Apple iPhone XR Vs iPhone XS Max: What's The Difference?

The best new iPhone is Apple ’s cheapest new iPhone. Yes, you read that right. Announced alongside the premium iPhone XS (guide) and iPhone XS Max (guide), the iPhone XR promises to deliver their best features for a lot less money. And this is perhaps most obvious when compared to the iPhone XS Max…

Here’s everything you need to know…

iPhone XS Max (left) and iPhone XR (right)

Displays - The Big Compromise

If the iPhone XR has a weakness, it’s the display. Furthermore, this is arguably the greatest strength of the iPhone XS Max:

Yes, both phones have huge screens over 6-inches. But while Apple goes to town on the iPhone XS Max with a high-resolution OLED panel, the company cuts costs on the iPhone XR with a relatively low res LCD that cannot natively display Full HD (1080p) content. Apple also removes its pressure sensitive 3D Touch technology from the XR.

And yet, I don’t think most customers will mind.

The iPhone XR has a 326 ppi, which is just as dense as the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (which also use LCD) and no-one complained about their panels. The iPhone XR also matches the premium models other features: Dolby Vision / HDR10 compliance so it should still be good for watching Netflix, “120Hz touch sensing” for faster touch recognition and True Tone for keeping colours accurate.

iPhone XS Max's OLED, high native resolution and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 makes it the... [+] best for watching video content

As for the loss of 3D Touch, Apple is rumoured to be scrapping this feature in its next-gen iPhones anyway because so few people use it and you can get away with a long press hack in iOS 12 instead.

So yes, the iPhone XR lags behind the iPhone XS Max but it’s far from a deal breaker for most people. In fact, you’ll spot this is a theme in the next sections…

Read more - Apple iPhone XS Vs iPhone XR: What's The Difference?

Design - Thicker, More Fun

Perhaps the biggest surprise when Apple launched the iPhone XR, was it had delivered the same premium ‘bezel-less’ design with Face ID as the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max for a lower price. But look closely and the iPhone XR design betrays cost saving, though it is also a lot more fun:

The giveaway to the iPhone XR’s budget roots is its thickness. The LCD display takes up more room than OLED, and it is not flexible so Apple cannot bend it at the edges to hide connectors. All of which means the iPhone XR has thicker bezels on all sides and is heavier than you might expect. But it remains something you need to look at closely to spot.

iPhone XR has slightly wider bezels on all sides compared to the iPhone XS Max, but few will care

Another downgrade you’re unlikely to notice, is the iPhone XR swaps out the premium stainless steel chassis of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max for aluminium. But every iPhone prior to the iPhone X used aluminium without complaint.

Another tweak: the iPhone XR has IP67 water and dust resistance while the premium XS models have IP68. The difference? The iPhone XR can only be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes at a depth of one metre, not two metres. Yep, no biggie.

Meanwhile, the iPhone XR does match two great upgrades on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max: 25% louder external speakers (with added stereo left and right channels), and dual sim support via a nano sim and eSIM. These work simultaneously so owners can have two numbers on a single device - great for work/home or home/travel options. This is entirely new to the iPhone range.

Finally, the iPhone XR comes in a much better range of colours and, to many, this will more than make-up for its thicker bezels.

iPhone XR comes in a wide range of eye-catching finishes

While the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are restricted to Silver, Space Grey and Gold, the iPhone XR comes in White, Black, Blue, Yellow, Coral and (PRODUCT)RED. Yes, you can get (PRODUCT)RED from day one and it looks brilliant. These colors will turn heads in a way no iPhone XS model can.

And from here it only gets better for the iPhone XR…

Performance - Rocket Ships

A real surprise is Apple choose to put the same cutting-edge internals as the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max into the iPhone XR:

Where there is a difference is RAM. The iPhone XS Max has 4GB RAM while the iPhone XR has 3GB. But don’t worry, while multitasking may be slightly faster in a year or two, the primary reason Apple gives the XS models 4GB is to drive their dual cameras while the iPhone XR has one (more in the next section). And more to the point, no-one thinks last year’s 3GB, dual camera sporting iPhone X is slow.

So what do you get with the Apple A12? (ignore ‘Bionic’, it’s marketing rubbish)

Apple's A12 Bionic chipset

The big news is 50% leaps in graphics performance and power efficiency when idle. At peak performance, Apple claims a smaller 15% CPU boost but detailed third-party testing suggests the company massively undersold itself here. The new internals also bring support for the 600MHz 4G band, an increasingly popular frequency used by carriers to cover black spots. So this could be a crucial upgrade for some buyers.

Where the iPhone XR does miss out is another you-probably-won’t-care feature: the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have 4G Cat 16 LTE which is capable of one-gigabit downloads. The iPhone XR, by contrast, is restricted to 600Mbit which is far beyond what real-world carrier speeds can deliver anyway.

Read more - iPhone XS Vs iPhone X: What's The Difference?

Cameras - Single Vs Double

iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max share the same optics, including the dual rear cameras

From the outside perhaps the most noticeable difference between the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS Max, apart from their size, is their cameras:

In short: what you’re missing out on as an iPhone XR buyer is the 2x optical zoom. At times this feature can be useful, but the telephoto lens is of inferior quality so in less than ideal lighting dual camera iPhones usually just crop an image from the primary camera instead. In most scenarios, you can also simply walk closer to what you’re shooting.

iPhone XR only has a single rear camera, but it's the same primary camera as the iPhone XS and... [+] iPhone XS Max

Despite its single rear camera, the iPhone XR still has Portrait Mode (as does the front) and it gets Apple’s new ‘Smart HDR’ image processing. Like Google’s HDR+ on the Pixel range, this combines multiple photos shot at different exposures into a single image to combat the iPhone range’s historically poor dynamic range.

Apple's new Smart HDR image processing combines multiple photos, taking the best parts from each

Meanwhile, the new iPhones’ larger 1.4µm pixel size allows them to take in more light so you will get much better (if not quite Pixel-catching) low light photography this year on all models.

Read more - iPhone XS Vs iPhone XS Max: What's The Difference?

Battery Life And Charging - Cheaper Lasts Longer

If your biggest concern about the iPhone XR is its screen, here’s the upside of that lower resolution: killer battery life.

Yes, the iPhone XS Max has a slightly bigger battery than the iPhone XR but the reality is Apple’s new budget model can last as much as 25% longer on a single charge.

iPhone XR battery life is better than the iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max

The downside is the iPhone XR doesn’t get the unspecified “faster” Qi wireless charging of the XS models, but as they max out at 7.5W on a standard which can achieve 15W you’re not missing much.

Furthermore, despite your much bigger outlay for the iPhone XS Max, neither iPhone will get a fast wired charger in the box. So unless you want to pay $75 for the necessary charger and compatible cable, you really need a phone that lasts all day - and the iPhone XR will do this better than any new iPhone model.

Storage And Price - Maxed Out

Here is where the iPhone XR seals the deal:

The fact you can buy a 256GB iPhone XR for $200 less than a 64GB iPhone XS Max is astonishing. The fact you can buy two 64GB iPhone XR phones for less than the price of one 512GB iPhone XS Max is equally so. Furthermore, the midrange 128GB is arguably the sweet spot for many users and this is missing from the XS range meaning a choice of too little (64GB) or too much (256GB, 512GB).

iPhone XR (right) is more interesting than the iPhone XS Max (middle) and iPhone XS (left)

Bottom Line

The biggest threat to sales of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max is the iPhone XR. And Apple might just live to regret making this phone too good for the price gap.

Yes, the iPhone XR is technically inferior to the iPhone XS Max in most areas but these are not areas where people will care. Especially compared to its superior battery life and more interesting colours.

Don’t get me wrong, those who can afford the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will enjoy them, they are excellent devices.

But the long and short of it is the iPhone XR is just as fast as the XS models, takes the same quality of photos with its primary cameras, lasts longer on a charge and has head-turning White, Black, Blue, Yellow, Coral and (PRODUCT)RED finishes. None of these will come to the XS models except for (PRODUCT)RED, and you’ll have to wait months for that to happen.

The iPhone XR is Apple’s most interesting phone in years and, unless you have money to burn, it’s the model you should buy…

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Apple iPhone XR Vs iPhone XS Max: What's The Difference?