iPhone X So Xr’s screen is only 720p...

[Shanghaichica]

I seriously cannot understand. Name one portable device that had such a screen ten years ago.

Maybe not quite 10 years but I had a phone 8 years ago and it had the same resolution as the Xr.

My husband has damaged his note 8 so is sending it off to be fixed under insurance. He’s acquired a Samsung Galaxy S5 to use whilst his phone is being repaired. It was released in 2014 and guess what it has a higher resolution than the Xr and is Oled to boot.

 

[purged]

828p torments me.

 

[Broadus]

This guy does an excellent job at discussing the XR and the screen, but it may be a little too technical for some. It describes how the display is better in ways more than just resolution and pixel density.

There’s way too much rational thinking in that video for this discussion. 🙂

 

[PeteS1963]

There’s way too much rational thinking in that video for this discussion. 🙂

This guy does an excellent job at discussing the XR and the screen, but it may be a little too technical for some. It describes how the display is better in ways more than just resolution and pixel density.

There’s way too much rational thinking in that video for this discussion. 🙂

Careful now, people on here might learn something 🙂

 

[MICHAELSD]

This guy does an excellent job at discussing the XR and the screen, but it may be a little too technical for some. It describes how the display is better in ways more than just resolution and pixel density.

He is right. The quality of the pixels is the best of any Apple LCD, and the XR does look good as an improvement over past LCD iPhones, especially for those coming from an iPhone 6 or 6s (or older) — even the Plus versions of those phones. I did notice a lot of improvements to color gamut and contrast on the iPhone 7 Plus so anybody coming from a 7 Plus or an 8 Plus might want to consider the XS or XS Max if they’re not sensitive to the PWM flickering. But anybody coming from a 326ppi phone already will be thrilled with the display. While I can notice the difference in sharpness, it does look better than the 8 Plus in every other area.

As nice as the display looks and with how much work the engineers put into making it look vibrant and sharp, there’s still only so much that can be done to mitigate having less pixels than a Plus phone.

 

[aevan]

Sure, if it's enough why improve it? Especially on a gadget that costs up to $1000?
The XS Max battery lasts a day with moderate usage, if it's enough why make it bigger? Am I right?
No it it's enough you can clearly see the pixels and if you say you can't then you're in denial trying to justify a sneaky marketing trick to increase profit and reduce cost in the most rich company in the world.

Apple has certain set profit margins. In order to hit a certain cost, yes, they offer various quality of components - for example, MacBook Air has a lower quality screen than a MacBook Pro. Likewise, even though both are called "Liquid Retina", the iPad Pro 2018 has a better screen than iPhone XR.

With that said, XR has a teriffic screen and you're just wrong about the importance of resolution. You know, if you said something like "why doesn't the XR have the same contrast/color accuracy of other Apple LCD screens, like the one on iPad Pro" - I would still think you were overreacting a bit, but the statement would at least be based on something that really counts.

If you want to argue Apple could've put a more expensive screen in the XR, feel free to do so. If you want to argue you can get a better product for less money - I'm not going to go into that discussion. It's old as Apple itself. Personally, I don't if they could've added a more expensive screen and kept the price point.

But even if you are correct, even if they should've added a better screen - increasing the resolution would not be the way to do it (yet, it would've made for better marketing). There are more important factors than resolution. Given the choice - iPad Pro level contrast and accuracy would make for a better screen then 400ppi resolution, and yet, no one mentions that, only that it's a lower res then they "expect".

In fact, a 1080p screen of average quality is actually CHEAPER than a great 720p screen. If Apple wanted to "reduce cost", they could've put a 1080p screen and cheap out on other parameters, like many Android manufacturers do. I think someone already posted this video, but here it is again, it illustrates my point well.

 

[DSTOFEL]

Hallelujah!!! Someone gets “it”. How can someone this or that, but... they accept an iPad Pro and 12.9” screen with “only” 264 PPI.

Idk about you, but to me 6.1” at 326 PPI compared to 12.9” at 264 PPI would make it more “crisp”.

+1. So, I’ve had myiPad Pro 10.5 for over a year (ie at 264 PPI)....I’ve never once thought about the resolution being lacking in any way. So, now I have my XR with it’s 6.1 inch display at 326 PPI. Guess what...I’ve still not given a single thought to any lack of resolution in the XR display! Hum!

 

[StellarVixen]

OK, I understand, Apple was never chasing the specs.

But, why, just why can't we have 1080p screen? Why, when everyone else in this price range has it? Even higher res screens, Samsung's Galaxy S9 has 1440p screen?

And again, why?

 

[aevan]

OK, I understand, Apple was never chasing the specs.

But, why, just why can't we have 1080p screen? Why, when everyone else in this price range has it? Even higher res screens, Samsung's Galaxy S9 has 1440p screen?

And again, why?

Price, performance and battery. A high quality LCD screen with great peak brightness and good contrast, wide color and accuracy is expensive to begin with, then add the antialiased rounded corners, then add the way it doesn't have that one bigger bezel (which, according to OnePlus CEO is doable, but too expensive to make).... so, in order to hit their profit margins, something had to give and Apple chose what they consider the 'least important' spec. I think they made a good choice, rather than compromise in some other aspects.

I suppose that's the main reason - but it's not the only reason. Battery life and performance aspects are also there, so why take those hits for a minor improvement? It was a smart choice.

"Oh, but why did they do it for X/XS/XS Max then" you ask? Well, they had to - because these are OLED screens that use a pentile matrix that, in practice, needs a higher ppi to look as sharp as an LCD screen. If they could get the same LCD sharpness on an OLED at a lower ppi - they probably would have the same resolution on the XS, because of battery life (XR has the best battery life of any iPhone).

"Ok, but what about 8 Plus? That's not an OLED?" True - but it's again a case of 'they had to'. The way iOS works is not pixels but points. Not to get too technical, but in order to get everything nice and sharp, you have to have 2x or 3x pixels compared to points. Now, X/XS/XS Max and Plus phones use 3x (the only difference is that Plus phones downsample it, while the X models do not). If they used 2x, at that size, the resolution would be lower than 326ppi - and that would be noticeable for a phone.

As you see, for many reasons, this was a smart choice. At the end of the day - I'd say it's more important how a screen looks than how many pixels it has. So it's simple - you walk into a store and see if the XR screen looks good to your eyes. My bet? It looks great, unless you really, really want it not to 🙂

 

[MICHAELSD]

Apple has certain set profit margins. In order to hit a certain cost, yes, they offer various quality of components - for example, MacBook Air has a lower quality screen than a MacBook Pro. Likewise, even though both are called "Liquid Retina", the iPad Pro 2018 has a better screen than iPhone XR.

With that said, XR has a teriffic screen and you're just wrong about the importance of resolution. You know, if you said something like "why doesn't the XR have the same contrast/color accuracy of other Apple LCD screens, like the one on iPad Pro" - I would still think you were overreacting a bit, but the statement would at least be based on something that really counts.

If you want to argue Apple could've put a more expensive screen in the XR, feel free to do so. If you want to argue you can get a better product for less money - I'm not going to go into that discussion. It's old as Apple itself. Personally, I don't if they could've added a more expensive screen and kept the price point.

But even if you are correct, even if they should've added a better screen - increasing the resolution would not be the way to do it (yet, it would've made for better marketing). There are more important factors than resolution. Given the choice - iPad Pro level contrast and accuracy would make for a better screen then 400ppi resolution, and yet, no one mentions that, only that it's a lower res then they "expect".

In fact, a 1080p screen of average quality is actually CHEAPER than a great 720p screen. If Apple wanted to "reduce cost", they could've put a 1080p screen and cheap out on other parameters, like many Android manufacturers do. I think someone already posted this video, but here it is again, it illustrates my point well.

You’ve hit the nail on the head, and even more impressively the iPhone XR measures closer to the color/contrast of the new 12.9” iPad Pro than the 11” iPad Pro. (You can compare the measurements on Notebookcheck but in terms of black level and contrast it goes 11” iPad Pro < iPhone XR < 12.9” iPad Pro.)

 

[aevan]

You’ve hit the nail on the head, and even more impressively the iPhone XR measures closer to the color/contrast of the new 12.9” iPad Pro than the 11” iPad Pro. (You can compare the measurements on Notebookcheck but in terms of black level and contrast it goes 11” iPad Pro < iPhone XR < 12.9” iPad Pro.)

Interesting - I've heard that 11" has a lower quality screen than a 12.9", but I didn't know XR sat between the two. My friend has an XR and other than black levels, it looks just as amazing as my X. And really close to my 12.9" 3rd gen iPad Pro.

To be honest, all three screens are so great, the best LCDs I've seen, so even there the difference is not so big. Still, it's more important than 326 vs 400+ ppi on a phone.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Price, performance and battery. A high quality LCD screen with great peak brightness and good contrast, wide color and accuracy is expensive to begin with, then add the antialiased rounded corners, then add the way it doesn't have that one bigger bezel (which, according to OnePlus CEO is doable, but too expensive to make).... so, in order to hit their profit margins, something had to give and Apple chose what they consider the 'least important' spec. I think they made a good choice, rather than compromise in some other aspects.

I suppose that's the main reason - but it's not the only reason. Battery life and performance aspects are also there, so why take those hits for a minor improvement? So it was a smart choice.

"Oh, but why did they do it for X/XS/XS Max then" you ask? Well, they had to - because these are OLED screens that use a pentile matrix that, in practice, needs a higher ppi to look as sharp as an LCD screen. If they could get the same quality at a lower ppi - they probably would have the same resolution on the XS, because of battery life (XR has the best battery life of any iPhone).

"Ok, but what about 8 Plus? That's not an OLED?" True - but it's again a case of 'they had to'. The way iOS works is not pixels but points. Not to get too technical, but in order to get everything nice and sharp, you have to have 2x or 3x pixels compared to points. Now, X/XS/XS Max and Plus phones use 3x (the only difference is that Plus phones downsample it, while the X models do not).

As you see, for many reasons, this was a smart choice. At the end of the day - I'd say it's more important how a screen looks than how many pixels it has. So it's simple - you walk into a store and see if the XR screen looks good to your eyes. My bet? It looks great, unless you really, really want it not to 🙂

Honestly the 2x point resolution for the most part looks more natural than the implementation of a 3x point downscaled resolution on the Plus phones. I can see the difference in overall detail and sharpness though and that paired with with the lack of 3D Touch is really making me ambivalent on the iPhone XR. (It’s more difficult than it needs to be to select text without 3D Touch, as I just found out when trying to delete a sentence in the middle of this post.)

It is perfect for the average consumer and the display is fantastic for what it is. It’s so sharp in some instances (like in upscaled video) that it’s almost like there’s some additional processing going on in the software. The engineers really did the best they could to get around those compromises and the XR is a quality product.

 

[aevan]

Honestly the 2x point resolution for the most part looks more natural than the implementation of a 3x point downscaled resolution on the Plus phones. I can see the difference in overall detail and sharpness though and that paired with with the lack of 3D Touch is really making me ambivalent on the iPhone XR. (It’s more difficult than it needs to be to select text without 3D Touch, as I just found out when trying to delete a sentence in the middle of this post.)

It is perfect for the average consumer and the display is fantastic for what it is. It’s so sharp in some instances (like in upscaled video) that it’s almost like there’s some additional processing going on in the software. The engineers really did the best they could to get around those compromises and the XR is a quality product.

Oh, there are many factors that make a screen 'sharp' - for example, subpixel smoothing. So yes, Apple is doing a lot of wizardry to make those screens great and you should never buy a screen based on one spec (like resolution) alone.

As for 3D touch, yeah, I really like it. Sadly, it seems it's not very popular and already there are rumors (that I hope are false) Apple is ditching 3D touch on all 2019 iPhones and going for "Haptic touch" instead. As for selecting text - I thought holding a finger on the space bar a bit does the same thing as 3D touch on iOS12?

 

[MICHAELSD]

Price, performance and battery. A high quality LCD screen with great peak brightness and good contrast, wide color and accuracy is expensive to begin with, then add the antialiased rounded corners, then add the way it doesn't have that one bigger bezel (which, according to OnePlus CEO is doable, but too expensive to make).... so, in order to hit their profit margins, something had to give and Apple chose what they consider the 'least important' spec. I think they made a good choice, rather than compromise in some other aspects.

I suppose that's the main reason - but it's not the only reason. Battery life and performance aspects are also there, so why take those hits for a minor improvement? It was a smart choice.

"Oh, but why did they do it for X/XS/XS Max then" you ask? Well, they had to - because these are OLED screens that use a pentile matrix that, in practice, needs a higher ppi to look as sharp as an LCD screen. If they could get the same LCD sharpness on an OLED at a lower ppi - they probably would have the same resolution on the XS, because of battery life (XR has the best battery life of any iPhone).

"Ok, but what about 8 Plus? That's not an OLED?" True - but it's again a case of 'they had to'. The way iOS works is not pixels but points. Not to get too technical, but in order to get everything nice and sharp, you have to have 2x or 3x pixels compared to points. Now, X/XS/XS Max and Plus phones use 3x (the only difference is that Plus phones downsample it, while the X models do not). If they used 2x, at that size, the resolution would be lower than 326ppi - and that would be noticeable for a phone.

As you see, for many reasons, this was a smart choice. At the end of the day - I'd say it's more important how a screen looks than how many pixels it has. So it's simple - you walk into a store and see if the XR screen looks good to your eyes. My bet? It looks great, unless you really, really want it not to 🙂

Seeing is believing. Under store lighting the XR looked noticeably better than my 8+ so I promptly ordered one after that. Under actual usage it does look less sharp but the improved color/contrast also makes it look more vibrant so it’s a bit of a trade-off.

Had I known I wouldn’t be able to use iPhone X/XS due to the PWM flickering I might have held onto the 7 Plus longer — that also had a fantastic LCD panel, which measured a better black level/contrast ratio than the panel on the 8 Plus. But I’m not one to hold onto old tech for too long 😉.
[doublepost=1547335798][/doublepost]

Oh, there are many factors that make a screen 'sharp' - for example, subpixel smoothing. So yes, Apple is doing a lot of wizardry to make those screens great and you should never buy a screen based on one spec (like resolution) alone.

As for 3D touch, yeah, I really like it. Sadly, it seems it's not very popular and already there are rumors (that I hope are false) Apple is ditching 3D touch on all 2019 iPhones and going for "Haptic touch" instead. As for selecting text - I thought holding a finger on the space bar a bit does the same thing as 3D touch on iOS12?

If you hold a finger on the space bar it does move the cursor around which is not quite as seamless but a smart workaround. On phones with 3D Touch you could use a deeper touch to also select text.

I didn’t think I used 3D Touch that often since I rarely used it on the home screen other than out of boredom, then I realized that I probably use it on the keyboard over a dozen times a day. If they do get rid of it it won’t be a major loss if they can replicate the ability to select text. Selecting lines of text without it is downright frustrating.

 

[aevan]

If you hold a finger on the space bar it does move the cursor around which is not quite as seamless but a smart workaround. On phones with 3D Touch you could use a deeper touch to also select text.

You know - I always thought it worked that way with 3D touch (the deeper push for selecting) but I was never quite sure if it happened because I pressed harder or just waited a bit 🙂 But now that you say it - yes, it does work that way.

 

[MICHAELSD]

You know - I always thought it worked that way with 3D touch (the deeper push for selecting) but I was never quite sure if it happened because I pressed harder or just waited a bit 🙂 But now that you say it - yes, it does work that way.

By far the best implementation of 3D Touch. I can’t even think of any other features that use it to its potential in the way the cursor functionality does.

 

[PeteS1963]

Apple has certain set profit margins. In order to hit a certain cost, yes, they offer various quality of components - for example, MacBook Air has a lower quality screen than a MacBook Pro. Likewise, even though both are called "Liquid Retina", the iPad Pro 2018 has a better screen than iPhone XR.

With that said, XR has a teriffic screen and you're just wrong about the importance of resolution. You know, if you said something like "why doesn't the XR have the same contrast/color accuracy of other Apple LCD screens, like the one on iPad Pro" - I would still think you were overreacting a bit, but the statement would at least be based on something that really counts.

If you want to argue Apple could've put a more expensive screen in the XR, feel free to do so. If you want to argue you can get a better product for less money - I'm not going to go into that discussion. It's old as Apple itself. Personally, I don't if they could've added a more expensive screen and kept the price point.

But even if you are correct, even if they should've added a better screen - increasing the resolution would not be the way to do it (yet, it would've made for better marketing). There are more important factors than resolution. Given the choice - iPad Pro level contrast and accuracy would make for a better screen then 400ppi resolution, and yet, no one mentions that, only that it's a lower res then they "expect".

In fact, a 1080p screen of average quality is actually CHEAPER than a great 720p screen. If Apple wanted to "reduce cost", they could've put a 1080p screen and cheap out on other parameters, like many Android manufacturers do. I think someone already posted this video, but here it is again, it illustrates my point well.

Well, there you go. I hadn't seen that video so if someone had posted it before thanks for posting it again.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Ahhh... the Huawei P20. A good friend of mine has one of these and we spent some time looking/chatting about it. A few things that we noticed:

* Lots of people bang on about the camera but to us the camera over processes every photo. Pictures look like oil paintings.

* It’s unintuitive to navigate. Eg the home button is used for just about everything. You never know where you are.

* Hideous lag, especially on web pages.

* Terrible inconsistencies with font and menu sizes. Some think iOS has gone downhill in these areas. Wait until you see this.

* The screen is oversaturated. Nice resolution but it looks cartoonish.

Of course these were just our observations. but yeah, the screen has good resolution and the phone is shiny shiny.

1. It is entirely different styles. I love the night mode, which combines shots with different apture. Which produce great low light photo. You can turn off the AI mode and adjusting settings. When I compare my Huawei P20 photo with XR (which I had for 2 weeks), I found iPhone photo is more dull looking. I like my P20 photo more than XR.

2. The home button is just as easy to operate as iPhone. One tap home button goes back to home, just like old TouchID. Swipe right on the home button invoke the multitasking tray. Swipe to right is going back. You see, Android always has the back button which is equilvent of swipe back .

3. I do not notice any inconsistent font and menu. Probably because I am have set the system language to Chinese.

4. You can always change launcher and icon packs if you dislike what you seen. Can you do that with iPhone XR?

When the Huawei P20 can be purchased cheaper than XR, it is instantly better bang of buck.
[doublepost=1547341718][/doublepost]

So why did you get a XR if you're so disappointed with the display?

I did not keep mine. I have returned it within the holiday return period. I ended up with 256 iPhone 7 Plus purchased from eBay for lot cheaper. My main phone still P20 and Mate 20 Pro. I just use iPhone when I feel I need play around.

 

[imlynxy]

XR was made for Verizon, where even on their top plan they have 720p maximum.
1. You pay premium for outdated screen
2. You pay premium for not 4x4 MIMO modem
3. You pay for throttled VZW internet

..... and you triple proved that you watch “retro” 🙂


When I first saw XR and I heard XS price I sold some stocks of some company.

 

[Peter K.]

Why did this thread explode today? It was dead for over two months!

 

[Broadus]

Why did this thread explode today? It was dead for over two months!

Precisely. My guess is it was trolled. We beat this dead horse to bits a couple of months ago in this and other threads, but it evidently has to be beaten more.

 

[MICHAELSD]

XR was made for Verizon, where even on their top plan they have 720p maximum.
1. You pay premium for outdated screen
2. You pay premium for not 4x4 MIMO modem
3. You pay for throttled VZW internet

..... and you triple proved that you watch “retro” 🙂


When I first saw XR and I heard XS price I sold some stocks of some company.

I actually think the screen is pretty nice. Not necessarily sold that it's a definitive upgrade over the 8+ as the comparison is 25% more pixels on the 8+ vs 25% higher contrast on the XR but the pixels are very high quality.

The main issue users will run into is app developers and how they choose to handle the display. Netflix limits streaming to 720p, even for wide aspect videos that are zoomed to fit the display. Facebook rolled back native support so that its entire suite of apps is upscaled. Over time this will improve of course, but I think an argument could still be made that more features at a slightly higher price point would have been preferred.

Regardless I have to commend the engineers for what they did at this resolution as it is a colorful LCD display that will easily best any budget 1080p display.

 

[milover]

same pixel as the iphone 4
yeah iphone 4, 2010 product
yeah 10 years ago should be 2009 but..come one..2009 and 2010 lol

 

[OTACORB]

This whole thread is BS! I purchased the XR on release day and returned a XS Max because I felt the screen quality was sufficiently satisfying and the cost overall was $450 less than I had paid for the XS Max.

All this whining over a the iPhone XR's resolution and the fact is most consumers don't give a a rats rear-end about this. Some of you have allowed yourselves to be sucked in by some obvious trolls and some others that feel they need to justify spending more money or they must have what they deem as the best iPhone. Good luck with that thinking!

 

[milover]

Very honest comments