Here's what you can buy for your home for the price of an iPhone XS Max (512GB)

Note: This article was first published on 29th September 2018 and updated with offers effective as of 6th November 2018.

An iPhone XS Max (512GB) can get you so much more ... 

When we thought the iPhone X last year was the maximum that Apple could charge for a phone, we are wrong! The new iPhone XS Max, being the top tier model in the lineup, has a jaw-dropping price of S$2,349 for the 512GB edition. 

To put that into perspective, the iPhone XS Max (512GB) costs almost S$500 more than the S$1,888 iPhone X (256GB). That figure will rise when you factor in the S$368 AppleCare+ if you want to avoid the hefty repair fees and other individual preferential accessories to enhance your experience.

Of course, not everyone necessarily needs to upgrade now, and for those who are still on the fence, we decided to compile a list of other household electronics and appliances you can consider to get instead of the iPhone XS Max (512GB). For this purpose, we've divvied up the article to cover what you can get for different parts of your home - starting off with the living room, kitchen, bedroom and study room. 

In the living room...

The 6.5-inch OLED display of the iPhone XS Max may be big and beautiful, but it cannot rival the Samsung 49-inch QLED 4K Smart TV.

Available in stores since June 2018, it has a retail price of S$2,699 although Courts is currently having a promotion where you can get it for S$2,375! This is just an additional top-up of S$26 over the top capacity iPhone XS Max model. (Note: if the online offer is out of stock, Courts has mentioned that you can get in their stores with even more promotions and gifts.)

The key specs of the Samsung 49-inch QLED 4K Smart TV include 100% color volume (colors will remain consistent and accurate across different levels of brightness), HDR10+ support, very thin bezels across the top and two sides, four HDMI ports and two USB ports. Refer here for more information.

 

Another alternative would be a setup of Sony's home theater system and 43-inch Ultra-HD 4K Smart LED TV. 

The Sony KD43X7000F 43-inch 4K Smart LED TV has an official retail price of S$1,349, but it's on sale now at S$999! The Sony BDVN9200W 5.1-channel 3D Blu-ray home theater system has an official price tag of S$1,599, but it's on sale too at S$1,249! If you buy these two items, you still have a spare change of S$101 as the total cost is S$2,248! 

The key features of the Sony 4K Smart LED TV are the 4K X-Reality Pro processing engine which up-scales every image close to 4K image quality, support for 4K HDR in movies and games, instant access to YouTube, and ClearAudio+ for clear and detailed audio experience. For the Sony home theatre system, it supports high-resolution audio playback, up to 9.1-channel surround sound and a digital music arena mode to bring voices, instruments and effects to life.

The combination of the TV and home theater system is a compelling entertainment machine for your home and it handily beats the 6.5-inch screen and stereo speakers of the iPhone XS Max with spare change left. This puts quite a perspective for the asking price of Apple's latest iPhone.

 

If TVs and home entertainment systems are not to your liking, why not get one of these smart speakers?

The Google Home and Home Mini smart speakers have been available for purchase locally since April. Though they launch with official retail prices of S$189 and S$79 respectively, you can get them at discounted prices of S$151.20 and S$63.20 respectively.

At the cost of an iPhone XS Max (512GB), you could get up to 12 Google Home or 29 Google Home Mini smart speakers! You can place them anywhere in the house and use voice commands to get answers, turn up the music, manage your everyday tasks, or control smart devices around your home. Better yet, give one out to all your close friends!

In the kitchen...

The LG F1408DC3W washer and dryer has a total capacity of 8KG/5KG respectively. It has the three-in-one TrueSteam technology to remove allergens from clothes, freshen up clothes in 20 minutes and uses the True Steam water (hygienic softener). Its Inverter DirectDrive motor has a 10-year warranty too. 

Currently retailing at Courts for a special price of S$1,109 (U.P S$1,649). How would you spend the remaining S$1,240? 

The Samsung RT43K6037SL/SS fridge has a Twin Cooling Plus independent cooling system to ensure the optimal temperature and humidity level up to 70% is maintained throughout the fridge for the food to stay fresh. It also has separate air paths in both the fridge and freezer to prevent unpleasant smells from moving between the two sections. You can choose from five modes (freezer-fridge, energy saving, vacation, fridge max and mini mode) for the ultimate flexibility in storage and power savings.

Courts is currently selling the Samsung RT43K6037SL/SS at a special price of S$1,099 (U.P $1,399). With the above two purchases, you still have some change (S$144) to go for a good meal with your family!

Alternatively, you can also consider spending the budget on a single device which comes in handy every time you cook at home - a dishwasher!

The Fisher & Paykel DD60DI9 Integrated Dishdrawer is designed to fit existing kitchen cabinetry and provides the benefit of two independent drawers for convenience and ergonomics. Both drawers operate independently so different wash cycles can operate at the same time to accommodate different loads. There are a total of 9 washing options to wash everything from fine glass and crystal to heavily soiled pots and pans. 

You can buy one at Courts for S$2,199! 

In the bedroom...

Why clean the house yourself when you can get a robot to do so? The leader in the market is iRobot with its range of Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. The flagship model is the Roomba 980.

With a battery life of up to two hours, the Roomba 980 can be scheduled to run at certain dates/times (up to 7 times a week) or be controlled from your smartphone with the iRobot Home app. When it runs low on power, it will automatically return to the charging dock to recharge and resume the cleaning later.

It's available from iRobot website at a promotional price of S$1,498 (U.P S$1,698). Or you could get the older Roomba 880 that we've liked very much for just S$1,298.

Complement the Roomba 980 with a floor mopping robot, the iRobot Braava 380t. It dries and mops the floors in a single cycle which can cover up to 1,000 square feet (dry mop) and up to 350 square feet (damp mop).

Its Pro-Clean system has a special reservoir cleaning pad which dispenses liquid to keep the cloth damp. The fibers on the reusable Pro-Clean cloth attract and trap dirt, oils and grime from the floor. The Braav 380t cleans all hard-surface floors including tile, vinyl, hardwood, and laminate. 

You can purchase one from iRobot's wesbite at S$598 (U.P S$698). Both cleaning solutions cost you a total of $2,096 with plenty of spare change for some iRobot accessories. 

If you don't quite trust robotic vacuum cleaners to do the job, you can consider Dyson's range of cordless handheld vacuum cleaners which are arguably some of the best in the industry. 

The latest model is the Cyclone V10 which has a battery life of up to 60 minutes and power suction thanks to the Dyson digital motor V10. Its machine filtration system captures up to 99.7% particles as small as 0.3 microns. You can read up more on it and our experience from our review. 

It is retailing at S$1,199 from Courts.

In the study room...

You can get a 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar for S$2,188. By default, it comes with a 2.3GHz 7th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD storage and two Thunderbolt ports. 

For comparison's sake, you can double the storage to 512GB and the total cost comes up to S$2,478. That's just S$129 more than what you will pay for the iPhone XS Max (512GB)!

If a laptop is not what you're looking for, consider the 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display.

Retailing at S$2,188 for the default model, the iMac comes with a 3.4GHz 7th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 1TB Fusion Drive. You can bump up the RAM to 16GB for an additional S$280 which brings the total cost to S$2,468. This means a top-up of S$116 from the cost of the iPhone XS Max (512GB).

You could also get a pretty capable portable gaming system such as the ASUS ROG Hero II GL504GM. Packed with good hardware like an Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 16GB of memory, a GeForce GTX 1060  GPU, 128GB of PCIe SSD, a 1TB HDD and a 144Hz G-Sync IPS display, this notebook has all the bases covered. It looks smart and can pass of as a busniess notebook without usual hallmark appearance of a gaming notebook. and it's now going for just S$2,598 at Courts. That's $100 off the recommended retail price and is just a $250 top-up to get a competent gaming notebook over the maximum capacity edition of the iPhone XS Max.

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