iPhone XR vs. iPhone 11 Buyer's Guide

[Cosmosent]

The iPhone 11 was "rumored" to get a DRAM increase.

Did that happen ???

NO ONE (Outside of Apple) knows !

Unless / Until that can be confirmed, "Buyer Beware" !

The XR was UNDER-powered, because it's 2.8 GB of DRAM made it act like it ONLY had 1.8 GB or so !

I used a XR as my main NON-Dev iPhone for the past year.

I just check'd the Geekbench search results, & there is still ONLY that ONE from Sept 2nd, which is suspect.

DRAM & NAND costs are down 50% relative to last year, so Apple "should have" bump'd the DRAM up to "at least" match what was in the XS & XS Max !

As it currently stands, the Geekbench-reported DRAM numbers for the 2019 iPhones should start appearing on Sept 20th.

If Cook was smart, & that's a BIG IF, he would have get those numbers out now !

BTW, NOT a fan of Cook, Schiller, OR Williams, because for two years in a row, first with the X, & then with the XR, they did NOT have enough (combined) wisdom to put a sufficient amount of DRAM into their best selling iPhone, two years in a row !

Will they make the same mistake three years in a row ???

We'll ALL soon know the answer to that !

Apple has done well for one reason & one reason ONLY, lack of competition from another U.S. smartphone company !

 

[fishmongerer]

Question about Night mode.... is this a 11 and 11 pro exclusive or is it going to be a software update for the Xr?

Night Mode solution for $2.99

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neuralcam-night-mode-camera/id1474856599
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Have to add for advantages for the Xr is the blue color. Was planning on getting a blue 11.

Would not be surprised if the spatial awareness stuff and the wide angle 2nd camera gets used for AR stuff in the future (was really surprised they didn't do something with it during the keynote - cause otherwise a zoom camera would be a no brainer choice for a 2nd camera).



It's still retina resolution (the same resolution (dots per inch) as the base 8). I had a 8 Plus and didn't notice the difference with the Xr.

I noticed a big difference, enough that I couldn't use the XR. After a few months, I got rid of it. People beware. Retina is a marketing term, not a technical term.

 

[MoreRumors?]

If I am thinking of upgrading now and with the current price of both models, I would choose the 11. I see a few improvements on the 11 that would make my decision easier to choose between the two.

 

[thadoggfather]

It’s not that those gains are *lost,* it’s that there was never a 40% gain to begin with.

Let’s just say (all for the sake of a simple example) that there were two inputs to battery life: screen power usage and chip power usage (holding battery capacity constant). And let’s also say that those two inputs are each exactly 50% of the total power draw.

What happens if the chip becomes 40% more efficient? Does the battery life get 40% better? No, because that’s a 40% improvement to an input that is only half of the total. So it’s a 20% increase in overall efficiency.

Another example: let’s now say that the Bluetooth module is responsible for 1% of the total power drain of the device. If the Bluetooth module becomes twice as efficient, does battery life double? Of course not - it’s a huge improvement, but to a component that has a very small overall impact.

I assume that the A-series chips in modern iPhones fall between my extreme examples of 50% and 1%, which is how we get a relatively modest battery life boost out of a pretty good efficiency gain for the chip.
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Right... this... much more succinct than my post.

Because the CPU is just one of many components that use power. If e.g. the CPU was responsible for 20% of the device's total consumption, the total consumption would drop by 0.2*0.4 = 8% rather than 40%.

These are great explanations thank you both!

That makes sense, CPU itself is a much smaller piece of the puzzle. so 40% efficiency in CPU terms really doesn't mean a lot overall. It's a lot more marketing than reality vs. the '1 hour more' claim that can actually be felt/experienced.

So I guess that begs the question , the 15% more power efficient OLED on Pro yielding 4/5 hours more than the previous XS/Max, is that because OLED is a HUGE HUGE HUGE piece of the puzzle like the vast majority? I knew screens were battery hogs, but I can only assume so given this line of thinking. Unless, again, the Pro/Max Pro have WAYYY bigger batteries than their predecessors too, because the a13 efficiency alone aint working that sorta magic as we've concluded.


My biggest gripe is taking things at face value, people were more or less stating 'it just is so' and thats not a sufficient enough explanation for me to not still be curious about it. This is.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Well Written! great job macrumors!!!

 

[predation]

I'm tempted to finally upgrade my 8 Plus and I'm tempted by the iPhone 11 but will I notice the difference with the lower resolution screen?

Yes. But you’ll get used to it pretty quick.

I went from a xs max to xr and Got used to it.

 

[Madmic23]

I'm tempted to finally upgrade my 8 Plus and I'm tempted by the iPhone 11 but will I notice the difference with the lower resolution screen?

I upgraded to a XR from a 7 Plus. I noticed the resolution change for the first few days (especially when they were side by side) but now I don't notice it. You get used to it pretty quick, and I like the size of the XR. I do miss Force Touch a little bit though...

 

[ilikewhey]

where is that british guy arguing samsung and huawei using adobe atmos is gimmicky and crap?

 

[thadoggfather]

Is anyone making the leap from XR to 11? If so what color to what color, and why you doing it?

 

[Dominicanyor]

I think this is a good iPhone for people who are still holding on to a iPhone 6 or 7.

 

[CarlJ]

So far, my biggest complaint against the iPhone 11 is that the green and purple colors, that looked so lovely in the "artist concept" images when they were a mere rumor (I assume said artists set them to the same saturation/brightness as the XR colors and just set the hue for lavender and green)... all the Apple pics of the new iPhone 11 look like those colors have been hugely watered down vs the rumors and the XR colors. More of a hint of color now. The "purple" looks more like a "vaguely purplish gray".

Actually, the colors look like slightly restrained versions of recent Spearmint and Lavender Gray cases and Watch bands.

I also would have liked the dual camera more if it was normal and telephoto instead of normal and wide angle. Feels like there's more use for telephoto - I frequently want to zoom in on something, usually feel like the phone is capturing too wide of an image as-is.

 

[GIZBUG]

I think this is a good iPhone for people who are still holding on to a iPhone 6 or 7.

Care to explain your logic on this?

 

[Sasparilla]

you quote anything from the "Verge", LOL. Here is one: "nearly half an ounce heavier". wow, lotta battery in that - but wait, the cases are stainless steel which is heavier than aluminum, are they sure the extra weight is battery?

Oh, and this is from an update in the article you quoted: "Correction: The iPhone 11 Pro is 0.02 inches thicker than the iPhone XS, not a quarter-inch as this post originally wrote." wow .02 inches!

Again. the Verge? Really?

Sure the verge has lots of good stuff. The Xs had stainless steal frames last year as well so no difference there. And a half an ounce of extra battery is going to be a good amount. That said I'll be interested to see benchmarking on the 11 and the Pro's for battery life.

 

[thadoggfather]

So far, my biggest complaint against the iPhone 11 is that the green and purple colors, that looked so lovely in the "artist concept" images when they were a mere rumor (I assume they set them to the same saturation/brightness as the XR colors and just set the hue for lavender and green)... all the Apple pics of the new iPhone 11 look like those colors have been hugely watered down vs the rumors and the XR colors. More of a hint of color now. The "purple" looks more like a "vaguely purplish gray".

Actually, the colors look like slightly restrained versions of recent Spearmint and Lavender Gray cases and Watch bands.

I wonder why, would it have something to do with single sheet of glass and the way its manufactured? All the colors have that feel to me a little bit, muted compared to XR, at least from marketing, and as far as I can tell in person too (in pics/videos) but maybe not as much as I was fearing from the marketing pics at first.

I like the bold colors for all on XR its less muddied (much like how X/XS silver is muddied white compared to white XR)

 

[ilikewhey]

So far, my biggest complaint against the iPhone 11 is that the green and purple colors, that looked so lovely in the "artist concept" images when they were a mere rumor (I assume said artists set them to the same saturation/brightness as the XR colors and just set the hue for lavender and green)... all the Apple pics of the new iPhone 11 look like those colors have been hugely watered down vs the rumors and the XR colors. More of a hint of color now. The "purple" looks more like a "vaguely purplish gray".

Actually, the colors look like slightly restrained versions of recent Spearmint and Lavender Gray cases and Watch bands.

I also would have liked the dual camera more if it was normal and telephoto instead of normal and wide angle. Feels like there's more use for telephoto - I frequently want to zoom in on something, usually feel like the phone is capturing too wide of an image as-is.

they don't want to make the 11 too perfect else its gonna eat into the pro sales figure even more. hence no traditional wide angle and zoom.

 

[Glideslope]

I have an iPhone 8 Plus and XR in my home and can notice the difference. I much prefer the 8 Plus screen.

Absolutely.
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The iPhone 11 was "rumored" to get a DRAM increase.

Did that happen ???

NO ONE (Outside of Apple) knows !

Unless / Until that can be confirmed, "Buyer Beware" !

The XR was UNDER-powered, because it's 2.8 GB of DRAM made it act like it ONLY had 1.8 GB or so !

I used a XR as my main NON-Dev iPhone for the past year.

I just check'd the Geekbench search results, & there is still ONLY that ONE from Sept 2nd, which is suspect.

DRAM & NAND costs are down 50% relative to last year, so Apple "should have" bump'd the DRAM up to "at least" match what was in the XS & XS Max !

As it currently stands, the Geekbench-reported DRAM numbers for the 2019 iPhones should start appearing on Sept 20th.

If Cook was smart, & that's a BIG IF, he would have get those numbers out now !

BTW, NOT a fan of Cook, Schiller, OR Williams, because for two years in a row, first with the X, & then with the XR, they did NOT have enough (combined) wisdom to put a sufficient amount of DRAM into their best selling iPhone, two years in a row !

Will they make the same mistake three years in a row ???

We'll ALL soon know the answer to that !

Apple has done well for one reason & one reason ONLY, lack of competition from another U.S. smartphone company !

I kind of felt bad for Phil at the event. Doesn’t look good.

 

[Guscat]

I'm tempted to finally upgrade my 8 Plus and I'm tempted by the iPhone 11 but will I notice the difference with the lower resolution screen?

To be honest, I switched from a X to a XR because I preferred the battery life of the XR, and I barely notice the difference between the 2 screens (the only time I notice any difference at all is when I'm looking at all white or black background and even then it's not much of a difference). A XR screen will almost certainly look better than an 8 screen (mine looks better than my wife's 7 Plus screen). The lower resolution of the XR was really an overhyped concern that faded the moment the phone came out.

 

[Glideslope]

I upgraded to a XR from a 7 Plus. I noticed the resolution change for the first few days (especially when they were side by side) but now I don't notice it. You get used to it pretty quick, and I like the size of the XR. I do miss Force Touch a little bit though...

How long did it take you to adjust.

 

[tennisproha]

How can you have Dolby Atmos on those tiny speakers?

 

[dukebound85]

I'm tempted to finally upgrade my 8 Plus and I'm tempted by the iPhone 11 but will I notice the difference with the lower resolution screen?

Really? Why? The 8 plus is amazing

 

[GuruZac]

When I upgraded from the 7 Plus I noticed a few resolution-related things like some text sometimes, but honestly, I held my screen next to my friend’s XS Max and he was shocked. He said the only difference he could see in general was better blacks on his XS Max. I’m not saying the XR screen is as good as the 8 Plus or Max, but it is a very good display. Worst case for anyone with reservations, take advantage of the 14 day return policy at Apple (or 30 days for me at Verizon) and see how you like the display. If it’s no good, return and get the Pro.

 

[Jensend]

Would not be surprised if the spatial awareness stuff and the wide angle 2nd camera gets used for AR stuff in the future (was really surprised they didn't do something with it during the keynote - cause otherwise a zoom camera would be a no brainer choice for a 2nd camera).

The other benefit is video. With the ultra-wide, you get about the same vertical FOV when filming a video in landscape orientation as you do when taking a portrait orientation photo with the wide lens. Since portrait video is looked down upon, that extra vertical FOV can come in handy.

Even compared with a landscape photo, landscape video loses quite a bit of vertical FOV because of the cropping of the image due to the wider aspect ratio. Also, the image is cropped further on all sides to give room for digital image stabilization.

 

[QCassidy352]

These are great explanations thank you both!

That makes sense, CPU itself is a much smaller piece of the puzzle. so 40% efficiency in CPU terms really doesn't mean a lot overall. It's a lot more marketing than reality vs. the '1 hour more' claim that can actually be felt/experienced.

So I guess that begs the question , the 15% more power efficient OLED on Pro yielding 4/5 hours more than the previous XS/Max, is that because OLED is a HUGE HUGE HUGE piece of the puzzle like the vast majority? I knew screens were battery hogs, but I can only assume so given this line of thinking. Unless, again, the Pro/Max Pro have WAYYY bigger batteries than their predecessors too, because the a13 efficiency alone aint working that sorta magic as we've concluded.


My biggest gripe is taking things at face value, people were more or less stating 'it just is so' and thats not a sufficient enough explanation for me to not still be curious about it. This is.

My pleasure!

I share your question about the Pro/Max Pro. Those are massive (theoretical) gains, and, as you say, the A13 cannot be the sole explanation, or we'd see a comparable improvement on the 11. OLED can't be the whole answer either because the XS/Max are OLED also. So although OLED is a battery saver, it's not a difference between the XS/Max and the Pro/Max Pro that would explain the huge gains among models that all have OLED.

The only thing I can think is that it's a combination of the A13 and rearranging the internals to fit batteries that are physically larger.

 

[thadoggfather]

My pleasure!

I share your question about the Pro/Max Pro. Those are massive (theoretical) gains, and, as you say, the A13 cannot be the sole explanation, or we'd see a comparable improvement on the 11. OLED can't be the whole answer either because the XS/Max are OLED also. So although OLED is a battery saver, it's not a difference between the XS/Max and the Pro/Max Pro that would explain the huge gains among models that all have OLED.

The only thing I can think is that it's a combination of the A13 and rearranging the internals to fit batteries that are physically larger.

I’m excited for some tear downs

 

[Bawstun]

Can’t believe they removed blue, probably one of the most frequent XR colors I’ve seen out in the wild. For weird light green and some lavender purple color? Huh?

 

[thadoggfather]

Can’t believe they removed blue, probably one of the most frequent XR colors I’ve seen out in the wild. For weird light green and some lavender purple color? Huh?

Though the green is growing on me, I feel the same. Doing away with blue is so sad it’s a great color. Same with coral even though I don’t think I’d buy it. Why take it away if you
Offer the same standard older colors but also including yellow? The differentiator if you aren’t into purple or green is the dual cameras and the square bump which sticks out on its own anyways