I preordered the a gold 256 GB Iphone XS Max from Verizon on September 14th with a delivery date of October 3rd. I was patiently waiting for my Phone to ship like a child on the night before Christmas until seeing phones as they arrived in stores today. I watched all the hype—people getting up early to wait in line, Apple store employees congratulating the first fortunate individuals to receive their phones—and I thought to myself, “I’ve avoided the chaos of the First Day, I know that I have a device of my choosing reserved just for me, I can wait another two weeks. I’ll be ok.” And then I couldn’t and I wasn’t. I had breakfast, was heading into work at a casual hour and decided to check with the local store to see if they had any devices in stock. They did and that was the end of that.
When I made the call to check on local inventory, I had every intention of getting a new iPhone today if it was even a remote possibility. As I was on my way to work, I began driving in the direction of my Verizon store and called customer service while en route. I pulled into the parking lot and once I confirmed the phone I wanted was in stock, I walked into the store ten minutes later to cancel my preorder and purchase the device.
There was no line, no wait, and I was served as soon as I walked in the door and expressed my interest in purchasing a new phone. I informed the sales associate that I had an order in process and she told me it wasn’t an issue. We began the process of upgrading my iPhone 8 Plus to the phone I know call Goldar. The worst part was waiting on help from the central help desk as I could not cancel my preorder through the website. About 40 minutes after walking in the door, I left with a newly activated phone that mirrored the settings and content of my old phone and I was delighted with the design, build quality and early functionality.
Later this evening, I bypassed the two lines that were still pretty long at an Apple store in the mall and bought a glass screen protector and leather case.
My first impressions are pretty positive. The Max is about the same size as my 8+ but the screen fills the entire front of the phone and it’s a little narrower. It is a bit faster and the face recognition is very responsive but I’m not sure if it’s quite as quick as the finger print reader in all instances. The swiping to see notifications and to see what applications are open is a bit reversed but seeing the same type of notifications all together is an improvement.
I made an emoji as much as I think it’s silly but my wife thought it was cute and my daughter will be completely obsessed with trying to make her own. The device is familiar but feature rich and will require me spending some time understanding how to exploit all its features. So far, Day 1 has been pretty solid with me taking ownership of a phone that represents the next generation of iPhones two weeks earlier than I expected to receive my device. Today was a good day.