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iPhone XR Upgrade iPhone XR to 11 or 11 Pro?

Should I upgrade from XR to 11 or 11 Pro?

  • iPhone 11

    Votes: 22 28.6%

  • iPhone 11 Pro

    Votes: 21 27.3%

  • Keep iPhone XR

    Votes: 34 44.2%
  • Total voters
    77
I

icemantx

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
547
648
My wife and I both have the XR 128GB from last Oct and are debating if we keep using it for another year or turn them in on IUP and get either the iPhone 11 128GB or iPhone 11 Pro 256GB. Monthly price difference is less than $20 each.

What is making me hesitant for the Pro is just how useful is the zoom lens on the Pro. Will that make much of a difference at my kids softball or soccer games? Also, how much better is the OLED screen in direct sunlight?

Most likely whatever we do we will be getting the 2020 iPhones when they have a new design so this would be a 1 year phone.

Thoughts?
 
I have gone for the 11 Pro from XR, I would have probably kept the XR if the only choice was the 11, while it has the spec bump and new camera I don't think for me it would have been enough of an upgrade.
 
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I’m keeping my Xs Max in gold from sprint. Honestly the front of the phone is the same as the 11 pro Max also the frosted glass is way more slippery compared to glossy glass from the Xs Max . Plus I got my phone in February so it’s way more recent to me compared to people that got it on launch day.
 
I’m upgrading from the XR to the 11 Pro. I had a X and went to an XR earlier this year.

I thought the LCD would be better in the bright sun - wasn’t... I miss the smaller form factor.
 
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If you’re happy paying for the 11 Pro then at least that would get you the significantly better camera and better screen etc - just going to the 11 (non pro) I really doubt you’d notice much of an upgrade once the initial novelty of the extra lens died down.

Personally I’d keep the XR, which is still excellent, given that you’re wanting to upgrade next year anyway.
 
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Best financial move: Keep XR, finish paying it off, then sell/trade-in next year for cash instead of using IUP.

Best camera/screen quality move: Upgrading to the 11 Pro. Just sort of depends on how much you'll get out of those things. If you're pretty happy with the XR camera and screen, I don't know that I'd do this. Another thing to consider - will you be happy with a slightly smaller screen? A lot of people have a hard time going back to a smaller screen once they've gotten used to a larger one.

Middle ground: Upgrade to the 11. I guess you'll lower your month payments a small amount since there was a $50 price drop. Slightly better camera and battery than the XR, but no changes to screen quality.

Personally, if I were pretty happy with the XR, I'd try to keep it another year. But, I also understand the itch to upgrade, especially if you're on the IUP program.
 
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Well I went from the XS to the 11 (my wife is going from the 8 Plus to the 11). Wanted the slightly bigger screen and went to the Apple store and sat for a while comparing my XS to the XR as the new phones weren’t out yet and to my eyes the differences in the screens, while there, weren’t that significant. (I do look at a lot of photos, very few movies.)
Wanted to play with the ultra wide lens more than the 2x zoom which IMHO isn’t that useful. If Apple had increased the zoom then I might have stuck with the Plus. And I have 14 days to change my mind anyway.
 
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I completely get the upgrade from 6/7/8/xs to xr/11 for the size. I went from 6 to XR and would not want to go any smaller now, but xr to 11 seems like a pointless waste of money for a marginally better camera. Each to their own, though.
 
If deciding between XR and 11, basically the key upgrades are:

  • $100 more for 11
  • Faster processor
  • Better rear camera
  • Better front camera
  • 1 hour longer battery life
 
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sp44 said:
  • $100 more for 11
  • Faster processor
  • Better rear camera
  • Better front camera
  • 1 hour longer battery life
  • Also 1GB more RAM
Click to expand...
And
  1. much faster 4G LTE
  2. better wifi connection (WIFI 6)
  3. better screen brightness
  4. tougher glass
  5. better water resistance
  6. better location sharing (U1 Ultra-Wideband chip)
 
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scubatopy said:
And
  1. much faster 4G LTE
  2. better wifi connection (WIFI 6)
  3. better screen brightness
  4. tougher glass
  5. better water resistance
  6. better location sharing (U1 Ultra-Wideband chip)
Click to expand...
Literally nothing that anyone’s actually going to notice in real world use, then.
 
Dented said:
Literally nothing that anyone’s actually going to notice in real world use, then.
Click to expand...
I would say the opposite...
being able to take a good picture in low light conditions - the difference is impressive
wide angle photography
improved data speed - which helps you a lot in areas where the connection is poor
 
sp44 said:
Just like the faster processor.
Click to expand...
Agree with this. The difference from 6 to XR was absolutely night and day and well worth it, but xr to 11 I doubt I personally would notice the difference. 2-3 year gap I feel is about right for me as that is enough new processors to notice a difference in speed, unless of course they do what they did with the ipad and stick a 3 year old one in a new phone!!
 
scubatopy said:
I would say the opposite...
being able to take a good picture in low light conditions - the difference is impressive
wide angle photography
improved data speed - which helps you a lot in areas where the connection is poor
Click to expand...
Night mode is a good feature, but is software and can be mimicked by third party apps.

Wide angle photography - looks great on stage but is no different to taking a few steps back with your XR.

improved data speed - nice when you’re downloading large files I guess (if you’ve got the data allowance for that), but a poor connection is a poor connection and is going to slow you to a crawl regardless.
 
I’ve had my 11 for about 8 hours now and it’s a huge improvement on the 8+ I had.
Face ID is brilliant much better, faster and more reliable than Touch ID in my opinion.
I can’t notice any decrease in screen quality despite lower PPI.
The notch is the non issue I always believed.
I don’t regret not getting the pro one bit.
 
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Dented said:
Night mode is a good feature, but is software and can be mimicked by third party apps.

Wide angle photography - looks great on stage but is no different to taking a few steps back with your XR.

improved data speed - nice when you’re downloading large files I guess (if you’ve got the data allowance for that), but a poor connection is a poor connection and is going to slow you to a crawl regardless.
Click to expand...

Night mode is mainly hardware, cause the wide camera acquires a wider range of ISO , which is the basic reason for this improvement.

About wide angles, in many occasions you may not have enough space to go back (e.g. church interiors, other monuments). Furthermore, pictures look different due to image distortion (which may look sort of artistic)

About data speed, just moving from 6 to 10 Mbps in download under these conditions would allow you to look at a HD movie without breaks .
 
scubatopy said:
Night mode is mainly hardware, cause the wide camera acquires a wider range of ISO , which is the basic reason for this improvement.

About wide angles, in many occasions you may not have enough space to go back (e.g. church interiors, other monuments). Furthermore, pictures look different due to image distortion (which may look sort of artistic)

About data speed, just moving from 6 to 10 Mbps in download under these conditions would allow you to look at a HD movie without breaks .
Click to expand...
Night mode isn’t hardware, at least not primarily (probably the A13 improves it). The added wide angle lens you’re talking about is actually LESS sensitive than the standard lens (higher f value) so it’s no use at all in gathering more low light info.

Yes there are situations where you can’t step back, but it’s a marginal use case let’s be honest.

If by “these conditions” you’re still talking poor connections, again you’re dreaming, the fact the phone is capable of higher speeds does not mean it’s magically going to reach higher speeds when the signal is poor - in that situation the bottleneck is the network, not the phone.
 
You might have missed the point. I am referring to the WIDE camera, not the ULTRAWIDE one : the wide one has enlarged the ISO gamut from 2304 to 3072 (much mode sensitiveness in the darkness). See below specs and comparison to prior generation of wide angle



The results are mainly due to hw upgrade: please note night mode works by using new WIDE sensor, new processor, and software to gather as much information as possible from a dark scene.
How this will eventually work on a XR, has still to be proven. And I doubt it will be a success without a better hardware.

Probably it's me, but when I visit cities with my reflex I am mainly using a wide angle for my pics . I appreciate this feature a lot also on a phone that weights 20% of my reflex.

About poor connections, it's questionable - still need to check the upgrades from MY XR to MY 11 (yes, I have both :)) and will let you know foir sure.
 
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