The XS and XS Max set the pinnacle for smartphone building this year with a meticulous attention to detail and a choice of materials that will maintain the luxurious feel over years to come. Apple says the glass is one of the most durable ones in the market and will sustain itself well against scratches. And as expected, Apples CEO Tim Cook took the wraps off the brand new iPhone XR — the iPhone that fans have been waiting for patiently. The compromises are made in the display and camera departments, out of which the former has drawn a lot of criticism.Build, DesignUnlike some of its rivals (Ahem — Google), Apple takes hardware very seriously and has set a record for delivering breathtaking devices in the last decade. The animations are smooth as silk, with no noticeable lags or stutters anywhere throughout the UI.4µm pixels and is assisted by OIS as well as PDAF.Boot up the XR and there’s no way you will see pixels peeping at you. The notch does eat up into the viewing area and there’s no way to scale apps (especially games) to avoid the notch — maybe Apple could do something in the future. The iPhone XR is a great flagship-grade smartphone that hits most of the sweet spots consumers look for in an ultra-premium smartphone — premium aesthetics, a superb user experience, a great battery life and an extremely capable camera. You also get access to Animojis and Memojis, which now track tongue movements along with facial animations pretty accurately. The camera maintains the focus efficiently while the sensor makes sure the image qualities of still images do get applied to the video as well — natural dynamic range and good contrast levels. However, the single sensor captures tremendous amounts of details and the new computational photography ensures the dynamic range is pretty close to what you see in reality. It also hits your conscience, especially when you consider that rivals are offering full HD+ displays as standard in this segment.BatteryThe Plus-sized iPhones have always been known to offer longer stamina than the regular sized models due to the bigger body accommodating a bigger power reserve. Night time photography is handled decently, with the camera doing its algorithmic magic to keep noise at bay while maintaining sharpness. Low light does put some strain on the camera with regards to exposure, but noise was usually invisible. And after all, these panels come colour-corrected from the factory — which means that they are not conventional LCD displays slapped on your phone, but are a highly tuned to get the best and next-to-original images. No wonder, the XR easily scored an average of around 363,500 on AnTuTu, outperforming every other smartphone out there. The TrueDepth system makes for 3D studio lighting effects previously seen on the iPhone X and Apple still has some ground to cover.8 — a 1/2. Since eSIM hasnt gathered much traction in India, we wished that Apple had offered the Chinese variant which has two physical SIM card slots. This is smaller by the standards set by Android manufacturers, but more than enough for an iPhone — thanks to ultra-efficient and optimised iOS 12 as well as the chip.Despite some chinks in its armour, the iPhone XR makes for a superb premium smartphone as an all-rounder. Despite that, Apple is selling the XR in five colour variants, with the minimum asking price being Rs 76,900 for the 64GB variant. The widget window now includes more interactive widgets for most apps and we found it a useful place to catch up with whats happening with the phone and its apps with a quick glance. You can dial down the blurring after you have taken the photo and XR makes sure the blurring doesnt feel unnatural by adjusting the shape of the bokeh to resemble a DSLR cameras effects. You can verify your online payments with supported services using FaceID as well. Despite that, the XR gets the XS’ impressive primary unit — a 12MP sensor with an aperture of f/1. However, the exorbitant price meant it was seen restricted only to the affluent. All of this makes for a uniform bezel all-around, with only the notch being an exception. The exposure from light bulbs, floodlights and the likes are handled impressively too. On paper, it retains the same highly anticipated design, the advanced biometrics and the brains and eyes from that of the XS. Count in Apple’s proprietary iOS 12 and the package is complete. And on the topic of notifications, iOS 12s revamped notification management system now makes it easy to deal with notifications from the lock screen. The XS series gets a dual lens system, but the XR has to make do with a single rear setup, keeping cost in mind.The iPhone XR is fast out-of-the-box — ridiculously fast and capable. If you aren’t crazy about zooming while taking photos and don’t care about a visually-seducing OLED panel, the iPhone XR makes more sense over the expensive iPhone XS Max. The XR does fall short in certain areas where rivals outdo it by miles — the display, despite packing impressive technology, isn’t as good as the AMOLED counterparts, and the lack of a secondary sensor for the rear camera limits a camera that can do wonders otherwise.Now, several of you must be wondering how Apple managed to kick off the chin and prevent backlight bleed on an edge-to-edge LCD display.Therefore, with a heavy usage scenario involving incessant texting, streaming audio via wireless headphones, catching up on the latest YouTube videos, browsing social media feeds and short sessions of gaming, the iPhone XR can stay alive through an entire working day, with around 30 per cent of power to spare. The front camera’s results can be at best be termed as extremely impressive. Filling up the XR is faster with a fast charger or fast wireless charging pad, but the standard 5W adapter takes up to 2. The edge detection is most of the times a hit-or-miss. Now, people have been bashing Apple for stuffing a low-resolution panel in the XR, with some comparing it with iPhone 4S’ unit. This is paired with 3GB of RAM, which is a GB lesser than the XS.iOS 12 as a smartphone operating system is extremely smooth and sensible. However, with a limited 3GB of RAM, the XR doesnt hold as many apps as its elder siblings. Apple has stuffed in the same 7nm A12 Bionic chip that drives the XS series.With the prices still undercutting the XS by a huge margin, is the iPhone XR the flagship-class smartphone that we have been looking forward to coming out of the Cupertino giant’s factories in recent history? Let dig deeper. App shortcuts are gone for now and moving the cursor between texts requires you to long-press the spacebar for adjusting the cursor. Apple also confirms that they have increased the number of LEDs for the backlight — which means a brighter display with an increased nits output. It excels in the majority of areas where one needs a flagship smartphone to perform without compromising on the core fundamentals of a gold-standard user experience.1-inch LCD iPhone offering most of the bells and whistles of the iPhone X without burning a hole in the pocket. The accuracy is remarkable, with the system never giving up to a glimpse of your face. You still get the volume rockers, the slider switch for profiles and the sleep button in the traditional iPhone positioning. The downside to FaceID is that you need to be facing your phone to unlock it, which is less convenient that TouchID’s ‘anywhere unlocking’ capabilities.1-inch LCD iPhone. It may not be as versatile as Android, but it makes sure all the smartphone chores are dealt the way they are intended to. Memory management is very impressive, with XR easily holding multiple apps in the memory for users to swipe between them at any moment. Apple’s TrueTone colour adjustment works well under different ambient lighting, managing the white balance to keep the colour tines closer to natural ones. Since the XR follows the iPhone X-class of aesthetics, the Control Centre is now accessible from the top right corner while Notifications are accessible from the centre or the top left corner of the display. The colours are vibrant (thanks to the wide colour gamut) while contrasts are maintained up to natural levels. Some were dumbstruck with an almost edge-to-edge fullscreen design while Apple loyalists were fanboying over the new UI navigation. Apps and games open way before than they do on Android counterparts — the fruits of immense hardware-software optimisation. This results in some shots looking dull when compared to results from some of its established rivals, but its assured that you will get quality images most of the time, which can easily be edited as per your whims. However, in low light, a noticeable amount of noise creeps up and you would require some sort of editing before you show off on social media.A new backlight design cleverly stuffed under the visible narrow bezels makes sure you only see what you intend to, not a halo effect peeping from the edges. The display’s natural properties make the bezels a tad thicker, the reason for which we discuss next.(source).The iPhone XR was conceptualised to offer most of the headlining features of the iPhone XS to a larger consumer base that wasn’t willing to shell out more than a lakh of Rupees. In fact, the display seems to be as good as it has been on previous LCD iPhones.CameraWith this year’s iPhone lineup, Apple has followed Google’s suit and has adopted the idea of computational photography.ConclusionAfter going through the iPhone XR a little closely, it’s easy to assert that Apple has a winner on its hands that will keep filling the cash registers for the next few years. The 7MP front camera is assisted by the TrueDepth system for dealing with selfies and unique 3D imaging effects.FaceID works like a charm in most lighting situations, even when it goes pitch dark. Nonetheless, while binge-watching on YouTube or swiping through the photo gallery, the display provides for enjoyable viewing experiences.
The optimised iOS 12 makes sure that all the power available at hand is utilised in the most efficient of ways so as to maintain Apple’s standard of smooth smartphone user experience.Let’s start with the rear camera — it is awesome! Period! The XR maintains Apple’s style of imaging with slightly warmer colour tones. However, our unit was picking up minor scuffs when exposed to daily usage scenarios, so it’s advisable to go for a tempered glass protection in order to save yourself from massive repair bills.But this is Apple — they don’t come cheap! So, the design geniuses at Cupertino cleverly borrowed what was considered premium in the older models of the yesteryear and infused it into the iPhone XR. In short, the Apple Bokeh algorithm only works with human faces and not objects for now. The 7MP sensor captures enough details and just the right balance of colours to make sure selfies keep looking good.Eager eyes will notice the slightly thicker bezels on the XR when compared to the X, XS or XS Max — that’s due to the Liquid Retina display (LCD) that Apple chose over the usual OLED panels.However, what works as intended, if not better, is the FaceID biometrics system. And without surprises, Apple proudly flaunted its own take on a narrow-bezel LCD panel, which it loves to call Liquid Retina.Rating: When the iPhone X was unveiled last year, the world of consumer technology went berserk.Everywhere else, the design is pretty close to what we saw on the iPhone X last year — an all-glass rear with a camera bump and a notched-display to the front. The eSIM will presently work with Airtel and Jio for Indian consumers, and will allow users to switch between two networks for either making a call or using the Internet. Measuring 6. However, the smooth texture also makes the XR slippery and it’s advised that you dress up your XR with a case as soon as you take it out of the box. Grouped notifications are now a blessing and long-pressing on them throws up more options to customise the way you are notified on such information.Weirdly though, Apples bokeh system can only identify human faces, which means your pets and objects won’t be getting the bokeh love unless Apple decides to fix this later in future.Sadly, due to the lack of 3D Touch on the XR, iOS 12 turns to haptic feedback, which is essentially iOS’ style of doing the ‘long-press-for-options’ feature.DisplayWhile in development, the XR was known to the world as the 6. In fact, the software-based bokeh is a tad better than what we had seen on the iPhone XS. The dynamic range, as well as the brightness levels, are rendered accurately — no complaints here. Apple finally got rid of TouchID on the current year’s lineup and is relying completely on its TrueDepth camera system using FaceID. As Apple advertised, the bokeh resembles the blurring from a DSLR camera’s depth-of-field effects and you can adjust it even after you have taken the shot — a la Google Pixel. You can also record slow-motion videos with 1080p@240fps, with audio matching the pace of the footage — only iPhone excel in this regard. Apple doesn’t do shortcuts and therefore, went up to greater extents to make sure the viewing experience is close to what users get on the XS and XS Max. Theres a visible single SIM tray, but the XR features Dual SIM connectivity — thanks to the provision of an eSIM. Google’s Digital Wellbeing on Android 9 Pie does give you more options to maintain your digital health, but Screen Time isn’t far behind and could do with more finessing on Apple’s part to make it more usable. This makes the XR retain the matte finish charms of the iPhone 8 and 7 series models.PerformanceEach year, iPhones are known to be built around chips that are a whole generation faster than the ones seen released from the Qualcomm or Samsung factories, or anyone else from the Android universe. It’s easily one of the most reasonable smartphones Apple has ever built in recent times and you won’t need the fortune to enjoy the latest from Apple. The XR too follows the same footsteps, but cuts corners from a few areas to keep the prices "affordable". Under daylight, the XR doesn’t even break a sweat. Last year’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X lineup brought back the more glamorous glass-metal sandwich build to the iPhone after a long while (the iPhone 4S set the trend). Nothing’s changed for the XR this year as well. Additionally, the XR weirdly only keeps the face and the bust in focus while blurring everything below it.55-inch sensor with 1. The Smart HDR mode maintains a good balance of exposure in most shots. You can spend Rs 81,900 and bump up the storage to 128GB or go up to 256GB by shelling Rs 91,900. Nonetheless, the iPhone XR will cope well with light showers and accidental spills.iOS 12 brings in Screen Time, which helps you track your smartphone usage and if needed, tone down your usage with the help of several tools.1-inch form is closer to the former, which means Apple could fit in a 2942mAh battery.5 hours for topping up the reserve. Additionally, Apple’s computational photography has still some ground to cover, considering Google’s prowess in this regard. Since then, people had been looking forward to the leaks that described a new 6. The XR’s 6. On the busiest of days, we managed to get up to 8 hours of screen-on time, which is exceptional for a phone of this class. The result is surprisingly impressive — the XR goes for a 7000-series Aluminium frame instead of the stainless steel seen on the X or the XS. The lack of a telephoto lens, however, affects the sharpness when you are zooming in on a subject. For those who don’t remember, the TrueDepth system comprises of a dot projector building up a 3D face map with invisible IR light dots, which is illuminated by an IR Flood Illuminator and is captured by an IR-sensitive camera.Being an LCD means you get oodles of brightness, even under direct sunlight. We also wished that Apple had pushed for an IP68 certification instead of the IP67 certification here to make it absolutely weatherproof like the XS and XS Max. The A12 Bionic SoC holds a hexa-core CPU paired with a quad-core GPU and an octa-core Neural Processing Unit.The portrait mode makes for impressive bokeh effects, with Apple improving the edge detection between the subject and the background this time.Normal modePortrait ModePortrait Mode with 3D lighting effectsWhen it comes to video, the XR can pull up its socks and deal with up to 4K videos shot at 60fps. The XR’s LCD gets pixel masking alkaline battery 1.5V for sale and sub-pixel anti-aliasing, which masks the light bleed and enables the panel to follow the curves around the edges. So be prepared to ruin your shots if you are shooting anything else other than human portraits.1-inches diagonally, it renders images at a resolution of 828 x 1792 pixels with a pixel density of 328ppi. Photos look really good — almost as good as they look on the iPhone XS.However, a slight shift in colours is noticeable once you tilt the device at smaller angles — the display loses colour accuracy while viewing off-axis. One can use Downtime to make only those apps available that are absolutely needed at specific times of the day, or use App Limits to set time limits for individual apps. iOS’ gesture navigation is the benchmark, making every swipe feel as natural and fluid as it should seem. However, once you get used to it, FaceID is more effortless than any other biometric verification and you will almost get used to it.
