Apple iPhone XR review

Design

If you pass by a black or white iPhone XR at the Apple Store, you'd be forgiven to mistake it for the iPhone XS. The core design of the iPhone XR is identical to that of the iPhone XS and that's really the key message here that Apple wants you to know: this is very much an iPhone X-series device.

We'll talk about the colors first since that's the aspect of the phone Apple seems to be pushing the hardest in its marketing. Yes, the iPhone XR comes in six new colors. You have your classics, which are the black and the white. The black has a matching black frame while the white has a silver or rather unpainted, raw aluminum frame.

This is where it gets a bit tricky. There are three additional colors, blue, yellow and coral. None of these colors try too hard to match the glass back to the metal frame. The blue has a deep cyan back with a light sky-blue frame. The coral is a peachy shade of orange but the side frame is a much lighter version of that color. The yellow is the most bizarre; the back is yellow as advertised, but the side frame is straight up gold.

We can't imagine this was a mistake and Apple obviously deliberately chose the color palette. We just think it looks a bit bizarre the way the colors don't quite match on the phone.

White • Black • Blue • Yellow • Coral • Product RED

Fortunately, that's not the case with the Product RED version, which should be a crowd pleaser. Not only is the back the most stunning shade of blood red, the side frame also matches it perfectly, creating a cohesive, wholesome look. On top of that, Apple donates a small portion of the phone's price to charity so it's a win-win in our books.

As side notes, the front bezel remains black regardless of the back color. The box of the phone shows the color of the phone inside and each phone comes with a matching stock wallpaper. If you plug the phone into iTunes, you'll see the respective colored icon of that particular phone in iTunes.

Moving on from the colors, let's look at the other aspects of the design.

While it may not be immediately obvious, the iPhone XR is bigger than the iPhone XS. The iPhone XS was never particularly small but it was still fairly compact and easy to hold. The iPhone XR is neither small nor particularly compact and by most people's judgment would pass off as a big phone.

The iPhone XR is also thicker and heavier than the iPhone XS. Held side by side, the iPhone XR has a slight Plus model feel, although we don't think many people would have an issue with that. Sure, the iPhone XS looks nicer and more premium in a side by side comparison, but there's nothing cheap-feeling or inferior about the iPhone XR design, and it feels about as premium as any other flagship smartphone on the market.

The iPhone XR is also made out of aluminum. It doesn't look quite as nice as the polished stainless steel on the iPhone XS but the matte aluminum on the iPhone XR is going to be a lot more durable, as the polished stainless steel on the iPhone is known to get scuff marks even with careful use.

The iPhone XR also has a different display. While the iPhone XS uses an OLED panel, the iPhone XR uses an LCD panel.

Now, it's not easy to get an LCD all the way up to the edge of the body, as LCD panels need a backlight that takes up space along the sides (usually the bottom or the top). Apple managed to get the iPhone XR's display closer to the bottom edge than anybody else, even phones with AMOLED panels. However, there is still some gap left and because Apple wanted a uniform bezel surrounding the display, that gap is present all around the display, even the sides where it could have definitely been thinner.

This makes the display seem smaller than it is. Also, if you have the black model like us, it has the unfortunate side effect where the bezel blends so seamlessly with the black frame on the side, it makes the bezels look even thicker. Our black iPhone XR looked like someone put a thick black case on an iPhone XS. Because of that we would recommend you not judge the bezel size of the iPhone XR based on our black review unit pictures.

The bezels on the iPhone XR are definitely noticeable if you've used the iPhone X but we can't imagine most buyers will be able to notice much of a difference or even care about it. Apple also deserves credit for taking LCD technology further towards the edge than anyone else. The results may not be perfect but considering the limitations of LCD, it's still impressive.

We will talk more about the display later but let's come back to the design. The iPhone XR uses glass on the front and back of the phone. Apple claims the iPhone XS has the most durable front and rear glass ever in a smartphone. For the iPhone XR, the exact wording of Apple's claims is different - they say it has the most durable front glass ever in a smartphone, so clearly, the back glass is different.

We checked with Apple on this and they confirmed that the back glass is not the same as the front. Still, the back glass is more durable than the glass used on the iPhone X, so it sits somewhere between last year's and this year's new glass in terms of durability.

The sides of the iPhone XR are very similar to the iPhone XS. It is aluminum, of course, but all the buttons are in the same place, as is the single SIM tray on the right. We wish Apple moved the volume buttons on the right for a more convenient placement. The volume buttons on the opposite side of the sleep/wake button also make it easy to accidentally take screenshots.

While the iPhone XS has a rogue antenna line on the bottom ruining the symmetry of the speaker and microphone ports, the iPhone XR has perfectly equal holes on either side. The iPhone XS also has another antenna strip on the top, which is also missing on the iPhone XR. This is due to the Gigabit-class LTE found on the iPhone XS and XS Max that is not available on the iPhone XR.

However, the iPhone XR has its own quirk, which is that the Lightning port is placed slightly lower than the speaker/mic grille, so the three are not perfectly aligned. We imagine Apple had to place the Lightning port lower due to the display taking up space above internally.

The back is relatively clean since there's only one camera at the top. It does stick out significantly from the back and there's no ramp or slope so it just feels like a button glued on the back of the phone. Below that is the quad-LED True Tone flash, which is technically under the main glass but Apple has somehow found a way to avoid refraction and not make the entire back glass glow when the flash is on.

One cool thing about recent iPhones is that they don't have any of the serial numbers or FCC and CE logos on the back anymore. All you get is the Apple logo and the iPhone logo and that's it.

The iPhone XR is IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. This means it's not as water-resistant as the iPhone XS and can be suspended underwater up to 1m instead of 2m, for 30 minutes. We can't imagine this being a deal breaker for anyone and the iPhone XR should be durable enough for most users. But keep in mind that any water resistance may not hold up well with time and that liquid damage is still not covered by the warranty.

Overall, the iPhone XR looks and feels pretty much like a flagship smartphone should in 2018. It may not be as refined or polished (literally) as the iPhone XS but it's still a great looking and feeling phone with one of the widest ranges of color options of any phone in this price range.