Hey there, Alex here.
This is the iPhone XR.
It’s a little bit like the middle child
of the family, not just in terms of size,
but also how it’s always being overshadowed
by its siblings.
So for this review, let’s just ignore the
iPhone XS and XS Max for a bit, and give the
iPhone XR the attention that it deserves.
Let’s start with design and build quality.
The iPhone XR uses a familiar 7000-series
aluminium frame with a glass back.
I actually prefer this matte finishing because
it’s more scratch resistant, and it just
looks cleaner.
The phone feels really solid in hand, and
it is still water resistant at IP67.
The use of aluminium also allows Apple to
produce multiple colour options, including
this stunning Product RED version.
I think it’s a breath of fresh air to the
typically safe iPhone colour options.
The front of the phone is probably where most
of the controversy surrounding the iPhone
XR lies.
While it has the same notched display as the
iPhone X, the bezels are a little thicker,
it’s using LCD instead of OLED, and it has
a lower pixel density.
In my day to day use, I don’t really find
any of those compromises to be a deal-breaker.
It’s still an excellent screen as expected
from Apple.
The colour reproduction still looks great,
and outdoor visibility is excellent as well.
In regards to the pixel density, it’s actually
still the same as the iPhone 8, which looks
just fine to me.
Because the screen is a little bigger, I’m
actually holding it a little further away
while using it, so I don’t really notice
the pixels.
While a denser panel would have been nice
for the price of the phone, I don’t think
it’s a major compromise.
It's probably a little late to argue about
display notches, but what I can say is that
Apple really makes full use of their notch.
First of all, we get the TrueDepth camera
for FaceID, which works better than it did
on the iPhone X.
It’s not only faster, but also seems more
reliable.
Secondly, the call speaker is now able to
pump out a higher volume, which gives it a
better stereo effect.
It’s not the best I’ve heard, but I can
tell you that it sounds better than most phones
in the market today.
This is where I need to talk a minor downside
of this new Liquid Retina display, it does
not support 3D Touch.
Personally, I don’t really mind it that
much, since I only use it for text editing.
With iOS 12, Apple actually included a similar
feature for devices without 3D Touch.
It’s not quite as intuitive to use, but
it works well enough.
The iPhone XR runs the latest Apple A12 Bionic
chipset, which is an absolute beast.
While the RAM is still just 3GB like the iPhone
X, I’ve not seen any compromises in terms
of performance.
It probably helps that it has less pixels
to push around on this display.
iOS 12 also ironed out a lot of the jank I
encountered when I tested the iPhone X last year.
It handles pretty much anything I throw at
it with ease.
I actually think it’s a little overkill
at this point in time, but it’s nice to
have a bit more headroom to ensure the phone
will perform well for years to come.
The more important metric to me is actually
battery life, and the iPhone XR does not disappoint.
In my time with it, I can get a day and a
half of normal use out of the phone without
even trying.
My only minor complaint here, is that Apple
is still just providing a slower charger,
so it can take a while to charge the phone
up.
But it’s not that big of a deal to me since
the battery life is so good to begin with,
and if you have a wireless charger, it’s
easier to top up the battery throughout the day.
There isn't really much to talk about when
it comes to software since it's pretty much
the same as any iPhone without a home button.
There are a bunch of other nice additions
to iOS 12, like improved notifications behaviour,
setting limitations to my phone usage, and
a whole bunch of other stuff that you can
read about on Apple’s website.
The bottom-line is, it’s a very familiar
iOS experience.
So we’re still not getting a proper file
manager, or the ability to choose your own
preferred default applications.
But it’s still the same well-oiled machine
that many have come to enjoy, myself included.
With all that out of the way, let’s talk
about the camera next.
Instead of doing a dual camera setup like
the iPhone X, Apple went with a single rear camera.
But before you dismiss it, I just want to
say that this single rear camera, beats the
dual camera on the iPhone X hands down.
It’s actually a newer sensor, and Apple
has done a lot of improvements on the software
side of things.
The most important feature is called Smart
HDR, which basically allows us to take images
with insane dynamic range.
The results speaks for themselves.
The camera is able to pull a surprising amount
of details from darker areas of the scene.
While sometimes I feel like the shots can
look a little flat, it does provide more flexibility
for post processing.
I still tend to prefer the more contrasty
shots from the Google Pixel most of the time,
but this is just my own personal preference.
This is where things gets a little more interesting.
While the iPhone XR only has a single lens,
it still supports Portrait shots.
Because it’s using the wider lens from the
main camera which also has a wider aperture,
I actually prefer the portrait shots taken
by the iPhone XR more than I did the iPhone X.
It captures more scenery, and it works better
in dimmer lighting conditions.
The edge detection works relatively well,
and it even has the ability to adjust the
background blur after the shot.
The only limitation is that Portrait mode
only works when the camera detects a person
in the shot, or something with a face.
It’s a bit of a bummer since sometimes I
like to use portrait mode to capture non-living things.
Let’s move on to the front camera.
It is important to note that I am already
running iOS 12.1, so no more beauty-gate.
I would still prefer a slightly wider lens
for the front camera, but I have no complaints
about the image quality.
When it comes to video recording, the iPhone
XR has the best video recording quality I’ve
seen on a phone.
It has an extended dynamic range feature which
works really well, the stabilisation looks
good, and it has stereo audio recording as
well.
It also comes with more frame rate options
including 4K 60fps recording, which is still
not that common for smartphones.
Overall, it’s just a very impressive camera
experience.
It’s easy to downplay the iPhone XR as being
a little too expensive for what it is, and
maybe in some ways it is.
But after spending some time with it, I think
it is a really good phone.
It does everything that a flagship phone should
do in 2018, and it has very few actual shortcomings.
This is where I have to bring in the iPhone
XS, because if you want the absolute best
that Apple has to offer, and you’re willing
to pay a premium for it, the iPhone XS is
still the one to go for.
But for most other folks, the iPhone XR is
already more than good enough.
It has a similar user experience to me, it
has nicer colour options, the battery life
seems to be better, and most importantly I
don’t need to sell my kidney for it.
If I need to buy a brand new iPhone today,
this is the one that I would be looking at.
Thanks for watching my review of the iPhone
XR.
If you’ve enjoyed it, be sure to leave a
like and subscribe to the channel for more
content in the future.
Thanks again, and see you guys on the next
one.
