Apple iPhone XR review

Main camera

The iPhone XR has a single 12MP f1.8 camera on the back with OIS and quad-LED two-tone flash. The camera is capable of recording videos in up to 4K60. On the front is Apple's TrueDepth camera system with a single 7MP f2.2 camera and 1080p60 video.

The single rear camera is one of the compromises Apple made on the iPhone XR compared to the iPhone XS. However, Apple did keep the Portrait mode on the iPhone XR, along with the new Depth Control feature introduced on iPhones this year.

Since this is the only difference between the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS camera, let's focus on this first.

The Portrait mode on the iPhone XR works differently than it does on the iPhone XS or previous iPhones with dual cameras. The way this works is similar to the portrait mode implementation on the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 3. The camera uses the two photo sites on each sensor, which are primarily used for autofocus, to create a depth map of the subject using their different perspectives. It then uses machine learning to further separate the subject from the background and then applies a lens blur to the background.

The other difference with the Portrait mode on the iPhone XR is that it now uses the main wide-angle lens to take the Portrait mode photos since it's the only camera available. In comparison, all other iPhones with Portrait mode use the telephoto lens for Portrait mode photos.

Lastly, the Portrait mode on the iPhone XR only works for people. The effect kicks in only when the camera detects a person in the frame or, more precisely, a face in the frame. Since it relies on human-specific AI to work out the portrait rendering, you can't use the Portrait mode on the iPhone XR to take pictures of objects or even the back of a person like you can on the iPhone XS or even the Pixel 3.

With that out of the way, let's see how the Portrait mode on the iPhone XR performs when compared against the iPhone XS and the Pixel 3. To make sure the same amount of the subject was in focus and to demonstrate the differences between the three cameras, we physically moved back and forth with the three phones.

iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XS

We will talk about the quality of the effect later, but first, let's focus on the perspective. Between the three, the iPhone XS clearly has the most appealing look and is the most flattering to the subject. The telephoto lens required us to be the farthest away from the subject, which reduced lens distortion. It also contained the least amount of background due to a narrower field of view, which is desirable for portrait images. Overall, the image looks closest to what you'll see from a proper camera with a telephoto lens and is the most convincing.

The Pixel 3 XL had the second widest (or narrowest) field of view and generally the second-best look. Technically, the Pixel 3 XL also uses its single wide-angle lens to take Portrait mode images but Google applies a digital crop in Portrait mode, which gives the appearance of a telephoto lens, although not as much as that on the iPhone XS.

The iPhone XR required us to be the closest to the subject, which introduced barrel distortion that is typical of wide-angle lenses when you get close to a subject (they are meant to be used for capturing landscapes, after all). This resulted in the least flattering picture of the three cameras and the one most easily identifiable as a smartphone camera picture.

We're not saying the wide-angle lens is completely unusable for portrait photography. You can certainly have some fun with the wider perspective and the opportunities it opens up. It also doesn't require you to step as further back as a telephoto lens does, so in some cases, it can be more practical. Also, low light Portrait mode photos will look better on the iPhone XR since the main 12MP camera has a better sensor and wider aperture than the telephoto 12MP on the iPhone XS. But most portrait photography is done in situations similar to the one we have demonstrated above and in such cases, a dedicated telephoto lens will always give better results.

Losing the telephoto lens also means no more 2x optically zoomed images. Admittedly, the telephoto lens would become useless in less than ideal conditions and the phone won't even use it unless you use a third-party app to force it. But when it worked, it gave much better results than digital zoom, which is what you have to use here.

Apple's digital zoom is decent but it's nowhere near as good as the Super Res Zoom feature on the Pixel 3. We also missed having a 2x zoom button in the camera app, and you have to pinch out on the screen to zoom, which has no markings for precisely how much you're zooming so our 2x zoom image below is only a rough approximation. In comparison, the Pixel 3 camera app lets you do a 2x zoom just by double tapping.

iPhone XR • iPhone XR 2x • Pixel 3 XL • Pixel 3 XL 2x

iPhone XR • iPhone XR 2x • Pixel 3 XL • Pixel 3 XL 2x

In terms of general image quality, the iPhone XR has an identical main 12MP sensor and optics as the iPhone XS, and the image quality will be identical. The images we got from the iPhone XR were sharp, with plenty of detail and well-controlled noise levels. The images were well exposed and had good contrast. The somewhat flatter, more natural images are also ideal for manually editing later.

The colors were generally good, too. iPhones have one of the most recognizable colors of any smartphone camera, where skin tones, in particular, can have an orange hue, which doesn't look especially appealing. It's present to some extent here as well, but not as prominent as it was with the last year's iPhones. Previous iPhones also had an aggressively warmer tone and a tendency to lean towards a green hue, which resulted in a pale-yellow color to images, but that has also been mitigated to a large extent.

Overall, the color performance this year is really good, and the iPhones are still the only smartphones with wide-color support, so if you have a computer with a DCI-P3 capable display and OS, then you can see the images in all their glory with truly outstanding color range, especially in the red region.

iPhone XR samples

The main point of improvement this year has been in dynamic range. Like Google, Apple now does extensive image stacking work, capturing multiple frames for every shot with separate low and high exposure intermediate frames. The result is an astounding coverage of both highlight and shadow areas. The new Smart HDR feature, as it is called, is a lot more active than HDR on previous iPhones and fires for practically every shot. Even if images have a small area of bright highlights, the HDR will kick in and recover those details.

iPhone XR samples

We did notice some funny business with some neon lighting in some shots. It wasn't the lighting itself but rather the reflection of that lighting as you can see in these shots, where the reflected light patterns are clipping with a blotchy appearance. Perhaps something Apple could fix in a future update.

Color issue with neon lighting

Apple iPhone XR low-light photos

Coming back to the Portrait mode images, the iPhone XR has the Depth Control feature from the iPhone XS. This lets you adjust the intensity of the background blur on Portrait mode images after they are taken. This is similar to the feature seen on phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note9 but instead of applying a Gaussian blur like Samsung, Apple applies a lens blur, which more closely mimics the effect of aperture and natural lens blur. The control dial also has f-stops so you can recreate the look of a lens with a particular aperture.

By default, all Portrait mode images are saved at f2.8, but you can adjust it from f1.4 to f16. Below, we have samples from f1.4, f2.8, f5.6 and f16. We chose f5.6 because it seemed like a good value where you still get some background blur but it's not as aggressive as the default f2.8, which can look more artificial and also shows the shortcomings of the software blur more easily.

f1.4 • f2.8 • f5.6 • f16

The overall effect works well despite using just one camera. Like Google, Apple is clearly using machine learning to do the heavy lifting here and the results can be really good at time, if a bit imperfect. Had it not been for the different look and 2x optical zoom capability of the telephoto lens on the iPhone XS, we would have genuinely questioned the need to have a second camera.

Comparison to this year's Pixel 3 is inevitable, so here it is. In our testing, we found very little to separate the two. Generally, the image quality by both phones is practically identical to the point we felt like we were splitting hairs.

Where the two differ is in dynamic range handling and colors. The Pixel 3 tends to underexpose every shot, which results in better highlight detail at the cost of some shadow detail. The contrast is also on the higher side. The Pixel also tends to prefer cooler white balance with a slight magenta hue. The iPhone camera, on the other hand, tends to expose a bit brighter with a slightly lower contrast. Its white balance is also on the warmer side with a slight green hue. This results in the Pixel images often appearing punchier out of the camera next to the iPhone images, although you can very easily edit either to look like the other.

iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL

The level of detail is similar but the Pixel tends to sharpen its images more aggressively, which further contributes to the sharp, punchy look of Pixel images. Bottom line is, while both take similar pictures, the iPhone goes for a more natural look while the Pixel pushes for a more appealing image.

iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL

Having said that, the differences are definitely minimal and the preference boils down to personal taste. We could genuinely mix up shots from both phones and even die-hard fans of both devices would be hard-pressed to tell them apart. The point is, both phones take excellent photos and are at the very top of their game.

iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL • iPhone XR • Pixel 3 XL

Selfies

The selfie camera is the same 7MP f/2.2 camera you get on the iPhone XS so at least in this respect the phones are identical camera-wise.

The image quality is the same too. In low-light, the camera can use the so-called Retina flash, where your screen lights your face up in particular color to provide more pleasing skin tones depending on the color of the available light.

Apple iPhone XR low-light selfies: No flash • Retina flash ON

In good light there is plenty of resolved detail, though not the best we've seen. The contrast and colors are very good, while the exposure is always based on the human subject, while the Smart HDR takes care of the background.

The new A12 chip enables smart portraits on the selfie camera, too. The quality is quite alright, subject separation is excellent and you can adjust the blur after shooting them.

Video recording

In terms of video, the iPhone XR clearly leads the pack with 4K60 video recording. Optionally, you can shoot at 4K30, which has a wider dynamic range as the phone is still shooting 60 frames per second internally but every second frame is exposed differently and composited to create a 30fps video with wider dynamic range. 30fps videos also have EIS for an even more stable look.

A new addition for iPhones this year is stereo audio recording, which works as you'd expect. Interestingly, this year even the Pixel 3 is recording stereo sound, as the Pixel phones also had mono recording on previous phones.