Everything you wanted to know about the iPhone XR

The iPhone XR was announced on September 2018, and is Apple's version of an affordable handset. In what follows we will examine the under-the-hood specs of this device to try and assess whether it delivers good value for money.

Display

Where the iPhone X and iPhone XS Max boast state-of-the-art OLED displays, with the XR Apple has decided to stick with a 6.1-inch LCD display, which in marketing material the company refers to as ‘Liquid Retina'. It packs 1.4 million pixels in total, which comes down to 326 pixels per inch.

Although that doesn't quite match the screen resolutions of the X and X Max, it will probably be near impossible to pick this up with the naked eye. The display also features the True Tone technology introduced by Apple two years ago, which is, of course, technical jargon to say it boasts solid colour accuracy, inky blacks and brilliant whites.

The XR's display provides support for tap-to-wake, for those times when you prefer to wake up your phone by using your knuckles. What it does lack though, is 3D Touch, i.e. the degree of iOS interaction where the action depends on how firmly the user presses the display.

Camera

With the iPhone XR Apple has opted for a single camera instead of dual lenses, but fortunately, it has decided to retain the same 12MP sensor used in top-of-the-range models.

The XR's camera also profits from the many software-based image enhancement features that Apple introduced in 2018, such as the option to modify dept of field settings after you have taken a picture.

This is in no way a budget camera – it features the same True Depth system offered by the more expensive iPhones, which of course means it also provides support for Face ID.

Performance

There is no need to fear that buying an iPhone XR would mean compromising on performance. This device comes with the same A12 Bionic chip that drives its much more expensive siblings – which of course means you get exactly the same computational power. According to Apple, it's the first 7nm chip in history, and the firm describes it as ‘the smartest, most powerful chip ever in a smartphone.'

Apart from that the XR also features Apple's Next Generation Neural Engine.

Other features

Battery life: In spite of it being Apple's ‘budget' phone the XR promises a battery life of as much as 90 minutes longer than on the iPhone 8 Plus.

Case: As far as the XR's case is concerned, it is manufactured of ‘7000 series aerospace grade aluminium' instead of stainless steel. Whether that is a pro or a con depends on how one looks at it, but one thing is sure: the XR is more colourful. It comes in red, yellow, coral, blue, black and white.

Storage: Storage options for the XR vary between 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. Unlike with the X and X Max, however, there is no 512GB option.

Memory: The iPhone XR comes with a very useful 3GB of RAM, on par with the iPhone X. This compares well with industry standards and should be more than enough for everyday use.