How Users and Critics are Responding to the iPhone XR

THE ‘ENTRY-LEVEL’ DEVICE IS ALREADY PROVING A HIT

On Friday, October 26, the iPhone XR was released to a largely rapturous response. Indeed, in the run-up to the handset’s retail release, Apple went as far as sharing a roundup of positive reactions from critics.

Digital Trends, for instance, has hailed the “stunning” colors, “great” battery life and “industry-leading” Face ID technology – and with all of this being available from just $749, the iPhone XR has also been deemed great value for money. Daring Fireball called the XR, in this respect, “almost certainly the best iPhone Apple has ever made.”

A ‘CHEAPER’ iPHONE WITH A DIFFERENCE

Nonetheless, what such effusive comments as the above perhaps fail to highlight is that the iPhone XR is, at its heart, a curious beast compared to what we have come to expect from a new iPhone. It has much in common with the flagship iPhone XS and XS Max, including slim bezels and the TrueDepth camera system enabling the sophisticated Face ID and Animoji features. Like those models, the XR also houses the A12 Bionic chip with two performance cores, making it 15% speedier than the A11.

However, there remain quite a few key ways in which the XR departs from the XS series. The price is perhaps the most noticeable, given that pricing starts respectively from $999 and $1099 for the XS and XS Max. With the XR, Apple has made a few compromises to help justify its lower pricing – with, to list two examples, OLED screen technology and 3D Touch being omitted. However, the XR is available in a higher number of color finishes, six: white, black, blue, coral, yellow and PRODUCT(RED).

When all of the included features – and for that matter, those left out – are taken into account, it does raise quite a few questions. Is the iPhone XR worth buying over the XS or XS Max, for example, and do the XR’s omissions really make a noticeable difference to the user experience? Fortunately, the Internet is awash with reviews and reactions from not only press outlets and tech journalists, but also regular users – and what we have gleaned from the early sales figures tells an interesting story, too.