First impressions of the iPhone XR

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It might be easy to overlook Apple's third iPhone release for 2018, the colourful iPhone XR in the wake of the popular and luxurious iPhone XS and the large and lavish iPhone XS Max. The truth is that the iPhone XR is possibly the most interesting iPhone release in years and will appeal to the sensitivities and budgets for the most amount of users.

Apple doesn't do budget iPhones. In the past, it would simply leave the previous year's release at a lower price while it promoted the flagship devices. The iPhone 5C, was a bit of an outlier in that it offered the same iPhone experience but with cheaper materials and a range of loud and lovely colours that attracted a wide gamut of users.

The good news is that the colours are back for the iPhone Xr, which comes to stores tomorrow. Unlike the iPhone 5C the colours for iPhone XR are not a plastic polycarbonate case, but this time on a reinforced glass enclosure. iPhone XR comes in black, white, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED colours. The iPhone XR, with the largest LCD display Apple has ever done at 6.1-inches, is slightly larger then the iPhone XS but is still dwarfed by the statuesque iPhone XS Max.

The iPhone XR shares the look and feel of the iPhone XS, except that it uses aluminum instead of stainless steel for a fram and it also uses a display with LCD technology instead of OLED. Under the hood, you get the same Apple A12 Bionic processor with the neural engine, there's 3GB of RAM instead of 4GB on the iPhone XS.

You also get one 12-megapixel rear-facing camera instead of two. This means you get all the amazing features expected of an iPhone X class device, except 2X optical zoom. As someone who rarely uses the 2X Zoom feature in photos and video, this isn't a huge deal.

So far, I am liking the size of the iPhone XR, I think is more manageable than the iPhone XS Max, while offering a bit more display capacity than the iPhone XS. the resolution of this display, which is 1792-by-828-pixel at 326 ppi may not be as dense as the iPhone XS phones, but I doubt most users will find this a deal breaker.

The LCD display is bright and clear and responsive. The lack of 3D touch may be missed by some users but for ther intended audience of users upgrading from older iPhones, I doub't it will be a huge issue.

The iPhone XR feels like a solid, well-conceived iPhone that's just right fior anyone not wanting to pay the more premium price of the iPhone XS. Stay tuned for my full review soon.

iPhone XR will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models in black, white, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED starting at $1,029 (CAD) from apple.com in the Apple Store app and Apple Store locations, and is also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers (prices may vary). Walk-in available in most stores.