Apple Expands on the iPhone X Line in 2018 Keynote

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Jenna Miller, Editor in Chief

Every September Apple introduces new and appealing electronic devices as part of its Keynote, shocking the public and encouraging them to buy such products with futuristic, innovative features. Last year marked the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone, and the unveiling of the iPhone X which took everything a consumer could know about an iPhone and turned it on its head; this year, the event introduced three new members of the iPhone X family.

The first new phone announced was the iPhone Xs (pronounced “tennis”). It it essentially an upgraded version of the iPhone X, which was pulled from the Apple Store and can no longer be purchased as of September 13. The iPhone Xs’ differences from its predecessor are mostly trivial and subtle: the screen is made out of a different material known as OLED that is said to be durable and provide crystal-clear image quality, it has a new processing engine that can help speed up games, and a 15-hour battery life. However, it has one drastic difference: it comes in a 512-gigabyte storage space option. The second phone announced was the iPhone Xs Max, which is essentially the iPhone Xs series’ equivalent to the prior “Plus” incarnations of each phone that came before it since the iPhone 6. The iPhone Xs Max is a whopping 6.5 inches tall, as opposed to the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs. It also has a powerful dual outer camera.

The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the most expensive iPhones to hit the market thus far, with the Xs starting at $999 for 64 gigabytes, the lowest storage option; the Xs starts at $1099 for that same storage option.

The third phone announced was the iPhone XR. It can be described as “the lovechild of the iPhone X and the iPhone 5C.” Its size is in between that of the Xs and the Xs Max, being at 6.1 inches. Though it bears a resemblance to the iPhone 5C that inspired it and is being sold for the same reason – as a “budget” model – it is nothing like its precursor. Though it has an LCD screen as opposed to OLED, it has an aluminum band as opposed to the completely-plastic body of the 5C and far much more storage space; it starts at 64 gigabytes and has 256 as its highest gigabyte option, whereas the 5C capped off at 32. It also has a 16-hour battery life. The iPhone XR starts at $749 for 64 gigabytes.

Would you want a 512-gigabyte phone? 512 gigabytes is more than most desktop computers have. Some people are calling the iPhone Xs the “iPhone Excess” both as a pun on its name and the enormous storage space that some models of it will have, but to many 512 gigabytes might be beneficial – from professional photographers, filmmakers, and musicians to the kind of people who don’t like to delete things on their phones and take lots of photos, download lots of apps and music, and send lots of texts. But still, 512 seems like a bit much as 64 gigabytes, the lowest storage space option these new iPhones can have, is still a lot of space.

The phones are expected to hit the market September 21. They have been available for pre-order since September 14.