Apple Keynote 2018

You’ve probably heard about Apple’s newest iPhones and Apple Watch announcement, and our Future team is here with all you need to know about the new tech.

The iPhone Xs and Xs Max were the stars of Apple’s Keynote event. These two new phones take after their predecessor, the iPhone X, but other than a new gold finish, a bigger screen model, and a processing chip capable of running heavy AR graphics, there’s not much of an upgrade.

Probably the biggest differentiator is the new A12 Bionic chip. It’s an upgrade from the iPhone X’s A11 bionic and it’s Apple’s most powerful chip yet. It features a new Neural Engine which utilizes machine learning. The iPhoneX also had a neural engine, but this one is quite a bit faster. Apple says the A12 bionic chip is 9 times faster than the A11 in the X allowing it to handle AR graphics, console-like gameplay, and image processing with faster speeds and more power. It also speeds up Face ID recognition. The camera system is reportedly better, too.

While we’re sure the A12 Bionic is better and faster, most of these things don’t rely on new hardware to function. Where we see a big difference in hardware is in the iPhone Xs Max. The Max boasts a 6.5-inch, nearly bezel-less display. Which is pretty massive. It’s 1/10 an inch larger than Samsung’s Note 9 that just came out. Both of the phones also boast a better battery life.

Apple also usually announces something unexpected at the end of the keynote, but this year, we just got the XR. The iPhone XR is Apple’s new entry-level phone — sort of like the iPhone 8 was last year. All of these phones will run on iOS 12, which is launching on September 17, and will be available on all iPhone models from the 5s up.