 Greetings and salutations friends. It's your boy Nick Chey coming back with another video. Today we are reviewing the iPhone XS Max. I got this a couple months ago. I got it over Christmas in December. So it's been a couple months since I've had the phone and been able to play around with it. So I thought I'd share my impressions with you guys. Now before this video begins guys, make sure to hit me on the gram. It's at Nicholas Chey. I've been posting a ton of new content over there. Now right off the bat, there are a few things you need to know about the iPhone XS Max. Obviously this is the little bit bigger version than the XS version that they offer. For me, I was coming from the iPhone 7 Plus, which had the same dimensions as the iPhone XS Max, but the screen size was a lot smaller because we don't have this OLED display, meaning that you just get a lot more real estate that you're actually able to see your content on your phone. For me, making the switch from the 7 Plus to the XS Max series was honestly a great investment because as a photographer and videographer and someone who uses my phone to show clients potential pictures or videos and always using my phone as a second monitor, it's great to have this much real estate where you can just blow up a picture, you can show videos and it looks really clean. Obviously there are a few improvements from the XS Max compared to the XR series or the regular iPhone X. Obviously the camera is a little bit better. The portrait mode honestly works very well, which I'll get into a little bit more detail later. So before getting the phone, I was debating getting the XR, which is a lot cheaper and could save me a couple hundred dollars, but the more I thought about it, the more I really love the OLED display that the XS Max has because it's just sharper image quality, you get better colors, you just get more dynamic range in your screen. And for someone who's looking at your phone every single day, and if it's something I use consistently for me to do my work, then having the best option available to me was 100% worth the investment. Now I opted for the champagne gold version. Honestly, I think this colorway is the most beautiful out of all three of them. It just, it's very minimalistic and very beautiful honestly, because it's not just pure gold and it's not silver or black and it's that like rose gold, champagne gold. And honestly, most days I probably go without putting a case on it just because I enjoy the feel of having a naked iPhone and I'm pretty careful with my equipment. Now jumping into the specifics of the phone, honestly, there isn't too much that's crazy new about this or mind blowing. You've probably already seen a bunch of different reviews if you are on the market for a new phone. My personal takeaway and my perspective as a college student of using this phone is it's a beast. Everything I need to do, it's fast, it's reliable. The battery lasts me all day. I can use the camera to take photos and take videos if I don't have my proper camera with me. So honestly, I have no complaints about this phone. The only downside is I wish there were a few more upgrades compared to the iPhone 10 and actually justify the few hundred dollar upgrade because in all honesty, the 64 gig version of the XS Max is about $1,100 and to pay over $1,000 for a smartphone is kind of ridiculous these days and I don't necessarily think it's justified to be at that price tag but Apple is Apple and there's nothing we can do to personally fix that but compared to the other options available I always lean towards Apple just because my entire ecosystem is Apple friendly. I have a Mac, I have an Apple Watch, I have an iPad and for me to have an iPhone and use features that are consistent throughout the entire ecosystem is super helpful. It allows me to just be way more productive because I don't have to be switching from Android to Windows to Mac and just have different competing software. So having AirDrop is a huge thing. I just got an Apple TV. So being able to AirPlay from my phone or my computer to my TV is a huge feature as well. I messaged obviously now we have group FaceTime and personally for me, I just enjoy the aesthetics of the Apple ecosystem a lot better. It's more minimal, it's more user friendly and something that I've just been accustomed to over the past few years. So as a photographer, one of the biggest differences is this camera and for me personally, I'm not a huge mobile photographer just because I always like to bring my own cameras but when there's situations where I can't be bringing out a huge DSLR rig my phone does a great job. It's able to do flash. It's able to do, you know, just great lifestyle pictures just live in the moment with your friends and whatnot. Portrait mode is honestly pretty great. So I actually went and tested out my iPhone against my Sony a7R III with the Zeiss 55 millimeter 1.8 lens. That entire camera setup was $5,000 compared to this $1,000 setup. So for the price tag that entails and the quality that we got out of the pictures honestly, it was really hard to tell. I'll post the pictures up right now and seeing them side by side you can see a little bit of distinction but for that price tag jump of $5,000 to $1,000 it's very minimal and unless you're doing professional looking shoots portrait mode on your iPhone can 100% do the job. Now I've done it, what's on my iPhone video. If you guys are interested make sure to leave a comment down below and I can make a new one for you guys. Now as beautiful as the glass casings are on the new iPhones they are still very fragile meaning that if you drop them if they slip side of your pocket and it hits the ground you could be in some serious trouble because if you don't have Apple Pay having a cracked screen can cost you upwards of hundreds of dollars especially on the new iPhone which is why I recommend having a case from our sponsor RhinoShield. Now I've been rocking this case from RhinoShield over the past few days and honestly it saved my phone so many times where I pass it to a friend and they just happen to drop it and it hits the ground and having this case on knowing that it's well protected and it's not going to crack just saves me so much anxiety and allows me to use my phone to its fullest potential. Now they sent over a few different products for me to try out and they have a bunch of different series depending on what your style is and what you are looking for to get it out of a case. Now this is the modular NX case meaning that you're able to switch out the back designs and really make it versatile and make your phone the way you truly want it to be. These are their solid two cases meaning this is the wood finish and this is the carbon fiber finish. These feel really great to touch and once again protect your phone so well. On top of that they actually have add-on lenses that you can screw onto the case itself and really make your phone lens into a much more versatile camera. So let me show you guys real quick. So all you have to do is insert the lens adapter. You put your phone back in the case and then you just twist the lens back on. Now using the native camera limits the types of photos that you're able to do because it only gives you one focal length but this essentially turns your camera into a wide angle lens and gives you the versatility of a macro lens. The wide angle lens are great for landscape or architecture photography where you just need a little bit more real estate in your photos and having a wider focal length will just give you much more versatility. Now the really cool thing about this is that they're actually two in one lenses meaning that you just unscrew the wide angle part and then you're left with a macro lens. Now if you don't know what a macro lens is it basically allows you to get very up close and personal with plants or detail shots or product photography and it just gives you a much different perspective than you were able to get out of your native camera that just really changes the way that you can take photos especially with mobile photography. They have a bunch of different lenses, screen protectors and their cases are so customizable. Now they offer cases for Apple, Samsung and so many more devices. So if you don't have a case on your phone make sure to go hit the link in my description and use my code NICOLAS for 10% off. Overall I've been very satisfied with my purchase of the iPhone XS Max. Wow that's a mouthful to say but there have been very few complaints. I think the battery life works very well. There aren't any problems with storage so far and overall quality is on par with any other Apple product as you would expect. I haven't had a chance to get my hands on any of the new Samsung phones or the Huawei phones or the Google Pixel. So as far as camera quality and the other specifics I don't necessarily think that Apple has the best smartphone camera on the market right now but for the things that I needed to do and as a college student just going from day to day it does everything it needs to do perfectly. That about wraps it up for this review video I hope you guys enjoyed it. Make sure to leave a comment down below subscribe for more videos and as always