Apple’s iPhone XR is one of the most fascinating products I’ve seen from the company in quite a while. Being behind the iPhone XS and XS Max, you would think the XR would be a modest device, designed for people that want a less expensive iPhone and are willing to accept massive compromises. In my experience, it’s a full-featured phone packed with quality and few compromises.
My biggest question to Apple about the iPhone XR was “why?” The company had the opportunity to release an inexpensive iPhone and then hamstring its users by not putting in any, or few, high-end components. With the lower price, I’m pretty sure the XR still would have still sold well, but Apple went the exact opposite way.
If you look at the three iPhones released earlier this year, it’s clear that there is a model for everyone. I personally love the size and features of the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max. For someone that likes a little smaller iPhone, the XS has all of the same features but comes with a 5.8-inch screen.
Instead of falling behind the XS in size, the iPhone XR actually slides between those two devices with a 6.1-inch screen. So, you get a larger screen at a lower price. This is where Apple did some fancy work.
Apple calls the XR screen a Liquid Retina HD display. It’s the largest LCD display the company has ever put in an iPhone, and it took years for them to perfect. That display is a step down from the Super Retina HD display found in the other two iPhone models, but I don’t believe it’s something the average user is going to notice.
The XR also comes with a 12MP camera and a 7MP TrueDepth camera. Both of these cameras take stunning pictures in every situation that I tried them in. These are the same cameras in the two higher-end models, except they don’t have the wide-angle and telephoto cameras on the 12MP.
Again, looking at the prices, I don’t know how many regular iPhone users are going to notice a huge difference when taking a regular picture.
All three iPhone models feature the A12 Bionic chip, Face ID, and other features like wireless charging. They also come with True Tone display and wide color display.
One of the features I expect to be really popular among iPhone XR buyers is the color options. It comes in Blue, White, Black, Yellow, Coral, and Product Red. Let’s face it, people like to make a statement with the iPhones, and the XR lets them do that right off the shelf.
To be clear, I’m not saying that professional users out there won’t notice some differences in the display and the rear-facing camera—you probably will. However, the pros have probably already made up their mind to buy one of the higher-end devices anyway.
The iPhone XR is made for people who want to enter the Apple ecosystem and buy a less expensive device, but not feel like they are making a massive compromise in technology by doing it.
As I said in the beginning, Apple had a chance to make an entry-level iPhone with less advanced technology than they did with the iPhone XR. They decided to put out a device with some trade-offs that is packed with features that most users are going to enjoy thoroughly.
For the price, I don’t see how you can go wrong with the iPhone XR.