Here's What To Know About Apple's Four Newest Products

Apple's biggest product event of the year yielded three new iPhone models and a next-gen Apple Watch.

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It had been a slow year for new Apple products, until Wednesday: Apple used its fall 2018 "Gather Round" event to debut four major new devices in its iPhone and Apple Watch lineups. Three new iPhones—the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR—are on the way, along with the fourth-generation Apple Watch. In the following slides, the CRN Test Center lays out the key details to know about Apple's four newest products.

iPhone XS

The iPhone XS is Apple's direct successor to last year's iPhone X, as it comes in the same 5.8-inch size. Like the iPhone X, the iPhone XS offers an OLED display, Face ID facial recognition for log-in and a dual rear camera system. The iPhone XS resolution comes in at 2,436 x 1,125 pixels—identical to the iPhone X—and the device features a 15 percent faster new processor, the A12 Bionic. One change is that up to 512 GB worth of internal storage will be offered, compared with 256 GB for the iPhone X. Other configurations are for 64 GB or 256 GB of storage. The iPhone XS also features improved water resistance and screen durability; dual SIM (for enabling two phone numbers on the same phone); a stainless-steel frame; and an extra half-hour of battery life over the iPhone X (which promises 12 hours of internet use).

The iPhone XS has a starting price of $999 and preorders begin Friday, Sept. 14, with the device shipping Sept. 21.

iPhone XS Max

Apple also is introducing a significantly larger model alongside the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, which shares many of the same features. The iPhone XS Max features a 6.5-inch OLED display and offers slightly higher resolution at 2,688 x 1,242 pixels. The larger model also offers more battery life—an hour more than the iPhone XS and 1.5 hours more than the iPhone X.
But otherwise, the iPhone XS Max mostly follows the XS in offering a dual rear camera; improved screen durability and water resistance; dual SIM; the A12 Bionic processor; and a stainless-steel frame. A configuration with 512 GB of internal storage is also going to be available for the larger iPhone XS, along with 64-GB and 256-GB models.

The iPhone XS Max has a starting price of $1,099 and preorders begin Friday, Sept. 14, with the device shipping Sept. 21.

iPhone XR

The iPhone XR will serve as the entry-level, more affordably priced iPhone in the new lineup. The smartphone's display falls in between the sizes of the two OLED iPhones, at 6.1 inches, and will still get a nearly edge-to-edge display. The display uses LCD technology (like in the iPhone 8 and previous models) rather than OLED—although Apple says the newly developed Liquid Retina LCD display features improved colors and picture quality. The display is lower-resolution than the XS models, at 1,792 x 828 pixels, and the device will also have a single rear camera, a maximum of 256 GB of storage, and an aluminum frame instead of stainless steel. The iPhone XR does get the A12 Bionic chip and a boost to battery life, however—Apple is promising 1.5 hours more usage per charge than the iPhone 8 Plus, which touted 13 hours of internet use. Notably, the 6.1-inch iPhone relies on Face ID facial recognition instead of Touch ID fingerprint recognition, which marks the end of Touch ID in the iPhone line.
The iPhone XR has a starting price of $749 and preorders begin Friday, Oct. 19, with the device shipping Oct. 26.

Apple Watch, Series 4

Apple unveiled the next generation of its smartwatch on Wednesday—the Apple Watch, Series 4—in two sizes, each featuring a larger screen than in the past. The smaller fourth-gen Apple Watch moves to a 40mm display, from 38mm previously, while the larger fourth-gen Apple Watch gets a 44mm screen, compared with the previous 42mm size. Slimmer bezels help to enable the larger screen sizes, and Apple said the new Apple Watches are thinner, giving the smartwatches less total volume than Series 3. Other changes in the fourth-gen Apple Watch include up to 2X faster performance (via the new dual-core S4 chip) and a 50 percent louder speaker, while the cellular connectivity and 18-hour battery life of the previous model have been retained.

Additional features for health monitoring are also included in the fourth-gen Apple Watch, such as the ability to take an electrocardiogram heart beat measurement (the first time this is offered in a consumer product, Apple said, thanks to FDA approval); notifications on low heart rates and irregular heart rhythms (known as atrial fibrillation); and detection of falls (which generates an automatic call to emergency services).

The Apple Watch, Series 4 has a starting price of $399 (GPS only) or $499 (cellular/GPS). Preorders begin Friday, Sept. 14, with the smartwatch shipping Sept. 21.