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00:00What's up guys, today we're going to be talking about one of my favorite budget iPhones, the iPhone XS.
00:05I was waiting for this price drop because remember, earlier in the year it was around like $300, right?
00:14And then it gradually went down to $250 and I kept revisiting it.
00:18And now eBay has it for excellent condition certified refurbished.
00:23This one is a refurbished one and it's $215.
00:27So, you know, basically by next year it'll be a $200 phone.
00:31And I just found that mind-blowing because this is still such a powerful and awesome device.
00:37It is really, really good performance-wise and the cameras are still pretty good.
00:41So let's go ahead and dive into it. Let's talk about some of the things that I like.
00:44Oh, I just want to start off with the display.
00:46So this is the reason why the XS is still very popular.
00:50And this goes for the, you know, the XS Max and stuff like that.
00:53I still think that's a great phone. I might pick it up for you guys as well.
00:56But this has the OLED display.
00:58So the reason why I say that is because the iPhone 11 is basically the alternative to this phone.
01:04It's a little bit more expensive but, you know, the iPhone 11, I made that comparison.
01:09You guys want to check it out.
01:10But the iPhone 11 only has a 720p plus display and it's also an IPS panel.
01:17This has the OLED display and it's 1080p as well too with a much higher PPI as well too.
01:24So the screen overall just looks way better for playing games, watching YouTube videos, editing photos.
01:30You're going to want to do that on an OLED display.
01:32It's just going to be a better experience for the most part.
01:35And also you can take advantage of the dark wallpapers as well too, which is really nice.
01:40It's a 5.8-inch panel as well too.
01:43So it's fairly compact. It's extremely easy to one hand, which is something that I really like.
01:49Now, touching on the body style of the XS, it's an extremely comfortable phone to hold.
01:55It's way more comfortable than the newer iPhones.
01:57Let me get a wipe down real quick.
01:59It's way more comfortable than the newer iPhones.
02:02Yeah, it just curves and it feels way better in the palm as opposed to the sharp edges that you would find on the 13 and the 14 series.
02:11Yeah, it just feels extremely good in the hand here.
02:14It is IP68 dust and water resistant.
02:16I still think it has a very classy look to it, honestly.
02:19It still looks very elegant, very nice looking.
02:21It doesn't look super dated to me.
02:24Like I said, IP68, so you can get it wet no problem.
02:27It won't break or anything like that.
02:29And overall, it's just a pretty nice design here, in my opinion.
02:34Also, let's go ahead and talk about the software experience.
02:37So I do have iOS 16.1.2.
02:41This is the latest version on this phone.
02:43It pretty much runs like a breeze here.
02:45It's still a very fast phone if we go ahead and pull up the Geekbench scores here.
02:50These are typically the scores that you would get.
02:54So you still get pretty good scores on here as well.
02:58So this phone, it does have the Apple A12 chip.
03:01And then you also have 64 gigs of internal storage.
03:04And then you also have 4 gigs of RAM on here.
03:07Now, you can go ahead and get the 256 gig version for a little bit more.
03:11Like I said, that's probably trending for around an extra $50.
03:15So you can go ahead and get that to get that extra storage.
03:18But performance-wise, it's really good.
03:21I did a gaming test on this phone.
03:23It flies through gaming, PUBG, HDR Extreme.
03:26This phone does get a little high.
03:28It does warm up during long periods of gaming.
03:30So it can get a little warm.
03:32I've never had it crash games on me, but it definitely can warm up for sure.
03:37But the gaming experience overall is going to be really great.
03:40Anybody trying to play, you know, pretty much anything, you're going to be able to do that.
03:44So this is, you know, pretty much like a little budget gaming phone
03:47that you can take advantage of.
03:49Some really good graphic settings on here as well.
03:51Talking about the additional features here, the Face ID still feels fast.
03:55I can't really tell the difference between, you know, the new phone and this phone.
04:00It still feels really fast.
04:01And then you also have on here the speakers.
04:04The speaker quality is still pretty good on the XS, which is something that I really like here.
04:12So you get really loud stereo speakers.
04:35So very loud bass.
04:38Just sounds really great.
04:40No distortion at the highest volume.
04:42So really great speakers on this device here.
04:46And as far as, like I said, running iOS 16, it is a breeze.
04:50Now the question is how many more updates will this phone get?
04:53I definitely see this getting iOS 17 as well.
04:58And I would not be shocked if it got iOS 18.
05:03So I think it probably still has around, like, maybe two more years of major OS updates.
05:08Really three because if you look at the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8, I believe, is still on iOS 16.
05:15And let me check that just to make sure.
05:19The iPhone 8, I believe, is still on iOS 16.
05:22Yeah, it's still getting iOS 16.
05:24So this phone should be able to run probably another three more years.
05:28So Apple has really good software support with their phones.
05:32All right, so let's go ahead and dive into the camera.
05:35So you guys will be surprised.
05:37I want you guys to go ahead and type in after this video.
05:40If you want to type in iPhone XS versus iPhone 14 Pro, put Matthew's tag.
05:46That video, look at the side-by-side stills.
05:49So I was really impressed with the XS.
05:51It still takes some great stills.
05:52Now obviously it's not going to beat, you know, a new iPhone, of course.
05:56The new iPhone is going to be better.
05:57But I thought the stills were very competitive.
06:01I thought the XS shots were really good, good-looking, good detail.
06:06So the camera setup on here is 12-megapixel standard.
06:10You also have a 12-megapixel telephoto that's 2x optical.
06:13It's usually 4K 60 and then you have a 7-megapixel selfie.
06:16And it's using 1080p 60.
06:18I thought this took some great shots, especially in good lighting.
06:21Man, very detailed.
06:22The two-time zoom is pretty good.
06:24Where you can see this phone show its age is probably when you take it out of any
06:29good lighting scenario.
06:30It's not going to do as good as newer phones when it comes to lower light settings.
06:35But I'm telling you, in outdoors, if you're in a well-lit area,
06:39this takes just as good photos as, like, any phone, any flagship phone.
06:44Like, yes, is it going to outdo those phones?
06:46Of course not.
06:47But for $200, you got to be impressed with these shots on this phone.
06:52It still looks great for this price point.
06:54So I have zero complaints.
06:55Selfies look great.
06:58Everything looked great for this price point.
07:00I think it's honestly better than some budget phones, some mid-range phones,
07:05even when it comes to video that I've looked at.
07:08It just takes some extremely smooth video as well, too.
07:12So I really like the XS.
07:14The cameras on here, I think they're great.
07:17All right, lastly, let's talk about battery life.
07:20So let's go in here.
07:22What is my battery health on?
07:24Let's find out together.
07:26I'll share my screen on time with you guys, like what I'm typically getting.
07:30So 85% screen on time.
07:33When you buy a used phone, just a heads up,
07:35you don't want to buy anything below 80% battery health.
07:39So you typically want something, you know, a bit higher.
07:42I would say 83 and up, right?
07:44You want to sort of aim for that.
07:46If it's below 80% battery health, I would return it, get another one.
07:50They're not supposed to do that.
07:52But, yeah, the battery life on here,
07:54now, you're not getting crazy battery life on here.
07:57I'm typically getting like five hours of screen on time with light use.
08:01If you're a heavy gamer, I did a drain test.
08:04You can only get away with three hours of gaming on this phone,
08:08just like from 100 to zero.
08:11So it's not really, you know, that good on a gaming phone.
08:14But for general use, it gets close to six hours of screen on time
08:18if you have full battery health.
08:20But most of you guys are buying this refurbished or used,
08:23so you're not going to have that.
08:25So expect five hours of screen on time with this device.
08:28Now, you do have wireless charging on this phone as well, too,
08:31which is really sweet.
08:33And, yeah, I think this is a great...
08:35I mean, what can you complain about this phone for this price point?
08:38It is really impressive.
08:40It's still fast. It still games great.
08:42It still takes competitive photos.
08:44It's running the latest iOS.
08:46It has still a really beautiful body style on it.
08:49Yeah, I just really like it.
08:51So what do you guys think?
08:52Do you guys think this is worth picking up?
08:54Would you guys skip out, get the iPhone 11?
08:56Let me know, and I'll catch you guys in the next one.