...We’re just a little over one month away from Apple’s September iPhone keynote, and to hold you over, we bring you an interesting unboxing video of a handset that you probably won’t find in stores here. It’s officially called the “SOYES XS”, but in reality, those who have seen it say it’s just a miniature iPhone XS. Measuring just 3.70″ x 2.01″ x 0.39″ and weighing just 99g, it most likely is the world’s smallest iPhone XS knockoff and actually looks the part too.

As you may have already guessed, this tiny handset runs a skinned version of Android. Featuring a 3.0-inch display, 4G / LTE connectivity, dual SIM slots, GSM / WCDMA network support, WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS, and front / rear cameras. It will set you back around $109 USD, and comes with the handset itself, one USB Type-C cable, a phone case, and even a screen protector

World's Smallest iPhone XS Knockoff Gets Unboxed, Fits in the Palm of Your Hand. We're just a little over one month away from Apple's September iPhone keynote, and to hold you over, we bring you an interesting unboxing video of a handset that you probably won't find in stores here.

Compared to the iPhone X, the speakers on the iPhone XS are more powerful and 'wider' in sound, the camera has been enhanced with Smart HDR, the battery management is better and the chipset is far more powerful inside. These are all just tweaks though, and it was smart from Apple to remove the iPhone X from sale, as that would have been a far more attractive option prior to the launch of the iPhone 11 range.

• Smart HDR helps the camera
• More powerful again
• Fast operation in the hand

• New gold color option
• Same design and similar features as last gen

Usually in this section we'd talk about all the new features that the phone brings – but in this case there really aren't that many, with Apple resolutely sticking to the strategy of launching an 'S' phone with little changed other than speed improvements and a few other performance bumps.

That's not to say it isn't impressive, and useful, new hardware in the iPhone XS, but most of the benefits won't be instantly discernible to the average user.

One change that is easy to spot is the new color: the gold variant is more mocha than anything else, with a touch of copper in the shade, and brings another option in addition to the Space Gray and silver options.

We can only surmise that this was possible because the chassis of the iPhone XS is so similar to that of the iPhone X, so it wasn't expensive or time-consuming to alter the process to add in a new hue.

• Loads of power
• Neural Engine brings enhancements throughout
• Notably more powerful AR capabilities

Apple is proudly talking up its new chipset, and with good reason: it's one of the most powerful on a smartphone, created as it was using a 7nm process.

That may not mean much to most people, but essentially it means that more transistors can be chucked onto this hexa-core CPU, which has two 'power' cores and four more that are optimized for efficiency.

However, even those slower cores are still more powerful than any of those found in the iPhone 6, a handset that's only four years old, showing just how rapidly smartphone technology is progressing in terms of power and efficiency.

One might question whether this much power is really needed – and sure, if you're just browsing the web and sending messages it's utterly wasted.

However, if you want to explore the world of augmented reality, then these extra transistors are on hand to help out.

There's also a new 'Neural Engine' in the mix, enabling your phone to become more intelligent, learning as you use it.

It adds a 'smart layer' to proceedings, allowing the handset to recognize things on the screen, whether that's appending an Animoji to your head in real time during a FaceTime call, or working out what's needed to improve the quality of a photo as you're taking it.

It's hard to really quantify the benefit of this improved chipset other than through numbers. Running the iPhone XS through the Geekbench CPU testing process showed that it's the most powerful phones we've ever used: a score of 11,481 is over 1,000 higher than the iPhone X from last year, and better than any phone we've tested.

That speed improvement is easy to feel within the phone, as the iPhone XS is one of the snappiest handsets we've ever tapped our way through.

It's tricky to say how much of this is down to the hardware and how much to the improved iOS 12 software – but either way, it's a really, really rapid experience.

The A12 chipset brings a step up in graphical performance too – gaming is getting ever closer to console-level graphics, and we had the chance to check out a few AR titles too.

That said, we're still not fully convinced about the benefits of AR gaming – it's mildly diverting for a while, but many titles still seem to lack the overall polish that more typical iPhone games bring, such as Elder Scrolls: Blades, where you've got incredible gaming prowess mixed with high-level effects within.

For instance, we played ElemenTao, and not only did it lack any kind of tutorial but it was a bit clunky when we tried to play it on a desk. That's not really the fault of the game, but rarely do we have a large table with nothing on it on which we can play solo titles, or with chums.

Yes, there will be moments when it's cool, but they'll be as rare as deciding to play board games of an evening – so it depends if that’s what you’re into.

It's worth noting that this is no longer Apple's newest mobile chipset, having been bettered by the A13 Bionic in the iPhone 11 range, but it still outmatches most rival ones