
The Apple iPhone XR Review - gok
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13912/the-apple-iphone-xr-review-brilliant-battery-life
======
dkonieczek
XR user here that switched from Android after leaving the iPhone 4. The
battery life is amazing. With my minimal use, it's lasting me 3 days with
about 20% before I plug it in again. Great app ecosystem too. It's the little
things like LastPass just being so much better on iOS. Widgets and
notifications have come a long way but I still wish I could have widgets for
email instead of having to manually open email. The screen often feels a bit
large but gestures make it usable.

~~~
sexyrouter
Please enlighten me.

Which one is worth buying iPhone X or iPhone XS Vs iPhone 8?

\- Writing this with an android phone attached to a powerbank in park.

~~~
dirtylowprofile
I'm an iPhone 8 user and I prefer the size and form on this one. It has better
resolution than Xr and it has 3d touch.

~~~
Matthias247
I went from an 8 to an Xr. The resolution in terms of dpi is the same on both.
In terms of overall pixels it is higher on the Xr, due to bigger display size.
Both displays are excellent.

I thought I might miss 3d touch, but with the iOS 12.1.1 update the biggest
issue had been fixed: Accessing the context menu for notifications on the home
screen. That one now actually feels nicer than on the 8, since the feedback is
stronger with haptic touch. Scrolling in notifications with long press on
spacebar is slightly worse, since it doesn't allow to mark things via light-
release-and-press and doesn't react in some situations. But it's still very
bearable. Don't miss the peek&pop functions of 3d touch at all.

The biggest advantage and disadvantage of the Xr: It has a lot bigger screen,
is bigger, and feels heavier. It's a tradeoff. I still find it more
inconvenient to carry around, and to swipe in from the left side of the screen
in order to go back. But the large screen also has it's advantages.

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hprotagonist
I have one, love it, and real high on the list for why is that at the end of a
busy day I regularly have 40% battery left in the bank.

Put side-by-side with a XS, i'm hard pressed to find a visual difference
between screens, quality-wise.

~~~
stingraycharles
Honest question, because I’m a bit confused: the 40% is good or bad? It seems
comparable to my old iPhone SE, is battery life so much worse on the newer
generations?

~~~
1123581321
Someone getting down to 40% on the XR would have a dead battery on the SE.
Your usage is lighter.

~~~
dijit
How are you qualifying that?

Power draw in usage vs battery capacity?

I've never really looked at it like that, but I guess we should take the least
generous values from both:

Pure Capacity:

iPhone XR: 2,942 mAh

iPhone SE: 1,624 mAh

Draw:

iPhone XR: "Up to 15 hours", so 196,134 mAh of draw if we take the best case
for the iPhone XR.

iPhone SE: 12-13 Hrs on Internet (so, LTE, according to apple) that's roughly
129,92 mAh

; while the capacities are wildly different I don't see the SE being so far
behind.

If you can get real power draw numbers you can make your own conclusion. I
suspect Apple expects a certain about of idle time (which has been optimised
for on the later generations).

~~~
liamkf
Yeah, using the battery life test from Anandtech as a guide, an SE gets about
70% of the battery life of an XR: 12.97 hours vs. 9.27 hours.

So I would guess around 28% of its battery when an XR is at 40%.

~~~
1123581321
Using those numbers, when an SE hit 0% after 9.27 hours of usage, the XR would
be at 28.5% (12.97-9.27)/12.97. That seems reasonable and makes my original
claim that an XR would be at 40% was a hit high, but in the same ballpark.
There’s certainly no doubt that the SE’s battery size and power management
doesn’t compare to the current phones’.

~~~
wlesieutre
Though it's worth pointing out that the SE _did_ beat out its contemporary
iPhone 6s, with which it shares most of its innards. Differences are the
smaller display, slightly smaller battery, 1st vs 2nd gen TouchID, and a lower
res front-facing camera.

[https://www.anandtech.com/show/10285/the-iphone-se-
review/3](https://www.anandtech.com/show/10285/the-iphone-se-review/3)

24% longer on wifi web browsing. Worse on the graphics benchmark, but only
because the framerate is higher (smaller screen resolution) which keeps the
CPU from idling as much.

Makes you wonder what the performance of a modern small iPhone could be like.

------
jld
I wanted to love the XR, but it was too big.

I’d prefer a 4.5” phone, but ended up with an iPhone X as a kind of cheaper,
smaller, currentish iOS device.

~~~
maxxxxx
I would like to see an SE that’s thicker to accommodate a bigger battery.

~~~
saagarjha
A phone as large as iPhone XR with iPhone SE's thickness would be pretty
hefty…

~~~
maxxxxx
No, no. The size of the SE but just a little thicker so the battery lasts
longer. That's the only advantage big phones have in my view.

~~~
saagarjha
That's starting to get pretty thick…maybe it might be better if Apple made a
battery case for iPhone SE?

~~~
opencl
The SE is already thinner than the XR by 0.7mm, and 0.1mm thinner than the
XS/XS Max.

~~~
saagarjha
Sure, but since it's smaller it would be far more "chunky".

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i_am_nomad
Seconding some other users: the battery life on the XR is phenomenal. I
upgraded from an iPhone 6, which even with the $29 battery replacement
couldn't last till the afternoon with heavy use. Now, with the XR, I've
stopped feeling the need to carry a backup battery with me, and I rarely even
use my charger at work.

It's quite possibly the only product Apple makes today that Steve Jobs might
approve of. Maybe that, and the AirPods.

------
CloudNetworking
Switched from a Google Pixel (the original one) to the XR. Supper happy about
the phone's quality and specially its battery.

At night I noticed that the screen is not OLED or AMOLED or whatevs, the
blacks are quite bright, but I don't watch movies or series on it so I can
really live with that.

All in all I'm very happy with the phone and it'll last me for years.

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shadowmore
"The iPhone XR is an interesting product for Apple: It is clear that it aims
to be a lower-cost alternative to the higher-end XS flagships."

In what world is $800 an affordable price point?

~~~
TwoNineA
Adjusted to inflation, the iPhone 4S was 722$. XR is 749$(not 800 by the way).
27$ difference, not too bad considering the technology is superior in every
way to the 4S.

[https://i.redd.it/jclu70hbjzw11.png](https://i.redd.it/jclu70hbjzw11.png)

~~~
jbarberu
Twist it the other way around. What used to get you the top of the line, now
only gets you the lower-cost model.

~~~
pchristensen
That's because a higher end model was introduced. A 2019 Toyota is more
advanced than a 2009, even though Lexus exists.

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RubberShoes
"...is only outmatched by the more recent Mate 20 with its 33% larger
battery."

As a fan of OLED, it's hard to swallow this simple fact that LCD is superior
in power consumption

~~~
MBCook
The OLED on the XS has more pixels and thus needs more RAM and GPU time to
render, using up more energy.

~~~
iknowstuff
It also _needs_ more pixels due to its pentile pixel structure which reduces
perceptible resolution.

------
danbolt
I switched from a 5S I bought at launch to an XR. I’m enjoying the battery
life, although the larger screen took a bit of getting used to.

~~~
rubicon33
Props for sticking to the 5s for this long! I'm still rocking mine as well.
Although, I just picked up a $200 Moto G6 (first android device ever) for
development, but might just use it as my daily driver since even that budget
android phone is an upgrade to the 5s at this point!

Gotta say though, I've been so impressed with how the 5s has held up over the
years, that the investment in a higher priced iPhone might just be the way to
go.

~~~
danbolt
Thanks! I’m hoping that the XR lasts for the next five years (at least!) too.
I get some smart remarks from others, but the end goal is to minimize the
amount of rare metals consumed in my lifetime. I’ve been really pleased that
the 5S continuously got updates for so long.

------
karmakaze
For those comparing battery life with Android phones, I've noticed that
location services is what always drains my battery the fastest (on
Nexus/Pixel) branded phones. Turning it off or using Low power location
services easily doubled battery life.

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yellow_postit
Updated to the XR from a 6 (replaced battery) and the battery life is amazing.

My biggest complaint is how fragile the phone is. The shell already has
scratches and is wildly expensive to repair. I want a premium plastic body
like the Lumia phones so badly on this tier of device.

~~~
mediaman
I don't know what polymer Lumia uses, but I wonder why Apple doesn't use
ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) for their budget phone
cases.

This material is used among other things on artificial joints such as knees
and hips, as well as the bottoms of snowboards. It's very tough and scratch
resistant.

------
Shorel
I disliked when the reviewer starts complaining about the thickness of the
device.

It has great battery life, much better than most other phones. That battery
needs to be somewhere. You can't have it both ways.

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erikpukinskis
Can anyone explain the current iPhone lineup in a few sentences?

~~~
1123581321
The new models are XR (LCD phone in the link), XS (OLED phone) and XS Max
(larger OLED phone.)

The 8 was last year’s LCD phone and the X was last year’s OLED phone (the
first year it was offered.)

They also sell the 7, which was the phone from two years ago.

~~~
cweiss
Is there an effective mnemonic for the model designations? I've heard the
lineup several times and it's just not sticking. Because of this, I tend to
forcibly _not_ think about the iPhone to save mental CPU cycles.

~~~
1123581321
It’s messy right now. -S still means an improved version of a previous form
factor (X->XS, just like 6-6S a few years ago.) X- seems to mean a curved
corner screen and no home buttons (X/XS, XS Max, XR.) Max And Plus both mean a
larger version of another phone (XS/XS Max, but it’s confusing because the XR
also has a bigger screen.)

I agree it’s not worth thinking about unless you’re really into Apple news.

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djanogo
XR is the cheapest smart phone people can buy, you have to consider cost of OS
upgrades, free apps that Apple spends $ on (Screentime for parents is worth
$5/month by itself). It amazes me how these professional reviewers ignore the
fact that most android devices are lucky to get 2 OS upgrades, and have to
wait several months after OS is released.

iPhone will easily last twice as long and will get all the feature updates the
hardware can support.

~~~
handzbagz
My Nokia 7.1 has monthly updates guaranteed for two years, is fast with a
decent camera and has all the apps I need. Battery life and build quality are
fantastic. All for about a quarter of the price of an iPhone XR. Not sure I
agree with you there.

~~~
majewsky
I'm considering a Nokia 6.1 or 7.1 as my next phone, but I'm concerned that
it's allegedly killing background processes so that IMs don't get delivered.
Can you comment on that?

~~~
Multicomp
My sister is non tech savvy and thus loves to complain about things not
working on her phone or computer. She has a 6.1 and no complaints on that
regard. .

------
andjd
I got the XR. I would prefer a smaller phone, but none of the extra features
on the XS justified paying 33% more for them. (In fact, I didn't feel that 64
GB was enough, so if you compare the cheapest models with more than that,
you're looking at closer to a 50% premium for the XS).

I had a 5S, and I considered the SE, but I had already started to see apps and
websites that don't support the smaller screen size very well, and I didn't
want to get a phone that I intend to use for 4 or 5 years that was already
several years closer to obsolescence.

The XR is a good phone, but it shows evidence of value engineering that you
don't usually see on apple products. The larger bezels, the lightning port not
being centered on the bottom of the phone, the fact that is thicker and almost
heavier than the XS Max.

My biggest disappointment with getting the XR was that general day-to-day
tasks that felt sluggish on my 5S since the iOS 11 update . . . are still slow
and sluggish. I have watched the phone take over 15 seconds to respond in any
way to a tap inside Apple's pre-installed apps. I thought that iOS 11 was just
too resource-intensive for my old phone, and I guess its just that Apple has
forgotten how to write solid and responsive software -- which used to be one
of the key differentiators between Apple and Android phones.

~~~
xvector
> day-to-day tasks that felt sluggish on my 5S since the iOS 11 update . . .
> are still slow and sluggish.

If you restored from a backup, try setting up the phone fresh instead. If that
doesn't help, just go back to the backup.

