Today, were using phones that Apple lent us for
the
purpose of this review.
It's same phones that you're going to find in
stores.
The screen is the biggest differentiator between
the
XR, and its cousins,
the XS and XS Max.
The XR uses an LCD screen much like the
iPhone 8, instead of the OLED screens we've been
seeing in almost all flagship phones,
including the iPhone XS
and XS Max. But if the display is the biggest
thing I'll have to sacrifice to save myself.
Two hundred fifty dollars.
It's still a beautiful,
bright screen.
It's a little chunkier because the LCD screens
need a backlight, and the OLEDs light themselves.
But it's not much of a difference.
The XS has about 40 percent more pixels
per inch than the XR,
so there is a higher resolution.
And it's got a much higher contrast ratio,
so blacks will look a lot more
black on the XS.
Honestly, to me, unless I'm holding the phone an
inch
away from my face,
I really don't notice a huge difference in
quality
between the OLED and the LCD.
There's a little bit of an 'ooh' factor you get
when you
look at an OLED screen,
and you don't get that same effect when you look
at this LCD
screen, but it's still a great display.
You also can't use 3D Touch
with the XR's LCD screen.
You know, when you hard-press on an app,
and it gives you more options.
Apple decided to use the same haptic touch
they use in the new MacPro trackpads,
since adding the extra stuff needed to make the
3D Touch
work would make the phone thicker.
It works all right, although it's a bit slower
than 3D
Touch. But Apple says it's going to be rolling
out updates
to add functionality
and to make it a better experience.
The XR features one single lens instead of the
two-lens setup that's become the standard.
But this one camera is the same as the
wide-angle lens on the XS
and XS Max, so it has that same great image
quality. The image quality when you zoom in
decreases a little bit,
but it's still pretty good.
I was surprised at how clear the digital zoom
was.
Maybe we don't even need telephoto lenses
anymore.
Just kidding. Life's always better
with a telephoto lens.
Closeups look great, the blurring effect on the
background
looks like a professional camera.
With two lenses, your phone gets a better sense
of depth,
and gives you a properly blurred background.
But with one camera, Apple had to be tricky.
They used the information from the single lens
to detect both the foreground
and background. And frankly,
I don't miss the other lens.
The color is great, the low lights are natural.
Some people like cameras that lift subjects out
of the darkness by means of wider apertures
or digital retouching.
For this you're pretty much going to get what you
see,
for better or for worse.
The XR also has great image stabilization.
When I first tried it out,
side-by-side with the XS Max,
I thought there was a slight difference in the
quality.
So he reached out to Apple about this,
and they took a look, and assured me that it's
the same
camera and software stabilization at work
in both phones.
They attributed any differences in the
stabilization
to my handling of the devices,
which makes sense. I was simply holding them
in different hands while I walked around,
so it wasn't the most scientific study.
So we'll chalk it up to that.
Regardless, I had a great time
with this camera, and snapped some beautiful
photos.
As I said before, almost all of the innards of
this
phone are the same as the more expensive XS
and XS Max, including the A12 Bionic
chip. Now, Apple has been boasting about their
A12 Bionic
chip, but I actually think it's justified.
This is a
And you can feel it when you use this phone.
FaceID is faster,
graphics have no lag,
and they just look better.
You can take pictures quickly.
And despite being more powerful,
it actually takes less energy to run the A12
chip than it did to run last year's A11 chip.
I've had a really great battery life
but the XR. Like, full days snapping photos
without issue.
I'm super impressed by that.
And the whole is definitely greater than the sum
of its parts here.
It's a really beautiful thing to hold.
Its meaty, but it still fits nicely in your hand,
and I love the colors.
This is the PRODUCT( RED) version of the XR,
and a portion of the proceeds for these phones
go to fight HIV/AIDS.
They use a seven-layer color process for the back
glass.
I'm not entirely sure what that means,
but whatever it is it looks nice.
Apple says they put the most durable glass ever
on a smartphone on the front of the XR.
I'm not going to test that,
but it's supposed to be pretty strong.
I'm really impressed that Apple was able to
create
a less expensive phone without having to
sacrifice power
or quality. If you're a stickler for true black
screens with indistinguishable pixels,
then you should get an OLED screen.
If you like to take photos from really far away,
or if you like to take portrait mode pictures
of more than just people,
then you should probably get a phone
with the second lens. And if you're looking to
film something
while you're jogging down the road... well,
I mean you should probably get a steadicam for
that one.
But if you're looking for a great phone
with almost all of the perks you get from
the XS and XS Max while saving yourself
a big chunk of change,
this is a great pick.
You even get a
No but really this is a great phone.
There's a little bit of an ooh,
ooh, ooh,
ooh, ooh factor you get when you
look at an OLED screen.
