Apple Launch: iPhone XS and XS Max Will Come to India This Month
Apple iPhone launch event live from the Steve Jobs Theater in California.
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Apple announced three new iphones -iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR at its product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in California on the midnight of 13 September.
Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook kick-started the proceedings by announcing the new Apple Watch Series 4.
- The new iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max will be available in India by end of this month
- Apple Watch OS will be available to all users from across the globe from 17 September onwards
- New iPhones support Dual-SIM but markets like India will get the eSIM variant
Here’s how Tim Cook welcomed everyone to the much-awaited Apple Event.
Stay tuned to The Quint for the complete coverage of the launch event.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Apple Product Launch
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the big Apple iPhone launch event in California. The keynote hosted by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is slated to start from 10:30 pm. Stay tuned to The Quint for all live updates.
Where to Watch the Live Stream
With less than an hour to go before the keynote begins, it’s worth pointing out that Apple has decided to let Twitter live stream the event this year. If that’s not what you’re keen on, then watch the live stream event here via Safari on iOS 10 or later, for Mac users their OS needs to be version 10.2 or higher.
For Windows 10 and even 7 users, they’ll be able to watch Tim Cook on stage via browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Bigger iPhone, Bigger Apple Watch Incoming
Yes, that’s what reports have suggested and after seeing a 5.8-inch iPhone X last year, Apple is going big time (literally) with a 6.5-inch sized iPhone Xs Max in 2018. That’s not all, the Apple Watch Series 4 is likely to get bigger in dimension as well.
Big products with the hefty price tag? That’s Apple at its finest!
Time to Find a Seat!
t-30 minutes before the keynote begins and everybody is settling in, catching up with their friends and finding their way to the seats.
Three iPhones, one Apple Watch and that one more thing this is the big Apple event and the whole world will be keeping a close eye on everything.
Keynote Address All Set to Begin
Tim Cook is here on stage and after a quite an intriguing start to the event, he’s about to kickstart the proceedings. Let’s get going!
The Big 2 Billion Milestone
Tim Cook just announced that Apple has shipped its 2 billionth iOS device in the market. Which one, he doesn’t say but that’s a staggering feat.
New Apple Watched Announced
It’s not the iPhone, Apple is set to reveal the new Apple Watch and here’s Jeff Williams, COO, Apple from Tim’s team to show what they have worked on over the past 12 months.
It’s called the Apple Watch Series 4 and the leaks have already showed us what the device offers. No surprises then. As expected, it gets a bigger display and Apple claims to have tweaked the interface to support this change.
Apple Watch Can Detect a Fall
“There are certain movements that happen when a person falls. The new watch detects these movements to detect a fall,” Jeff highlights during his presentation.
It also asks if you want to call emergency after falling down and after 1 minute of immobility, it calls on its own.
The Fitness Friendly Apple Watch Series 4
The Watch gets thinner bezels and every part of the UI has been redesigned.
It also gets New Watch Space where you can track live scores. But most importantly, the “new crown dial comes with haptic feedback that helps you flip through things”.
The speaker is said to be 50 percent louder than its predecessor and will offer improved cellular reception as well. The Watch Series 4 will come in Black ceramic and Sapphire crystal variant.
You can hold down to the Crown and project the ECG rate on your screen, right in front of you. That’s quite brilliant for those with medical concerns.
All this and still, as Jeff points out, the Watch will still offer 18 hour-long battery life.
Apple Watch Series 4 Coming This Year
The new Watch Series 4 has been priced starting from $399 and you’ll be able to pick up the Apple Watch Series 3 for $279 in the coming weeks.
The new Watch OS update will release on 17 September and the new devices will be available across Apple’s major markets (doesn’t include India) from 14 September.
Time For iPhone Launch!
It gets bigger but the new iPhones borrow the iPhone X’s design language. This time, however, you will be able to choose between a 5.8-inch variant and a 6.5-inch model.
Both these iPhones get OLED screen with Super Retina resolution which measures at 2688x1242 pixels. The new iPhones now get IP68 protection from dust and water, better than what the iPhone X offered in 2017.
Face ID Feature Enhanced
Phill Schiller, Senior VP, Marketing showcases what Apple has done to make the Face ID a secured biometric feature to unlock the device.
New iPhones Powered by New Processor
The new iPhone XS and XS Max are powered by the new A12 bionic 6-core processor with a quad-core graphics unit. This makes the phone perform 50 percent faster than its predecessor.
The company also claims that the A12 chipset is capable of 5 trillion operations per second and most importantly, apps will launch 30 percent faster than what you got with the iPhone X.
The Camera on iPhone XS is Wow
The cameras get a big upgrade but the bigger news is that the size of sensor has been reduced. You get 12-megapixel, a wide-angle camera with aperture f/1.8, while the second 12-megapixel sensor packs a telephoto lens but with f/2.4 as its aperture.
On the front, you’ve got a 7-megapixel shooter with focus on better selfie pictures, something that’s been lacking on the previous iPhones.
Change In the Portrait Mode Effects
Schiller is proudly showcasing what the portrait mode on the iPhone XS series is capable of, with the help of the A12 processor.
You can even change the settings (exposure and contrast mostly) of a picture after clicking it, and you can do it on the device itself.
iPhones With Dual-SIM Support, Finally!
Apple is finally bringing a dual-SIM iPhone but that’s only meant for the China market and not India. Instead, what you’ll get in India and other countries, will be supported via eSIM.
In a market like India where 98 percent of phones are shipped with dual-SIM (the regular ones) will have to get used to a dual-SIM iPhone with eSIMs which is already available with Airtel and Reliance Jio for the Apple Watch Series 3 LTE version.
Apple iPhone XR Announced
Phill Schiller claims that even with a bigger screen size, the iPhone XR will be easier to use than the iPhone 8 Plus, which measures at 5.5-inch.
The notch and the screen-to-body ratio ensures that the dimensions are more than manageable. It also is powered by the A12 processor but only a single camera sensor at the back on the iPhone XR.
Storage Options In the New iPhones
The new iPhones; iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will come to India by end of this month. The iPhone XR will be available from October end in India.
This version gets three storage options – 64 and 128 GB and 256 GB, while the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will be offered in 64 GB, 256 GB and a staggering 512GB variations.
The price tags were also revealed with the leaks, so no surprises there, either.
No One More Thing, Apple?
Turns out, Apple did not have a ‘one more thing’ to show this year and Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, as always, thanked the media for coming to the event.
New Apple iPhone Prices For India
The new iPhones are prices at following rates:
- iPhone XR starts at Rs. 76,900 and is available from October 2018.
- iPhone XS starts at Rs. 99,900 and is available from the end of September.
- iPhone XS Max starts at Rs 1,09,900 and is available from the end of September.