Apple iPhone XR full evaluation: Is the iPhone XR capable of these missions?

In the iPhone family, there is a "special squad". They are outside the main iPhone models, and they do not meet with everyone as scheduled every year, on the contrary, they appear when they need it to complete their mission. Yes, the editor is talking about the iPhone 5c in 2013, the iPhone SE in 2016, and the iPhone XR this year. At present, the editor has obtained the white version of the iPhone XR as a new member of this year's "special team". Before starting the evaluation, the editor feels it is necessary to briefly analyze the mission of this new member.

First of all, this year’s iPhone XS/Max has a high price. The starting price of 8,699 yuan is believed to discourage many consumers, while the iPhone XR starts at 6,499 yuan and the highest is 7,899 yuan. This price can be accepted by more consumers. At the same time, it can also become the mainstay of Apple Impulse. In addition, from the iPhone 5c to the iPhone XR, Apple is trying hard to make the iPhone cover a larger market and give consumers more choices. This is a different idea from the "cheap version" of the iPhone. From the perspective of paper parameters, the relationship is The iPhone XS core experience configuration is still on the iPhone XR, but the price is a bit lower, and there are more eye-catching colors. What Apple hopes is that it can meet the needs of users for more choices.

So is the iPhone XR capable of these missions? Let's find out through the following evaluation.

1. Appearance design, regardless of the screen and thickness, the appearance is actually still online

Almost everyone’s first reaction after getting the iPhone XR is believed to be: Why is it so thick? Of course, the screen has not been turned on at this time, and when the screen is on, he will sigh for the first time: Why is the screen border thicker?

Let's start with the screen not lit. According to official data, the body thickness of the iPhone XR is 8.3mm, while the iPhone XS series is 7.7mm, the difference is obvious. Note that this "obvious" is obvious at a glance. At the same time, because the iPhone XR does not use the curved backplane of many Android phones, this "thickness" is also real in the hand.

The screen size of the iPhone XR is 6.1 inches, but the body size is well controlled. The length is 150.9mm, the width is 75.7mm, and the weight is 194g. It is exquisite and light in the hand, so you won't feel that it can't be controlled by one hand.

After the screen is lit, we can see the familiar Liu Haiping. The screen frame is indeed wider than that of the iPhone XS. It is inevitable that you are not used to it at first. For this problem, I learned from Apple that this is because the iPhone XR uses an LCD screen. The characteristics of the LCD screen determine that it cannot eliminate the left and right BM areas, that is, the black borders. iPhone XR attaches the mobile phone panel directly to the middle frame without blocking, so the BM area is displayed. Of course, in China, many mobile phone manufacturers have been able to reduce the BM area as much as possible. At the bottom of the screen, the iPhone XR has excellent control over the thickness of the chin. For mobile phones with a full LCD screen, it is relatively rare that the chin can be made such a narrow.

The iPhone XR still uses a metal frame with front and rear glass panels. The white version of the iPhone XR aluminum alloy frame has been modified by a matte sandblasting process instead of the polishing treatment of the iPhone XS series. There are two antennas on the left and right sides of the frame, the left side is the power button and the SIM card slot, and the right side is the do-not-disturb mode switch button and the volume up and down buttons. There are no extra elements on the top of the fuselage, and the bottom is a speaker, screw holes and lightning interface. It is worth mentioning that the call MIC of the iPhone XR is integrated into the front earpiece, and the noise reduction MIC is integrated into the lightning interface at the bottom.

On the back of the fuselage, the iPhone XR uses 2.5D drop-shaped glass. According to Apple's introduction, the iPhone XR uses a seven-layer dyeing process on the back of the fuselage, which can bring rich and full colors. Judging from the white iPhone XR in the editor's hand, the color is very "pure", with high concentration, showing a milky white like milk. The white version may not be particularly obvious. I have also seen yellow, blue, red and other color versions. The color is pure and bright, and it is completely different from the iPhone XS series. It is worth seeing and playing with.

In terms of feel, the iPhone XR's various transitions have been rounded, and there is no hand-cutting. At the same time, the body size and weight are between the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, and the grip is in a relatively comfortable range.

During the period of using iPhone XR, I feel that this phone does not have too many faults in its appearance, except for the wider black borders and thicker thickness of the front screen. At the same time, the overall craftsmanship of the iPhone XR is online, and the workmanship is excellent. Compared with the iPhone XS series, there is no concession in these places because of the price drop.

Second, the screen quality is better than expected

The iPhone XR uses a 6.1-inch Liquid retina LCD display with a screen resolution of 1792×828 and a pixel density of 326ppi. For this screen, many netizens have a lot of criticism about its resolution and pixel density. Indeed, for those of us who have long been educated by the various high-score screens of the Android camp, we will inevitably be surprised at first seeing such parameters. So what is the experience in actual use?

In use, it is found that in terms of the exquisiteness of the screen display, it is indeed lower than the iPhone XS series. For example, when reading the news in the IT house, if you look closely at the text on the screen, you can see it. When it is grainy, or watching 1080P video, it will feel as fine as it is not iPhone XS, but this feeling is not very obvious, and I believe that most people will not put their eyes so close to the screen with their mobile phones. Under normal viewing distance, the iPhone XR does not cause too much trouble to users in terms of the fineness of the screen, and it is acceptable for daily use whether it is the display of text, pictures or video content.

Regardless of resolution and pixel density, we see that Apple still calls this LCD screen the iPhone’s most advanced LCD screen so far with the highest color accuracy. Xiaobian also tested. From the results, the iPhone XR performs well in terms of color accuracy, and the deviation values ​​of each color are very low. It should be noted that the instrument on hand has errors in the cyan test, and the actual deviation value is smaller than the test result display. The data.

In terms of color gamut, iPhone XR supports DCI-P3 wide color gamut, which can display more colors and is more delicate in terms of screen color transition. However, in actual use, you will feel that the screen display color temperature will be slightly warmer.

In terms of screen brightness, the editor tested that the maximum brightness can reach 600nit at noon when the light is strong, and outdoor use is not a problem.

In addition, the iPhone XR display also has the same 120Hz touch sampling rate as the iPhone XS series, which makes the iPhone XR the same smoothness as the iPhone XS series in terms of gesture operation and system animation; at the same time, it also supports the original Color display technology, that is, using the built-in six-channel ambient light sensor to adjust the white balance of the screen according to the color temperature of the surrounding ambient light, so that the image displayed on the screen is more comfortable and natural. In actual use, after turning on the original color display, you will find that the white balance displayed on the screen is somewhat warmer.

In general, the display of the iPhone XR screen is actually better than I expected. It has excellent performance in brightness, color accuracy, and color gamut, and there is no jaggedness in the arc cutting of the LCD screen. The resolution And pixel density may be the only shortcoming, but the impact on the overall experience is actually limited.

Third, the performance experience is almost the same as the iPhone XS series

The editor thinks that the most conscience of the iPhone XR should be the use of Apple's latest A12 Bionic chip, which is the same as the iPhone XS series, which gives this phone the most basic guarantee in terms of performance. In the iPhone XS Max review article, the editor uses the two games "NBA 2K19" and "Shadows Remain" to consider the performance of the iPhone XS Max. On the iPhone XR, the editor still uses these two games for testing, which is convenient Compare the two.

Of course, before testing the game, the editor still uses the software to run a wave of points. Judging from GeekBench's running scores, the single-core and multi-core results of the iPhone XR are slightly lower than those of the iPhone XS Max, but the reduction is not large, and the overall level is still very high.

Then go directly to the game test. "NBA 2K18" will turn on the highest picture quality by default. Under the realistic rendering and light and shadow effects, iPhone XR can keep running smoothly throughout the game without any lags, and the game experience is very good. The temperature of the iPhone XR body during the game measured at the same time is 36.2℃, and the hottest part is near the rear camera, which is only slightly hot and not hot.

Another game "Shadows Remain" is an AR game. It has been introduced in detail in the iPhone XS Max evaluation. This game has exquisite graphics performance and needs to call the CPU, GPU, gyroscope, camera, etc. at the same time. The hardware has high requirements on the performance of the mobile phone.

The iPhone XR performed well when running this game. Compared with the iPhone XS Max, the image quality of the game is not compromised, and there is almost no place where the frame is stuck. The experience is equally smooth and free. During the game, the iPhone XR's most obvious heat is still near the camera, which is still 36.2 degrees Celsius, which also does not make people feel uncomfortable.

As the industry's first 7nm process SoC, the A12 Bionic chip has made great progress in performance and power consumption control, which can be seen from the performance test process. For the performance of the iPhone XR, the role of the A12 Bionic chip is certainly critical. The editor feels that it is also inseparable from the unity of the iOS ecosystem. The applications and services in the ecosystem can be optimized in a targeted manner, so it is almost touched in daily use. Less performance is not enough.

Fourth, the camera's imaging quality is excellent, and the single-shot portrait mode is eye-catching

The iPhone XR uses a 12-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture rear wide-angle camera, which is the same sensor as the iPhone XS series wide-angle camera. However, compared to the iPhone XS series, the iPhone XR only retains this wide-angle camera, cutting off the telephoto lens. This is also where many netizens are more worried about the iPhone XR: Will the photo effect also decline?

After experiencing it, I can first tell you that compared with the iPhone XS series, the single-lens system of the iPhone XR has three main missing items. One is the absence of 2x optical zoom, and the other is that the background blur of the subject in portrait mode cannot be achieved. The third is that the portrait light effect function of the rear portrait mode lacks stage light and monochromatic stage light, both of which are functionally lacking.

In other respects, the iPhone XR's camera effect also has a good performance, that is, in terms of basic imaging quality, the iPhone XS series have the characteristics of the iPhone XR. We might as well analyze it through proofs.

First of all, in the daytime when the light is sufficient, the iPhone XR's proofs are clear and sharp, and the style is close to what the human eye can see, but it is not too light nor too strong, and the look and feel is very good.

After zooming in, the four big characters of "The Icon of Confucius" are still clear, and the small characters below are not easy to identify, but they are not completely blurred. In the distance, the dust behind the billboard has not been lost. It can be seen that the resolution of the iPhone XR is good.

Look at the following one again, which can well reflect the iPhone XR's color reproduction tendency. The red creeper, the yellow wall, the blue sky, and the green leaves are more colorful than the actual scene, but they only stop there.

The next photo belongs to a large backlight scene, but the iPhone XR shows clearly the details of the sky and the backlit surface of the teaching building, especially the light and dark transitions of the sky. In addition, the leaves in front of the lens are bright and transparent in direct sunlight, and the details in the backlight are not lost. On the whole, the photo has a very good impression of the scene.

The next one is taken from a high place, which is a big scene. The scene is complicated, the sun is shining obliquely, and the light and dark are interlaced, which is a test of the dynamic range of the camera. The overall exposure of the iPhone XR proofs is accurate. There is no visible overexposure or underexposure at a glance. When zoomed in, the photos clearly explain the details of the scene, whether it is backlit or the light-facing part, such as this residential building. The details of the glossy surface, the car in the dark between the two buildings, are clearly visible.

In terms of taking pictures at night, we take the following sample as an example. The overall picture is relatively pure, there is basically no particularly obvious noise, the sky exposure is suppressed very low, and the main building part of the picture is fully exposed. This should be It is the strategy of the iPhone XR to deal with similar scenarios.

In the main part of the building, the details of the window lattices in the dark are still clear, and the high-light parts of the windows are not overexposed. It can be seen that the overall tolerance of the iPhone XR is still good.

Looking at the enlarged proof, the text on the plaque in front of the building is still clear, and the resolution at night is also good.

Although the iPhone XR has only a single camera, it can still take photos in portrait mode, but here portrait mode can only take photos of people to achieve background blur, because after all, it is achieved through neural network engine and machine learning technology.

Through this real shot proof of the portrait mode, you can see that the iPhone XR distinguishes between characters and backgrounds in place. Although there are still traces of algorithm matting after the hair edges are enlarged, it is basically more natural. Look at the normal size. You can hardly see these traces.

In the portrait mode photos of the iPhone XR, the depth of field control is also supported. After the photo is taken, the depth of field can be adjusted manually.

Here are more photo proofs of the iPhone XR:

Five, other features

In iPhone XR, Apple retains the dual card dual standby function of iPhone XS Max, which is more gratifying. In the iPhone XS Max evaluation, the editor has already introduced the basic function settings of Apple's dual-card dual-standby in detail. In essence, it is not much different from the iPhone XR, so I don't need to repeat it here.

It is also worth mentioning that the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS series also support wide-range stereo sound effects. The editor feels that the retention of this feature is wise, because it is very important for the improvement of the daily comprehensive experience of the iPhone XR. Listening to music, watching videos, and playing games occupies most of the scenes where we use smartphones. There are not a few cases where we need to use external speakers. The sound quality playback effect of the iPhone XR wide-range stereo speakers can bring a strong sense of immersion. Especially when the screen is horizontal, you will feel that the sound is coming from all directions, and the sense of space is very strong.

On the iPhone XR, Apple also cut a feature: 3D Touch and replaced it with Haptic Touch. The biggest difference between Haptic Touch and 3D Touch is that it does not have the sensitivity of pressing force, but it can realize part of the functions that the original 3D Touch can achieve by identifying short presses and long presses. For example, long press the flashlight button on the lock screen to turn on the flashlight directly, long press the camera button to turn on the camera for quick photos, long press in the middle of Apple's built-in input keyboard to drag the cursor like 3D Touch. At the same time, when the long press triggers the function, the iPhone XR body will also provide vibration feedback. The vibration feeling is almost the same as that of 3D Touch, which is very similar to the Taptic Engine of the iPhone 7 series.

In terms of signal, the editor compared it with an OPPO Find X in the iPhone XS Max evaluation. As for the signal performance of the iPhone XR, the editor also uses the OPPO Find X mobile phone to compare with it.

In terms of WiFi signal, the editor also conducted a test. In the same WiFi environment, the iPhone XR has a downlink rate of 46.8Mbps and an uplink rate of 89.7Mbps, while the OPPO Find X has an uplink rate of 49.8Mbps and a downlink rate of 93.9Mbps.

Six, battery life and charging

Apple iPhone XR uses a 2942mAh battery. Although it supports fast charging, it still comes standard with a 5V/1A charger. In terms of charging, the editor tested that it takes 172 minutes to fully charge the battery from 0 to 100%, which is nearly three hours. .

In terms of battery life, the editor also conducted a three-hour battery life test. In the endurance test, we set the test environment as follows:

The initial battery capacity is 100%;

Screen brightness 50%;

Volume (system, multimedia, notification, headset) 50%;

Mobile data network is turned on;

WiFi is on;

Bluetooth and location services are turned on.

The performance of the iPhone XR in the endurance test is as follows:

15 minutes of viewing the webpage consumes 1% of electricity;

Scan Weibo for 15 minutes, power consumption 2%;

15 minutes of talk, power consumption 1%;

Wear headphones to listen to music online for 20 minutes, power consumption 0%;

Wearing headphones to play 1080P video online for 45 minutes, power consumption 9%;

Play the game "Glory of the King" with headphones for 30 minutes, and consume 10% of the power;

Use WeChat for 20 minutes (10 minutes to chat, 10 minutes to scan Moments), power consumption 3%;

Brushing the IT house for 20 minutes consumes 1% of electricity.

After a 180-minute battery life test, the iPhone XR has 73% remaining power, which is excellent in battery life.

The following is the battery life test chart of the iPhone XR:

Seven, summary

Many people define iPhone XR as the "cheap version of iPhone", but I don’t think so. After this period of experience, I prefer to define it as "another iPhone." Editor also has no clear answer. Imagine that compared to the iPhone XS series, the iPhone XR is equipped with a screen, camera, and 3D Touch, but it still uses the best A12 Bionic chip, retains the original deep camera, and does not even have stereo speakers that are ignored by many consumers. Moving the knife, after experiencing the iPhone XR for a while, the editor can clearly say that it is not much different from the iPhone XS series in terms of core experience. This product positioning is almost impossible to happen in the Android camp. As for the screen, when you actually use it, you will feel that the experience is actually not as expected, or as bad as commented on the Internet.

Can iPhone XR fulfill its mission of covering more users? The editor thinks it is possible, because it is a different iPhone with its own characteristics. If you want to imagine its consumer group, the editor thinks it should be young users who want to experience the iOS ecosystem but have a relatively limited budget.

But to be honest, from the perspective of Xiaobian as one of the consumers, the starting price of iPhone XR6499 yuan is indeed a bit more expensive. It is not that the iPhone XR is not worth this price. On the contrary, as Xiaobian reviewed the iPhone XS Max. As mentioned in the article, it can bring users almost the best experience. Thinking carefully is not a question of worthlessness, but a question of where this "other" iPhone is positioned. From the iPhone 5c to the current iPhone XR, Apple’s "special team" does not seem to see a clear main line, and we do not know whether the iPhone XR has a successor. Perhaps, Apple is also in the process of exploring which role such an iPhone should play.