iPhone XR Review | The New Budget iPhone is Here

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Finally, the iPhone XR is here which is the new budget iPhone for Apple. Although the price tag is still quite premium, the iPhone XR has some powerful features with same SoC found on the iPhone XS and XS Max. This means there is no compromise in performance but there are some in other aspects of the device. To know more about what’s good and the compromises, let’s jump into the iPhone XR Review

Same Old Design with New Trendy Colors

Starting up with the design, the iPhone XR looks like the iPhone XS and the iPhone 8 had a baby. From the back, it looks quite similar to the iPhone 8 resembling the single camera unit, however, turn it around and you will see the iPhone XS design statement. Apple has still gone for the notch which is still pretty big and the bezels around the display are also chunkier compared to the iPhone XS.

The iPhone XS follows the same Glass back design as the previous iPhone devices but rather than the stainless steel, the sides of the device is made of aluminum. Fingerprint smudges gather around the back real fast but their visibility varies depending upon which color you buy. Talking about the colors, there are 5 color options including Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Coral. Our personal preference is the Yellow one because of how unique it looks.

iPhone XR is also pretty comfortable to hold as it’s just 8.3mm thick but weigh slightly higher at 194 grams. Since the glass on the backbends into the side, it provides a solid grip for people even with small hands. Upfront, the iPhone XR flaunts a notch just like on the iPhone X and XS which houses the sensors for Face ID, front camera, earpiece, and proximity sensor. Along the sides, the SIM tray and the Power key can be found on the right while the Volume keys along with the Mute switch is found on the left. At the bottom, there is a speaker along with the lightning port for charging and a mic. The rear panel houses a single camera unit with a flash just below it.

Overall, the build quality of the iPhone XR is superb with trendy color options to choose from. However, the device has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance rather than the IP68 certification.

Impressive but Low-Res Display

One of the least impressive specs of the iPhone XR is the screen. All you can know is the screen is not even Full HD. At such a premium price, Apple’s decision of using a low-resolution display bothers every iPhone’s fan. However, once you see it in person, it’s not bad anyhow.

Apple iPhone XR sports a 6.1 inch IPS LCD display with a gigantic notch similar to the one on iPhone XS. Although, what isn’t similar are the chunkier bezels around the display rather than the slim ones. The 19.5:9 display panel has a resolution of just 828 x 1792 pixels and a pixel density of 326 PPI. With that being said, the resolution is surely low enough that you can see the pixels once you hold the screen closer to your eyes. However, from a normal using position, the low resolution is barely noticeable.

iPhone XR has an impressive display with True tone colors and 120 GHz touch-sensing. It can also produce inky blacks though not as impressive as the OLED panels but close. It may be a low-resolution panel but it is surely the finest LCD panel Apple has ever created. The viewing angles are awesome, sunlight visibility is great too with a maximum brightness level of 589 nits. Yeah, the display isn’t sharp when compared to much cheaper phones like the OnePlus 6, but it has the best IPS panel when compared to the previous generation iPhones.

Although, there are few shortcomings like the absence of 3D Touch and the inability of playing 1080p videos. Yeah, you can select the 1080p options in the YouTube app but there aren’t enough pixels on the display to give you the complete 1080p video. Overall, it is an excellent display for impressive and immersive content consumption but not on par with higher models like iPhone XS.

X-tRa Ordinary Performance and iOS 12

Just as the title of this section, the performance on the iPhone XR is simply extraordinary. The decision of using the same processor which powers the iPhone XS and XS Max is one of the best that Apple has ever made. So what does that mean? Simple, similar Flagship grade performance at couple hundred dollars less.

iPhone XR is powered by the 7 nanometers A12 Bionic, a Hexa-core chip with 2x Vortex and 4x Tempest cores. Basic tasks like web browsing, opening/closing apps, etc don’t even bother the A12 in any way. Even the intense tasks like playing Asphalt 9 in highest graphics settings doesn’t make the processor any slow. Talking about the benchmark, the iPhone XR scores around 11,300 on Geekbench Multi-core benchmarks, defeating the new Pixel 3 XL with a score of around 7,600 to dust.

What’s different is the 3GB of RAM rather than the 4GB on the iPhone XS. However, the difference due to the less RAM is barely noticeable unless you do some intense multitasking. There is three storage variant available of the iPhone XR which includes 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB but there is no 512GB model. Also, there is no MicroSD card slot which is nothing new if you ever used an Apple device.

The new iOS 12 on both the iPhone XS and XS Max is much faster and smoother than before. It is much more responsive than ever with faster app loading and navigating through the UI feels like a breeze. Some iOS 12 features include a new search option to find the exact photo which you are looking for in your gallery, a new feature of the iOS 12 helps in tracking how long you have been using a particular app, website, or the overall device to keep better track of your time, new Do Not Disturb mode can now be set up for a particular time or location and many more.

One Impressive Camera

When I said “One Impressive Camera”, I really meant One. Yeah, there is no Dual Camera module on the iPhone XR eliminating the second Telephoto lens. Although XR can still capture Portrait shots in great quality. It houses a 12 Megapixel lens on the back with f/1.8 aperture and Optical Image Stabilization. Upfront, it has a 7 Megapixel selfie shooter with f/2.2 aperture.

Talking about the quality, it’s damn impressive. The new Smart HDR option on the latest iPhones helps in high contrast situations handling the blown out area and make the foreground visible. It works with almost every scene capturing images with tons of detail, natural colors. However, it’s not on the level of the HDR+ found on the Google Pixel 3. Even in low light the camera holds up pretty well retaining a good amount of details with less noise. Portrait shots are great too with just one single lens. Also, you don’t have to close into the subject as the absence of Telephoto lens allows capturing Portrait shots from a distance. With that being said, the edge detection is impressive with a minor miss but really great for a phone with just one lens. The only let down with the portrait mode is the ability to work with people only.

The front camera on the XR is same as the one found on the XS. It also captures tons of details and natural colors. Portrait shots are also impressive too on the front camera with great edge detection. iPhone XR is capable of recording 4K videos at 60 FPS from the rear camera and Full HD videos at 60 FPS from the front camera.

Solid Battery Life

When it comes to iPhones, the battery capacity really doesn’t matter as the software optimizations are mainly responsible for the battery life. Though with iPhone XS and XS Mac, the battery life was pretty much average. However, with the iPhone XR, the solid battery life is one of the major key points.

The new iPhone XR houses a 2,942 mAh battery which may seem pretty average but the battery life on the unit isn’t. With our test cycle, unplugging the device at 8 A.M in the morning, the battery was around 30% at 9 P.M which is surprisingly good. Our test cycle resembles the activities of a power user including some gaming, capturing images, intense web browsing and social media, watching some episodes on Netflix etc.

However, the battery life is still pretty much subjective depending totally upon the user but in the end, it’s a good battery. Although what’s not good is the absence of Fast charger in the box. Yeah the iPhone XR supports Fast charging but you have to buy the Fast charger and cable explicitly. It also supports Wireless charging just like its big brothers.

More Features

To everyone’s surprise, Apple included Dual SIM support in iPhone XS and XS Max and same goes for the iPhone XR. However, there is a catch. The second SIM which the new iPhones support isn’t a physical SIM but an e-SIM (mostly used with smartwatches). Also, the XR lacks the Gigabit LTE found on the XS and XS Max but still the data speed is pretty fast and upload speed in some cases is faster than the XS and XS Max.

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