iPhone XR review: a thumping step up, but not exactly affordable

Apple’s latest “affordable” iPhone has some problems but is excellent. It has a better battery than the XS,

an impressive camera and the new LCD screen holds up to the competition.

 

Apple has released a lot of stuff over the last couple of months. Granted, maybe not technically as much as Amazon and it’s explosion of kit back in September, but then a new Mac mini is slightly more impressive than an Alexa-powered microwave.

Along with this year’s new computers and tablets and other devices,

the most welcomed phone unveiling by Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller during the September 12 event was the iPhone XR.

This may possibly have been because it was genuinely new and not an iterative upgrade of the X,

but also much has been made of this being the “affordable” iPhone, priced as it is from £749 – some £250 less than the iPhone XS.

Design

Apple

Size-wise it sits between the XS and XS Max,

being a 6.1-inch screen as opposed to the 5.8in XS and 6.5in XS Max. In fact,

this is a very nice compromise between the standard sizing and a supersize handset. I can see people who already have the XS looking at this model and coveting its dimensions.

In the hand it doesn’t feel like a huge phone,

but you do notice and appreciate the extra screen real-estate.

Put a XS and XR side by side and, other than the obvious camera changes,

if you look very hard you will see two slight design differences.

The first is that it’s a fraction thicker thanks to an LCD backlight being necessary in this non-OLED iPhone (more on this below).

The second is that the bezel surrounding the screen itself is slightly thicker on the XR.

We asked Apple for an explanation of this as we wondered if this was due to possibly needing more leeway masking the rounded corners as it is so much harder to cut curves into an LCD screen.

Indeed,

the fact that Apple have managed to do this at all should be applauded. Car manufacturers have wanted to do this for years so that instrument displays could follow contours of the cars,

rather than use a rectangular screen behind a sculpted plastic facade. Sadly, we haven’t heard more yet,

but will update here if more info is provided.

You get a glass back for wireless charging,

this is apparently more durable than the glass on the X but not as good as the back glass on the XS.

Apple is still proudly stating the front glass,

as used in the XS and XS Max, is “the most durable front glass ever in a smartphone”.

That’s nice to hear,

but no evidence or data has been provided to back this claim up whatsoever –

so it’s really down to you and what you believe, here. Is it tough? Sure. Is it the best? Who knows?

Water resistance is IP67 (so you can dunk it up to one meter in coffee, tea or coke for 30 minutes if you so choose). This is down from the IP68 rating the XS enjoys, but who in reality needs that extra half meter of waterproofing when any sane person will fish their mobile out of the drink as soon as they drop it in, anyway?

Lastly, again the observant will notice the matt finish on the XR gives away the fact that,

unlike the XS, this phone is not hewn from stainless steel but aerospace-grade aluminium.

A special Apple-designed alloy has been created,

no less. One bonus here is that aluminium weighs less than stainless steel and we quite like the matt finish,

whether you plump for the black, white, blue, yellow, coral, or red colour options.

Screen

The XR uses Apple’s new LCD “Liquid Retina” display – not the OLED screen you get in the XS models. This means the display requires a backlight and you won’t get quite the depth of blacks you get from an OLED. Colours will not be as vibrant in comparison, either. But that’s the thing – you have to literally have an XS right next to your XR to really see the difference. If you don’t perform this direct comparison, then you will never notice that your screen is not quite as fancy as an OLED version. It is more than serviceable, it is an excellent screen. Movies look superb, especially on the larger screen size, and photographs pop with vibrancy.

Apple has added in its True Tone technology, which uses an ambient light sensor to adjust the white balance onscreen to match the colour temperature of the light around you, reducing eye strain. You also get Face ID, which means you can unlock your iPhone, log in to apps, and pay for stuff using just your mush. This means there is no home button, of course. Such features are going to be a step change for anyone upgrading from the iPhone 7 or 8. If you are, you’re going to have to get used to the new gestures and navigational tweaks, naturally, but it very quickly becomes second nature.

Camera

Thanks to the inclusion of Apple’s latest A12 Bionic chip and next-generation Neural Engine, also in the XS iterations, the XR has actually got more grunt than the X. And this means the phone is slick and can handle all sorts of tasks with ease (the eight-core Neural Engine boasts five trillion operations per second compared to 600 billion in A11 Bionic) all the while using less power in the process.

The XR can handle 4K video with stereo recording, but now there is no telephoto lens, the phone only has a single-lens rear camera (a wide-angle lens). This inevitably means it cannot capture as much depth information as the dual-lens setup on the XS, so, much like Google has done with the Pixel 3, that Neural Engine processing power is brought into play to offer up the popular bokeh effect (background blur) on certain shots. You can adjust the aperture without affecting exposure after taking the shot.

Now, there are limitations when using this effect on the XR. It only works for pics of humans. Clearly the AI has been trained to do its wizardry using images of people. By comparison Google’s version works for random objects as well as Homo sapiens, so here the Pixel 3 wins. Where it does not is the effectiveness of that fake bokeh blurring. WIRED’s creative director was brought in to judge the Pixel 3’s and XR’s rendering of bokeh shots on the same subject and the judgement was swift and sure. The XR produced a more realistic impression of depth of field. So there you have it.

Battery

The power plant in the XR is formidable. Apple states you should expect to get up to 25 hours talk time, 15 hours web use, 16 hours video playback and top up to 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes. It could well be the best performing battery in an iPhone coming in at 11.16Wh (thanks to an iFixit teardown). That’s more than the XS, though not as big as the battery in either the Galaxy S9+ or the Pixel 3 XL. But thanks to that much more efficient new A12 Bionic chipset, you get a great deal of playtime between charges.

Verdict

Apple

There are things wrong with the iPhone XR, such as the lack of 3D Touch, which has been replaced by the similar but not quite as good Haptic Touch, with slightly less functionality (but this may well be ramped up in the future). And if you are a camera nut or video freak then you will likely prefer the XS versions, with the better hardware. While storage freaks will not appreciate the max amount here being 256GB, not the 512GB on offer for XS.

Then there is the somewhat laughable assertion that this is the “affordable” iPhone. This is still an expensive phone, it’s just that the goal posts have shifted so much in the last few years we now see £1,000 as an acceptable price to pay for a flagship handset. Mind you, the monthly extra cost of a £600 phone over a £750 one is negligible. However, if you are going to take that attitude then the monthly mobile plan price difference between an XR and XS won’t be much either.

For the vast majority, and in particular anyone upgrading to the XR from a iPhone 7 or 8, then XR is a thumping step up. For those fearing the lack of OLED and a dual lens on the rear, it’s hard to admit but you won’t miss these not being on the XR unless you end up comparing directly with the XS. And who ever does that, except for boring phone reviewers?

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