What’s up guys, Sagi here and welcome to another Tech Gear Talk. Today I’m going to give you my first impression of the iPhone 10s.

I’m going to start out with doing a straightforward unboxing just to show you what the packaging looks like and what is included with the phone.

Basically there are a whole bunch of things you’re never going to look at or read, but you do get those Apple stickers that people seem to like so much. Who knows, maybe I should do a giveaway.

I love the sound this cellophane wrapping makes and then you get that first, and probably last, look at a brand new, clean iPhone.

I am upgrading from the iPhone 7 Plus and decided to go with the 10s over the 10s Max, which let’s get real, is the 10s Plus.

Inside the 10s box you get ear pods and charger but it’s disappointing that there is no usb-c to lightning fast charging option included, considering the iPhone 10s starts at a $1,000.

That means that you’ll need to spend another $70 in order to take advantage of this feature.

Let me know in the comments section if you think Apple is being cheap by not including this considering the price or if you think it’s fine.

Apple also doesn’t include a lightning to headphone adapter. This isn’t a big deal for me personally because I’ve been using the AirPods for years, but still would be nice to have.

As usual, the setup process was super simple. I’ve been using iPhones for years and Apple clearly values the initial user experience with the iPhone.

Let’s take a look at the new wallpaper options. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably saw that I implemented the new Xr wallpapers in my workstation.

Here is just a quick preview of the exclusive 10s/10s Max and you can see how well these hide the notch. As we predicted, since this is an S release, the notch is the same size as the on on the X.

• A12 Bionic chip with Apple’s next-generation neural engine
• Dual rear-facing 12MP cameras – a wide angle f 1.8 and a telephoto f2.4
• Of course we have Face ID which is enabled by the TrueDepth front-facing 7MP camera
• The 10s shoots 4K video at 24, 30 and 60 fps, and can do slo-mo video at up to 240 fps at 1080p or full HD
• 10s has a 5.8” display and the 10s Plus Max has much larger, 6.5” display. I’ll release another video about my decision to go with the 10s over the 10s Max
• IP68 Water and Dust resistance rating
• 2658 mAh battery which is not great
• Finally, the 10s comes with iOS 12 right out of the box

Benchmark Tests

Let’s see what all this new tech can do for us. If this isn’t your first iPhone 10s review, you’ve probably seen several benchmark tests looking at the various aspects of these new phones. The GeekBench CPU test shows a single core score of 4813 with the 10s and to give you a point of reference, my 7 Plus got a single-core score of 3530.

That’s a significant improvement over the the iPhone 7 Plus. However, the CPU test only tells a part of the story so let’s move on to the GPU test. Here you’ll see that the 10s scored a 21542/21231 and crushes the 7 Plus scored a 13519. Moving on to the AnTuTu benchmarks, the 10s shines again with a score of 333830 vs only 182251 on the 7 Plus. So again, definitely a marked improvement.

If you’re an iPhone X user, you won’t notice an aesthetic difference between the phones. According to the specs from Apple website asides from being 0.01 inches wider it looks identical. I suppose there is a technicality here since the 10s is offered in gold, which was not available on the iPhone X. Coming from the 7 Plus, I was super excited about some of the features I’ve been missing. The first being face ID.

Again, setup is super easy and fast, and I can’t wait to start using it. I’m used to having to program my fingerprints into my 7 Plus and I’m looking forward to this improved user experience. Next I had to head over to the animoji made so famous by one of the catchiest Apple commercials ever and the new memoji introduced with iOS 12.

And finally, the camera. If you’re someone who watches my channel you know how much I love photography and video so I was super excited to take the 10s out and see what it can do. I’ll publish a more detailed iPhone 10s camera review and comparison later on but my initial impression is that these images are noticeably better than the 7 Plus.

I was actually really happy with my 7 Plus images until I got the 10s. The new dual rear-facing 12MP cameras are super impressive. I’m not even talking about the improved Portrait lighting mode or the depth of field slider, the photos are just sharper, more detailed and have better dynamic range.

The new larger sensor on the 10s and the redesigned wider angle lens allow the iPhone 10s to gather more light and capture more detail which is particularly noticeable in challenging low light situations. Here are some examples and you can see that the iphone is rendering natural color and a good bit of detail even at night.

Moving on to the new Portrait mode, the Iphone 10s switches to the telephoto camera which uses the dual lenses along with the new A12 Bionic chip to generate a “portrait matte”. This is essentially a 3D map of the image which helps to separate the subject from the background. This is something that happens naturally on larger cameras, but smartphone have to artificially create this effect due to their smaller sensors, and well… physics.

What’s great about the 10s is that you now have Portrait mode with Depth Control which lets you set the level of blur, after you captured the image. Now, of course, the 10s isn’t actually changing the aperture after the image is taken, that would involve wizardry. It’s simulating what that image would look like if it were taken at a different aperture.

What’s really nice is that the bokeh, or the quality of the out of focus areas of the photo, renders beautifully. Using the adjustable aperture feature, the background naturally blurs away. Also, notice that lights in the background don’t just get blurry, they actually get larger as we virtually open up the aperture just like they would on a DSLR or Mirrorless camera.

This is an important aspect because with both the front and rear facing camera, the iphone does much more than simply blurring the background of the image. The image actually morphs and reacts in a way that is very organic to real-life aperture change. Now i wanted to see what the front-facing camera can do. This is definitely where many phones struggle because these are lower end cameras and components. But even in low-light the front facing camera did a great job.

And for everyone who tuned me out for the past 3 minutes or so, your pictures will just look better – end of story. Alright, this sums up my first impression of the iPhone 10s. If you enjoyed this video please let me know by giving it a thumbs up and then smath the subscribe and notification buttons.

I have a more detailed review of the 10s as well as a camera comparison with the X and the 7 Plus so let me know if you have any questions you want me to cover. You can always find me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at Tech Gear Talk, and you know that I always say, buy it nice or buy it twice.

Good luck and see you soon.