Does iPhone XS Selfie Camera Actually Smooth Your Face?
Madhavacharta Dhebar - Oct 11, 2018
Recently, people using iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max is claiming that they realized the new iPhones can actually make their skin in selfies smoother than previous products of Apple.
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Moreover, the iPhone XS’s smoothing effect is considered similar to some beauty selfie modes featured in Samsung phones. On the other hand, this feature can’t be turned off in the iPhone XS.

Test the iPhone smoothing effect
According to Apple blog Cult of Mac, the iPhone XS’ smoothing effect was mentioned before by Apple. In the phone’s keynote event, Apple briefly introduced the effect which will smooth out details of grainy photos when they are taken on dark backgrounds.
A test has been taken to find out whether the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max actually smooth owners’ selfies better than the old phones or not. The testers carefully made sure their phones has been updated to the latest operating system iOS 12. They also didn’t forget to turn on the iPhone XS Max’s new Smart HDR feature.
Read more: Iphone xs price in India
Here are their results:
The iPhone XS Max actually smoothed out the tester’s face in her selfie when she took picture indoor with office lighting, also reduced shadows. The testers supposed that the shadow reduced was done by the Smart HDR feature.

Another test by other tester shown that the effect wasn’t clear to be seen in his selfie. However, it was still possible to recognize how the effect has done with the picture by looking at the different colors of the tester’s lips and face.

Taken in the same office with the same light setting, this tester’s selfie below also had its face sheen reduced.

After testing with the indoor light setting, they continued taking photos in a room set with a dim light. One more time, the selfie has balanced the colors and smoothed out the owners’ face.

This tester said his iPhone XS has made his face “look like it was airbrushed or painted” in his photos.

The third tester received the same result with the iPhone XS Max smoothing out his face noticeably compared to selfies taken with the iPhone X. The iPhone XS also reduced his face sheen and evened out the colors in the photo.

Moved outside to a bright background, the selfies taken remained the same. This proved Cult of Mac’s noise reduction supposing is wrong, because the effect worked even when the photos were taken in a bright outdoor environment. As usual, the colors are one more time uniformed.



Conclusion about iPhone XS Selfie Camera
The test has clearly shown that the declaration about noise reduction is not true. The smooth effect actually carried out its task even when the tester took their selfies in a well-lighted background. Otherwise, with photos taken outdoor brightly lighted, the noise reduction usually blurs away some details.
The testers supposed this is a new noise reduction feature which is able to give effect even when the photos are not taken in a dark environment.
The smooth effect seems cool but it still depends on owner to make choice about enjoying it or not. However, with no option to turn off the magical smooth effect which won’t be needed every time, it may bother some people.
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