Apple iPhone XR review

Performance

The iPhone XR ships with the same brand new 7nm A12 Bionic chipset found inside the new iPhone XS. This is Apple's own custom designed chipset, with a custom 64-bit six-core CPU that has two high-performance cores (Vortex) and four high-efficiency cores (Tempest), in a big.LITTLE configuration that lets the CPU controller decide which cluster is suited for a particular task or run all six at the same time. The Vortex cores are said to be 15% faster and consume 40% less power than the Monsoon cores from A11 Bionic, and the Tempest cores are said to consume 50% less power than the Mistral cores from last year.

For the first time, the A12 Bionic also includes an Apple-designed quad-core GPU that is up to 50% faster than last year's with support for tessellation, multilayer rendering, and lossless memory compression.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  11472
• Apple iPhone XR
  11437
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  11432
• Apple iPhone X
  10215
• Apple iPhone 8
  10214
• Apple iPhone 8 Plus
  10037
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9882
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• OnePlus 6
  9011
• HTC U12+
  9001
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  8607
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  8494
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  8088
• Oppo Find X
  8018
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  6428
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  5956

Lastly, the A12 Bionic also includes an updated version of Apple's Neural Engine, which is now an octa-core part with multiprecision support and a smart compute system that decides which between the three, CPU, GPU and NE, should process the task for best performance and efficiency.

We have already taken a look at the A12 Bionic performance in our iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max reviews, and it performs essentially the same inside the iPhone XR. As of today, the A12 Bionic is the fastest mobile processor on the market, beating even the new Kirin 980 despite Huawei's tall claims.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS
  4823
• Apple iPhone XR
  4818
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  4777
• Apple iPhone X
  4256
• Apple iPhone 8
  4234
• Apple iPhone 8 Plus
  4232
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3503
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  3333
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  2486
• HTC U12+
  2456
• OnePlus 6
  2450
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  2431
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  2363
• Oppo Find X
  2322
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  1915
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907

The A12 Bionic enjoys such a massive performance advantage at this point that we don't expect anything to supersede it until next year's A13 releases. The performance is especially comical on the iPhone XR as it has a lower resolution display, which causes the on-screen graphics test results to top the charts even in the most demanding tests.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  99
• Apple iPhone XS
  98
• Apple iPhone XR
  97
• Apple iPhone X
  65
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  61
• Oppo Find X
  60
• HTC U12+
  60
• OnePlus 6
  58
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  56
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  53
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  44
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  42
• Huawei P20 Pro
  40
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  39
• Apple iPhone 8
  39

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XR
  60
• Apple iPhone XS
  60
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Apple iPhone 8
  59
• OnePlus 6
  55
• Oppo Find X
  50
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  50
• Apple iPhone X
  49
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  42
• Huawei P20 Pro
  37
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  34
• HTC U12+
  33
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  31
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  21

In real-world usage, the iPhone XR performs flawlessly. At this point, it officially has too much power and you're basically sitting on reserve power that will only come into play a year or two down the line. Outside of a few things, such as the camera and AR, there are very few things on this phone that can take full advantage of that hardware today. If anything, it's the 3GB RAM that will end up being the bottleneck in future but iOS is generally good at managing memory so it's not going to be an issue any time soon.

We also liked that Apple improved the Face ID performance this year. The TrueDepth camera system is identical but because of faster algorithms and a newer, faster Secure Enclave on the A12 Bionic, the camera can process the facial data faster.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Apple iPhone XR
  60
• Apple iPhone XS
  60
• Apple iPhone 8
  45
• Apple iPhone X
  37
• Oppo Find X
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• OnePlus 6
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  35
• HTC U12+
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  28
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  28
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  25
• Huawei P20 Pro
  23

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XR
  58
• Apple iPhone XS
  47
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• OnePlus 6
  33
• Apple iPhone X
  28
• Oppo Find X
  28
• Huawei P20 Pro
  21
• HTC U12+
  20
• Apple iPhone 8
  20
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  19
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  13
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  12

Aztek Vulkan Normal (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  67
• Apple iPhone XS
  66
• Apple iPhone XR
  64
• Apple iPhone X
  34
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  33
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  28
• Apple iPhone 8
  27

Aztek Vulkan Normal (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XR
  60
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  52
• Apple iPhone XS
  51
• Apple iPhone 8
  49
• Apple iPhone X
  30
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  19
• Google Pixel 3 XL
  15

Face ID is not as instantaneous as some of the other 2D camera based facial recognition systems out there but it's still very fast, especially when you consider it's a security-first feature, with speed being second priority.

Most of the time when you use it to scan your face to authenticate an app or use Apple Pay, the Face ID icon just flashes on screen for less than a second before it scans you. And because it's as secure as it is, you can actually use it for things such as payments and authentication within other apps. It's also a lot more convenient than any fingerprint sensor as you don't have to move your hand at all, and as long as you're looking at the screen you get authenticated.

Face ID is also more reliable now. We rarely had any issues getting it to unlock and it worked fine even when lying down in bed or outdoors in bright light. With iOS 12, you can also add an alternate appearance for yourself or a second person to unlock your phone, although the latter does make the system less secure.