I decided long ago when I bought another iPhone it absolutely would not be from the phone company. And I will never be stuck with a contract. Do I sound like an unhappy ATT customer? Yes!! So I decided to get my Xs Max unlocked meaning if I had been buying at the phone store it would have been locked. I didn’t check the store, that was what the sales person told me. You can buy from Apple locked or unlocked. This time around I also went the AC & T&l plan. To me I decided it would be worth it. Everybody has a different opinion on that. So coming from a 5s this was a major improvement, the 5 s was beginning to lose battery strength and it just wasn’t worth getting a new battery. They gave me $30 only because I didn’t have time the night before it would have been $50. I have big hands and fingers so a cover would be nice had it been in stock. I ordered one and good ol Fedex claims it was delivered but it wasn’t. I was out front of my house all day. So much for that. I never could get the finger unlock to be reliable with the 5s so I had to resort to entering a code every time I wanted to do anything. The face recognition is great with the Xs max. I used to backup with iTunes but now use iCloud only as everything gets backed up not just important things. Switching to the new phone was easy only had to renter passwords for apps. I know a lot of people nitpick little things, but from my observation comparing brands out there, yes the iPhone is much more expensive but from my observation and experience iphones last longer. The photos and software is superb to the 5s and better than the competitors. Another reason I bought the Xs max over the Xr. The only thing I don’t like about this phone is the protruding camera lens and light on the back. It’s almost like Apple gets you to buy a case to fix that flaw. Here’s another feature I found much better is sound quality and volume.