Getting to the Store
It has been a long day. We had Homecoming at school, as well as a carnival. I was already exhausted when I left work and headed over to the mall.
I had been pretty lucky that I had gotten done with work a little early, and pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn’t even really a line at Apple. This was great since I was about an hour early for my reservation pickup.
I asked the employees waiting outside the store if it would be possible, and they gave me a happy and resounding “Yes!” They took my information and told me I’d be the second person in line to be helped. They indicated I wait just outside the store and help myself to some snacks.
And I did help myself. I had a rice crispy treat, which I hadn’t had in a long time and it was delicious! But as soon as I was done with my last bite, I was approached by another Apple employee who greeted me and said that she would be helping me.
We marched into the store and set up right next to the new iPhone XS display. It was hard to not just jump out and try out the new phones. Both the silver XS and XS Max were right in front of me. I was looking at both, answering her questions about what I had ordered, and she had been answering mine.
I had been worried that eventually, I might miss the LTE from my Apple Watch if I didn’t have it. What if they come out with something amazing and I start to kick myself, so I asked if it would be possible to get the LTE model instead of the GPS only model that I had reserved. She checked the system right there and said that it would be possible. I took that to mean that they had plenty of stock in the models by 3:00 PM.
It was pretty telling that they had the stock, and while I waited, I saw person after person leave the story with a new Apple Watch.
But then we hit the road block.
System Crash
As she started to request my order be brought from the back, her system went down.
It seemed that every employee in the store was having problems. We would come to find out that every store everywhere was having the same issue. The employee didn’t really know how to help at this point since their system doesn’t allow for someone to just take the things out. They need to be driven through the system and all that jazz. So she told me we would wait for a while.
She didn’t know how long it would take, but we both assumed that it would be fairly quickly over since it was midafternoon and there hadn’t been too many issues. She told me to wait where I was, and she would go get some answers. While she left, I got my first impressions of the phones
Impressions
As she left, I started to play with the phones.
It’s crazy how giant the iPhone XS Max is. In the hand, it does feel just like an iPhone 7 Plus, but it just feels so much bigger. By measure, it is actually smaller. The screen is giant.
I have big hands and the phone felt big in my hand. It felt bigger than what I remembered my Plus phones being like. Granted it has been a year since I had a phone this size.
Everything felt just like my iPhone X but larger. This is definitely a two-handed phone primarily. If you have large hands, as I do, you can type one handed but it can be difficult. But the screen is so good.
I surfed the internet, typed a little in pages, and took some photos on the XS Max. It was snappy to respond, and the extra screen was great.
Still, I’m not used to the large phone anymore.
The XS felt just like the X. I messed around with it as well.
It felt good. It felt like what I’m used to.
One thing I was very surprised by was how much I didn’t like the gold iPhone XS or Max in the store. The gold stainless steel band seemed copper and the glass back seemed pink. I just really didn’t like it.
There weren’t too many apps installed on the demo units so I didn’t really get to mess around too much. Everything felt just like I’ve been saying about iOS 12 but even better on the new phone.
I’m going to look forward to taking pictures with it, and seeing how it works in day to day life.
Checking back in
After a while, the Apple employee came back to me and told me that the system was still down. She still didn’t have a solution for what I should do either. She said I could go, but looking outside, the line was starting to form since everyone that had a reservation was having to wait.
I walked around and checked out the cases, looked at the iPad Pros, and played with the phones again. After a while I just got bored. I had started backing up my phone before the employee had left, so I didn’t even have my phone to get on to explore social media or type out a post.
I don’t want to let Apple off the hook here, but I can’t imagine the strain their system goes through on iPhone launch day. Still, I feel like every year since the 6S year, I’ve had an issue. Last year, I woke up and got
Every time one of these issues has come up, Apple has helped me out. They tracked a phone down for me, they’ve given me free cases, etc.
Same thing this time.
After waiting over an hour for the system to get back up, a new employee finally came over to help me out. We got through the system, got my equipment, had a great conversation, and the employees hooked me up with a free case. I can’t complain too much, because they are so nice.
All told, I was in the Apple Store for over an hour and a
I was just so ready to get home. So I set up the phone as a new one for now and got on the road.
At Home
Once I got home, I set up my phone from my backup. It’s still getting set up, but I’m getting to use it more. I’m getting more used to the screen, and the more I do, the more I like it.
My wife’s phone also made it home. She got an XS in gold. update: I like the gold at home in the light of our house better than I did the ones in the store. I think the lighting will really affect the color you see. The glass and frame are definitely not as matched as the black or white one though. And the back seems more rose gold at home.
I got to take some pictures of it using my phone, and some comparison shots using my iPad Pro 9.7 (which is why the quality dips a little bit).
Next
I still need to set up my new Watch, which is one of the things I’m most looking forward to using. I’ll be taking pictures with my new phone and posting first impressions and stuff later.
I’ll be taking my phone to work tomorrow as well and getting some real-world usage. I’ll post a longer impression post tomorrow night.
Is there anything you want to know? Anything you’re looking for? Let me know