iPhone XR Review: Why is it still one of the best iPhones in 2020?
Released in 2018, iPhone XR is still the strong contender with the latest powerful software, big and bright display, good camera, and good battery life, all at an affordable price. After the launch of the iPhone XS and XS Max, iPhone XR came to the market. To provide the technology and experience of much-loved XS to as many customers as possible, Apple came up with XR.
Though the price is low, you’ll still get the same premium design of the iPhone X series. Yes, there are some setbacks due to price cuts, like lower resolution LCD, thicker and heavier body made of aluminum, and only one camera on the back. But still, the phone is on-demand as you get the same powerful A12 Bionic chipset, the same TrueDepth camera with the faster face ID system, and the single camera on the back with the 12 MP, all as in XS. Moreover, the six colors variants are the fun part here. Many of the features are also comparable to iPhone 11.
Design and Display
It is hard to distinguish the XS and XR just by look (mainly black and white), because of its design the same as XS. This iPhone is heavier and bulkier than XS, but it won’t fail to give you the premium feeling like any other flagship smartphones out there. It is made of aluminum, and though it is not as polished and shiny as a stainless body, it will be durable and safe from scuff marks. There is no doubt that the bezel is noticeable, but as it is an LCD display, it is a job well done to spread the screen to the way up to the edge of the body.
Apple claimed to use the most durable glass on the front and back of XR. The buttons are placed in the same place as XS and the bottom has the charging port and stereo speaker. The back has a camera with a bump and below the camera is a quad-LED flash. The XR is IP67-rated water and dust resistant which might not be as great as XS but it is a good deal.
It features a 6.1 inches IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1792×828 with a pixel density of 326 PPI and excellent 589nits of brightness. The display has outstanding color performance, the screen has excellent viewing angles as expected form an IPS LCD, and it also gets extremely bright and is perfectly visible outdoors under sunlight. Much like iPhone X, XS, XS Max, the touchscreen layer on the iPhone XR supports a 120Hz refresh rate. With twice the polling frequency, the touchscreen can recognize and process your input much quickly, which adds to the feeling of instant reactions and fluidity while scrolling or typing on the keyboard.
iPhone 11 Pro Max Full Specifications
Chipset
The iPhone XR has a powerful 7nm A12 Bionic chipset. This is Apple’s custom-designed chipset, with a 64-bit Hexa-core CPU that has two high-performance cores (Vortex) and four high-efficiency cores (Tempest). For the first time, the A12 Bionic also includes an Apple-designed quad-core GPU that is up to 50% faster than its predecessor with support for tessellation, multilayer rendering, and lossless memory compression. It now runs on iOS 13 and can now run on the public beta version of iOS 14.
The A12 Bionic also includes an updated version of Apple’s Neural Engine, which is an octa-core part with multi-precision support and a smart compute system that decides which between the three, CPU, GPU, and NE, should process the task for best performance and efficiency.
For everyday use, the iPhone XR performs flawlessly. At this point, it officially has too much power (A12 Bionic chip) and you’re sitting on reserve power that will only come into play a year or two down the line. Outside of a few things, such as the camera and AR, there are very few things on this phone that can take full advantage of that hardware today. You can enjoy as many heavier games as possible, larger apps work fine, and multitasking is not a big deal.
The 3GB RAM might seem like a bummer but that’s not a problem with this phone at all. iOS is always good at managing memory so it’s not going to be an issue any time soon. There are 64GB, 128GB or 256GB storage options available. This is a smartphone of choice for those who want a hardcore performance at a convenient price.
Camera
The same camera as iPhone XS is placed on XR which is a 12MP wide-angle camera subtracting the telephoto lens. There’s no bigger difference in the image quality even if the phone misses one camera. You get digital zoom instead of 2x optical zoom and the Portrait mode only works for humans, since it relies on human-specific AI to work out the portrait rendering.
The overall performance of the camera is stellar, images are sharp, with plenty of detail and well-controlled noise levels, much comparable to XS’ dual camera. The images are well exposed and have good contrast. The somewhat flattered, more natural images are also ideal for manually editing later. The colors are really good, as the iPhones are still the only smartphones with wide-color support, so it pretty much sums up the expectations from a premium camera. It supports 4K video at 24/30/60fps and 1080p@30/60/120/240fps and smart HDR functionality.
The 7MP selfie camera also does a decent job offering very good detail. You have the option to improve the depth effect and change lighting effects to add beauty effects to the photos.
Battery
The iPhone XR has a 2942mAh battery, that is larger than the battery on the iPhone XS but smaller than the one on the iPhone XS Max. Even with intermittent use like playing games, using social media, camera, and videos, the battery endured the whole day. It comes with the same 5W charger as other iPhone. It takes up to three hours for the phone to fully charge. However, despite long charging time, you get to experience a decent battery life.
iPhone XR Full Specifications:
DIMENSION
Type: Liquid Retina IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size: 6.1 inches, 90.3 cm2 (79.0% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution: 828 x 1792 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio ( 326 ppi density)
Brightness: 625 nits max brightness
Protection: Scratch-resistant glass, oleophobic coating, Gorilla Glass Victus (front and back), IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)
BODY
Dimensions: 150.9 x 75.7 x 8.3 mm (5.94 x 2.98 x 0.33 in)
Weight: 194 gram
Build: Glass front and back (Gorilla Glass), aluminum frame (7000 series)
SIM: Single SIM (Nano-SIM and/or eSIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
PLATFORM
Chipset: Apple A12 Bionic (7 nm)
OS: iOS 12, upgradable to iOS 13.6.1
CPU: Hexa-core (2×2.5 GHz Vortex & 4×1.6 GHz Tempest)
GPU: Apple GPU (4-core graphics)
STORAGE
Internal: 64GB/128GB/256GB with 3GB RAM
CAMERA
MAIN CAMERA (Single-camera)
12MP wide-angle camera, f/1.8 aperture, 26mm, 1.4µm, PDAF, OIS
Features: Quad-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR photos
Video: 4K video recording at 24/30/60 fps, 1080p video recording at 30/60/120/240 fps
Features: Slow motion 1080p video support at 120/240 fps, continuous autofocus video, stereo recording
Front Camera (Dual)
7MP standard selfie camera, f/2.2 aperture
SL 3D (depth/biometrics sensor)
Features: HDR
Video: 1080p@30fps
NETWORK
Technology: GSM/ CDMA/ HSPA/ EVDO/ LTE
2G bands: GSM 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2 (Dual SIM model only) CDMA 800/ 1900
3G bands: HSDPA 850/ 900/ 1700(AWS)/ 1900/ 2100 CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO
4G bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 66, 71
Speed: HSPA 42.2/ 5.76 Mbps, LTE-A, EV-DO Rev.A 3.1 Mbps
SOUND
Loudspeaker with a Stereo speaker
COMMUNICATION
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, GALILEO
Bluetooth: 5.0
USB: 2.0, proprietary reversible connector
SENSORS
Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, compass, Proximity sensor, Face ID Ambient light sensor
BATTERY
Li-Ion 2942 mAh, non-removable
15W fast charging, Qi wireless charging, USB Power Delivery 2.0
COLORS
Black
Red
Yellow
Blue
Coral
White
LAUNCH
October 26, 2018
iPhone XR Price in Nepal:
NPR 95,000 (3GB + 64GB)
NPR 1,04,000 (3GB + 128GB)
NPR 1,12,000 (3GB + 256GB)
iPhone XR Price in India:
INR 47,500 (3GB + 64GB)
INR 53,500 (3GB + 128GB)
iPhone XR Price in USD:
$ 374.95 (3GB + 64GB)
$ 649.00 (3GB + 128GB)
$ 749.00 (3GB + 256GB)