It’s been almost two years since the launch of the iPhone XR, but the device remains one of the best iPhones ever made. Apple announced its budget iPhone in September 2018 and the handset became available in October 2018.

This is the cheapest device of the iPhone X lineup, which also includes the iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.

At the price of Rs 52,500, this phone is much cheaper than its cousins, the iPhone X (Rs 84,999), the iPhone XS (Rs 1,04,900), and the iPhone XS Max (Rs 1,44,900). This is also the second affordable iPhone after the original iPhone SE launched in 2016.

Display

The iPhone XR comes with a Liquid Retina IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a size of 6.1 inches. The screen is protected with scratch-resistant glass along with the oleophobic coating. It features a large top-notch that houses the front-facing camera and phone speaker. This display design has appeared on several iPhone models including the iPhone X and iPhone 11 series.

Liquid Retina Display is a kind of LCD screen that Apple used on the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and the iPad Pro 2018. Liquid Retina Display is better than the screens on some older MacBook and iPad models, but it’s not better than the Super Retina display on the iPhone 11 Pro.

Before talking about the display quality, let’s take a look at its specifications. It features a screen resolution of 1792x828 pixels and a pixel density of 326 ppi. The pixel density is the same as the iPhone 8 and older iPhone models, but lower than that of the iPhone Plus devices (104 ppi) and the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max (458 ppi).

Overall, the color performance of the iPhone XR is outstanding and there is wide color support, which means you get the native color experience without having to switch modes. The screen offers excellent viewing angles as you could expect from an IPS LCD screen, being extremely bright and completely visible under sunlight.

While the color performance is amazing, the sharpness of the images is a limitation of this smartphone. If you upgrade from a smaller iPhone, you won’t likely notice, but those used to large-screen iPhones will immediately feel the difference. The 326ppi density is good for the most part of the smartphone market, with the text being perfectly sharp, but videos and images are a bit softer.

In terms of gaming, this iPhone XR display provides an excellent experience despite the lower pixel density. In short, the gaming interface is really smooth with zero frame drops. During a testing session with PUBG Mobile, the frame rate maintained constantly at 60 fps and the graphics appear super smooth.

Chip

The iPhone XR is powered by the 7nm A12 Bionic processor with dual 2.5GHz cores and quad 1.6GHz cores. On Antutu, this chip gets a score of 342397 points, which is comparable to the Snapdragon 855 chipset.

This processor, in collaboration with iOS 13.5, can handle intensive mobile game titles for you. It even offers a great gaming experience for you to enjoy.

Storage

This iPhone comes with 3GB RAM with three options for internal storage, including 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. While this RAM capacity is normally not large enough for mobile gaming, the iPhone XR does an excellent job. You won’t have any problem play heavy titles like PUBG Mobile. The handset does heat up to 44-46 degrees C after about 30 minutes of gameplay, but this is totally predictable for an affordable model.

All in all, the display, processor, and RAM/ROM of this smartphone is completely adequate for whatever mobile game you throw at it.  

Battery

The battery is another impressive aspect of the iPhone XR. It houses a 2,942mAh battery along with support for 15W fast charging and Qi wireless charging. Though the battery capacity is not large, considering that most mid-range smartphones feature 3000-4000mAh capacity, the battery life of this handset is really amazing.

It offers 25 hours of talk time, 16 hours of video playback, 15 hours of internet browsing, and up to 65 hours of music playing. The battery life is one of the things that make this device the best value for its price. To compare, the iPhone X and XS offer 60 hours of audio playback (5 hours less), even the iPhone XS Max offers 65 hours of audio playback but with a capacity of 3,174 mAh.

As we stated above, the temperature of the iPhone XR can reach up to 46 degrees C when playing mobile titles. Nevertheless, even when the phone heats up, the gaming experience remains smooth and graphics are still nice.

Camera

In terms of photography specifications, the iPhone XR is quite modest than its cousins from the same lineup. On the rear, it sports a single 12MP wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture. It’s supported by a Quad-LED dual-tone flash, featuring HDR and panorama modes. The primary camera allows for video recording at 4K and 24/30/60 fps or 1080p and 30/60/120/240 fps.

On the front, there is a single 7MP selfie lens with an f/2.2 aperture along with an SL 3D sensor for biometrics and depth sensing. The front-facing camera supports HDR mode and video recording at 1080p/60fps.

While being the cheapest device of the series, the XR offers almost the same camera features as the other devices. It does come with an Advanced Bokeh mode, Depth Control, and a TrueDepth camera.

It’s understandable that the photography capabilities of the iPhone XR cannot beat those of the higher-end devices like the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max, all of which boast more lenses than the XR. Still, it takes true-to-life, beautiful photos just like other iPhones.

The biggest difference is spotted in portrait mode. The other iPhone X handsets use a dedicated telephoto lens for shooting portraits but the XR uses the only camera it has, the wide-angle lens. And on the XR, this mode only works for people.