouldn’t be difficult to understand. Just as many are pining for the smaller screen iPhone of years back.
 
Freakonomics101 said:
Couldn’t agree with you more. I can use the X with one hand, which I love. My hands are smaller than the average size for a male. The Plus models were difficult to type with one hand. The X, I can... if it was any bigger, no. The overall size of it is the size of the 8... loving that part too. I like that Apple took this route but there are others that don’t. To each his own.
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I’m 72 and my eyes aren’t getting any better so bigger screens on cell phones and TV’s are a blessing.
 
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linkgx1 said:
This article sums it up almost perfectly.

My biggest issue is that, unlike when I had the 6 Plus...it doesn't feel like a Plus phone (yeah yeah it's max but still). The Max doesn't seem to be aware that it's a big phone. I liked carrying the 6 Plus around because it had several benefits. It knew it was trying to be an iPad mini of sorts. The Max doesn't IMO.

I want to love my Max. It's gorgeous but the increased bulk just doesn't feel worth it because you're not really trading one thing in for another. Maybe with the next update things will change.
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Sounds like you're okay with downsizing. In the end the Max is basically the same size as the plus, only edge to edge and no bezel. I went from the 8 Plus to the Max and bulk-wise it was virtually unnoticeable.
 
KUKitch said:
Doesn't it have a significantly larger battery? Certainly needs it to power the screen. I do agree, I would like to see them give it more of those iPad features given the screen size - but I'm glad that's the only real differentiator as well
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The battery on the XS Max is 19% bigger which is not much difference. In the past, the plus model phones had a 40%+ larger battery than the smaller devices.
 
I love my Max, especially for reading with white text on a dark background, brightness turned down low.
 
cardfan said:
The Max phone should be superior to the smaller XS. More room. Higher price. Chip should be faster. Should have more RAM and better camera & speakers. iOS should be made for it but it's clearly not. Could have pencil for it but nope.
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I respectfully disagree. I started to care about speaker quality ever since they added the stereo speaker in the 7. I love it and always appreciate the quality improvement... and the camera. If they added improvement to those to the Max but not the XS, I would be upset and disappointed.
 
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cardfan said:
The Max phone should be superior to the smaller XS. More room. Higher price. Chip should be faster. Should have more RAM and better camera & speakers. iOS should be made for it but it's clearly not. Could have pencil for it but nope.

That said, I appreciate the bigger screen. Looks great. But it's a gimped phone that could be much better especially given the higher price for no apparent reason. Perhaps it's first gen issues. It's not deserving of an S. It's definitely not a Plus.
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It is in terms on screen size and screen resolution and battery life.
 
I completely agree that the Max does not feel like a Plus phone most of the apps are only zoomed in versions which end up looking even worse than the regular X versions. What is frustrating is that many apps have been updated recently, but almost none of them have been optimized to use the Max extra space. I still love my Max and will be keeping it as I now feel the XS is too small. But I really feel that the phone has much more potential than what is currently being used.
 
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Keep the specs the same, but also embrace that the Max is bigger. I’d like to see some of the iPad features on the Max. Like split screen and pop out videos. I’d also like to have the UI tweaked for better reachability.
If they did add a unique hardware feature, I’d like to see Pencil support.
 
I went from the X to the Max, and I love the larger size. I do wish that Apple would allow for an extra row of icons (and resizing of icons, the ability to place them wherever I want). I've reduced the text size in settings, and I can get a good amount of more text onscreen. I also like viewing photos and videos better on the larger screen. The Max feels wonderful in my hand. I picked up my X before sending it back for the IUP, and it felt so tiny!

I have average sized hands, and I was rarely able to use the X one-handed. Sure, I could reach more items with my thumb than on the Max, but for most of my activity, I found that I was using two hands. I never typed with my thumb on the X: it was too unwieldy for me. I type/text much better with two hands on the Max than I did on the X.

I'm glad that they're both similarly spec'd for those that prefer the smaller device. I remember the outrage from some over the iPhone 5 about how it was too big for one handed use. :)
 
Pipper99 said:
I went from the X to the Max, and I love the larger size. I do wish that Apple would allow for an extra row of icons (and resizing of icons, the ability to place them wherever I want). I've reduced the text size in settings, and I can get a good amount of more text onscreen. I also like viewing photos and videos better on the larger screen. The Max feels wonderful in my hand. I picked up my X before sending it back for the IUP, and it felt so tiny!

I have average sized hands, and I was rarely able to use the X one-handed. Sure, I could reach more items with my thumb than on the Max, but for most of my activity, I found that I was using two hands. I never typed with my thumb on the X: it was too unwieldy for me. I type/text much better with two hands on the Max than I did on the X.

I'm glad that they're both similarly spec'd for those that prefer the smaller device. I remember the outrage from some over the iPhone 5 about how it was too big for one handed use. :)
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I never understood the fascination with needing to use a phone one handed!
 
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linkgx1 said:
I want to love my Max.
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That's ok. I love my Max enough for the both of us.

Honestly, I don't care that there aren't different UI things for the Max vs the non-Max. Sure, when software gets updated later to take advantage of the larger screen (if ever) that might be nifty, but I don't need that.

For me, the far and away biggest advantage of the Max is just the size of the screen. I can see significantly more of my emails/texts/webpages/documents/etc at the same time. It makes complex technical reading (in those same apps I just mentioned such as email) much easier. Also, videos (eg. youtube) are much larger.

So, the fact that some apps aren't chopping up the display size with a bunch of extra UI elements is just fine with me. I have the larger size and I'm more than thrilled with it. :)
 
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nalbagli said:
I completely agree that the Max does not feel like a Plus phone most of the apps are only zoomed in versions which end up looking even worse than the regular X versions. What is frustrating is that many apps have been updated recently, but almost none of them have been optimized to use the Max extra space. I still love my Max and will be keeping it as I now feel the XS is too small. But I really feel that the phone has much more potential than what is currently being used.
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I feel the same way about the X. The OLED offers so many advantages. Apple isn’t utilizing them at all.
 
Markgnyc2 said:
Try walking a dog, or holding a child's hand, or a cup of coffee in one hand, and then trying to use a plus or max size phone in the other hand. Its just about impossible. With the X or XS at least its possible.
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I do all of those things routinely, and I run, too, and I've done it since 2014 on the Plus sized phones with the exception of the X: I still prefer the Plus and Max even (or especially) doing all of those things. I'm glad that the X sized works better for you. :)
 
Its funny how you can become adjusted to something -

I had a 7 plus (2016) ->
got an X (2017) ->
returned the X (2017)(too small) ->
got the X again (2017)(loved the screen) ->
got the XS Max (2018) ->
returned the XS Max (2018) (too big) ->
when back to X (2018)(now its too small, and I have noticed its slower than the XS Max) ->
Going to get a max again (2018)
 
xrussx said:
Its funny how you can become adjusted to something -

I had a 7 plus ->
got an X ->
returned the X (too small) ->
got the X again (loved the screen) ->
got the XS Max ->
returned the XS Max (too big) ->
when back to X (now its too small, and I have noticed its slower than the XS Max) ->
Going to get a max again
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This is the situation I'm trying avoid.
 
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vagos said:
How? I’d love to hear some ideas.
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I am not a designer but I feel like it’s time to do something else with the home screen besides a row of app icons. Also the folders could at least have another row of apps on the Max but they haven’t even adjusted it for the iPad properly. PiP Video

Pen support would also be nice on the iPhone Y Max
 
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Funny, I had the opposite reaction. I felt the 8+ was huge and bulky and yet the XS Max doesn’t. I think it’s the forehead and chin on the 8+ that makes it feel more substantial than it was.
 
Ok. Let’s keep specs same on laptops. Those 15” models need less powerful chips. Smaller speakers, smaller keyboards. Same built in graphics. Etc. I wouldn’t want 12” or 13” laptop users to feel bad. Others would say that’s a badly designed 15” laptop.

You’re accepting that a bigger screen on its own is worth paying extra for. Someone else said that apple has always done this. Nope. Hardly at all besides the latest iPad Pro Remember the plus phones or first 12.9 iPad.

This is what made the iPhone 6 Plus. IMO the worst phone apple has ever made (close tie with first retina iPad but at least that iPad had that first of its kind screen). It was lag city. The processor couldn’t handle the downsampling which I didn’t really care for either which stayed with plus series over the years. It’s the only phone I ever returned because it was slower than the previous phone (5S ).

I'm sure Apple has its marketing reasons but let's not pat them on the back for intentionally gimping its larger phone or cheer this on.
 
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I had the XS Max but returned because of the cellular issues, really liked the screen, but the battery life on the Max didn't seem to be that good so I will try the XS as the screen size is the same size as the iPhone 8+. I have 14 days to try it out if I find it's too small I will order the XS Max.
 
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