The Improved Portrait Mode on the iPhone 10s and 10s Max

Portrait mode on the iPhone has come a long way since its inception, starting out as a beta feature that was nearly as a joke. It was hacked together and sloppy at the beginning, but every year it gets better and better. This year, it takes another leap forward with the introduction of portrait mode on the iPhone 10s and 10s max. The new camera features use the difference in distance between the cameras and Apple's software to create a depth map, which segments the image into different layers of different distances from the camera.

This results in a more realistic bokeh effect that is closer to what a real camera would produce. Instead of just drawing a crude mask around the foreground and applying a big blur to the whole background, the portrait mode on the 10s and 10s max actually blurs the parts further away from the camera more while blurring the closer parts less. This subtle difference may seem minor, but it's a massive improvement over previous versions of portrait mode. The fact that you can only use this feature on the iPhone 10s and 10s max right off the bat is a notable distinction.

When taking a photo with portrait mode enabled, you can adjust the depth of field after the fact using an editing slider. This allows for more control over the level of blur applied to different parts of the image. Despite being purely software-based, the effect is impressive and closely mimics the selective blur found on bigger cameras. The 10s also appears to add a slight radial direction to the blur, creating a sort of "directional blur" around the center of the frame. This level of detail may seem subtle, but it's another indication that Apple has been working hard to improve the camera capabilities of their devices.

While I don't use portrait mode as much as some people do, when I do use it, it can be pretty damn good. The improvements in this area make a significant difference. When combined with the fact that it's still the best video recording in a smartphone, as well as the addition of stereo audio recording to support the speakers, it all adds up to a powerful camera system.

The iPhone 10s and 10s max are also the same, with new specs and software features making them the most powerful iPhones available. However, if you're looking for an upgrade from an older iPhone model, the 10r may be a better option. The main advantage of the 10s max is its larger screen size, which makes it feel like a very different iPhone compared to the regular 10s. A six and a half inch display in a body smaller than the galaxy note 9 is all you need to say to make it your favorite iPhone ever. Having a bigger screen has many advantages, including better video watching experiences, improved gaming, and overall enhanced viewing pleasure.

However, there are also downsides to being a huge phone. One of the main drawbacks is that it takes up more space in your pocket or purse. Additionally, reachability becomes more important on a larger phone, as users will no longer be able to easily access certain features with one hand. This may require some adjustments for users who have become accustomed to using smaller phones.

In conclusion, the iPhone 10s is a great upgrade for those who have an older iPhone model, offering improved camera capabilities and new software features. However, if you've been waiting for a bigger iPhone and can afford it, the 10s max is definitely worth considering. Its larger screen size makes it feel like a completely different device, with many advantages over the regular 10s. While it's not necessary to upgrade from an iPhone 10, the 10s max is a powerful camera system that offers significant improvements in terms of performance and features.

The Upgrade: A Great Option for Those Who Want a Bigger iPhone

If you've been waiting for a bigger iPhone and have been itching for a faster device with better camera capabilities, the upgrade may be worth considering. However, it's not necessary to spend $1000 on an iPhone 10s max if you're happy with your current iPhone model. In fact, buying an older iPhone and using that money to purchase a separate camera like the RX100 could provide similar benefits at a fraction of the cost.

In terms of the upgrade process, having the iPhone 10 was definitely necessary for those who wanted to experience some of the new features, but ultimately it wasn't a necessity. The main reason to consider upgrading from an iPhone 10 is if you're one of those people who has been waiting for a bigger iPhone and can afford it. The larger screen size on the 10s max makes it feel like a completely different device, with many advantages over the regular 10s.

The iPhone 10s: A Great Upgrade for Older iPhone Models

For those who have an older iPhone model, the iPhone 10 is a great option if you're looking for some of the new features. However, the main advantage of upgrading to the 10s max is its larger screen size and improved camera capabilities. The additional software features also make it feel like a more powerful device.

The New Camera Features on the iPhone 10s Max

One of the most significant upgrades on the iPhone 10s max is its new camera features, which use the difference in distance between the cameras to create a depth map. This results in a more realistic bokeh effect that is closer to what a real camera would produce. The portrait mode on the 10s and 10s max also has some subtle differences compared to previous versions.

When taking a photo with portrait mode enabled, you can adjust the depth of field after the fact using an editing slider. This allows for more control over the level of blur applied to different parts of the image. The fact that this feature is only available on the 10s and 10s max right off the bat sets it apart from other devices.

The Overall Experience

When using the iPhone 10s or 10s max, you can experience some significant improvements in terms of performance and features. The camera capabilities are particularly impressive, with a realistic bokeh effect that is close to what a real camera would produce. Additionally, the video recording capabilities are some of the best available on any smartphone.

Overall, the iPhone 10s and 10s max offer significant upgrades over their predecessors, making them great options for those who want to experience some of the latest technology.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys mkbhd here and welcome to the iphone 10s full review so this is going to be a pretty easy review since we know that the s year iphones are always a pretty incremental upgrade so i've been using this gold 10s max from the unboxing every day since keynote day and everything i say here will apply to both the 10s and the 10s max unless i say otherwise i'll make it clear so the template here will be simple every single thing that's new and what i think of it also 10s max 10s extra small max terrible name just saying okay moving on so first up on the outside this phone's almost exactly the same almost if i were to put the iphone 10s next to the iphone 10 you have a hard time telling which is which except for a few key things first of all the new color of course gold and i kind of dig this gold this has been a more actually polarizing color in my timeline where i've seen some people that love it and then some people that are like not amused by it at all i just kind of don't mind it but i definitely went for the space gray on my personal phone but this gold doesn't look bad it's kind of like a band-aid color but more saturated a little more rich than that and then the stainless steel sides are like really gold they're the most striking part of this new phone and the iphone 10s also has two more visible antenna on the stainless steel band around the outside one at the top right above the camera module and one down at the bottom kind of cutting into the speaker grille so the speaker grille at the bottom is actually now asymmetrical thanks to that bottom band that is a weird look you would think of all companies apple would find a different place to put that to keep it perfectly good looking but i guess not and then the other little observation i found the camera module of the 10s seems to be slightly larger but it's very slight the only way you can tell is if you put a case on the phone so if you put a 10s case on a 10s you can see it fits perfectly it's very snug it's made by apple they know the exact dimensions they get it right but if you put this same 10s case on the iphone 10 you actually end up with this little gap around the bottom so the extra room means the camera module here is a bit smaller on the 10. so yeah technically these phones aren't quite the same exactly on the outside but these couple of things don't really matter all that much to using it it's still a glass sandwich phone still the same weight and feel in the hand same design same button placement same mute switch same curved corners same notch and same fingerprint magnet glass we've seen this before it of course also means it's perfectly smart to put a case or a skin on this one again you already know i'm more of a skin person and dbrand is actually launching this absolutely sick matte black matrix skin with this new iphone right now definitely worth checking out i'll drop a link below oh and one more hardware difference technically internally this new phone is ip68 water resistant where the iphone 10 was just ip67 it's uh it's a big deal for those of you who don't know ip67 means you're rated for one meter underwater for 30 straight minutes ip68 means you're rated for 1.5 meters underwater for 30 straight minutes great anyway all the other differences of the iphone 10s are internal and that's what you get with an s upgrade but honestly that's what a lot of people were waiting for you're getting the best or newest design apple has with their best specs as well so this year as you've heard it's the new seven nanometer six core a12 bionic chip and four gigs of ram in both phones too it's not like one has less ram than the other they're both set and it ended up with some pretty damn good geekbench scores and they've said it's 15 to possibly 30 faster in some actions like opening apps opening the keyboard launching the camera things like that and i can verify that this is an extremely fast phone as a matter of fact i think it brings it right back up to the king of responsiveness as far as smartphones go it's getting kind of passed up a little bit with android phones of the past couple years but ios 12 is so buttery that it's back on the throne but here's the thing that ios 12 update is also extremely fast on last year's iphone 10. in fact i am not noticing like a major difference in speed between iphone 10 with ios 12 and iphone 10s with ios 12. it's definitely performing great don't get me wrong but the fact that my year old iphone 10 running that ios 12 beta for a while and now on the final version was already noticeably faster than ios 11 was a big deal it's kind of like a curse apple's put on themselves this time for actually maintaining and updating their phones well this time in a way that makes the phone faster makes people with an older phone now like more satisfied and less likely to upgrade the real interesting part here is with the bugs i was getting especially in the 10s max with ios 12 i'm pretty sure it's because of the new resolution but a lot of apps that i use on the daily had a bunch of like overlapping graphics or would cut parts off in the notch where they weren't supposed to i couldn't even read the caption i was typing on instagram it was fully hidden in the notch but i'm pretty sure a lot of the stuff will be fixed pretty quickly as phones come out and they develop for the new resolution none of it was actually crashing or ruining the phone it's just weird graphic quirks so the only place i actually feel the iphone 10s actually seems a bit faster is face id and it's not even that much crazy faster i definitely think the pause to unlock your phone is a bit shorter which is nice to see maybe 25 percent faster thanks to the a12 bionic and ios 12 but it's still obviously not as fast as those crazy quick ones from oneplus or xiaomi that are just using the rgb cameras then again it will always be slower than those because it will also always be more secure sort of an inverse relationship there no biggie i am personally hoping for fingerprint readers underneath the display glass in mainstream phones to become more of a thing with this next upcoming generation like it's rumored that oneplus 6t may have it it's rumored that galaxy s10 may have it and it's rumored that iphone 11 or whatever it's called may also have it next year but not this time another small improvement is the much better speakers in the 10s they're a bit louder and clearer now and the stereo speaker effect is now actually really quite good it's still using that earpiece plus the bottom speaker to technically make a stereo pair and this makes a difference for all kinds of media you're listening to or music or watching videos or shows or even gaming i'd say it went from having a decent speaker to a very good speaker set and the battery is one of the tiniest improvements in my experience they're still one day phones both of them although now ios 12 gives you actually screen on time so i can tell you with my whole week with the 10s max i was consistently getting four to four and a half hours of screen on time lasting all day very similar to iphone 10 not markedly much better definitely not worse still a great standby phone but otherwise nothing too crazy to report here really the shame is still how long it takes to charge these huge batteries with the slow charger included in the box so then last but not least is probably the most hyped new upgrade for these phones aside from the specs and that would be the cameras the iphone 10s and 10s max share the exact same cameras and they're a slight upgrade from the 10 physically they're slightly larger new sensors still 12 megapixels the main one is f 1.8 and they're now both optically stabilized and there's a quad led flash now this upgrade i think puts it firmly right up behind pixel 2 as the second best smartphone camera it's a it's a real upgrade from the iphone 10 and every other iphone actually a little more than i was expecting and generally the photos are great as you'd expect and i think the biggest change is the more aggressive and better hdr thanks to their smart hdr so the color science is really good a plus colors a plus dynamic range pretty much every photo is corner quarter sharp and low light is pretty damn good too i definitely want to get another side-by-side sort of test going got to get this iphone alongside pixel 3 when it comes out probably red hydrogen and some other top dogs because obviously the minor difference comes down to opinion but confirmed this is an amazing smartphone camera right out the box now you may have heard some talk about this improved portrait mode as well portrait mode on the iphone started out kind of nearly as a joke it was in this beta it was pretty hacked together and sloppy at the beginning but every year it gets better and better like i wish siri would and this year it takes another leap so portrait mode with these dual cameras uses the difference in distance between the cameras and apple's software to create a depth map you might have heard that before so it kind of segments the image into different layers of different distances from the camera so when you blur the background of a photo with portrait mode instead of just drawing sort of a crude mask around the foreground and then applying a big blur to the whole background this portrait mode is actually blurring the parts further away from the camera more while blurring the closer parts less it's much more realistic and closer to what a real bokeh from a bigger camera looks like it's a subtle difference but it's a massive improvement again from the first versions of portrait mode so you take a portrait mode photo you go into this editing and you get the slider for changing the depth of field after the fact only uh iphone 10s and 10s max will do this right off the bat people compared it to samsung's live focus because of course that's what it reminds us of but when i compare them side by side the whole generic blur of the samsung versus the selective blur that keeps getting better it's pretty clear to me which one i prefer and even though this is all purely software blur just mimicking a bigger camera it even seems to be adding a slight direction to the blur like a sort of radial blur around the center of the frame which is pretty impressive so i don't use portrait mode very much because it's still hit or miss but these improvements mean when it does hit it can be pretty damn good also combine that with the fact that it's still the best video recording in a smartphone as well at 4k60 plus they've added stereo audio recording to support the speakers and it all adds up to a pretty powerful camera as we've come to expect from an iphone so that's where we're at new specs new camera same software same design so this iphone 10s is everything we thought it would be really honestly the main upgrade if you want to call it that would have to be the 10s max the much bigger screen this is the iphone i've been using by choice for the past couple days and it really does feel like a very different iphone a six and a half inch display in a body smaller than the galaxy note 9 i mean that's all you really have to say to make it my favorite iphone ever but there are so many advantages to having a bigger screen i've talked about them in previous big phone videos and all of those still hold up with the big iphone watching videos is better gaming is definitely better basically anything that involves wanting a nice viewing experience is improved i've been a big phone person as long as i can remember and so naturally the bigger iphone is my favorite iphone and i just never thought i'd see a day where the iphone is closer to the size of an ipad mini than the original iphone but that's what we got here there are downsides of being a huge phone too you can't forget them and i've said this again about other big phones the much bigger space it takes up in your pocket or your purse or wherever you keep it and it's way less likely to be a one-handed phone for most people let's be real reachability is going to be way more important on this bigger phone than it ever has been but that's what's up this upgrade to me is all about the size of this 10s max if you have an iphone 10 i can tell you right now you don't need an iphone 10s you're fine even if you have a thousand dollar hole in your pocket and you've been itching for a faster iphone and a better camera upgrade to ios 12 and buy an rx100 with that money it's a much better camera boom problem solved really the iphone 10s is a great upgrade for people who have an older iphone and iphone 7 or 8 or even older than that then again so will probably be the iphone 10r so i'll have to get that in house and see if that's about it in the full review but i have no problem recommending the iphone 10s for those people but really if you've been waiting for a bigger iphone for all the mentions i talked about and you have the money it's expensive just like last year but if you're one of those people like me then this is definitely the way to go i'm a fan of the 10s max and i recommend it give it a shot either way that's been it thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace\n"