Part 2...Should You and Why I Upgraded to 6.5" iPhone XsMax...Part 2

I'm not a professional reviewer. 

This is mine and I can only give you my experience and opinion. 

  UPDATE on Credit info Below

Apple ended in crediting me the full $525 in trade in value without having partial in gift card. That's what I expected but until I noticed in my credit charges I didn't know and it was a nice surprise.

 

A very short video, 1.3 seconds, recorded in Time-Lapse

Here's how Apple contacted me

Apple GiveBack Good news. Your trade-in is complete.
Thanks for using Apple GiveBack. Everything checks out, so we are issuing you a refund in the amount of $525.00. Please allow up to 14 days for this to show up as a credit to your payment method. Part of your refund may also be issued on an Apple Store Gift Card.					Order Number: WXXXXXXXX3 Ordered on: September 16, 2018 Apple GiveBack Trade-in Your Device: iPhone X Serial/IMEI: C3XXXXXXXXXH Payment Method:

 Just received this email this morning, so you can see it took 4 days shy of a month. And I have a feeling whatever part is issued in a gift card will just as easily be used as my credit card to upgrade to a wireless charging pad and/or wireless ear buds. That i took that long tells me they must be handling a lot of trade ins. 
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Let's get back to my review. I haven't noticed any scratches and unless something truly world-shaking happens to it, I won't. Corning's Gorilla Glass just got a lot stronger. It has also been thoroughly tested to HDR10 (10 bit color) in addition to Dolby Vision (12 bit color) certification standards, which prior to this were only available on the highest quality tv's. And the resolutions delivers at 2688 x 1242, the highest on any iPhone to date. 

Another feature that astounds me is the Xs and XsMax's 4 microphones and its ability to record video in stereo sound. 

The XsMax also has marginally upped the battery, by promising 25 hours of talk time, 15 of video play and 13 of browsing online. I will never be able to review that as my lifestyle simply doesn't require that much use in any of those areas. But I know that if I charge in the morning, freely use all three features, I am good even when I recharge the next morning, and it recharges faster. I can get a full charge the next morning in 15 minutes but I'm rarely down more than 50%, even after a frantic day of trying to get in touch with, browsing and shooting pics and videos.

 Overall as only having used it for a few weeks, I am completely satisfied, and as far as I can tell several of my friends and family are seriously thinking of upgrading or buying the Xs or the XsMax, soon

You might at least give it a look, and if I haven't answered all of your concerns, perhaps after a year I may give this another go.

Should You and Why I upgraded to the 6.5" iPhone Xs Max

I'm not a professional reviewer. 

This is mine and I can only give you my experience and opinion.  

    
After using the 2017 iPhone X for a year and loving the performance, the camera, the speed of opening and using apps, and the speedtest.net of data and wi-fi, the fun Animoji's, the sharp display, the face id, the A11 Bionic chip, the cameras, the water resistance, and more, I was blown away by the new Xs Max real life performance. Absolutely blown away. And I want to be sure you understand at this time, I neither work for Apple presently or ever have, nor do I own stock in the company, but that could change at anytime. Investing in, not working at Apple.

images from apple.com

 Up until this model I was very happy......

 

    

After all of the above that I was happy with, and still would be happy with, had I not been encouraged to trade up by a friend, a code writer for iOS apps, I cannot adequately express how amazingly superior this new 6.5" Xs Max is, comparatively speaking. It is by far the very best iPhone ever in so many ways. 

First off Apple gave me $525 trade up allowance on my X, so that's like nearly 50% off the 2018 XsMax. That's clinched the purchase, as I was waffling and I'm so glad I did. My X was in a Otter Defender from before I even picked it up at T-Mobile, it's condition was pristine.
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 (credit Digital Trends)

   
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Cameras, as an equal to making calls, makes why we own top end phones important to us.
The rear facing one is a dual lens with a better sensor capturing more light. Light is the secret to better photography, and these sensors function extremely well.

The ability of the cameras on the XsMax are better for a couple of reasons. The Smart HDR ability, which is not the dramatic stuff you see at photos sites pushed to extremes, but the ability to capture several shots and stitch together with an added day or night. This allows for a far better bright/dark balance lessening the darker areas in all shots, and brightening the lighter areas in low light, globally. That's a higher end DSLR body camera feature. 

For a phone, this is intelligent capture at its best.

And in Portrait mode it has the ability after-capture to alter the bokeh, or focus applied to the background which adds a desirable blur, using a slider from f/1.4 to f/16 for depth of field adjustments.  This is why top photographers prefer wide angle lens for portraits from a pro standpoint. It simply looks better. 

 The camera also slightly underexposes so as to eliminate the blown out areas, as seen in the above portraits, without having to manually adjust.

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A12 processor, higher algorithmic speed of behind the scenes processing, is why we don't get irritated when opening, using and updating apps and iOS downloads. 

The 2018 iPhone Xs and Xs Max, with A12 6*Core 7 nanometer chip are the reason. I know this is kinda geeky nut, they are clearly the first and the fastest in all benchmark tests at 6.9 Billion transistors. It is capable of delivering more speed using less power. While it Neural engine processes at 5.1 Trillion operations per second. I have noticed zero lag thus far, regardless what app I am using. The only limitation is my ISP. 

And what I have noticed at the outset was a substantial increase in Ookla speedtest.net using both wifi and data speed directly from either Centurylink and T-Mobile. I had spent considerable time with both of them trying to figure out why the slower than I'm paying for speeds, but no more. I'm where I should be now. Another reason I may skip the next upgrade until 2020, we'll see.

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This is Part 1 We'll see how motivated I am as I continue to use the Xs Max. Don't let any article in opposition fool you, the new iPhones are not like the typical S upgrade, its a whole new phone