This iPhone
is great. It is most like the last iPhone — but not the last “best” iPhone —
more like the last not as good iPhone. It’s better than that one though, just
not as good as the newest best iPhone or the older best iPhone.
If you’re
upgrading from an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8, you’re gonna love it and likely won’t
miss any current features while also getting a nice update to a gesture-driven
phone with Face ID. But don’t buy it if you’re coming from an iPhone X, you’ll
be disappointed as there are some compromises from the incredibly high level of
performance and quality in Apple’s last flagship, which really was pushing the
envelope at the time.
From a
consumer perspective, this is offering a bit of choice that targets the same kind
of customer who bought the iPhone 8 instead of the iPhone X last year. They
want a great phone with a solid feature set and good performance but are not
obsessed with ‘the best’ and likely won’t notice any of the things that would
bug an iPhone X user about the iPhone XR.
On the
business side, Apple is offering the iPhone XR to make sure there is no pricing
umbrella underneath the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, and to make sure that the
pricing curve is smooth across the iPhone line. It’s not so much a bulwark
against low-end Android, that’s why the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 are sticking
around at those low prices.
Instead it’s
offering an ‘affordable’ option that’s similar in philosophy to the iPhone 8’s
role last year but with some additional benefits in terms of uniformity. Apple
gets to move more of its user base to a fully gesture-oriented interface, as
well as giving them Face ID. It benefits from more of its pipeline being
dedicated to devices that share a lot of components like the A12 and True Depth
camera system. It’s also recognizing the overall move towards larger screens in
the market.
If Apple was
trying to cannibalize sales of the iPhone XS, it couldn’t have created a better
roasting spit than the iPhone XR.
Screen
Apple says
that the iPhone XR has ‘the most advanced LCD ever in a smartphone’ — their
words.
The iPhone
XR’s screen is an LCD, not an OLED. This is one of the biggest differences
between the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS models, and while the screen is one of
the best LCDs I’ve ever seen, it’s not as good as the other models.
Specifically, I believe that the OLED’s ability to display true black and
display deeper color (especially in images that are taken on the new XR cameras
in HDR) set it apart easily.
That said, I
have a massive advantage in that I am able to hold the screens side by side to
compare images. Simply put, if you don’t run them next to one another, this is
a great screen. Given that the iPhone XS models have perhaps the best displays
ever made for a smartphone, coming in a very close second isn’t a bad place to
be.
A lot of
nice advancements have been made here over earlier iPhone LCDs. You get True
Tone, faster 120hz touch response and wide color support. All on a 326 psi
stage that’s larger than the iPhone 8 Plus in a smaller body. You also now get
tap-to-wake, another way Apple is working hard to unify the design and
interaction language of its phones across the lineup.
All of these
advancements don’t come for free to an LCD. There was a lot of time, energy and
money spent getting the older technology to work as absolutely closely as
possible to the flagship models. It’s rare to the point of non-existence that
companies care at all to put in the work to make the lower end devices feel as
well worked as the higher end ones. For as much crap as Apple gets about
withholding features to get people to upsell, there is very little of that
happening with the iPhone XR, quite the opposite really.
There are a
few caveats here. First, 3D touch is gone, replaced by ‘Haptic Touch’ which
Apple says works similarly to the MacBook’s track pad. It provides feedback
from the iPhone’s Taptic vibration engine to simulate a ‘button press’ or
trigger. In practice, the reality of the situation is that it is a very prosaic
‘long press to activate’ more than anything else. It’s used to trigger the
camera on the home screen and the flashlight, and Apple says it’s coming to
other places throughout the system as it sees it appropriate and figures out
how to make it feel right.
I’m not a
fan. I know 3D touch has its detractors, even among the people I’ve talked to
who helped build it, I think it’s a clever utility that has a nice snap to it
when activating quick actions like the camera. In contrast, on the iPhone XR
you must tap and hold the camera button for about a second and a half — no
pressure sensitivity here obviously — as the system figures out that this is an
intentional press by determining duration, touch shape and spread etc and then
triggers the action. You get the feedback still, which is nice, but it feels
disconnected and slow. It’s the best case scenario without the additional 3D
touch layer, but it’s not ideal.
I’d also be
remiss if I didn’t mention that the edges of the iPhone XR screen have a slight
dimming effect that is best described as a ‘drop shadow’. It’s wildly hard to
photograph but imagine a very thin line of shadow around the edge of the phone
that gets more pronounced as you tilt it and look at the edges. It’s likely an
effect of the way Apple was able to get a nice sharp black drop-off at the
edges that gets that to-the-edges look of the iPhone XR’s screen.
Apple is
already doing a ton of work rounding the corners of the LCD screen to make them
look smoothly curved (this works great and is nearly seamless unless you bust
out the magnifying loupe) and it’s doing some additional stuff around the edge
to keep it looking tidy. They’ve doubled the amount of LEDs in the screen to
make that dithering and the edging possible.
Frankly, I
don’t think most people will ever notice this slight shading of dark around the
edge — it is very slight — but when the screen is displaying mostly white and
it’s next to the iPhone XS it’s visible.
Oh, the
bezels are bigger. It makes the front look slightly less elegant and screenful
than the iPhone XS, but it’s not a big deal.
Camera
Yes, the
portrait mode works. No, it’s not as good as the iPhone XS. Yes, I miss having
a zoom lens.
All of those
things are true and easily the biggest reason I won’t be buying an iPhone XR.
However, in the theme of Apple working its hardest to make even its ‘lower end’
devices work and feel as much like its best, it’s really impressive what has
been done here.
The iPhone
XR’s front-facing camera array is identical to what you’ll find in the iPhone
XS. Which is to say it’s very good.
The rear
facing camera is where it gets interesting, and different.
The rear
camera is a single lens and sensor that is both functionally and actually
identical to the wide angle lens in the iPhone XS. It’s the same sensor, the
same optics, the same 27mm wide-angle frame. You’re going to get great
‘standard’ pictures out of this. No compromises.
However, I
found myself missing the zoom lens a lot. This is absolutely a your mileage may
vary scenario, but I take the vast majority of my pictures with the telephoto
lens. Looking back at my year with the iPhone X I’d say north of 80% of my
pictures were shot with the telephoto, even if they were close ups. I simply
prefer the “52mm” equivalent with its nice compression and tight crop. It’s
just a better way to shoot than a wide angle — as any photographer or camera
company will tell you because that’s the standard (equivalent) lens that all
cameras have shipped with for decades.
Wide angle
lenses were always a kludge in smartphones and it’s only in recent years that
we’ve started getting decent telephotos. If I had my choice, I’d default to the
tele and have a button to zoom out to the wide angle, that would be much nicer.
But with the
iPhone XR you’re stuck with the wide — and it’s a single lens at that, without
the two different perspectives Apple normally uses to gather its depth data to
apply the portrait effect.
So they got
clever. iPhone XR portrait images still contain a depth map that determines
foreground, subject and background, as well as the new segmentation map that
handles fine detail like hair. While the segmentation maps are roughly
identical, the depth maps from the iPhone XR are nowhere as detailed or
information rich as the ones that are generated by the iPhone XS.
See the two
maps compared here, the iPhone XR’s depth map is far less aware of the scene
depth and separation between the ‘slices’ of distance. It means that the
overall portrait effect, while effective, is not as nuanced or aggressive.
In addition,
the iPhone XR’s portrait mode only works on people.You’re also limited to just
a couple of the portrait lighting modes: studio and contour.
In order to
accomplish portrait mode without the twin lens perspective, Apple is doing
facial landmark mapping and image recognition work to determine that the
subject you’re shooting is a person. It’s doing depth acquisition by acquiring
the map using a continuous real-time buffer of information coming from the
focus pixels embedded in the iPhone XR’s sensor that it is passing to the A12
Bionic’s Neural Engine. Multiple neural nets analyze the data and reproduce the
depth effect right in the viewfinder.
When you
snap the shutter it combines the depth data, the segmentation map and the image
data into a portrait shot instantaneously. You’re able to see the effect
immediately. It’s wild to see this happen in real time and it boggles thinking
about the horsepower needed to do this. By comparison, the Pixel 3 does not do
real time preview and takes a couple of seconds to even show you the completed
portrait shot once it’s snapped.
It’s a
bravura performance in terms of silicon. But how do the pictures look?
I have to
say, I really like the portraits that come out of the iPhone XR. I was ready to
hate on the software-driven solution they’d come up with for the single lens
portrait but it’s pretty damn good. The depth map is not as ‘deep’ and the
transitions between out of focus and in focus areas are not as wide or smooth
as they are on iPhone XS, but it’s passable. You’re going to get more funny
blurring of the hair, more obvious hard transitions between foreground and
background and that sort of thing.
And the wide
angle portraits are completely incorrect from an optical compression
perspective (nose too large, ears too small). Still, they are kind of fun in an
exaggerated way. Think the way your face looks when you get to close to your
front camera.
If you take
a ton of portraits with your iPhone, the iPhone XS is going to give you a
better chance of getting a great shot with a ton of depth that you can play
with to get the exact look that you want. But as a solution that leans hard on
the software and the Neural Engine, the iPhone XR’s portrait mode isn’t bad.
Performance
Unsurprisingly,
given that it has the same exact A12 Bionic processor, but the iPhone XR
performs almost identically to the iPhone XS in tests. Even though it features
3GB of RAM to the iPhone XS’ 4GB, the overall situation here is that you’re
getting a phone that is damn near identical as far as speed and capability. If
you care most about core features and not the camera or screen quirks, the
iPhone XR does not offer many, if any, compromises here.
Size
The iPhone
XR is the perfect size. If Apple were to make only one phone next year, they
could just make it XR-sized and call it good. Though I am now used to the size
of the iPhone X, a bit of extra screen real-estate is much appreciated when you
do a lot of reading and email. Unfortunately, the iPhone XS Max is a two-handed
phone, period. The increase in vertical size is lovely for reading and viewing
movies, but it’s hell on reachability. Stretching to the corners with your
thumb is darn near impossible and to complete even simple actions like closing
a modal view inside an app it’s often easiest (and most habitual) to just
default to two hands to perform those actions.
For those
users that are ‘Plus’ addicts, the XS Max is an exercise in excess. It’s great
as a command center for someone who does most of their work on their iPhones or
in scenarios where it’s their only computer. My wife, for instance, has never
owned her own computer and hasn’t really needed a permanent one in 15 years.
For the last 10 years, she’s been all iPhone, with a bit of iPad thrown in. I
myself am now on a XS Max because I also do a huge amount of my work on my
iPhone and the extra screen size is great for big email threads and more
general context.
But I don’t
think Apple has done enough to capitalize on the larger screen iPhones in terms
of software — certainly not enough to justify two-handed operation. It’s about
time iOS was customized thoroughly for larger phones beyond a couple of
concessions to split-view apps like Mail.
That’s why
the iPhone XR’s size comes across as such a nice compromise. It’s absolutely a
one-handed phone, but you still get some extra real-estate over the iPhone XS
and the exact same amount of information appears on the iPhone XR’s screen as
on the iPhone XS Max in a phone that is shorter enough to be thumb friendly.
Color
Apple’s
industrial design chops continue to shine with the iPhone XR’s color finishes.
My tester iPhone was the new Coral color and it is absolutely gorgeous.
The way
Apple is doing colors is like nobody else. There’s no comparison to holding a
Pixel 3, for instance. The Pixel 3 is fun and photographs well, but super
“cheap and cheerful” in its look and feel. Even though the XR is Apple’s
mid-range iPhone, the feel is very much that of a piece of nicely crafted
jewelry. It’s weighty, with a gorgeous 7-layer color process laminating the
back of the rear glass, giving it a depth and sparkle that’s just unmatched in
consumer electronics.
The various
textures of the blasted aluminum and glass are complimentary and it’s a nice
melding of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X design ethos. It’s massively unfortunate
that most people will be covering the color with cases, and I expect clear
cases to explode in popularity when these phones start getting delivered.
It remains
very curious that Apple is not shipping any first-party cases for the iPhone XR
— not even the rumored clear case. I’m guessing that they just weren’t ready or
that Apple was having issues with some odd quirk of clear cases like yellowing
or cracking or something. But whatever it is, they’re leaving a bunch of cash
on the table.
Apple’s ID
does a lot of heavy lifting here, as usual. It often goes un-analyzed just how
well the construction of the device works in conjunction with marketing and
market placement to help customers both justify and enjoy their purchase. It
transmits to the buyer that this is a piece of quality kit that has had a lot
of thought put into it and makes them feel good about paying a hefty price for
a chunk of silicon and glass. No one takes materials science anywhere as
seriously at Apple and it continues to be on display here.
Should you
buy it?
As I said
above, it’s not that complicated of a question. I honestly wouldn’t overthink
this one too much. The iPhone XR is made to serve a certain segment of
customers that want the new iPhone but don’t necessarily need every new
feature. It works great, has a few small compromises that probably won’t faze
the kind of folks that would consider not buying the best and is really well
built and executed.
“Apple’s
pricing lineup is easily its strongest yet competitively,” creative Strategies’
Ben Bajarin puts it here in a subscriber piece. “The [iPhone] XR in particular
is well lined up against the competition. I spoke to a few of my carrier
contacts after Apple’s iPhone launch event and they seemed to believe the XR
was going to stack up well against the competition and when you look at it
priced against the Google Pixel ($799) and Samsung Galaxy 9 ($719). Some of my
contacts even going so far to suggest the XR could end up being more disruptive
to competitions portfolios than any iPhone since the 6/6 Plus launch.”
Apple wants
to fill the umbrella, leaving less room than ever for competitors. Launching a
phone that’s competitive in price and features an enormous amount of research
and execution that attempt to make it as close a competitor as possible to its
own flagship line, Apple has set itself up for a really diverse and interesting
fiscal Q4.
Whether you
help Apple boost its average selling price by buying one of the maxed out XS
models or you help it block another Android purchase with an iPhone XR, I think
it will probably be happy having you, raw or cooked.
CREDIT:
TECHCRUNCH
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