First Impressions From New iPhone XR Owners

[Bobby dazzler]

What glowing reviews.
"Feels like a toy"
"Kind of a brighter blood red"
"Too heavy"
"Screen noticeably worse watching videos"
"Colors wrong when viewed from an angle"

Please, tell me some more about how Apple thinks this phone is worth a higher price tag than the Plus lines of years past while it's more comparable to the 5C.

Which honestly, the 5C didn't deserve that knock. It was a pretty great budget iPhone. Apple did an okay job for a budget phone here with the XR it sounds like, except they forgot to give it a budget price tag.

Fair comments there ArtOfWarfare.
"Feels like a toy" so, it's more fun, right?
"Too heavy" for whom? and for what reason I wonder? Someone out there with antique lace pockets? I'm sure it's fine for most
"Screen noticeably worse watching videos" Defo worse than the OLED displays, but hardly noticeable on its own - you almost have to see the Xr and an OLED side-by-side to notice the difference. It's really more than just fine.
"Colors wrong when viewed from an angle" This is a problem for people who watch someone elses phone on public transport instead of their own. Not a problem here.

I've got an Xr and a X and the Xr is brilliant and Xr replaced a 6sPlus which of course now looks dated.
Love the wireless charging, lovely big screen, quality feel, reassuring weightiness and of course iOS12.1

My worst Apple device was the iPhone 5s
My best is the X
The runner up is the Xr. Still v excited to own and use it!

 

[killhippie]

I'm still going through the bonding phase with my Product Red XR. Came from an 8.

Pros:
LCD. Yes, I'm one of those few oddballs who actually prefers the LCD screen over OLED. I've spent some time with the XS and dislike the motion blur and odd chromatic effect on the edge of black text on a white background. I read quite a lot on my phone, so this is a dealbreaker for me. I for one hope Apple keeps offering us an LCD option.
I've quickly fallen in love with face ID and the swipe up for home thing. Very slick.
Camera takes beautiful photos
Battery: I can tell it's going to be amazing
Speed: Yes, it's snappy

Cons:
It's a bit too big for comfortable handling
It's a bit too heavy. Noticeable extra weight in my jeans pocket
The finish doesn't feel quite as premium as the 8. Running my fingers across the glass back to the edge I can feel the lip, which I can't on my 8. Yes, that's a small thing, but this is Apple we're talking about here, and these phones are not cheap.
Slight fuzziness around the edges of the screen: unsurprising given the LCD manufacturing challenge. Since LCD is preferable to me I'll let this one slide.

Will I return it? I certainly don't want to. It's a gorgeous phone. For me this will come down to whether I can get used to the size and weight.

OLEDS dont suffer so much with motion blur as they have such a fast response time compared with LCD displays. It may be you are sensitive to the iPhones OLED PWM. Glad you got a great such a great phone, and that colour is gorgeous. I went with an XS as I have an OLED tv and i'm not sensitive to PWM and also being in a wheelchair I wanted a slightly smaller phone to handle when out and about. Otherwise I would have picked the XR over the XS/XSMax I think. I have to say my favourite iPhone was the 5S and now I am really happy with the XS. I am glad this year there was more choice for users to get what they wanted and at a price that makes sense without stripping away to much functionality.
[doublepost=1540721858][/doublepost]

The XR is probably the best phone Apple has made in a long time. The A12 wipes the floor with the Snap 845 and it's not even close. The loss of 1gb of ram doesn't mean much on software that is built and optimized for the hardware. So the only downgrade is on paper in usability it will be more than enough. If you're a power user than you are going to go for the XS Max anyway.

That being said people want to go to the price and try to make a case there but people have to realize apples competition realistically. You think they don't know about the Huawei, onePlus, Oppo, Pocofone. They do but they are ants. Samsung and Google are more of the competition and the Pixel 3 is a joke and even with discounts the s9+ and Note 9 may be better options for different people still don't beat the XR in "value"

Is that why Huawei became the second biggest smartphone seller in the world this year leaving Apple in third place and also now spend more money on R&D than Apple, because as you say they are like ants...

 

[alphaod]

I played around with the iPhone XR, overall I think it's excellent. Since I don't watch videos cropped and OLED means no pixel backlight, the XR LCD backlight with "black bars" really bothered me. You could say I've been spoiled. The bigger bezel I noticed I think because I have a XS Max daily and also everyone mentions it, but it doesn't actually bother me that much.

However I disagree that the XR and XS Mas as essentially the same size. Yes they are similar, but the XR is noticeably lighter. There is not as much helft and for holding for longer periods especially in landscape watching saying a long video, it's better.

Camera-wise, I never use the telephoto lens anyways, so it wouldn't have been a concern for myself.

 

[Breaking Good]

Wat. The X/XS is almost exactly the same size as the 6/7/8.

No. It isn’t. It is one-fifth an inch taller and 0.14 of an inch wider.

If the differences were less than a tenth of an inch I would agree with you. But that isn’t the case.

 

[Jovijoker]

* And before anyone comments, no buying an older phone to get a smaller one doesn't count...

Good One!

 

[jonnyb098]

I agree with what you say above. It doesn't make any sense that they didn't make an X series phone the same size as the iPhone 6/6s/7/8.

I hope that sometime in March they release an iPhone XR that is the same size as the iPhone 8. It would be even better if it were the same size as the iPhone SE. But one the same size as the iPhone 8 would suffice.

It would also be nice if they would adopt some type of cadence for updating these other devices. They could update the smaller devices on a two year cycle in the spring. They could catch the early adopters in the spring and then be ready to hit the back-to-school crowd in the second half of the summer.

It actually makes perfect they can’t make an iPhone X the EXACT same dimensions as the 8 , the notch. The notch makes that whole area extra needed space for the cameras and allows for video (when not cropped) to be the exact same as the 8.

If they made it the same size as the 8 then video would be even smaller which would cause a whole new round of complaints.

TL:dr

Math and physics

 

[AppleFanBoyCAN]

All of sudden a complain about a bit too big for 1mm. But nobody complaints about iPhone 8 or any previous model.

Yeah but 1mm on these devices makes a huge difference. I saw the XR at the store yesterday and it’s honestly ridiculous how thick the device is! Not very 2018

 

[DNichter]

I would never, ever get an XS — with those colors you can't help but look like an F***ing PIMP.

Give it a shot and see if it makes a difference in your love life.

 

[Tijdelijk]

Yeah but 1mm on these devices makes a huge difference. I saw the XR at the store yesterday and it’s honestly ridiculous how thick the device is! Not very 2018

Then don't buy it.
Complains complains complains.

I love the XR

 

[x.marX]

I haven't heard this tired argument in years. Seriously, it's a phone. What exactly are you expecting to do, have 15 applications open, not full screen, and just touch on them to switch to them (basically how my workflow is on my PC)?

I am genuinely curious how this even a thing these days.

What's wrong with having genuine multitasking ?
I want my recently used apps to resume from where I left, instantly.
My iPad 6 can't vs my humble Moto G5.

To me, iOS is a glorified feature phone OS.

 

[840quadra]

No, I get it. I have a Pixel 2 XL for my work phone. So I am aware of the capabilities. But the landscape keyboard cuts off so much screen it makes multitasking while actually working (I.e. typing stuff) kind of worthless. Same on iOS.

My point was it may look cool in screenshots, but when you are actually doing work (keyboard up) and not posing for the camera, it defeats a lot of the purpose, be it portrait or landscape.

On the phone, not everything I do requires a keyboard, and when it does, it only takes a button press to hide it. Far more efficient than swiping over to another app or webpage for data I need. Besides, having the tiny bit of screen left over works for my use cases just fine, I am not editing video, I am updating a doc, calendar, or editing a post. YMMV

The keyboard is also irrelevant with regards to PIP video. A missing feature that our phones have plenty of power to support and I always miss when using my iPhones.

 

[lec0rsaire]

What compromises? A small screen?

Sub 4.7” screen. Worse camera and flash (dual tone) f/2.2. Less RAM. Worse GPU. Well it’s the older A9. The A10 and especially 11 and 12 are really ahead. The battery is half what you get in the Plus iPhones and new flagships.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s an excellent iPhone 5S redux. Basically an iPhone 6S in the 5/5S chassis but compromises had to be made to offer it for that price. Apple is also constrained by the smaller volume in that chassis.

The 4” screen is fine but once you’ve tried the 4.7”, 5.5” or even the 5.8” of the X/XS, it is really almost impossible to accept a 4” display again. And I was one of the 3.5” is the perfect smartphone size folks even after the iPhone 5 was released. I came around with the iPhone 6 and finally when forced with the 7 Plus because of the “bokeh” shallow depth of field portrait mode and extra gig of RAM. Once I saw my phone last over a day on a full charge I was a full phablet believer.

 

[archvile]

On the phone, not everything I do requires a keyboard, and when it does, it only takes a button press to hide it. Far more efficient than swiping over to another app or webpage for data I need. Besides, having the tiny bit of screen left over works for my use cases just fine, I am not editing video, I am updating a doc, calendar, or editing a post. YMMV

The keyboard is also irrelevant with regards to PIP video. A missing feature that our phones have plenty of power to support and I always miss when using my iPhones.

I agree, PIP would be a great addition to iPhones, surprised they haven’t added it at least with the Plus/Max sizes.

 

[djcgeez2189]

I agree, PIP would be a great addition to iPhones, surprised they haven’t added it at least with the Plus/Max sizes.

Screw PIP they need to update the Keyboard... the single most outdated part of the entire phone. A number row for starters. or make it so I dont have to go out of my way to put a . or a !

 

[StevieXR]

Whole heap of compromises listed rather than positives it seems.....

If you’re coming from an iPhone 7, it doesn’t feel like compromises at all. Holding it in my hands right now, I seriously can’t understand why anyone would complain about the bezels being 1 mm bigger. The rear camera takes very good Portrait pictures, and is better in low light than the XS and XS Max. The battery life is outstanding. The LCD screen with True Tone is fantastic in most conditions.

 

[Breaking Good]

It actually makes perfect they can’t make an iPhone X the EXACT same dimensions as the 8 , the notch. The notch makes that whole area extra needed space for the cameras and allows for video (when not cropped) to be the exact same as the 8.

If they made it the same size as the 8 then video would be even smaller which would cause a whole new round of complaints.

TL:dr

Math and physics

I'm sorry. I'm not following what you are saying here? Are you saying that there is a minimum size necessary for the sensors in the notch and that dictates the minimum size possible for an X-series phone?

 

[DougTheImpaler]

I didn't upgrade from the 6 because of the lack of headphone port and the need to charge and listen at the same time in car.

I have always upgraded every 2 years and have thus skipped upgrading twice, this could be a third year, although I really do fancy a camera upgrade.

Has anyone purchased the XR to go in to a front jeans pocket and how does it fit?

About these three points:

* There's adapters that plug into the lightning port and expose a second lightning port and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. It sucks to buy adapters, but you can just leave it in the car. I also miss the headphone jack and resent the need to buy an adapter, but it CAN be done.

* The camera upgrade from the 6s is pretty astounding. From the 6 it can only be more drastic.

* I wear 32"-waist relaxed-fit Levi jeans and it fits fine. I have an Otterbox Symmetry case on my XR. It fits OK, but then so did my 6s Plus. It's a touch smaller than the plus-sized phones, but it is definitely a lot bigger than the regular ones. Probably the only way to really know is to go into a store and stuff it into your pants just to try it out. My pants aren't your pants necessarily, so I'm not sure any reports of "it fits" or "it doesn't fit" are going to help you.

 

[840quadra]

Screw PIP they need to update the Keyboard... the single most outdated part of the entire phone. A number row for starters. or make it so I dont have to go out of my way to put a . or a !

There are plenty of 3rd party keyboards that offer that. I also dislike the default G-board keyboard for the pixel 2 so I changed that as well.

 

[rjohnstone]

Looked at all three phones and decided on the XS, I picked up a silver 256GB XS on Friday after I had a chance to get some hands on time with the XR.
The Max is just too big (this is coming from a Note 8 owner), and the XR is lacking a few features and even with the price difference, it was't worth it for me personally.
The XR felt solid, but sitting next to the XS and XS Max, the screen difference was obvious.
Still getting used to gesture nav on the XS, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

 

[jonnyb098]

I'm sorry. I'm not following what you are saying here? Are you saying that there is a minimum size necessary for the sensors in the notch and that dictates the minimum size possible for an X-series phone?

Sort of. Apple wanted an edge to edge display. In order to do that a notch is necessary. So based on that they determined the size of the phone. Therefore the decided to make it slightly taller so that standard content and videos is equal to size to an iPhone 8.
[doublepost=1540771249][/doublepost]

Screw PIP they need to update the Keyboard... the single most outdated part of the entire phone. A number row for starters. or make it so I dont have to go out of my way to put a . or a !

Actually the grid of icons is the most outdated part of the phone software. It was supposed to be part of iOS 12 but will be a huge redesign of iOS 13 next year. The grid of icons has felt stale since the phones started getting much bigger (iPhone 6). Hell, I wish they would just let us make the widget screen the default screen by adding a simple toggle, but nope.

 

[I7guy]

OLEDS dont suffer so much with motion blur as they have such a fast response time compared with LCD displays. It may be you are sensitive to the iPhones OLED PWM. Glad you got a great such a great phone, and that colour is gorgeous. I went with an XS as I have an OLED tv and i'm not sensitive to PWM and also being in a wheelchair I wanted a slightly smaller phone to handle when out and about. Otherwise I would have picked the XR over the XS/XSMax I think. I have to say my favourite iPhone was the 5S and now I am really happy with the XS. I am glad this year there was more choice for users to get what they wanted and at a price that makes sense without stripping away to much functionality.
[doublepost=1540721858][/doublepost]
Is that why Huawei became the second biggest smartphone seller in the world this year leaving Apple in third place and also now spend more money on R&D than Apple, because as you say they are like ants...

Huawei spends more r and d as a company than Apple, not necessarily more on their smartphones and related ecosystems. And we all know about market share....

 

[Mr. Donahue]

I did. In 2016.

View attachment 798531

And you guess the name even!!!

 

[killhippie]

Huawei spends more r and d as a company than Apple, not necessarily more on their smartphones and related ecosystems. And we all know about market share....

Well by the looks of the features of their phones and the speed of thier rise in the market place a lot goes into them probably. Apple just keep riding the wave, even though the XR is a great phone there is nothing in it that makes you think "that's innovative" where as Huawei are really pushing the boat out in features. Just saying.

 

[2499723]

Pull down control center. Headphones icon and battery percentage are both there.

So battery percentage no longer appears alongside the indicator in the top status bar? There’s no way to activate that? Man, that’s a shame - adding an extra step to something I look at ALL the time. Wonder why they didn’t just overlay the percentage into the battery icon.
[doublepost=1540803256][/doublepost]

If you had the choice to do over again, @profmatt — would you go with the XR? I need to get my wife on a newer phone from her iPhone 6, and our choices are:

• Hand her my iPhone 8 Plus 64GB and let her finish out the iPhone Upgrade Program loan + get a new iPhone Upgrade Program loan for a 128GB XR for me
• Get her and I both (me upgrading using the iPhone Upgrade Program) on an iPhone XR 128GB

My needs? I’ve hit that 64GB ceiling for storage — I keep a lot of photos local to the phone so I can do edits / social media posts for a non-profit. The 2X optical zoom is great, but less nags about storage would be nice.

My wife’s needs? She has an older phone and needs to be upgraded (after dealing with the iPhone 6 64GB battery replacement). She could care less about a hand-me-down, but I know she’d probably rail against the changes in UX — i.e. Face ID vs. Touch ID (which she hates), no home button, etc. I thought if we both got the XR I could help guide her as I learned.
[doublepost=1540606342][/doublepost]I have a question about the new XR models — they now only have the A1920 (???) model number for all carriers. I have previously gone into my local Apple Store and requested the multi-band Qualcomm model that works on Verizon AND GSM networks. I use T-Mobile but prefer to be able to switch if I want. Apple Store peeps always helped and got me the “unlocked” version and helped me avoid a T-Mobile locked phone.

Now that they have the one model — if you tell them it’s for a T-Mobile account, is it locked? It will have the Intel modem that’s multi-platform (i.e. CDMA and GSM), but will it be locked until I pay for it in full?

I’m not sure if you’ve resolved this decision or not, but I thought I’d give a few thoughts. Starting with your second question, as I understand (and you note), it’s a single model number for both CDMA and GSM. Apple hasn’t been very forthcoming about whether or not the phone is locked when you attach it to a carrier. I suspect it’s not, but I’ve only ever bought iPhones outright to avoid issues of being locked into a contract (and having a locked device). That said, I don’t live in the US. My advice here is real “helpful”: it’s probably worth going into the Apple Store and asking this question outright. Whether or not you get a straight answer is something else entirely.

On your first question, we’re in a similar boat. My wife and I both have an iPhone 6 each. Her battery needs replacing. Mine doesn’t. She doesn’t necessarily want a new phone and I do. So, I’ve gone for the XR and she’s getting my 6 with a new battery and larger storage capacity (128GB). Now, if money is no object and you feel like your wife will adjust to the UI of the XR, then sure, it’d be nice to each have new phones. However, staggering the purchases and going for your first option of handing down the 8 Plus sounds logical. She doesn’t have to bother learning the new UI yet, has a vastly improved experience over the 6 and you benefit from finishing out the upgrade program and getting an XR. I’d definitely be going that route unless your wife has expressed a real interest in having the new model.

 

[gnasher729]

It's too big for me, make it X/XS sized 5.8" and it'd be great. I have two toddlers, so frequently one arm/hand is holding them. This phone is too big for one-handed use, I'm a dude that wears glove size medium.

The XR is a cheaper XS-Max. So what you would like in addition is a cheaper XS.
The XS-Max is bigger, so that's out for you as well, I suppose.
[doublepost=1540805197][/doublepost]

Honestly if your spending upwards of $750 anyway why not get the best for $250 more?

One, because your maths is wrong. For $250 more you only get the smaller screen. To get the XS-max with identical content on the screen, it's $350 more. Then you have people who need/want more than 64GB, but not more than 128GB. For them it's another $100 more. That's $450.

But to answer your question: Why not spend $350 (or $450) more? Because it's $350 (or $450) more, that's why.