The iPhone Xs (left) and the iPhone Xs Max.

iPhone XS and XS Max hands-on: Great camera, cool display, kinda submersible

When Apple’s Phil Schiller showed off the newest iPhones, the hype machine was on at full speed. He said the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max smartphones had “surgical grade stainless steel.” I never knew I wanted that!

You can also drop it into 2-meter-deep liquids — from water to orange juice — for up to 30 minutes. And it will still detect whether you’re having a heart attack, with the help of the new Apple Watch Series 4. I was able to get hands-on with the phones today, but I did not run this liquids test on the new products. Perhaps one of the greatest achievements here is that Apple has broken through the price barrier again with a phone priced at $1,100.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.