The iPhone XR is the cheaper of the iPhone releases, coming in around £200 cheaper than the XS and £300 cheaper than the XS Max. So should we be buying the cheaper iPhone model?

The iPhone XR packs itself into 6.1″ display, putting itself right in the middle of the 5.8″ XS and 6.5″ XS Max. I found the size to be just enough for my hand. I was able to reach all the corners of the screen, but this may be different for more smaller hands.
Its made from different materials compared to the other two models, there is no stainless steel, it used anodized aluminium sides which means it can be tweaked to match the glass colour of the back. The back colour is really bright and vibrant, which is great to see. But the sides make the whole phone very slippery. I am in love with all these colours but am a big fan of the black. It is also packing an IP67 rating, which is nice to see.

iPhone XR Specs:
- Display 6.10-inch
- Processor hexa-core
- Front Camera 7-megapixel
- Resolution 828×1792 pixels
- OS iOS 12
- Storage 64GB
- Rear Camera 12-megapixel
The Liquid Retina display has some great viewing angles and is easy to see outside. On paper, it is less than 1080p but you really can’t tell when using the phone. There is no OLED, or 3D touch, which means blacks aren’t that black, but I did miss the 3D touch. There is also touch to wake, which is my favourite much-used feature.
My least favourite design element is the bezels. They feel large, and I am still not over them at the moment. The 3GB of ram isn’t noticeable, as there are fewer pixels, IOS runs very smoothly. The battery is also really good, and I found it to be better than the XS and XS Max. Due to the lower resolution screen, the battery lasts a lot longer.

The single-camera is the same as the main camera on the XS, is still an acceptable camera. There is no optical zoom, so we have to get used to the digital zoom. The wider angle portrait mode of the XR I found to be better than the telephoto portrait of the XS. There is though no depth detection, this is all done with the software. Which has meant that the software will only detect human faces, as opposed to physical objects.
This isn’t a budget phone at all at £749, but if you are coming from an older iPhone model this is a worthy upgrade. After that, please check out our other mobile reviews.
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