iPhone XS v/s iPhone X: Is it worth an upgrade?

In terms of design, there's nothing new on the iPhone XS. So, you still have an edge-to-edge display with a notch that houses the front camera and Face ID module.

On the back, there's a dual camera setup and glass panel that enables wireless charging.

However, iPhone XS is now IP68 rated (iPhone X is IP67 rated) and is covered in a tougher glass.

The iPhone XS has same 5.8-inch OLED Super Retina display with 458ppi of pixel density and 2,436x1,125 resolution.

However, Apple says the new display now offers 60% greater dynamic range of colors than its predecessor.

Further, the iPhone XS display also gets support for HDR 10, Dolby Vision, 120Hz touch sensitive, and the less-talked-about 3D Touch which debuted with the iPhone 6S.

In terms of camera, like the iPhone X, its successor sports a 12MP (f/1.8) wide-angle camera with OIS, 1.4-micron pixels, paired with a 12MP (f/2.4) telephoto lens with OIS and 2x optical zoom.

However, Apple has offered a faster sensor, a new image processing chipset that offers Smart HDR.

Up front, iPhone XS has the same 7MP TruDepth RGB camera with f/2.2 aperture.

The most important upgrade is the new 7nm A12 Bionic chip which has a 6-core CPU, and a 4-core GPU.

The chipset comes paired with a new Apple-designed Neural Engine which can perform 5 trillion operations per second (600 billion operations on the older iteration).

Further, the new processor is 15% percent faster and 40% more power-efficient than the A11 chipset on iPhone X.

In terms of software, there's the standard set of sensors you expect on a flagship smartphone.

Further, Apple's Face ID which debuted with the iPhone X, has now improved, thanks to the new Neutral Engine.

In terms of software, the iPhone XS will run iOS 12 out-of-the-box while iPhone X will get it as an OTA, starting September 17.

In terms of battery, Apple has said the iPhone XS will last half an hour more than iPhone X which packs a 2,716mAh battery.

Further, all connectivity options remain the same as seen on the iPhone X except for two major changes - Gigabit LTE that offers up to 1Gbps speed on 4G and support for dual SIMs (eSIM+Physical SIM).

The iPhone XS is surely the most advanced iPhone yet. There's a new A12 chipset that will offer improved performance, better image processing, and graphical rendering.

However, starting at $999, like its predecessor, the new iPhone isn't much of an upgrade over the iPhone X.

That said, if you're on an iPhone 8 or older, the leap to iPhone XS will be worth it.