You might remember that I got an iPhone XR last December 2020. It’s roughly been six months since then and I have some thoughts.

Design and Build

The iPhone XR’s design is a big step up over the 6S Plus that I had been using. Gone are the chunky bezels of yore and in their place is an edge-to-edge display with the omnipresent notch up top. Said bezels on the iPhone XR are noticably thicker than its XS and XS Max siblings but I honestly don’t mind. The permiter of the device has a sleek look only interrupted by the antenna lines.

Build-wise, the unibody aluminum construction gives the device its solid premium feel while the glass back makes it super slippery and delicate. I have rocked it with a dBrand skin for a while but I eventually removed it because nothing really beats the feeling of holding the device unprotected in all its glory. I have placed it down on a bunch of surfaces and the back seems to have held up well.

The XR is also quite thicker than the 6S Plus but this is something I welcome; although its massive camera bump is something I don’t. The larger power button is super clicky and so the are volume buttons and the mute switch. Qi Wireless Charging is also here but I’ve yet to use it. What I do use is the 18W fast charging via the USB-C to Lightning cable to top the XRs chonky battery.

Display and Audio

The Screen

The iPhone XR doesn’t have a 1080p display. Bonkers, I know. Coming from the 6S Plus I thought I was going to be disappointed, but to my surprise, I wasn’t able to discern the decrease in raw screen resolution. What I did notice were the noticably higher brightness and warmer white balance. The 650-nit LCD panel on the XR is just plain better outdoors. I got used to the warmer white balance pretty quickly. I have seen tests online claiming that the dislpay on the XR is more color accurate than the XS so I’ll take it.

The Speakers

The internal speakers on the XR are a huge step up over the 6S Plus. Plural because the earpiece is actually being used to aid the bottom firing speaker. The combo doens’t do much for stereo separation but it does wonders for loudness. Overall audio is also much better with a tad richer bass and more defined body. Listening to podcasts on this thing in a pinch isn’t really too bad.

No Headphone Jack

I bought the XR last year. The updated packaging just give you the iPhone XR and a USB-C to Lightning cable. I didn’t have AirPods then so I just used my Android phone when I needed to go wired. I have wireless over-ear headphones but I just can’t listen using those all the time. It was quite a dilema so I bought a Lightning to 3.5mm dongle only to find myself not using it much for the terrible ergonimics reasons I mentioned in my AirPods review.

So I saved up and purchased AirPods several months later. It’s a way more convenient situation with frist-party wireless earbuds. Not everyone will be inclined to buy expensive disposable magic earbuds but it does take the sting off of the death of the headphone jack.

Camera

It’s better to have one good camera than multiple bad ones. The iPhone XR is exactly that: it has one damn good stills and video camera on its back.

Apple isn’t playing the spec race here. The 12-megapixel camera on the XR might leave a weak impression but it takes photos and videos with solid dynamic range and incredible sharpness. Color and contrast lean towards the neutral side, which I prefer. White balance is a little warmer this time than what I’m used to and pictures tend to have a green tint. Image quality does suffer a lot in low-light because it lacks Night Mode which I found baffling since the A12 bionic is a monster SoC.

You can do Portrait Mode with the front and rear camera but the lack of a telephoto lens for depth information on the XR means you can only use it on human subjects. iOS tries its best to compensate but it just can’t do a great job of separating foreground and background resulting in weird blurring artifacts. Also, its absence will force you to move closer to your subjects.

The iPhone XR captures better video (and audio) than many Android flagships released this year. Recording 4k 60fps video might make the phone a little hot but the results do speak for themselves. Stabilzation is smooth, exposure is consistent, and focusing has no issues. Color and contrast are similar to what you would find on stills. There really is nothing quite like Apple’s image signal processing pipeline.

Battery

The battery capacity of the XR is roughly 3000mAh. In the greater mobile landscape it comes off as minuscule but what Apple is able squeeze out of that cell is nothing short of amazing. In moderate use, I am able to get through a day no problem with charge to spare for the next one and standby time is excellent. The display doesn’t draw much power given its refresh rate and resolution so I’m getting more than five hours of screen on time. The A12 processor is pretty tame when doing day-to-day tasks but it burns through battery when performing more demanding activities like gaming or recording 4K video.

Performance

The A12 Bionic powering the XR is a screamer. I actually have very little to say about this. The A9 on the 6S Plus from 2015 is even iOS-15-worthy. The A12 Bionic from 2018 can even easily go head-to-head with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 powering many 2021 Android flagships.

iOS 14 flies on the iPhone XR and it will have performance to keep you going for years to come.

Conclusion

The iPhone XR is a stellar option in 2021. Definitely get it over the 2nd Generation SE. And while it doesn’t have the luster of the latest iPhone 12, the XR remains a very competitive pick. It makes the right trade-offs and delivers a well-rounded iPhone experience especially at the price it now sells for.