iPhone XR in 2021 - Display, Camera, Battery life, Gaming Review By Prince Sekhon

The iPhone XR released alongside the XS series in 2018 and brought the expensive look of the newer iPhones at a much cheaper price by cutting a few corners. It was also one of the best-selling iPhones of 2019 selling almost 50 million units!!! But how does this phone stack up in 2021? Before we get started, be sure to support the channel by subscribing and helping me reach 400 subs for June and let s talk iPhone XR. The iPhone XR is one of the most clean and classy looking iPhone partly because there is only a single camera on the back and the rest is just a clean minimal look. Although this phone was available in some pretty exciting colors, I have it in the classic white color which still looks really neat. The phone does have great heft to it owing to the glass sandwich build along with the anodized aluminum sides. Due to the bezels, which we will talk about in a min, the phone is slightly larger than the same sized iPhone 12 Pro.

And it did make it tougher for me to reach the top corners of the phone on some occasions. Other than that, the stereo speakers are plenty loud, the phone is IP67 water and dust resistant, call quality is great and never did I encounter any issues with Bluetooth or wifi connectivity. The phone is a bit heavier in the hands at 194 grams, but I wasn t bothered by it. Overall, I would say the phone is rock solid. But another thing that wasn t considered solid about this phone was its display.

The iPhone XR features a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina LCD display that is slightly lower than 1080p in resolution but decently bright at 625 nits. At the time of launch, pixel peepers said that the phone would fail due to the LCD display that had the same number of pixels as the iPhone 4. And if history is to indicate, that wasn t the case. If you get past the numbers, the display is still a delight to use. Apple did use some of the best calibrated LCD panels on their iPhones and the XR is living proof of that.

There are however downsides of using an LCD. You cannot get the pitch black and contrasty colors that come with an OLED. And you get those thick bezels all around the phone which are especially visible while using a light wallpaper. If you get past these 2 things, the iPhone XR still has a well-balanced display that s plenty sharp for an average user. On top of that, a lower resolution LCD display has its advantages.

The very first is no screen burn in issues that OLEDs tend to have. And the second is in the battery life department. The iPhone XR has a 2942mAh battery that was praised all around by the reviewers at the time of the launch. This is because of the display being lower resolution with just 326 ppi and the A12 bionic being a very power efficient chip. Fast forward to today and the iPhone XR still has a decent battery life.

Now this phone was bought last year and has been lightly used, so I cannot comment the same for a heavy used XR bought in 2018. But with medium usage this phone easily got me through the day. And my usage mainly consists of social media browsing, taking phone calls, Facetime and a little bit of gaming. With heavy usage, this phone can die on you, but the good news is that there is support for 15 Watt wired charging that can help juice this phone up quickly and there s also wireless charging. Apart from using an LCD display, another corner that Apple did cut to make this phone cheaper was removing the additional telephoto lens.

The XR still featured the same main lens and the selfie camera as the XS series. And even in 2021, the phone takes some really good shots when there is plenty of light to play around with. The color reproduction is nice with good sharpness and bang on color accuracy most times. Personally, I still like the overall look of the photo. Apple also did a Google Pixel with this camera by supporting portrait shots with a single lens and software enabled blur.

Although I should mention this is only possible for human subjects. Still the portrait mode is decent on this phone. The software updates over the years have turned this phone into a better setup than it was at launch. Another thing that is better is the selfie camera. Generally old iPhones didn t have good front cameras but I was genuinely surprised by how well this phone did.

The video quality on the rear camera is also good. It can shoot 4K at 60 fps and the footage you are currently seeing is 4K30fps. Super slow motion at 240fps is also there but the quality is drastically reduced in this mode. The only drawback to a 3-year-old camera setup is a lack of versatility due to the missing telephoto and ultra-wide lens as well as features like night mode. But if you are willing to look past that, the XR can still produce social media worthy shots.

As previously talked in my iPhone X review video, the software and performance on older iPhones is unmatched. You will get the latest version of iOS on this phone and since the iPhone 6S is getting iOS 15, its safe to say this phone still has 4 more freaking years of software support left. The phone has 3GB of RAM which is good enough or day to day use. In my daily, the phone never lagged in any apps. Animations are smooth, apps launch quickly, and gaming was also a breeze.

I do daily an iPhone 12 Pro and while using the XR I didn t notice much of a difference in performance. And that s a testament to Apples A series bionic chips! Now for the question that matters. Is the iPhone XR still a good buy in 2021? At the right price it definitely is. In Canada, these phones are ranging anywhere from $400-$500 depending on the variant and the condition. This figure translates to about $325 - $400 US dollars.

In my opinion, this is a fair price for a 3-year-old iPhone that still has plenty of life left! If you look past the minor negatives, the iPhone XR has a lot to offer. Classy design, solid build quality, decent display, cameras and battery life and most importantly software updates for another 4 years! And that s it for this video. As always support the channel by subscribing and I ll see you guys in the next one.

Source : Prince Sekhon