Apple iPhone XR
Buy now £499, Amazon.co.uk
- Price: From £499
- Screen size: 6.1in
- Screen technology: LCD
- Storage capacity: 64GB, 128GB
- Processor: A12 Bionic
- Rear camera: 12MP
- Front camera: 7MP
- 4G or 5G? 4G
- Face ID? Yes
- Rating: 7/10
First released in October 2018, the iPhone XR (the X is pronounced ten, by the way) was the first entry-level iPhone with Face ID, a feature which had previously only been seen on the top-flight iPhone X the year before.
This meant there was no need for a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the front, allowing for an edge-to-edge display on the front, something no company had been able to do with an LCD screen before. Apple used precisely milled glass and clever pixel masking to ensure the screen looked great with curved corners. Measuring 6.1in it was the largest LCD screen Apple had made – a record it still holds as the iPhone 11 merely matched it and bigger iPhone displays have all used OLED. But, while the screen looks good, it has a lower resolution than the displays on the iPhone 12, something that’s really only evident if you have both side-by-side.
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Apple moved into colour with the iPhone XR and it’s available in six different finishes: blue, white, black, yellow, coral and product(red). The iPhone 12 is also available in six shades. It also introduced longer battery life than the iPhone had seen before, though the iPhone 12 is even longer. Even so, it is enough to glide through a full day with ease.
There’s only one rear camera on the iPhone XR, but unlike previous single-camera setups, the processor on this phone was so advanced that it could deliver effects usually reserved for two cameras. Portrait mode for example, ensures your subject is in sharp focus while the background is blurred. Normally, a phone achieves this by shooting two cameras at the same time and combining the images. The iPhone XR does it entirely through software, something made popular by the A12 Bionic chip which is very fast.
But there’s a downside to this technique: portrait mode is for people only, not still lives of fruit or, more importantly, pets. If you want portrait mode for pets, you need a different model, such as the iPhone 12.
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Performance is very fast. It’s a mark of just how much Apple’s chips outstrips the competition that a processor released in October 2018 (and identical to the one found on the pricier iPhone XS and XS Max phones from 2018) is still fast and capable now. It’s among the very fastest phones, especially for the price, that you can find right now.