The Definitive iPhone XR Review By Jonathan Morrison

(upbeat dance music) - Yo guys, Jonathan here. The iPhone XR is here, in all of it's colorful glory. I've used it. I've tested it. And this is my review. So this is the iPhone XR.

Isn't this a beautiful, beautiful blue. It also comes in white. Black yellow, Product Red and who could forget. - Carl. - Now one thing I want to get out of the way is something that I've felt the second the iPhone XR was announced and that's the fact that I think it's just a little overpriced.

Not by a ton. It starts out at $749, but I think if apple like smacked $50 off the price tag it would have gone a long way. You could buy one of these beautiful dbrand skins. That marble and blue was meant to be. Now I realize $50 isn't a ton of money but I think, there is something about knowing that hey, even though it's just a dollar under $700 it's still under there, whereas with $749 you are rapidly approaching that $800 price tag.

What's interesting though is if you want to bump up the storage on the iPhone XR from 64GB up to 128GB it's only $50, but imagine if you drop that down a notch. ♪ It's been a long day ♪ Imagine if the 64GB iPhone XR started at about $699, you then have the 128Gb option coming at $749. And that is the bam, nailed it, home run, knocked it out of the park give Tim Cook a fist bump, or a high five whatever your thing is. This is the phone you should buy. That being said though, there is lot of really good with the iPhone XR.

And as you'll see throughout the video it shares a lot in common with the more expensive iPhone XS and XS Max. (upbeat dance music) Next, let's go ahead and talk about that display which I can assure you is not depressing. First though, we gotta take trip to the schoolhouse because my friends PPI or Pixel Per Inch and screen resolution are two completely different things. So because the internet some of you out there may have heard the iPhone 4, yes the iPhone 4, and the iPhone XR share the same pixel density of 326 pixels per inch and assumed wow. The 6.1 inch iPhone XR in 2018 has the same resolution as the iPhone 4? What the heck is Apple doing? Fact check. The iPhone 4, bless it's tiny little heart has a resolution of 960 x 640, versus with the iPhone XR, just a couple more pixels, has a resolution of 1792 by 828 which gives it approximately 869,000 more pixels.

(soothing piano notes) Now if you're used to an older display you can absolutely see this looks like an LCD panel, but with that said, and pixels aside, what Apple did with this is really impressive. It's bright, it's accurate. The colors are beautiful. There is no HDR which is kind of a bummer, but again this is $250 cheaper so there are going to be sacrifices. The first which being after the lack of HDR, is that bezel which is giant if you compare it to the iPhone XS and XS Max.

Now to be honest it's not really a huge deal unlike most things when you use it you kind of don't really notice it, but being used to the iPhone XS it was one of the first things that stood out to me. So I at least wanted to point it out. That aside though, what Apple is doing with this LCD and those rounded corners is really unique like nobody is doing this. There are some reviews at The Verve that have a really fantastic break down of how all that tech works and how Apple pulls it off, so if you have a minute definitely check out the video and tell Nilay, Jonathan sent you. From there the next omission on the iPhone XR is going to be 3D touch.

I kind of talked about it in my unboxing where Apple may get rid of 3D touch altogether as soon as next year so I'm not sure how big of a deal it is. But on the flip side you do get a 3D touch like alternative with haptic touch. What it is essentially is a long press with haptic feedback that works in two places, the lock screen and the control center. Now with the lock screen it is worth noting that you do have to have to wait which is awesome, But as far as a haptic touch you can either quickly activate the flashlight or access the camera. From there within control center by long pressing, you can dive deeper into pretty every single possible setting from Wi-Fi to the camera, to the timer, to brightness so it is nice having some sort of alternative.

Now, sadly this will not work on the Apps on your main home screen. So if you long press, you just quickly have the option to either delete or move an App, just like you're normally used to. So that's a bit of a bummer but again, I do appreciate the fact that we have at least some sort of alternative. From there to address a question that I've seen pop up everywhere, which is cool candy color Phone Bro. But can you even watch 1080P? So within the YouTube App you actually do have the option to select 1080P, and with this being technically 828P which is more than 720, you're getting a downscaled version of 1080P which is definitely sharper.

From there man just chill for a second. How does it feel knowing that candy colored iPhone that you keep making fun of is faster than pretty much every Android phone out there? For real though, the iPhone XR is a really fast phone. It is worth noting though that you have 3GB of RAM as opposed to 4 on the XS. But with iOS 12 and that A12 Chip it's a smooth fluid buttery experience from day to day use all the way down to gaming. From there though design wise I really, really love these colors.

And it's kind of making me think of using this over the iPhone XS Max. You'd don't get stainless steel sides, but I actually kind of prefer the aluminum because that allows the color matching which complements the phones beautifully. If you were part of iPhone X or a launch date your sub box might of looked like something straight out of Power Rangers, thank you Phil. But for real though, if you guys want to check out the other colors Jadner had white, Justine had coral, Marquez had red, Richard had black and I'm sure I'll find one with yellow and link that down below as well. So here is the look at the iPhone XR staked side by side against the iPhone 8 Plus, the XS and the XS Max.

Honestly, it's kind of like if three of those did some stuff I'm not really allowed to talk about on camera and out came the iPhone XR. I'm kind of really sold on the form factor which sits right smack in the middle of the iPhone XS and XS Max. Yes, you lose the OLED display. Yes you lose some resolution, but with those colors and how many features it does share with the iPhone XS, I'm kind of leaning towards using this phone. So with that theme of shared features on the iPhone XR, you also get Face ID, which for me, has always worked really well to the point where I don't really ever miss having a fingerprint reader.

You have true tone display. You have stereo speakers which honestly sound just as good as the iPhone XS and XS Max. You have wireless charging. You have water resistance although it is worth noting that the iPhone XR is IPC 67 rated. Not IP 68 like the iPhone XS and XS Max.

But it is nice knowing that you're not gonna have to stress about getting your nice shiny colored phone a little wet. The one interesting element with the iPhone XR for sure though is going to be the camera on the back. You have a single lens as opposed to the dual set up on the iPhone XS and XS Max. It's actually the exact same wide angle lens found on the iPhone XS and XS Max, you're just missing that telephoto lens, but the good news is, you still do have portrait mode on both the rear end and front facing cameras. What's up guys.

Ty Lopez here at the Hollywood Hills flexing knowledge in my, I'm kidding it's not mine. I'm actually just showing off the front face on the camera on the iPhone XR, with which I'm recording so let me now what you guys think of the quality of he video and audio. Put the comment down below. From there hop on over to the camera samples. If there was any doubt about this camera put those away because it performed really well.

This shot in particular is a really good example of the smart HDR with the background and the sky exposed properly, but we still have the foreground looking punchy, saturated and really sharp. Same thing here with Mr. Pumpkin. It's bright, it's punchy, it's saturated. But we also retain a ton of detail so if we zoom in we can see that sticker shows up.

This pumpkin was from Pumpkin Pampered farms. It's a lot of p's. But it looks good. From there hop on over to Mr. Ty Lopez's whip.

Kidding, I have no idea who's this is, but it's a good example again about smart HDR where the sky is exposed perfectly but, we have that really punchy foreground, especially with that Caro Conrad orange. This shot is also really a good example of how much detail is retained. So if we zoom in we can read the text right off those laces Now, portrait mode in the iPhone XR is a little different than the iPhone XS because you're using that singular lens and everything is done through software. Because of that, it will unfortunately only work when a person is in and detected in the frame so sorry Mr. fire hydrant no portrait shot for you.

The other interesting thing is because the iPhone XS and XS Max uses a telephoto lens, the iPhone XR is going to be significantly wider. Now, it doesn't mean that you can get shots like this on the iPhone XR, it just means you have to treat it like a prime lens and then move closer to your subject. That aside though, portrait mode on the iPhone XR isn't perfect but more often than not it works really well. Some people are going to want and need that telephoto lens, but honestly for the majority of people out there, you're going to be really happy with this single camera. What absolutely is awesome is just they have from XS you also get adjustable aperture on the iPhone XR.

From then hop on over to the front facing camera before we hope into portrait mode, here is just a regular front facing shot. I kind of talked about it where I still wished the iPhone front facing camera was a little bit wider. That's where I think the Google Pixel 3 excels but over all great quality and shot out to Ricardo for saying hi. Naturally though we gotta talk about those portraits selfies which again, the iPhone XR does a really good job. Again, just like the iPhone XS and the rear facing camera you also have adjustable aperture on the iPhone XR, front facing camera so.

Here is an example of no blur all the way to crank that baby wide open. Now I've talked about with the iPhone XS, it's not a beauty filter that's applied to your face but rather it's noise reduction over the entire image, so if you don't have the ideal lighting conditions you're definitely going to see that here was well. The good news is like I also mentioned in that video is that it's software based and actually Apple is working on a fix to reduce that very soon. Overall though the cameras on the iPhone XR definitely deliver. Smart HDR is awesome.

Again the camera isn't perfect every single time, but the majority of the time you're going to be extremely pleased. Now in an area where I don't think the iPhone can be touched right now and this applies also to the iPhone XR is video. The iPhone XR does continuous 4k 60 frames per second video which is super fun to slow down. You can also do 1080p video up to 240 frames per second which is awesome, but really even that classic 4k 24 or 30 frames per second with a stabilization, with an HDR is amazing and here is a montage of some of the best stuff I caught. (upbeat dance music) So yeah, iPhone XR has a great camera.

Takes great video. It's fast. It's fluid. The speakers sound great. Yet, you definitely sacrifice a little bit with that LCD panel versus OLED, but honestly I think it looks great, and really I think this is the iPhone that most people should buy.

What is probably the secret sauce, the underrated feature of the iPhone XR though is gotta be the battery life. It is actually better than the iPhone eight Plus which was a monster so yeah. You lose a few pixel but overall for what you get and if you're about that all day battery life, again, this is the iPhone you should buy.

Source : Jonathan Morrison