With rumors swirling about what new products would be unveiled during Wednesday’s special Apple event, the tech company and its CEO, Tim Cook, finally confirmed several new gadgets and features bound to excite iPhone and iPad users.
Continue scrolling to learn what all was unveiled at the iPhone XS event at Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California.
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APPLE WATCH SERIES 4
The event confirmed a new Apple Watch Series 4 model. With the screens pushed to the corners to perfectly match the watch, the new screens on the Apple Watch Series 4 will be 30 percent larger. The watch itself will also be thinner than the Series 3. The user interface (UI) has also been redesigned.
Maps, photos and calendars were also redesigned.
The interface can withhold up to eight customizable complications, which makes it the “ultimate health and fitness watch.” You can even track MLB games, your boarding information and your nutritional intake.
Cook boasted on the Apple Watch for being the no. 1 smartwatch — and no. 1 watch in general — in the world, praising its breakthrough technology that helps people “stay connected, be more active and live a healthier day.”
APPLE WATCH SERIES 4 (cont’d)
The new digital crown allows you to precisely flip through each item. The speaker is now 50 percent louder, great for walkie talkie mode or a Siri request. The microphone has also been moved as far away from the speaker as possible to reduce echo and make phone calls even clearer.
The back of the watch is made of sapphire and crystal. The watch comes in space gray, silver and gold aluminum.
The new dual core 64 bit processor delivers 2 times faster performance.
The watch also features fall detection, which will be able to alert authorities if the technology detects that the watch’s user has fallen and cannot get up.
Series 4 is available to order on Friday, Sept. 14 and will be physically available on Sept. 21.
iPhone XS & iPhone XS Max
Calling it by far “the most advanced iPhone we have ever created,” Cook introduced the iPhone XS and its oversized version, iPhone XS Max, on Wednesday.
The super retina OLED display on the XS is 5.8 inches on the diagonal and the highest quality display. It’s as big the display of a plus-size phone, like the iPhone 8 plus, but fits smaller in your hand thanks to the screen-to-screen display.
The XS Max will have a 6.5-inch display, the largest display on any iPhone. Both will be available in silver, black and gold, with three storage options: 64 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB.
Made of surgical grade stainless steel, the gold finish on the front and glass was praised during the event as the most beautiful iPhone we have ever made. The screen goes edge to edge and stretches to all four corners. Available in gold, silver and space gray, the iPhone XS is protected from up to 2 liters of liquid for up to 30 minutes — even like orange juice, wine and beer.
Earlier in the day, a sitemap leaked the name of the iPhone XS and XS Max, but the event officially confirmed the existence of the new iPhone. The leak came about via a link to Otterbox cases for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
iPhone XS & XS Max (cont’d)
Face ID, powered by the TrueDepth system, has also been improved in the new iPhone and iOS 12. The XS now has faster algorithms, which means Face ID works faster than on any other iPhone. It was praised at the event as the most secure facial identification ever in a smartphone.
Engrained in the new iPhone is the A12 Bionic, the world’s first 7 nanometer chip, which packs 6.9 billion transistors. The GPU consists of two high performance cores and four high efficiency cores, all six of which can run at once, allowing for an improved graphic performance and sustained battery life.
The A12 Bionic is able to process 5 trillion operations per second.
The iPhone XS Max will be available for $1,099, while the XS will be $999.
iPhone XR
The iPhone XR is made in white, black, red, blue, coral and yellow with aluminum finish and edge-to-edge glass. Protected from dust and liquid, the LCD display, known as the Liquid Retina Display, is “the most advanced LCD ever in a smartphone.”
The 6.1-inch display is a bigger display than the 5.5-inch iPhone 8 plus, but fits into a smaller design.
It supports tap to wake, has a wide color display and “is an iPhone X experience with an LCD display,” — which means it has no home button, just like the iPhone X, XS and XS Max.
Face ID is also supported in the iPhone XR.
Inside the XR is the A12 Bionic chip that also lives in the iPhone XS and XS Max.
The increased battery life gives the user up to an hour and a half more than the iPhone 8 plus.
The single camera system (12 mp wide-angle camera) is the same camera in the XS and XS Max — which means that portrait mode is available, even with the single camera system, something that was previously unavailable in other iPhones.
Available on Oct. 19, Sept. 26, the iPhone XR is available for $749.
Prior to Wednesday’s event, Allthing.com reported that the iPhone XR, with a 6.1-inch LCD display size and two storage options (64 GB and 256 GB), would be available. The event officially confirmed the report.
