Apple iPhone XR: better than good enough

Hey, this is often the iPhone XR. It's Apple's new main stream iPhone which starts at $750. Excuse me, are you already typing? Are you already leaving a comment about display resolution and pricing and OLEDs versus LCD, are you able to just stop? we are able to try this later. We'll have an excellent time down there. For now, just hang around a second and ask yourself, what proportion does one really, really care about the display on a phone? i do know plenty of individuals have questions about the ten R size, this weird, not huge and not small 6.1 inches and I'll get to it. But I'm telling you the deciding factor between the ten S and therefore the 10 R is that the screen. If you'll put a dollar amount on what proportion you care about the screen, would that dollar amount be $250? 

          Because that's exactly what proportion you would like to worry so as to shop for an iPhone10 S rather than the ten R. Let me explain and so you'll all do your thing. Okay, so last month I reviewed the iPhone 10 S and 10 S max, which are Apple's new flagship phones. they need new A-12 processors, edge to edge OLED displays, Apple's latest camera system that does smart HDR, it's essentially everything Apple can fit into a phone. and therefore the iPhone 10 R is essentially the iPhone 10S with a rather worse display. That's it, that is the object. It's got the identical A-12 bionic processor, the identical main camera with smart HDR, the identical iOS 12, but rather than that edge to edge OLED, there is a 6.1-inch liquid retina LCD. and therefore the display is okay. It's lower resolution and pixel density than OLEDs in new flagship phones just like the 10 S and also the Galaxy S nine and Pixel three, but if you're upgrading from a previous LCD iPhone it's visiting look really familiar. 

          I do think it is a little worse than previous LCD iPhones once you study it off axis. It shifts a little bit pink and therefore the brightness drops quickly, which implies it can sometimes look a touch shimmery, but honestly you've got to be a large display nerd to essentially notice that. What you'll definitely notice is that the larger bezel round the entire display and Apple's notch. The notch is that the same deal because the iPhone 10 and 10 S. It houses a face ID systemin the front facing camera, but the thicker bezel is there because Apple had to suit the backlight for the LCD panel somewhere. aren't getting me wrong, that bezel looks gigantic and particularly silly next to the ten S but the backlight engineering is really really clever. you do not see plenty of LCD phones with perfectly rounded corners and no chins out there and Apple did a bunch of crazy Apple stuff here. one in every of the foremost differences between LCD and OLED screens is how they produce light.

          OLED pixels are their own light and you'll be able to turn the mon and off individually. you cannot do this with an LCD because there's only one backlight for the whole display. So, you'll round off LCD corners by shutting off the pixels but it's super tough to induce it perfect because the backlight will still shine through. But take a look at the ten R. We literally put it under a microscope so you'll be able to see this. See how a number of those pixels look smaller? That's because Apple built little apertures for the pixels round the corners to mask a number of the sunshine coming through on top of anti-aliasing the curving software. it's great. Is any of this necessary? No, but it's super cool and it's super Apple. All of that screen re-engineering means Apple had to require out 3D touch. Instead there's something called the haptic touch which could be a fancy way of claiming long press with haptic feedback. 

          Now there's only two places I ever used 3D touch on my other iPhones and that i didn't really miss it here. I used it to scroll around a text field which works with an extended persist the key and turning on the camera and flashlight from the lock screen, which you'll handle just holding on those buttons. Apple has the simplest haptic feedback within the industry and every one of it form of feels very convincing. I did miss previewing links in Twitter and Safari, but Apple tells me haptic touch will come to more and more places within the iOS over time. Hopefully that gets added back in. Overall, I've always been an exponent of how accurate and balanced Apple's LCDs are compared to the OLEDs in most Android phones and also the 10 R is unquestionably another Apple LCD. If you're coming from an iPhone six, seven, eight, it's visiting look very familiar. 

         But after spending a year with the iPhone 10, I have to be compelled to tell you it is not pretty much as good as Apple's OLEDs. It doesn't have the deep black levels or infinite contrast to the iPhone 10 S. It doesn't support HDR or Dolby Vision video playback. And generally, that backlight means you'll always see the border between the bezel and also the fringe of the display even once you have a dark background. The display does have true tone but it is often a touch warmer than my 10 S. Again, i believe you have got to travel really trying to find a number of these things and if it bothers you'll just spend extra money on a stronger screen, which i'm definitely visiting do. Okay, so that is the display, what about the rest? (upbeat music) Size-wise, the ten R sits right between the old iPhone six, seven, eight size phones and also the bigger plus models. 

          Now, i've got pretty big hands so this looks like a pleasant size compromise but if you have been using one amongst the smaller phones, the ten R is certainly visiting feel bigger. And it is a taller screen and a narrower body than the old Plus phones. i'd definitely recommend visiting the shop and holding this thing before you get it because it is a totally new size of iPhone and it's different from anything you would possibly be acquainted with. If you are a small phone person you're basically visiting be cursed last year's iPhone eight or paying more for an iPhone 10 S. I reasonably hope Apple fixes that next year and does small and enormous in both models of phone. there is a glass back and aluminium border that comes in a very bunch of colors. i really like how mean our black review unit looks, but I have to be compelled to see the opposite colours and they are very nice. 

          I favor the blue and therefore the coral the most effective but the project red is striking and that i know people are excited about the yellow. Just confine mind that while the screen on the ten R is formed of the identical glass on the ten S that Apple says is that the most durable ever, the ten R's back isn't the identical glass. it is the glass used on last year's iPhone 10, and therefore the back of my iPhone 10 shattered while I keep it within the case all the time. So, you know, watch out out there. The phone supports wireless charging with the identical redesigned coil for faster charging because the 10 S, and it hasIP67 water resistance, which could be a little worse than the IP68 of the ten S, but it's fine for the occasional splash. We've also got Apple's new wide stereo speakers which are much louder than before but approximately as loud because the 10 S Max. 

          Round the back there's the one wide-angle camera, which is essentially the identical because the iPhone 10 S wide angle. this is often our third shot at reviewing Apple's new smart HDR camera system after the iPhone 10 S review and therefore the Pixel three review and that we wanted to try to to something a touch bit different. So, Verge video producer Maria Abdul of and that i ran around Brooklyn and took a bunch of photos that look lots like what you'd see each day on Instagram using the Pixel three and also the iPhone 10 R. And while i feel Apple's smart HDR still isn't quite nearly as good because the Pixel three, i feel I finally understand what Apple's trying to try and do. It flattens highlights and lifts shadows so aggressively that everything looks evenly lit, which can sometimes reduce detail and make photos look a bit bit artificial.

          Here's a decent example of the iPhone doing better than the Pixel shooting out over the waterfront. These photos both look particular and even quite similar at a look, but the iPhone could be a bit warmer and every one the shadows by the fountain and within the skyline are lifted, leading to a less contrast image with more detail. The Pixel three is more dramatic, but the iPhone 10 R is more even. But Apple's smart HDR doesn't always get wise right. This photo of Maria against a bright backlight would be challenging for any camera and you'll see how the iPhone 10 R brought down the highlights within the background, lifted the shadows on Maria's face and warmed everything up while the Pixel exposed Maria correctly and let the background highlights blow out far more naturally. The Pixel also captured more detail on Maria's face.

          I much prefer the Pixel here. it is the same thing with selfies. The iPhone mentioned the shadows most that it made the black jacket turn grey. It almost seems like we shot this photo with a movie flash and there is far less detail in Maria's face. Again, i actually prefer the contrast look of the Pixel three photo. There was a bunch of controversy round the front camera on the iPhone 10 S which individuals claim was smoothing out and beautifying skin, but Apple tells me that was all a bug which iOS 12.1 will improve selfies on the ten R and 10 S by picking a sharper base frame rather than a blurrier long exposure. i do not have iOS 12.1 yet so we'll just must see how it works out. Okay, here's a extremely hard one. Low light with a weird lighting in an exceedingly bar. i feel the general public would favor the iPhone here, but it also doesn't actually appear as if reality. 

          The iPhone found Maria's face, exposed it correctly with the proper skin tone so flattened all the highlights and lifted all the shadows to create the scene look even. Again, it almost feels like we brought lights to the bar and lit the photo. The Pixel three on the opposite hand does a far better job of capturing the strange red light during this room whether or not the photo could be a lot darker and weirder. Now, does one desire a photo that's more accurate to reality or more pleasant to appear at? I cannot tell you, it is a really subjective decision. the ten R only encompasses a single lens within the back and i am just visiting start and say that i do not miss having the second lens from the ten S in the least. I never really took zoomed photos in 10 S and therefore the 10 R's single lens portrait mode is truly dedicated.

          In fact, I prefer the ten R's portrait mode to the ten S because shooting using the brighter camera lens means it works better in low light and takes more interesting photos. take a look at this photo we took on the riverfront where i used to be ready to capture the check in the background. It just wasn't possible to urge this shot in portrait mode on the10 S or the Pixel three which crops sure portrait mode. during a low light, the ten R is clearly better than the ten S. This photo during a bar appears like a grainy, dark mess using the ten S' telephoto compared to the ten R, which did a halfway reasonable job. the ten R's portrait mode also has Apple's nice falloff blur, which looks more sort of a real boca than variety of the bad cut out blur you see from the Pixel three. Now i do not really use portrait mode on any of those cameras. 

          I do not think any of it's terrific or perfectly cut out, but the ten R's portrait mode is reasonably the foremost flexible and useful of the bunch. After three rounds of testing Apple's smart HDR, I'm starting to understand what it can and can't do. I'm beginning to recover photos out of it. It can definitely take photos no camera has ever really taken before. But it still crushes detail and produces artificial looking images far more often than i'd like. While the Pixel three just produces winners consistently. As always, i am unable to possibly tell you what to love better. But i do know that I prefer the consistency and naturalness of the Pixel three over the ten R. And this can be all just the primary stages of computational photography. i'd expect the competition between Apple and Google to be fierce over time. 

          But without delay, i'd pick the Pixel three. The iPhone 10 R has the identical video capture because the iPhone 10 S. It can shoot 4K 60. once you shoot in 24 it adds frames to form greater dynamic range, and it records stereo audio. If you would like to record video on your smartphone, you must get an iPhone. In terms of performance, the ten R was essentially a twin of the ten S as I used it day to day and it even had basically the identical benchmark number in some quick tests. it's slightly less RAM than the ten S, it's three gigs rather than four, but it's pushing half as many pixels and honestly, i believe the RAM spec matters way less on iOS than it does on Android phones. Apple's chips are up to now prior the industry that it's clear the A-12 bionic has plenty of headroom to spare. 

          The ten R's visiting feel fast for a minimum of some years. the ten R also incorporates a larger battery than the ten and therefore the 10 S and it ran for about 13hours with my everyday use of browsing and email and Slack and apps. There's about six hours of screen on time. That's slightly quite the ten S and even over the eight plus from last year. the sole major performance difference between the ten R and 10 S is LTE. the ten S supports the faster gigabit LTE speeds and therefore the 10 R doesn't. i do not sleep in a city with gigabit LTE, but maybe you are doing and it's something to bear in mind of. So, there is a lot of iPhone6 S's go into the planet, quite you're thinking that, and that i think lots of individuals are visiting upgrade to the ten R from the 6 S. So, i've got to say there's no headphone jack, which i believe will prompt another round of annoyance, and there also are basically no accessories for the ten R yet. 

          Apple doesn't even have its own 10 R cases ready, which could be a little strange. And there haven't been official battery cases for any iPhone 10, which may be a shame. There are no third-party headphone adapters. There's just a bunch of stuff missing. So, if you're upgrading straight away, it's worth noting that the accessory ecosystem may be a little thin straight away, but i'd expect that to induce plenty bigger fast. And one thing is evident about the iPhone 10 R, it's that Apple goes to sell loads of these. they're huge upgrades from the iPhone six, seven, eight generation with Apple's latest processors and cameras, an enormous screen and an updated design and a competitive opening price of $750. And honestly after we first started making this video, it felt just like the big question would be what's the ten R missing compared to the ten S. 

          But now that I've used this thing for a long time, it's flipped in my mind. the important question for iPhone buyers is whether or not spending $250 more on the ten S, is it really worthwhile over the ten R, because the ten R offers almost everything you'd want during a 2018 phone minus an OLED display. i might pay that extra cash in an exceedingly heartbeat because i'm really, really picky about screens. But i believe the majority aren't. i feel the majority can find way better ways to spend $250 than infinite black levels and 60% wider dynamic zero in photos. For all of these people, the iPhone 10 R could be a no brainer. the 000 question is whether or not you, yeah you, think the higher screen on the ten S is worth $250. Now you'll be able to leave a comment. Hey everybody, thanks most for watching. We talked plenty about the iPhone 10 S and also the Pixel three during this review.

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