Consumer Reports is out with its final report card on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The publication focuses on the improved battery life on both devices, versus the iPhone X. It also looks at performance, camera quality, and durability.
Consumer Reports does some of the most thorough testing before making a determination on whether consumers ought to buy a particular product. Today, Consumer Reports is out with their final review and test results regarding Apple's new iPhone X.
Influential US magazine Consumer Reports today published their latest smartphone rankings. After weeks of “rigorous testing”, the organization has ranked Samsung's new Galaxy S8 Plus, which released in late April, higher than Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices, which have been on the market for eight months now.
The testing procedure took into account popular user features such as design, battery life, cameras, display quality and more. The top spot was previously occupied by the earlier-generation Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
As for Apple's smartphone, Consumer Reports ranked iPhone 7 Plus fifth.
Here are the top five smartphones, according to Consumer Reports:
Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Samsung Galaxy S8 Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge LG G6 Apple iPhone 7 PlusDespite the latest Galaxies not having a dual-camera setup, Consumer Reports doesn't think consumers will miss the depth of field photography and optical zoom features found on iPhone 7 Plus.
“A few top-end cameras, including the iPhone 7 Plus and the LG G6, have dual rear-facing cameras, to enhance either zoom or wide-angle photography,” notes the report.
“The Samsung phones haven’t gone that route yet—and we don’t think they suffer for it.”
The latest Galaxy phones have “some of the best smartphone battery life we've seen,” they added.
Consumer Reports testers found the latest Galaxies' curved AMOLED display with the drastically reduced bezels at the top and the bottom both pretty to look at and functional, with a bigger screen area in the same-size device.
That doesn't necessarily make the flagship Samsung phone comfortable to hold in one's hand.
“Even on the smaller model, it will be hard for most users to reach the upper regions of the screen with their thumb,” said lead phone tester Richard Fisco.
Consumer Reports' biggest gripe with the new Galaxy S8 family? An “awkwardly” positioned fingerprint sensor on the back.
Here's what they had to say about it:
The fingerprint scanner on the back is awkwardly placed. You can use the scanner for unlocking the phone, and that works well. But it's right next to the rear camera, and we found ourselves repeatedly poking around to locate it—and smudging the camera lens in the process.
Consumer Reports is, of course, the same publication that lost some of its credibility by first not recommending iPhone 4 due to Antennagate only to change its mind a few weeks later. The fact they're now pitting the latest devices from Samsung and LG against Apple's 2016 smartphone—which will be superseded by iPhone 8 in a three month's time—isn't helping either.
Following Apple's software fix, Consumer Reports has updated its review of the new MacBook Pro, stating that it now recommends the laptop. The publication says the fix corrects the erratic battery behavior it saw during its initial testing, and all MacBook Pro models now fall "well within the recommended range" in its ratings.
Apple has come to the conclusion that a hidden setting in Safari caused the odd battery results in Consumer Reports' MacBook Pro review that kept the publication from recommending the laptop. In a statement to AppleInsider, the company said it worked with CR's team over the holidays and determined that its testing methods were flawed.
As you probably heard, the influential consumer organization Consumer Reports is not recommending Apple's new MacBook Pro due to inconsistent battery performance. Apple's marketing honcho Phill Schiller responded by saying that the product-testing magazine's test results don't match the company's own data. 9to5Mac reached out to Consumer Reports to learn more about their findings, here's what the magazine had to say.
Apple is working with Consumer Reports to better understand their MacBook Pro battery tests, according to Phil Schiller. The company's SVP of marketing sent out a tweet late Friday night, saying CR's test results don't match Apple's data.
Schiller's comments follow Consumer Reports' scathing review of Apple's new MacBook Pro, in which the product-testing magazine said, for the first time ever, that it could not recommend the laptop due to inconsistencies in battery life.
Consumer Reports will not be recommending Apple's latest MacBook Pro models due to inconsistent battery performance, the magazine said Thursday. After conducting a battery of tests, Consumer Reports discovered that battery life across all new Pros varied “dramatically” from one test to another.
On the other hand (as I note in this article), the battery woes might be caused by a software issue in Safari for Mac because Chrome (a notorious battery hog) fared far better in the tests.
Be that as it may, Apple's latest notebooks received low rating and failed to earn Consumer Report’s recommendation “after battery life issues surfaced during testing”. As a result, the new MacBook Pro is the first Apple notebook that did not receive a Consumer Reports recommendation, said the magazine.
Once again, Apple has managed to maintain the highest score for overall satisfaction when it comes to computer technical support, Consumer Reports, the influential U.S. magazine published monthly by Consumers Union since 1936, has found in its July 2015 issue.
The non-profit organization first began polling customers about the topic back in 2007. Apple's tech support is “by far the most effective of any computer brand’s,” the magazine revealed. If you own a Windows PC, there’s only a 50-50 chance that a manufacturer’s tech support will solve your problem, the survey found.
Consumer Reports, an influential U.S. magazine that publishes trusted and mostly unbiased reviews and comparisons of consumer products, has recommended Apple's iPhone in the past, but now they wouldn't recommend Samsung's latest Galaxy S6 flagship smartphone, which released a month ago, over the last-generation Galaxy S5.
You read that right, last year's Galaxy actually ranked higher than the Galaxy S6 in Consumer Reports’ ratings. Putting the S6 through its battery of scientific tests, the publications has made some surprising, if not controversial, conclusions.
After putting eleven smartwatches through various tests, Consumer Reports rated the Stainless Steel Apple Watch as the best of the category. Putting Apple, Samsung, Pebble, Sony, Martian, Asus, LG, and Motorola in direct competition, the folks at Consumer Reports took the eleven smartwatches through their labs to test for durability, health functionality, readability in bright and low light, ease of use, and ease of interaction.
It is an incredibly precise timepiece, a new way to communicate, but it is also a smarter way to look at fitness. Timekeeping and communication aside, early scientific and less scientific tests show Apple Watch is actually very accurate at tracking health and fitness data.