iPhone XR hands-on: New model called 'fascinating,' 'a super-strange phone'

AppleInsider

Apple Wednesday unveiled its lower-end -- but still very expensive -- new iPhone model, the iPhone XR. The assembled tech press sized up the new device after the "Gather Round" event in Cupertino.

The new iPhone XR, the last of the three iPhones unveiled by Apple Wednesday, is the least expensive of the new models, costing $749 for 64GB of storage, with 128GB selling for $799, and the 256GB edition retailing for $899. Preorders start Oct. 19. Here are some reactions from the media in the room who got the opportunity for a hands-on with the new XR.

Chris Velazco touted the "premium power for everyone," describing it as "easily the most fascinating device the company released today."

Brian Heater of Tech Crunch said of the iPhone XR that "I couldn't help but be struck by the idea that the XR is, in its own way, the iPhone X version of the iPod Mini," in that it's cheaper, smaller and available in many colors.

Mark Spoonauer of Tom's Guide called the XR "a clear attempt by Apple to bring its whole lineup up to iPhone X standards while delivering a more affordable price, even if the company needed to make some trade-offs to get there."

Nilay Patel of The Verge called the iPhone XR "a super-strange phone. "It's got a bunch of the specs of the iPhone XS, but it's missing a whole bunch of stuff too." Patel appeared in a video:

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danny showalter

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

claire1

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

anantksundaram

I am sure he’s a good, competent person and all that, but I am not convinced that Mr. Patel should appear on videos. 

saarek

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

They almost need the Xr where is was and then another version that was smaller to complete the line up. So two sizes of Xr starting at £599 and £749 followed by the OLED versions at £899 and £999..... I really think Apple should have made the Xs £899.

Personally I think the £749 for the Xr is very reasonable, the price is between what the 8 and 8 Plus were, so for those looking to get another Plus model this is actually a bargain.

But they really need an iPhone SE sized device.

urashid

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

Because of deeply insightful commentary like this:

"It's got a bunch of the specs of the iPhone XS, but it's missing a whole bunch of stuff too."

/s

SpamSandwich

anantksundaram said:

I am sure he’s a good, competent person and all that, but I am not convinced that Mr. Patel should appear on videos. 

Nilay is a dumbass. That's the long and the short of it.

rogifan_new

Gee Nilay if the XR had all the features of the XS there would be no point for it to exist! I do think it’s an odd device in that it’s more expensive than the 8 was and yes cheaper than the 8 Plus but also doesn’t have dual camera lens. To me Apple has gotten worse at creating products where you say that’s the one I have to have. It’s almost like every product exists to get you to buy something else (i.e. more expensive).

claire1

urashid said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

Because of deeply insightful commentary like this:

"It's got a bunch of the specs of the iPhone XS, but it's missing a whole bunch of stuff too."

/s

Guess he wants it to have more features than the Xs at a smaller price. Smart guy!!

rogifan_new

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

iphoneguy911

Can anyone tell me how the XR camera would be in comparison to the 8 plus? On paper XR looks inferior. 1. Dual camera vs single lens. 2. 2X zoom on 8 plus X zoom on XR. Anything I'm missing here?

claire1

Apparently the android slaves are singing like a choir. A song that says "Those XR bezels are HUGE!!"

Is there any specifications showing they're any bigger than iPhone X? They look tiny.

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

I prefer a SE sized iPhone X and removing the 7 and 8. They removed a newer iPhone after all but kept the old school ones. Weird. Why not go all "bezel-less"?

I'd prefer a line up close to this:

SE Sized iPhone X R: $649

iPhone Xs: $999

iPhone Xs Max: $1099

P.S. The XR was so confusing. For a moment I thought it was a new premium model with better performance than Xs. You really have to dig into the details to know the difference. Like I said a lot of people will think its similar enough and spend less money for their favorite color, where as the size would have been an in-your-face differentiator. 

Muntz

anantksundaram said:

I am sure he’s a good, competent person and all that, but I am not convinced that Mr. Patel should appear on videos. 

He seems like a pissy 40 year old, just like the other live blog commentators did for their Verge coverage today.

chasm

iphoneguy911 said:

Can anyone tell me how the XR camera would be in comparison to the 8 plus? On paper XR looks inferior. 1. Dual camera vs single lens. 2. 2X zoom on 8 plus X zoom on XR. Anything I'm missing here?

We'll have to wait for in-depth testing, but while the single-lens of the Xr has picked up some impressive tricks, it's extremely unlikely that it won't be found lacking compared to the cameras, plural, on the Xs. Judging only from photos seen during the event, though, I think most people will be very satisfied with the quality of the images they get from the Xr, and frankly I find it to be the best value of the phones introduced today. It's 90 percent of an iPhone X (and larger!) basically.

canukstorm

claire1 said:

Apparently the android slaves are singing like a choir. A song that says "Those XR bezels are HUGE!!"

Is there any specifications showing they're any bigger than iPhone X? They look tiny.

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

I prefer a SE sized iPhone X and removing the 7 and 8. They removed a newer iPhone after all but kept the old school ones. Weird. Why not go all "bezel-less"?

I'd prefer a line up close to this:

SE Sized iPhone X R: $649

iPhone Xs: $999

iPhone Xs Max: $1099

P.S. The XR was so confusing. For a moment I thought it was a new premium model with better performance than Xs. You really have to dig into the details to know the difference. Like I said a lot of people will think its similar enough and spend less money for their favorite color, where as the size would have been an in-your-face differentiator. 

What you're essentially asking for is an iPhone Xr with a screen size smaller than 6.1".  No one knows for sure but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple has that in the works for next year.  Something along the lines of 5.4".

macplusplus

claire1 said

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

P.S. The XR was so confusing. For a moment I thought it was a new premium model with better performance than Xs.

You are not wrong. Indeed XR is a new premium model with better performance than Xs: price-wise...

Old ladies will say “I don’t need two cameras, one camera is adequate for me” and that is exactly what Apple wanted ;-)

M68000

If i missed this please correct me - but what does the "R" in the name of the phone mean?   Please no jokes, really wondering if this has been announced during the keynote or some other official way from Apple.

rogifan_new

claire1 said:

Apparently the android slaves are singing like a choir. A song that says "Those XR bezels are HUGE!!"

Is there any specifications showing they're any bigger than iPhone X? They look tiny.

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

I prefer a SE sized iPhone X and removing the 7 and 8. They removed a newer iPhone after all but kept the old school ones. Weird. Why not go all "bezel-less"?

I'd prefer a line up close to this:

SE Sized iPhone X R: $649

iPhone Xs: $999

iPhone Xs Max: $1099

P.S. The XR was so confusing. For a moment I thought it was a new premium model with better performance than Xs. You really have to dig into the details to know the difference. Like I said a lot of people will think its similar enough and spend less money for their favorite color, where as the size would have been an in-your-face differentiator. 

Too much of a gap between the XR and XS there. Also wasn’t the SE starting at $349? That would be a big price increase. Bottom line is Apple doesn’t look at all interested in creating a new iPhone at the low end. They’ve decided the low end will be served by older models at reduced prices.

canukstorm

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Apparently the android slaves are singing like a choir. A song that says "Those XR bezels are HUGE!!"

Is there any specifications showing they're any bigger than iPhone X? They look tiny.

rogifan_new said:

claire1 said:

Why is that Nilay clown getting any spotlight?

danny showalter said:

I must be getting old. These phone look wonderful expect for the price. I am still using my 6S. I am not sure when I will upgrade to the 8S. The cost needs to come down.
I am a long time customer for Apple. All the way back to the Apple II.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple didn't make the LCD version smaller. This would have made it cheaper and easier to differentiate.
I can easily see old ladies buying the R just because it's cheaper without knowing why. Wouldn't be surprised if R outsold XS.

Except Apple is keeping around the 7 and 8 to fill lower price points. If they made the XR cheaper the gap between it and the XS would be to big.

I prefer a SE sized iPhone X and removing the 7 and 8. They removed a newer iPhone after all but kept the old school ones. Weird. Why not go all "bezel-less"?

I'd prefer a line up close to this:

SE Sized iPhone X R: $649

iPhone Xs: $999

iPhone Xs Max: $1099

P.S. The XR was so confusing. For a moment I thought it was a new premium model with better performance than Xs. You really have to dig into the details to know the difference. Like I said a lot of people will think its similar enough and spend less money for their favorite color, where as the size would have been an in-your-face differentiator. 

Too much of a gap between the XR and XS there. Also wasn’t the SE starting at $349? That would be a big price increase. Bottom line is Apple doesn’t look at all interested in creating a new iPhone at the low end. They’ve decided the low end will be served by older models at reduced prices.

"Too much of a gap between the XR and XS there"

Yes there is.

iphoneguy911

chasm said:

iphoneguy911 said:

Can anyone tell me how the XR camera would be in comparison to the 8 plus? On paper XR looks inferior. 1. Dual camera vs single lens. 2. 2X zoom on 8 plus X zoom on XR. Anything I'm missing here?

We'll have to wait for in-depth testing, but while the single-lens of the Xr has picked up some impressive tricks, it's extremely unlikely that it won't be found lacking compared to the cameras, plural, on the Xs. Judging only from photos seen during the event, though, I think most people will be very satisfied with the quality of the images they get from the Xr, and frankly I find it to be the best value of the phones introduced today. It's 90 percent of an iPhone X (and larger!) basically.

I’m comparing with 8 plus. I own a 8+ and on Apple upgrade program. Wondering if it makes sense to switch from 8+ to XR. For me Camera is the most important feature, so I don’t want to upgrade to a phone with a downgraded camera.

macplusplus

M68000 said:

If i missed this please correct me - but what does the "R" in the name of the phone mean?   Please no jokes, really wondering if this has been announced during the keynote or some other official way from Apple.

I associate the "R" with Retina (2x?) and the "S" with Super Retina (3x).