Apple iPhone XR Review: 5 Amazing Features You’ll Love

In the 2020s, those who can afford premium smartphone features seem to have a non-exhaustive list of options to pick.

But, what about those on a budget who crave an iPhone with the signature Apple experience but don’t want to spend $1000 or more? 

The answer is they might opt for the Apple iPhone XR. 

Released in 2018, the iPhone XR is a brilliant smartphone that offers great features at a budget-friendly price.

If you are not sure whether to go for it or not, this blog will reveal 5 amazing features of the iPhone XR that will make you run for your credit card to buy it right now.

Excited to learn more about them?

Let’s get started.

Modern Design

If you used to think of the Apple iPhones as old-fashioned devices that boast powerful hardware inside, the iPhone XR is here to tell you it’s not a conservative phone. Courtesy of the fantastic 7-layer colour process Apple followed, the phone looks elegant and fun.

The phone is available in 6 different colours; black, white, blue, yellow, coral and red. I personally like the blue variant as it looks appealing to me. All of the models have aluminium bands that match the glass back colour.

Straight away, the thick bezels are easily noticeable and take up a big area of the front panel. These bezels are thicker compared to the iPhone XS. The notch at the top houses the TrueDepth camera that is used for taking selfies, unlocking the phone with Face ID, and creating Animojis and Memojis.

Skyphonez Australia offers the best iPhone XR price for Apple fans in Australia. You will also get a wide range of other Apple phones and gadgets in excellent working condition.

Grab Exclusive Discounts on Skyphonez Australia

If you are in the market looking for a reliable online store for buying new and refurbished Apple iPhones, tablets, and other gadgets at the best market prices in the Australian market. In that case, Skyphonez Australia is your go-to place to shop. 

You will avail of free home delivery across Australia along with the benefit of sourcing your device from a 100% Australian marketplace. You can get the best iPhone XR price in Australia. This will save you a lot of money on flagship features.

Big, Colourful Screen

The phone comes with a decent 6.1-inch LCD screen which ranks among the brighter and more colourful displays you will find today. Surely, you should not expect the OLED-level amazingness. The positive aspect of this display is that you will get great details in every pixel as the 1792 x828 resolution has plenty of potential to produce beautiful-looking images and videos. 

Whether you like to watch war movies or want to have fun playing racing games, you will appreciate the lively action in every pixel.  In terms of brightness, the screen did well with 589 nits which means you will not have any trouble using it in direct sunlight.

The colours look accurate too. The phone scored a Delta-E score of 0.28 which is near to perfect. This beats the Pixel 3 XL and Note 9 and closely follows the iPhone XS.

There are some shortcomings too like in the perfect blacks and ultrawide viewing angles you will get with an OLED screen. You will notice a significant difference in the two screens as you place them side by side. The OLED display offers accurate blacks and more vibrant colours than the LCD panel. 

Excellent Camera

Comparing the Apple iPhone XR with the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, you might be wondering if it can get great-looking photos with the single-lens camera. Don’t worry. You will be clicking brilliant shots with the fantastic wide-angle shooter. Also, you will be able to record videos with the Smart HDR feature that delivers better highlights in the shadows.

Another amazing feature is the bokeh effect that allows you to shoot Portrait mode photos. But there is a limitation here. You can only use the effect to capture people and if you want to shoot objects, it will tell you that it’s waiting for someone to come into the frame.

Despite that limitation, the portraits look impressive and with the iOS 12.1 update you can tweak the depth control in the portraits in real-time as you take clicks.

The low-light performance of the iPhone XR beats the Pixel 3 XL. The photos look brighter and objects look more visible. The images taken with the Pixel 3 XL were dimmer and had more noise.

The selfie camera does a great job of capturing nice selfies. You will get good details and better contours around objects.

Impressive Performance

You will be amazed at how fast the processor performs tasks thanks to the powerful A12 Bionic chipset. You will get the same powerful performance as the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. So, you will be saving hundreds of dollars on a phone that is faster than some pricier Android phones.

The A12 delivers smooth performance while you play graphics-rich action games which require a lot of work to be done by the processor. You can also enjoy multiplayer fun which is not available on many Android phones.

The device managed 11,312 in Geekbench 4 which is close to the numbers done by the iPhone XS Max (11,515) and iPhone XS (11,420). These numbers beat the Galaxy Note 9 and OnePlus 6 by a big margin. The Galaxy S10e scored 10,513 which is run by Snapdragon 855 chip.

And finally, the video editing test. The iPhone XR took just 40 seconds to convert a 4K clip to 1080p. This is faster than the Pixel 3 XL (2 minutes, 42 seconds), Galaxy S9 Plus (2 minutes, 32 seconds), OnePlus 6 (3 minutes, 45 seconds), and Galaxy S10e (2 minutes, 26 seconds).

Battery Life and Charging

Battery life is one of the top reasons you should prefer the iPhone XR over the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. 

The phone managed an impressive 11 hours and 26 minutes mark while we continuously surfed the web at 150 nits of brightness. This is much better than the iPhone XS Max which endured for 10 hours and 38 minutes and iPhone XS which pulled off 9 hours and 41 minutes.

The Galaxy Note 9 lasted for 11 hours and 26 minutes which is the same as the iPhone XR. Some Android phones fell behind. The Pixel 3 XL managed 9 hours and 30 minutes while the Galaxy S10e lasted for 9 hours and 41 minutes.

The phone will also impress you as a daily companion. You will get a full day battery life on every charge. You can play games, browse social media, and stream videos without feeling any stress. 

There is one disappointment as far as the charging is concerned. Apple doesn’t offer a fast charger for the device. If you want faster charging then you need to buy a USB-C charger and USB-C to Lightning adapter. Also, there is no wireless charging support offered for the iPhone XR.

Conclusion

The iPhone XR offers some cool features and capabilities at a great price. The truth is that you will have to compromise on a few advanced amenities but you will love a big and bright screen, brilliant cameras, fast performance, and long battery life. So, you are getting great essential features without spending a lot of money. If you want 5G, then the iPhone 12 is a great choice.