iPhone XR review: it’s good enough
For this ‘S’ year of iPhone, Apple included an ‘R’ version to its flagship line up. R comes before S in the high end of the alphabet, which can refer to an indication of iPhone XR being an XS with one step backward. While this seems to be a stretch, but in reality that missing step does not entirely affect what the XR still is — a feature-packed premium iPhone.
I am happily an Apple user. I own many Apple products for a while now. But I thought I would not buy any new phone anytime soon, given that my iPhone 6s Plus has been serving me responsively for over two years as well as I still prefer having a physical home button that clicks. Until I had to.
It was a pleasant Friday night, my phone expressed the desire to retire early for summer is gone and the days grow cold. So here comes the iPhone XR.
My rationale for making the purchase was simple. I don’t want to spend too much money on a phone that’d last two, three years; but I still want to keep up with the current specs as for future proof.
Design
The iPhone XR is THICC, literally and figuratively. By itself, XR is already a big phone. Its body depth is 8.3 mm which is a bit more than the iPhone 6s Plus I was using (7.1 mm). Apple states the weights of both phones are about the same (194 g vs 192 g). Hence, it feels quite heavier even though the width and length dimensions are comparatively shorter. Anyhow, thanks to that, my grip on the device is noticeably more solid for one-hand use.
The bezel around the 6.1-inch display might look thicker; but in reality, the bezel thickness is about the same on the sides as my old 6s Plus, which is around 4-5 mm. However, XR has more screen estate on top and bottom inherited from iPhone X’s edge-to-edge design, which makes the phone looks slimmer and longer.
I admit Apple’s color selection this year is strikingly beautiful. The XR comes in a wide variety of colors from white, black, blue, yellow, coral (looks orange-ish to me), and red. Again, the rich colors remind me of the iPhone 5c looks but without the cheapness sense of plastic to it; as a result of glass and aluminum materials. With phones starting from 879€ which is nowhere near cheap, “premium feeling” is still a must; that is to say, iPhone XR is crushing it despite being the least of Apple’s 2018 bunch. Anyhow, I decided to go with a black version, just the matter of personal taste.
Speaking of the premium factor, iPhone XR also has IP67 waterproof rating. For anyone who is not familiar with the technical term, it means the phone can survive in water-submerged environment up to one meter deep for 30 minutes. Or even simpler explanation, now you can confidently wash your phone under a tap and just flick off the water after dropping it into the damn toilet. Still, I’m not suggesting dipping your phone into the water in the first place.
The phone’s glass back allows wireless charging so now I can dust my old wooden charger off and put it in use. If you still don’t know about wireless charging and how convenient it is, now is a great chance to join the fun.
Display
The ‘Liquid Retina’ on iPhone XR looks bright and not pixelated as some reviews claimed, but rather crispy. It is the largest LCD ever on an iPhone, which also enables tap-to-wake ability on an LCD-equipped iPhone.
While the screen does not possess high resolution as its other big siblings, I haven’t noticed any disparity in resolution. The quality of this display is noticeably brighter than the old iPhones while housing the high gamut profile, though there’s no HDR support. But the name still sounds ridiculous to me.
Internal Stuff
Apple installs the same A12 Bionic processor for its phone releases this year. The 7nm A12 possesses powerful capabilities that rival even some desktop-class CPUs can be a future-proof factor to some people. With it, iPhone XR performs flawlessly, crushes through every single graphics intensive game without any issue whatsoever. The chip also allows adjustable bokeh for single lens camera on iPhone XR albeit some limitations, which I will mention more later.
On iPhone XR, the old 3D Touch pressure-sensitive hardware was forgone by a software-emulated version called ‘Haptic Touch’, possibly due to cost-efficient reasons.
To be honest, 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s Plus was one of my favorite features on the iPhone; and yet I somehow don’t remember its existence most of the time, partially because of its integration inconsistency throughout iOS as well as the developer’s poor adaption. The most useful gesture is the ability to transform the keyboard into a little trackpad for easy navigation through what I’ve written by pressing firmly anywhere on the keyboard. Now that gesture can only be enabled by holding the spacebar button, which is fine but somewhat missing.
I also have to get used to the FaceID. Gotta say it is pretty amazing once experienced. It is truly an invisible technology — pretty much feels like there’s no security on the device until someone else picks it up. Some might argue FaceID is basically the same as TouchID, using your face instead of thumbs. But you’ll realize that only as soon as you look at your phone, the lock-screen notifications will display full content and allow you to interact with, otherwise, just some generic descriptions. That adds another level to personal privacy security. Subtle, but efficient. Password filling is another feature that takes full advantage of the FaceID’s invisibility. For instance, whenever I need to login some websites or apps; instead of putting my thumb on TouchID, I only see FaceID pop up and I’m in. No more thinking about where or how to touch since biometric authentication already runs smoothly in the background; given that I have already saved the passwords on my phone.
The battery is amazingly good, too. My XR can last almost two full days on average use on one charge with constant Bluetooth connection to my Apple Watch as well as my Beats Solo 3 headphone, from morning till evening the next day; due to the mixture of the new processor already boasting performance efficiency, plus the fact XR’s battery packs even more juice than last year’s iPhone 8 Plus. Hence, this huge gain plays a really attractive element for those who have battery anxiety infection.
Camera: an evolution, not revolution
The phone only has one wide angle lens rear camera with the same specification as its 2018 brothers, while keeps the same two camera system FaceID on the front. As mentioned earlier, the lack of secondary lens rear camera does not affect iPhone XR’s ability to produce shallow depth-of-field photos at all, thanks to the A12 chip. The bokeh looks quite natural, blurring things more the further they are. More importantly, Apple’s computational photography has advanced another step, giving us full control of the “bokehlicious”. Thus, I can adjust the photo’s background after shooting to my liking, from super creamy to everything-in-focus effect.
On another hand, iPhone XR’s HDR performs exquisitely. Apple brings the same “Smart HDR” function to its lower iPhone XR, making the phone as capable as iPhone XS and XS Max in term of HDR picture generation. The photos iPhone XR makes looks incredibly detailed, well lit and saturated enough. It is noteworthy that I do not see any lag between HDR takes while holding on capture button compared to the last generations.
iPhone XR also handles low-light situations well in most cases, preserving details in shadow and highlight. In the photo above, I can still see the mannequins inside the store not being blown out by the lights as well as the reflections on the dark windows with no lights on the upper floors. Even the brand logos are distinguishable, not just lumps of lights. And there is hardly any noticeable noise in sight. So Apple got that going for them, which is “noice” *ba dum tss* (bad pun intended).
Joking aside, there are other things that I can’t quite wrap my head around.
Sometimes the XR’s camera focus is not on point and fast as it should be under extreme low-light circumstances, as seen on the photo above. Although I did wait and frame it a little before pressing the button. Portrait mode only works with shots of people. Its lightning options for rear camera also are limited to three instead of five.
Additionally, you should be aware that in some head poses except for looking-straight one, Portrait mode will still cut out parts of your glasses frame if you are wearing one; possibly because of either the limitation of Apple’s photographic computation or lacking depth information from the secondary lens. After all, Google is better in this aspect of single lens imaging setup with their Pixel series, but Apple is getting there anytime soon.
Should I keep this phone over the iPhone XS?
When I first got this phone, I questioned myself whether I should return this phone and put more money to get the iPhone XS instead, with only a couple hundred € more. Well, I dropped that thought over the weekend. The iPhone XR provides everything I need for upgrading from an old iPhone, with a right price. Nonetheless, I am not saying the price is good, but the device really justifies itself. Premium body, better display, FaceID, powerful CPU, long-ass battery, top-of-the-line camera are some of the positivities I’ve been experiencing on this phone.
If you are looking to replace your old iPhone without spending over one thousand € this year, I strongly believe the iPhone XR is a no-brainer choice.
