iPhone XR: Everything you need to know

17 October 2018

Robert Duke

iPhone XR banner on Protect Your Bubble blog

There’s a lot of buzz about Apple’s new cut-price flagship phone. Read on to find out more about the iPhone XR and how it compares to the iPhone XS.

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Release date

The iPhone XR was released on Friday 26th October 2018.

Price

Okay, so it’s still not cheap, but it does cost 25% less than the iPhone XS - a significant saving considering it has many of the same features.

The iPhone XR starts at £749 for the 64GB version, rising to an XS-bothering £899 for the 256GB model.

Features

Familiar aesthetics

It’s actually pretty hard to spot the differences between the iPhone XR and the XS at first glance, but when you look at them side-by-side you’ll notice that the XR is slightly bigger and has a thicker outer edge.

It also comes in a wide range of colours, including coral, white, black, red, yellow and blue. All rather natty.

You can purchase a clear case through Apple so you can keep your handset safe AND show off your chosen colour scheme. C’est magnifique.

Screen size and display

The iPhone XR has a rather hefty 6.1-inch LCD display with a lower pixel density than the XS.

This has sparked some debate online, but most people who’ve tried both phones say you’d need to look very closely to spot the difference in image quality. Great news for those considering the less expensive option.

Apple’s best processor

It came as a bit of a shock when Apple announced that their absurdly powerful new A12 processor would be used in both the iPhone XS and the XR. This means that the cheaper model should be able to handle anything you can throw at it.

Of course, performance is affected by a number of different components, and the XS is more finely tuned so it'll always have the upper hand – just not by as much as we might’ve expected. Which is nice.

Better battery life

Surprisingly, the iPhone XR actually outperforms the XS when it comes to battery life, lasting around 16 hours on a single charge.

This makes sense considering the more expensive device has a superior OLED screen with higher pixel density, but still, this feels like a nice bonus for XR owners.

Similar camera setup

The iPhone XR has the same front-facing camera as the iPhone XS. However, it only has a single rear-facing camera where the XS has dual rear cameras.

In practice, this shouldn’t make too much difference because the second rear camera on the XS is primarily used to improve shots taken while using the zoom. If you don’t typically take snaps from great distances, the picture quality is likely to be very similar.