The iPhone X came out in November 2017, and it immediately changed everything. With Apple refurbished iPhone, the Cupertino biggie reinvented the design of the iPhone and tweaked the security and pricing of the same. One year on, the iPhone XS further pushed the pricing up, but do the two have enough differences to justify an iPhone XS second hand upgrade in 2022? Let’s find out.
Differences between iPhone X and iPhone XS
Display: The iPhone X was Apple’s first venture into OLED territory, and it immediately set the bar up for flagships. When the iPhone XS hit the market the following year, it came with notable improvements, though the basic specs remained the same. So, both the iPhone XS and the iPhone X come with the same 5.8-inch True Tone OLED display, dishing out a 2436 x 1125 pixels screen resolution. Yet, the company claims that the iPhone XS delivers a 60% greater dynamic range.
Design: When you closely analyze the display on the two handsets, you’d notice a few differences, but the same can’t be said about the design. Both iPhone X and iPhone XS have the exact dimensions, which is about 143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 mm. However, the iPhone XS weighs 177 g, which is 3 g more than the iPhone X. Apple claims that it has made subtle changes to the design of iPhone XS, however, you won’t spot those with the naked eye. That said, while the iPhone XS is IP68 certified, the iPhone X is only IP67 rated.
Performance: The iPhone X is powered by Apple’s A11 chipset. It offers a notable performance boost over the iPhone 8 handsets. On the other hand, Apple’s iPhone XS comes with the company’s A12 chipset which further enhances the performance. While the A11 features a three-core GPU and 3GB RAM, the A12 includes a four-core GPU and 4GB RAM. To sum it all up, the iPhone XS claims faster wireless charging, a boost in multitasking, and improvements in image processing. In fact, with the iPhone XS, Apple promises a 50% boost in graphics performance and another 50% leap in power efficiency when idle.
Cameras: With the iPhone XS, Apple has actually been able to replicate the image processing of Google’s Pixel handsets. So, the Smart HDR feature in the iPhone xs used is basically what Google calls HDR+. It merges the best parts of multiple images into a single shot. Moreover, the pixel size of 1.4µm on the iPhone XS matches that of the Pixel 2, which is notably better than the 1.22µm pixels on the iPhone X.
Battery and charging: The iPhone X doesn’t have a great battery life, and so, this is another area where the iPhone XS comes across as a welcome device. In spite of the fact that the iPhone XS sports a smaller 2658 mAh battery than the iPhone X’s 2716 mAh battery, it still offers a 30 minutes longer battery life than the latter. That said, when it comes to battery life or even charging, most Android devices are doing far better.
Storage: While the second hand iPhone X SIM free is available in 64GB and 256GB storage options, the iPhone XS comes in 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage variants. So, if you too remain convinced about 128GB being the sweet spot for smartphone users, you should go for the 256GB and 512GB variants, no matter which iPhone you choose.
Key takeaway
While the two devices seem a lot alike, there remain subtle differences that make a refurbished iPhone XS a better choice over an iPhone X SIM free. That said, while there are numerous smart improvements in the iPhone XS over the iPhone X, the only way to tell them apart is if you lay hands on the gold iPhone XS. So, if you already own an Android smartphone, my advice would be to target the iPhone XS and not the iPhone X.
A refurbished iPhone XS offers everything that the iPhone X has and much more. However, if you already own an iPhone X and want to upgrade, the iPhone XS may not be a suitable device, mainly because it has a lot in common with the iPhone X. In short, the iPhone XS is a revision model that borrows the revolutionary design changes brought in by the iPhone X and comes with numerous refinements that make it a better device than the iPhone X.
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