Straight up, I’m probably going to buy an iPhone Xs Max when it comes out (and yes, even with my reservations about that tone-deaf name). But I can’t deny that for several minutes yesterday, I was seriously entranced by the call of the new iPhone XR. It’s packed with the same chip as the iPhone Xs. It comes with almost all of the same internal features. It’s got at least one camera that’s shared with the iPhone Xs, and it comes in a variety of appealing colors. All this, and for a comparatively agreeable price of $749, perfectly timed for a phase of my life when I’m trying to save as much money as I can. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this tug. In fact, I feel pretty confident in saying that Apple will sell a ton of ‘em. With the iPhone XR, Apple has given us an up-to-date, premium phone that doesn’t come with many significant sacrifices over the flagship model. This marks a significant break with the past. Typically when Apple releases an “affordable” smartphone, it’s saddled with some kind of limitation over the hotter model that makes it seem backward and undeniably second-rate. Apple You probably won’t see a ton of performance difference on the iPhone XR versus the iPhone Xs apart from graphical fidelity, and that’s a good thing. In 2017 in particular, it didn’t take much to feel as though Apple was punishing you for trying to save a little cash or hang on to familiar and trusted design elements like the home button. The iPhone 8, for instance, still had the old bezel-heavy design and lacked the forward-thinking design of the Face ID. The camera was still impressive, but the absence of Face ID and the associated TrueDepth sensors meant that iPhone 8 users couldn’t take part in the cool features like Animoji. The iPhone 8 didn’t have the iPhone X’s cool ability to hide the content of notifications unless the proper user was looking at them. Unlike the iPhone X, the display wouldn’t always stay on if you were looking at it but not necessarily looking at it. Tap-to-wake didn’t even work. Mini me And now look at what we have in the iPhone XR. Functionally, it’s basically the iPhone Xs, although with an aluminum casing (rather than stainless steel), and LCD rather than an OLED, and a single rear camera in place of the iPhone Xs’s dual cameras. Its display also isn’t anywhere near as awe-inducing, limited as it is to a resolution of just 1792×828 and 326 pixels per inch. The iPhone Xs, by contrast, boasts a resolution of 2688×1242 at 458 ppi. It also doesn’t support 3D Touch, and instead uses a haptic feedback system that should be familiar to anyone who’s used the trackpad on the recent MacBook Pros. Apple But it’d be foolish to call it a bad display. After all, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 both shared the same pixel density, and photos often looked absolutely stunning on them. Importantly, Apple is attempting to give its customers the best phone it can give them without forcing them to fork out $1,000. In this case, Apple has boosted the normal LCD screen into something it calls the “Liquid Retina” display, claiming that it offers the “most advanced LCD in a smartphone” and that it offers the most accurate colors on an LCD display. It even supports Apple’s True Tone technology. For a $749 iPhone, that’s pretty impressive. Ultimately, though, these mainly amount to durability and aesthetic differences. In performance, you’re probably not going to notice much of a difference. After all, the iPhone XR has the same A12 Bionic chip that’s in the iPhone Xs. The iPhone 8 and the iPhone X shared the same A11 chip, of course, but as I’ve said above, they were quite different phones in everyday use. The biggest difference in design is likely the camera, but Apple is even covering its bases on that point. Taking the right shot Apple’s attitude toward the iPhone XR’s camera demonstrates that it’s making clear attempts to provide similar experiences among its new phones even when the onboard technology technically doesn’t allow for it. It’s a good camera, being the same 12-megapixel f/1.8 wide-angle lens that you’ll find on the iPhone Xs. Unfortunately, it lacks the separate telephoto lens that you’ll find in the iPhone Xs, which may lead you to think that it can’t do the gorgeous Portrait Mode shots available on the more expensive phone. Apple Apple claims this shot was taken with the iPhone XR, and if that’s what photos from a “budget” phone look like, I’d love to get one. But you’d be wrong, or so Apple tells us. On the stage, Apple showed how it had managed to make Portrait Mode work with a single lens with the help of some tweaks to the neural engine and image signal processor, and the results on stage looked almost as impressive as what Apple was showing us with the iPhone Xs. In some ways, Apple’s action here is a direct challenge to the Google Pixel, which showed that it’s possible to achieve those same effects with a single lens. For many Pixel buyers, the price and the camera features were what led them to move away from the iPhone. With the XR, though, Apple is on the right path to winning them back. Nor does Apple scrimp on the options. Much as with the iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs, the iPhone XR also supports Smart HDR for bringing better highlights and shadows to photos, as well as the impressive option to adjust the depth-of-field from f/1.8 to f/16. For a phone that doesn’t include a second lens, that’s impressive. Getting what you pay for No, the iPhone XR isn’t cheap. It starts at $749 for the 64GB model, and the models with more storage will almost certainly push past $800. There are still plenty of people who will likely balk at calling it a “budget” phone, especially when compared to many of the Android options available. But the iPhone XR reveals that Apple really was paying attention to all the folks who claimed last year that $1,000 was way too much to pay for the best new iPhone with the best new features. Still, the big idea here is that you shouldn’t feel as pressured to spend $1,000 for Apple’s Big New Thing. Apple Rather than offering more budget-conscious buyers an alternative model rooted in the traditions of Apple past, this year it’s giving us a lower-cost phone that lets as widely an audience as possible partake in virtually all of the new features. Some buyers will have higher-end models, of course, but the gap will chiefly be cosmetic. And that’s the way it should be. I don’t think Apple is getting enough credit for this. In fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to claim that the iPhone XR could turn out to be Apple’s bestselling new phone by this time next year. Unlike last year’s punditry with the iPhone 8 versus the iPhone X, that shouldn’t be seen as a mark against the higher-end Xs, but rather a sign that Apple is remembering that it’s at its best when its best new experiences are shared among all of its users. At a time when I sometimes find myself questioning Apple’s direction, I find that the iPhone XR is a sign that Apple is still on the right track.<doc-sep>Up until this fall, I had a plan: I would use my iPhone 6S until it died. That phone and I have been through a lot together. I cracked the screen on it while falling up a set of stairs, I got it repaired by Apple — an effort that ultimately broke it more — and in the end, I was given a refurbished version with a screen that wasn't quite attached properly. Most days I have to wipe away a bit of black adhesive that leaks around the edges. All of this is to say, it's not a great phone, but it's my phone — and it has a headphone jack, something you can't say for the current batch of iPhone models. I value a headphone jack more than most features that have come to smartphones in the last few years, like wireless charging or an OLED display. Plus, Apple's new phones over the last two years haven't really thrilled me. Sure, they've been gorgeous, but they haven't been that big of an upgrade over previous versions. Even the camera hasn't been enticing enough to spend the money on a new phone. But when Apple unveiled the iPhone XR at its annual hardware event last month, everything changed — all of a sudden, I couldn't wait to own one. It starts at $750; lower than the $999 price of the higher-end iPhone XS. Now that the iPhone XR is officially available to preorder, here are 4 reasons why I'm ready to give up my trusty iPhone 6S for the iPhone XR.<doc-sep>
is making a habit of launching “one more” iPhone every year. It did that with the in 2017 and this year it’s the which fell into that category. What’s remarkable is that it’s very rare when the cheapest iPhone of the year catches the maximum attention. But that’s exactly what the iPhone XR has managed to do at the 2018 iPhone launch event. Even in the demo area of the Steve Jobs theatre, it attracted the maximum curiosity. Why? Read our first impressions to know: Design The first thing you’ll notice about the are the plethora of colour options it comes in. Apple has taken a bold step of moving away from its usual palette of colours with the iPhone XR. This phone comes in funky colours like Coral, White, Yellow, Black, Blue and even the Product Red. The Blue and Coral ones certainly stands out the most. The iPhone XR has an all-screen glass and aluminum design which gives it a sturdy look and feel. The 6.1-inch screen is bigger than the iPhone X. The smartphone is easy to hold and offers a firm grip as well. The iPhone XR is splash and water resistant and comes with a rating of IP67. It retains the design appeal of the iPhone X but gets a nice dash of colour. The last time Apple went bold with colours was with the iPhone 5C. However, this is a more elegant design and the iPhone XR is one good looking smartphone. Display The one major difference between the and iPhone XR lies in the display. While the former has an OLED display, Apple has opted for an LCD display for the latter. If you’re thinking that there is a remarkable difference between the two, then yes there is. At least on paper. In reality, the LCD display on iPhone XR is really good. The images look sharp and colour reproduction is top notch. Apple seems to have done a fine job with the LCD display. Camera and processor The other difference in the iPhone XR and XS is the camera set up. The iPhone XR comes with a single camera at the back which we couldn’t test in detail. However, the Portraid mode and bokeh effect can be found in the iPhone XR as well. The images clicked on the iPhone XR we saw looked remarkably sharp and clear. Even the depth effect – a strong suit of dual rear cameras – was quite good. The front camera is a 7MP module. You’ll have to wait for our full review to know how the camera of iPhone XR measures against the rest. As far as the processor is concerned, the iPhone XR is powered by the same chipset. We fully expect this phone to deliver solid performance on all counts. What we think This might just be the best-selling iPhone of the year. Not because of its price alone but because this has all the good parts – well almost all – that the iPhone XS series has. And it costs considerably less, when compared to the iPhone XS. With a price tag of Rs 76,900, this could be the most compelling iPhone buy of the year. The LCD display is nothing to scoff at as it’s really good and it has the same processor as the expensive iPhones. However, it’s early to give a verdict on it but our hunch is that Apple might just have a winner on its hands with the iPhone XR. (Disclaimer: The author has travelled to California, USA on the invite of Apple) Watch: Apple iPhone XR: Quick look Facebook Twitter Linkedin Top Comment