I have an iPhone X and if I were to upgrade it would be to the Xs not the Xr. The Xs has 4 Gb of RAM and the Xr has 3 Gb of RAM. On paper this may not look like much but the reality of it is that it makes a diference. I was able to look at an Xr and Xs side by side and between the display not being not as responsive and the less RAM the Xr lost out in the small comparison I did. Now that was not a scientific test, but I was able to proceave a disparity in responsiveness between the two devices. In my book the Xs is worth the extra money. I am not going to upgrade from my X. It does all I need. If you are using any phone below an 8 or 8 plus then by all means upgrade if you can. Don't worrry about Face ID or the lack of a home button. I adapted with in about two hours. All you have to figure out is what size screen you must have and how much storage you require. Or perhaps you must figure out how much your finances will allow you to splurge.
at Eric Davis, you have no idea what you’re talking about! The extra RAM in the XS and Maxx is strictly for the OLEDdisplay as well as second camera management! I don’t doubt your perception is real however, if it is, it could be down to the differing display Technology as the XR uses and LCD display!
I am blessed enough to have used the XR for a week and let me tell you, it is blisteringly fast! So why did I trade it up for to HomePods? Well… The short answer is that I already have an iPhone 8! The long answer is that the XR does not have 3D Touch and I use 3D Touch quite a bit! Moreover, unlike most, it took me more than 10 minutes to master the new jesters . No problem going home but, the app switcher jester was not as reliable as I had hoped! Whilst Face ID works fine, the reduced security to accommodate voiceover users means that someone could. point The handset at me and get unfettered access to the phone!
The good? The phone has insane battery life! With brightness set 2zero along with a couple of other tweaks, I was at 60 to 75% after a heavy day of use! I mean, I need to wireless charge my eight around 1 o’clock! Ha ha! Whilst Face ID offers less security, password auto fill is brilliant! The speakers are really loud however the DSP utilized does make music sound like it’s synthesized Dolby 3-d At Most sound! Those of you who have lived with the old HTCM-series and they’re boom sound, will know what I mean! Do not despair, it’s great for voiceover and the spoken word it’s just I like my music natural and flat! So, I give the speakers on the new iPhones a huge thumbs up! Finally, the handset it’s quite heavy! It’s the thickest phone of the Bunch! If you’re coming from an iPhone X I’d say wait until next year! If you’re coming from an earlier model, and as a totally blind individual, I highly recommend the XR! Why pay hundreds of dollars more for a fancy screen and the extra camera? Makes no sense for a totally blind person! Good luck let us know what you do cheers… Rocker
I really love the design of the 10 r, my thing is how long is the battery life on the phone it self. also, how good are the speakers on the phone for movies and audiobooks?
Hi, I upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an XR. So doing that, the XR seems plenty respnsive. Honestly the only real thing lacking is 3d touch, if you use that. I never did so I haven't missed it. But you should consider that if you do.
As for performance, let's be honest. Today's phones are fast. Doing many daily tasks, e.g., email, texting, you're not going to be able to tell. Possibly a placebo effect, and hey if that works for you great. Going from the 7 to the XR I really dont' notice it for these tasks.
Now there is an area I have noticed a significant performance increase: and that is using Seeing AI. Especially for scanning barcodes (product setting), the XR is significantly quicker at detecting barcodes than my old 7. Again if you have a newer phone you probably will realize less of an increase. But if you have an older model and you use Seeing AI or similar apps a lot, then it may well be worht considering. Of course the XS and XS Max surely do this too.
Secondly, if you have an older phone older than an 8, then the Bluetooth has been upgraded to 5.0. This may not matter to many. However it does help to a degree with made for iPhone hearing aids, at least ones knew enough to be using Bluetooth 5.0 themselves. And I've noticed it helps with the one Braille display I have that also has 5.0, the Actilino, in connecting more reliably. Although to be fair I've only had the XR a few days so that observation may need to be updated although I am hoping not. If you do not do these but instead use more mainstream Bluetooth devices lie Aftershokz, AirPods, etc., you likely will not notice any difference in real-world Bluetooth performance.
I did read the question about speakers. I am not qualified to give a fair review. However, I think they're fine. If you were to go with the concept that speakers need to move air as sound is mechanical after all at the end of the day, the XR is the thickest phone according to specs, so it is quite possible it has the best audio quality.
Even mainstream media says the best value is the XR and even the critics seem to have a hard time telling the difference in screen quality. And there are mixed reviews which camera setup is more effective. For OCR work the depth of a picture the main purpose of the second camera, does not matter. Unless perhaps someday OCR software can use that to read far away things like signs, but I do not think we're there yet so it is not of concern to OCR users.
I assume since you're on Applevis you likely don't have enough vision to be able to tell about the screens, or the photos. So I say save the $250 and put it towards a Braille display, AirPods, or something else and you will have the best of both worlds. Unless you are just rich, in which case I'd think you'd not be here asking anyways. haha.-Travis
Though of course the XR is worth a few more cents than that...
I'll echo a lot of what has been said. Ridiculously fast, and the power of the processor in this phone makes it as close to future-proof as you can get. The battery life is insane. Last week I took my phone off the charger Tuesday morning, and didn't plug it in again until Thursday evening, when it was at 20% or so. Granted, I wasn't doing a *ton* of streaming or processor intensive work, but I did download a few apps and watch an hour or two of Netflix, as well as a fair bit of time on Facebook, which used to devour battery on my old 6S. In other words, my battery lasted probably 3-4x longer than it would have on my 6S whose battery health was, according to the diagnostic in Settings, about 80%.
What else... Some people express concerns about Face ID. Personally, the security issue of someone grabbing my phone and unlocking it with my face without me noticing is not an issue for me, because that seems like a pretty outlandish possibility. I did have some initial issues with Face ID inconsistency, but once I found the sweet spot, it has become as natural as unlocking with my fingerprint, if not more son. I also love the new gestures, and personally am very pleased with how intuitive and consistent they are. I actually find going to the control and notification centers much easier on the XR than my 6S. I also like the added screen real estate—typing feels much more comfortable for my long-fingered hands.
To my ears, the speaker is significantly more powerful than on older phones, though I haven't done much listening to the 8 or 8+. As with most iPhone speakers (and probably smart phone speakers in general) it's very treble-heavy, making the sound very crisp and bright but not as rich as some might like...but then again, you really can't generate a lot of bass with a tiny little speaker like that. Certainly nothing to complain about.
So in short, there is nothing that would cause me to recommend against the XR. In fact, I would heartily recommend it. If someone wanted to get something that wasn't the XR, I'd say probably the 8 or 8+, depending on which size you prefer. There is no real advantage to getting the XS for blind users, that I can think of—certainly not one to justify a $250 price tag. If you want to spend less, I'm sure the 8 would also make a fine phone, just bear in mind that you would be buying a processor that's one generation older, and a smaller battery and smaller screen.
There you go, my two cents, or maybe a few more. Good luck with your decision!
As I stated in my comment, I looked at the Xr from the aspect of upgrading from an iPhone X. It was probably the display that slowed down the device I looked at. The only point that I was making was that I could see that Voice Over appeared to respond faster on the iPhone XS and the Xs max. Sorry if I offended any one.
I haven't even seen a XR in person yet but here is why I eventually decided to go for the XR: 3D touch, yes, that's a real priority and issue for me that I would be lacking this on the XR. The OLED display actually presents an advantage even to the blind - as far as I understand it, the XS and XS Max have faster touch input digitizers (120 hz) than the XR, and the display, when truetone is disabled, brightness is at 0 % and screen curtain is on, can be more power efficient than an LCD, so the fact that the XR is supposed to have slightly better battery life than even the XS Max doesn't bother me for this very reason, either. In any case, the battery life on these new generation phones is absolutely phenomenal!
By the way, I don't see what everyone's issue with the decreased Face ID security is. Yeah, I do have mine set to not require attention because of VoiceOver and my eye condition, that's true, but I also have raise to wake and tap to wake turned off as well, and absolutely zero brightness and screen curtain on all the time as I said above. So, even if someone snatched the phone from me, they would have to be educated enough to know to press the side button to turn the phone on, then point it at me, then press the side button three times to turn off VoiceOver or ask Siri to do that by holding the side button down, all of that still with the display seemingly off and black, with VO still on, and in time for the phone not to lock back again. How realistic does that seem to anyone? True, a person who wouldn't be able to unlock the phone using my face right away would most likely still steal it anyway, and I would then have to block the phone on my iCloud and contact the police and whatnot, and I might never be able to get it back, but I'm really not concerned with the however slim possibility of someone accessing my data stored on the phone. Remember people who are determined to steal your phone would most likely still do so no matter what, even if they couldn't unlock it. They don't usually do that to unlock it and get to your data, you know. They don't care a bit about that. They care about selling it somewhere, to someone who knows how to dismantle it and exchange some parts around to make it behave as new again.
I will post an unpopular opinion here, but i say go for what works for your situation and not what a bunch of people tell you on a forum. First of all price point should be considered and then features. If you want all the latest technology, fastest processor, etc then the iPhone XR, is a good choice. If you don't want all the latest and greatest technology and pay a tremendous amount then go with an older model. I got the SE again before the new phones were announced and I am perfectly fine with it. I don't need a bigger form factor, the price point is right for me buying the phone outright, and I can do without three d touch. It all depends on what your needs are and how much your willing to pay though. I like to research products, see what people say, but ultimately pick what fits my situation. I don't want to be paying off a phone for the next 2 years every month so the SE fits my budget and it has enough features that I need.
Even though I ended with an iphone max, over the XR, I dont know why,god help me I tend to do that quite often lol.
But to a blind user the XR with its better battery life, similar specs as compared to the max, besides the ram that and the optical camera, being $250 less, it seems like a no brainer for me.
But up to you, and if you think you will need a touch ID, I am missing it already, go for the 8 plus instead.
good luck with whatever you choose to get!
Grryf
I've had mine for a week now, and am loving it. Actually, because of the upgrade plan I am on, I am paying less than I was for my 8 plus with 256 GB of memory. Granted, it's only about $1.50 less each month, but that still surprises me. The new phone is an XR with 256 GB as well. That being said, once you get past the frustration of learning to use face ID, I love using it, including the new feedback gestures to access the home screen, app switcher, control center, and notification center. I wish Apple would have done these gestures a long time before the iPhone X. I did not use 3D touch all that often and, quite frankly, don't miss it.
Hi, I put my iPhone 7 on top of the XR and was surprised to see it really isn't that much larger. It does feel larger to use though because there is so much more screen due to little bezel and no home button. I agree with you, I hope phones sotp growing. Or they make them foldable. Or foldable and smaller would be even better.
I am not entirely a fan of the Home gesture yet. It work mostly but it occasionally does not seem to want to recognize I am starting at the edge. This may be one consideration of the XR where an XS with its fancier screen does a better job. Without using both side by side I have no way to know. And it isn't worth $250 to me. But if Apple were to ask me (and they won't) I'd say keep the gestures but you have plenty of room for another side button for Home. Sigh.
Regarding the 7 (and comparably sized phones) not actually being much smaller than the XR—this is true. However, the experience of using the XR makes it feel significantly larger. That's because the increase in screen size is far greater than the increase in phone size. So, while the thing you're holding doesn't take up much more room in your hand, the amount of screen real estate you are stretching to reach is significantly larger. For some, this is an advantage, for others, a disadvantage. But when people complain about the phone being larger, I think what they're really complaining more about the experience of using a phone with a larger screen, not the physical dimensions of the phone.
Has anyone here done a comparison on battery life between the xr and xs? It be interesting to know how much battery life one can get out of an XS with brightness at 0 and screen curtain on?
Do note, the difference between the 2 screens is not just LCD to OLED, it's also the graphics processor having to do more work (and thereby using more battery) on the xs, because the xs has many more pixels than the xr. Therefore, the xs uses more power to draw out on screen graphics as oppose to the xr. The screen resolutions are actually different as well, with the xs supporting true 1080p, and the xr having to downsample because it doesn't have enough pixels for 1080p. Thus my interest in battery life difference in actual daily use. This is why unfortunately benchmarks don't give us the full story, though they do help.
Another interesteing difference that not many places mention is the fact that the XS/XS max have 4 MIMO antennas as oppose to the XR, X, 8, 8+ etc, which only have 2. Now this may not matter much to you, and it may not even matter now, but as 5G starts to roll out, XS/max users will see speed increases. Some reports have also mentioned wifi being faster on the XS/max, but I'm not sure if it was just mere chance, since the reviewers didn't conduct a "scientific" test. If upgrading from a previous iPhone, it won't matter, since all phones until this year only had 2 MIMO.
Another small thing to consider (depending on how you upgrade your phone) is resell value. Odds are that the xs will hold more value next year and you could get more for it.
That being said, the xr is a nice phone, and if you are willing to deal with the differences, it does make sense to save the money; speaking from a non-visually oriented perspective, the xr makes sense; but it is not the same case with folks who are more visually oriented, because there are noticeable differences between the screens. Though initial reviews stated otherwise, people in regular daily use are finding otherwise; especially with apps that are not Apple's, which were obviously super optimized to reduce aliasing and such. The LCD is also not as "Sharp" as the OLED, according to tests I've personally conducted for some of my customers. What happened with initial reviews that were out and hot, was that Apple had given quite a few reviewers a chance to play with the xr in New York (not at the iPad event, this took place weeks before the xr was released), but they only had 1 hour and they all mostly focused on the camera and its features, and the various colors. A few just mentioned the screen looking fine, but then again they were mainly using Apple stock apps and the content on those phones seemed to be limited, so the case of use was somewhat limited. Now that people have been using the phone, from what I've read it seems not everybody agrees with the screen looking just as good or "differences not noticeable" as was originally thought.
Not trying to persuade or promote 1 unit or the other, I believe they both have their place, strengths and weaknesses; and right now with Apple's line up, you really have some good options! the iPhone 7 for 450, is a great deal, that phone in terms of power is much much better than the sc which sold for almost the same. The 7+ for 570ish if you want a bigger size, and then the 8 at 600 or the 8+ at 700 (7 starts at 32gb while 8 starts at 64). The 8+ and xr is actually a much harder choice than the xr/xs, seeing how they are so close in price (50 dollar difference), and the 8+ is still a very good phone, with nice features, better screen resolution than the xr (note that screen resolution and screen size are different things, resolution refers more to the quality and sharpness of the picture, kind of like bit rate refers to the quality and clarity of a lossy sound file such as mp3 or WMA), 3d touch, and the beloved touch ID!
But anyway, I digress :) so anyone following this thread and is an XS user who's got some numbers for battery usage with 0 brightness and screen off? The more people who reply the better, since everyone's use pattern is more likely different. Likewise for XR owners, mind sharing some battery info?
I'm mainly asking about this, since it is the one thing that is persuading to allot of people, at least here it seems that way. When dealing with people who are more visually oriented, it seems that the xr is not such a winner. So much so that Apple has closed some of its XR production lines in Foxcon, and has instead asked for more 8+ units to be made, as those seem to be the hotcakes right now. I guess the demand for the xr is not as high as they estimated. Ironically, this same thing happpened last year when the X came out, where the 8/8+ were left on the shelf, and people were going to the pricier X, or with the price drop, many people went for the 7/7+ instead! That's mainly because the improvements between those phones (7 and 8) were not so noticeable, at least in terms of design and stuff. Apple had pushed the wireless charging features, but that wasn't such a hot topic amongst average users, and the fact that their promised airPower charger has yet to be seen hasn't helped that issue lol.
Have had the iPhone X R for just over a week now and it is a dramatic upgrade from an iPhone 7.
I will highlight three areas where I think the X R provides serious advantages both over its cheaper and more expensive siblings.
1. Ram
while there has been discussion on the relative merits of 3 vs 4 gigs of ram in the X R vs X S, as has been stated above, most of the advantages of more ram are needed for the larger video buffers needed on the X S and X S Max's larger displays. One significant downside of increased ram is power draw. Ram requires constant voltage to be enabled, unlike the processor, which can dynamically power down specific cores ram is always enabled and if a significant percentage of that ram is mostly going unused, you are sacrificing battery life for no gain. i.e. if ram usage is mostly below 3 gigs and you have included 4 gigs, then a quarter of the power draw on the ram package is empty battery drain. Memory, just like CPU clock speeds and battery capacity is one variable in a system wide balancing act in which more is not always better.
2. Javascript optimisations
The A12 processors in the latest iPhones use a new version of the arm instruction set, v8.3, which includes optimized floating-point to int conversions which cater to javascript particular architectural needs.
In English, this means that javascript performance on webpages is significantly increased, and for anyone who has experienced voiceover hanging inexplicably in the middle of reading a webpage will be a significant upgrade in terms of using the device. I've noticed significantly better rendering on javascript and ad heavy pages.
Two quick examples are www.salon.com www.seriouseats.com
These sites were practically unusable on an iPhone 7 and while still at times slow, are significantly improved. Since javascript benchmarks on all of the new iPhones have doubled in speed this seems an obvious improvement.
3. The neural engine
This improvement is more theoretical rather than practical at the moment so I am listing it last, but as algorithms start to take advantage of hardware processing through the improved 8 core neural engine on the new iPhones, we should see both speed increases in areas such as camera text recognition and lower power draw for these tasks. When using seeingAI on my old iPhone 7, I was always conscious of closing seeingAI immediately after performing a task to limit its effect on my battery. The simple fact is that general purpose CPU instruction sets are not optimized for these types of tasks, and rendering them through instruction sets like coreML which are more optimized to the neural engines hardware pipeline can significantly improve their efficiency.
Taking the three above points into consideration I would argue that the X R provides the sweet spot in terms of price, hardware, and future proofing.
Apple's marketing strategy for years now has been to offer a baseline product which is just underpowered enough in some measure to gently nudge people to the middle tier of the product line. Those who are cost impervious will opt for the top end, but for a relatively small additional fee, the upgrade from the base to middle tier for most consumers can be justified.
I see the argument between the 8, the X R, and the X S in this context.
The X S is in some ways the top of the line, although for blind users, it could be argued that the better battery life of the X R is a better set of tradeoffs.
But given the limitations of the A11 in the 8 and the future possibilities of the neural engine in the A12, for a modest economic outlay, the X R seems to hold that middle position.
In my opinion the iPhone 8 just has too many hardware compromises and excludes future improvements to justify its modestly lower price. If it were half the price of an iPhone X R, the calculus would be different, but not at a relatively modest $100 discount.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Here's my take on XR vs XS/X/XS max. As someone who has had an iPhone X for almost a year, I can safely say the the Oled display is a huge energy saver over the previous LCD displays. If pixels are black, then they're not lit, thus saving battery life. Now for us blindies out here, lol! Personally the new XR is a great phone based on specs. However, wouldn't you get more battery usage with OLED and screen curtain turned on? brightness doesn't matter in this case because if curtain is enabled, then the display with OLEDS in it isn't being lit. Sure it is using battery, sometimes more significantly due to apps, but it's not as much as older LCD devices. In my view, a 5.8 inch screen is quite large enough, I've got small girly hands lol. and can safely use it in one hand with a battery case installed.
Hello Devin. I just wanted to tell you thanks for the technical review. This has helped me greatly in making a decision for iPhone upgrade. I presently use the iPhone 6S. I was leaning heavily toward the XS but after your very descriptive prospective, I think I'm inclined to agree that the XR seems to be the sweet spot. Appreciate you taking the time to share.
I broke down and bought myself one 2 days ago. I really like it. I had an SE before this one and its battery was starting to crap out. I know it sounds crazy, but I did comparisons on Apple’s website between my SE, the 8, the XS, XR, etc. I got the XR for its battery and lower price compared to the XS. Because, the crazy thing is that when I was doing comparisons on the website, they said that for most tasks, the battery performed just as well or in some cases better, on my SE, than it did on the 8. So the XR was the best one to get for the battery life. I have used an SE for over 2 years before this, a 5S for over 2 years before that, and a 5 for a little over a year before that. So changing body styles on a phone for the first time in 5 and a half years has been something to get used to. But I really am happy with it. I’m surprised, pleasantly, with how happy I am with the home gestures and in some cases, Face ID. I don’t have the easiest time with Face ID at night when I’m in bed and my room is totally dark, but I can usually get it to work after a couple of tries. During the day, it works sometimes faster than Touch ID did. I’m not having as hard a time with it as I thought I would. I do recognize the potential security compromise, being someone who can’t control my eye movements and thus, can’t use attention mode. But, someone would have to know how to turn off screen curtain and turn up the brightness if they really wanted to get into my phone anyway. So I got over it. I like the new haptic feedback in the new phones. The SE didn’t have that, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the phone vibrating to the beat of my ringtones, as dumb as that is. I’m really liking the speed and battery improvements, again. I couldn’t be more happy with this phone even though it is kind of a monster. Size wise, that is.
So, is it fair to say that most people here, well most reading this thread at least, own XR units, and no XS? Other than Justin?
I'm still interested in hearing from either parties about how long battery lasts for you; perhaps I'll start my own thread with a more proper title :)
To the OP, have you made your choice on which phone to get yet? If so, could you share why? I have a feeling as the months go by and people start to upgrade this thread will be visitted over and over, so any info we can leave behind for those future readers will be helpful.
I've owned an XS Max for a few days short of two weeks now and I am becoming really happy with it. I've mastered the way to lean the phone to use Face ID so well that I am having no more issues with unlocking it even when lying in bed at night, which means that the front camera has to be pointed sort of down at me, vertically as opposed to more or less horizontally when sitting or standing.
The battery in combination with the energy saving OLED display is a real beast! I got myself a 10 Watt Connect IT wireless charger which is QI certified for reliability (even though I still use it with the default shipped 5 Watt power adapter :-D) and I put the phone on it every night when I go to sleep, but I've always had 50 percent of battery or more left when doing that. The truth is that I have a regular job during the day which I do on my PC but I still use the phone a lot even during the day to take a look at something (e-mail, the weather, other notifications), and I read a lot in Voice Dream and a local audiobook publisher app, and I watch quite a lot of Youtube semi-regularly. So I reckon that having 50 percent of battery or more at the end of the day, even on weekends when I use it a lot more, is amazing.
Hey finally! One report about XS and its battery performance, thanks Lukas!
From that report I can say that turning the screen off must help with the battery, since I know for a fact my wife's XS Max will last about a day and a half before it needs to be recharged, something she only does after it's dropped under 10% and she uses her phone quite a bit. Of course when watching movies or streaming allot of videos the battery dies sooner, but that's the case with any phone.
Lukas if you don't mind, 2 questions:
Why did you go for the Xs instead of the Xr? What phone did you own before?
If there are any other XS or even XS Max users out there, please chime in. XR users, which I know there are a few of you, please let us know what your battery life is like, and what your usage is.
Again, I'm only making a big deal about the battery, since it seems that it is one of the main deciding factors, at least for those who don't care about the screen, 3d touch, dual cameras, and better antenna system which the XS has. So if you remove all those from the equation, battery seems to be one of the only other things to decide upon. Of course the battery on the Xr is better from a normal point of view where both screens are turned on, but we've already explained the fact that the LCD has less pixels than the OLED, so the XS has to use more power to render graphics since it has more pixels to push. But our interest lies in having both screens disabled, which should in theory get some battery gains on the XS. Is that gain enough to compare to the Xr? Does the battery on the XS still not last as long even with screen curtain on and brightness down? That's what we're trying, or at least I'm trying to find out lol. :)
Unfortunately I am no expert, so I bought the phone simply because many people say it's apparently top of the line. I can easily go a day and a half when I'm not using my phone too much. However, certain apps like WhatsApp for example, drains my phone's battery quickly. So far I have not really experienced any difference turning on the screen curtain, or turning off brightness. If you ask me, I'd say it's all about how frequently you use the phone as well as which apps you are using. Just my thoughts.
Hi,
I decided to go for the XS Max because precisely the things you removed from the equation were the main deciding factors for me. :-)
Screen: OLED, like someone else said before, actually is an advantage even for a blind person, as that display technology combined with 0 % brightness and screen curtain is a huge energy saver. Unlike LCD, when the pixels on an OLED display are not being used, they are not being lit at all. That's physics, so yes, screen curtain and zero brightness in deed *are* deciding factors when it comes to battery life. So, even when people actually do make use of the OLED display and do look at it, it's still more energy efficient than LCD as not every single pixel is actually lit up at every single moment. This is true even more so for a totally blind individual like myself.
3D touch: I was and am actually using that thing, and would be missing it. Plus, I was using the 7 Plus before, so suddenly not having this feature would just feel like a downgrade to me overall.
The cameras: I do believe every single camera improvement, even software wise, is a noticeable improvement in speed and possibly even quality even with OCR and recognition apps like Seeing AI or KNFB Reader.
Better antennas: Yeah, I definitely want gigabit LTE when that becomes available in my area, and the faster and more advanced WIFI (MIMO 2). I do have a connection and router that the phone can definitely make full advantage of.
Better durability over the XR: I wanted the stainless steel frame and the IP68 rating. The XR still has only IP67, so no practical upgrade there in one of the areas of interest in every day real life usage for a blind person, of which us visually impaired probably have fewer than the general sighted public. :-)
In general, I knew I wanted to upgrade my phone anyway, so it made no sense for me to go for the cheaper, more compromising model when I was using the previous top of the line before. Upgrading from the 7 Plus to the 8 Plus didn't feel like that much gain to me, not to mention that I would be consciously upgrading to the one generation older and less powerful chip than what was actually available. The XR, although it does have the A12 Bionic, was too much of a compromise for me in other areas that were important to me.
If memory serves, it's said that the XR has an hour better battery life over the XS Max. Maybe it was just half an hour, I really am not sure. So come on, one hour or half an hour difference in common every day usage scenarios? What a difference is that? Not an interesting deal to me. The XS Max was still a significant battery improvement over the 7 Plus anyway.
To give you a better idea of the battery life, I spent the day (from 9 AM my time to 6 PM, which is 9 hours) reading a book in Voice Dream, checking some e-mail and iMessages, making an online grocery purchase, checking my bank account in my bank's mobile app, watching a Youtube video which was about half an hour in length, having an hour long phone call and looking at other notifications. The battery was at 100 % at 8 o'clock in the morning, which was an hour before I actually started using it. AFter all this, it's now at 65 %. All of this is, of course, with screen curtain on and brightness at 0 %. Most of the stuff I described was done with the Airpods on. I assume using a Bluetooth headset for any and all audio output, and it's a lot of audio if you consider VoiceOver, drains the battery faster than if you were using the phone's built in speakers, but I'm not sure about this, so this assumption could easily be wrong on my part.
Hi Roxann,
glad it was of use. After dropping my 7 a couple months back I was forced to use an old 6+ for a couple months as my main device. Even with the serious speed improvements of the iOS 12 beta, moving back to a modern device was an unbelievable improvement in interface lag and overall usability of the device. If you're coming from a 6s, you'll really notice the difference in general performance. Also, in my testing so far, the "U.S. siri female" voice seems to be noticeably more responsive than any of the nuance voices.
Dev
Thanks for the info! I removed those things from the equation as I call it because most people seem to not care about that. I personally consider all those things and the phones' actual values, and how well that will hold up, especially if I sell mine when it comes time to upgrade. And I do like the feel of the xs better than the xr.
Although I do agree with the info laid out in Devin's post, after further consideration and reading the posts from Lukas, I will be choosing the iPhone XS. Will be upgrading this Thursday. I really do want the better technology edge that the XS model will provide.
Hi.
I upgraded from a 6S to the XR last week. Yes, I came out of the dark ages... haha. I have to say the battery life on the XR is amazing! The battery on my previous 6S would drain so fast and with the XR I can go a whole day without charging it. I figured out the new voice over gestures rather quickly but still trying to master face ID. I have a passcode and attention turned off. The speaker quality on the XR is much more enhanced than the 6S. I do miss touch ID but I will get used to face ID fingers crossed. Still figuring out how to use face ID with third party apps... If you want a better quality phone overall with great battery life, I recommend the iPhone XR. Yes you have to pay it off every month but it's worth it. I traded in my 6S and used the trade in value on the XR. It lowered the monthly payment alittle... Any little bit helps.
I went from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone XS. After the release of the XR and reading this blog, I became to think that maybe I bought the wrong device. So I went to my local Apple Store and tried out XR. The XR is a really great device, but my XS, is for my needs, the better device.
First and foremost is the fact that there is no 3D Touch on the XR. I love the 3D Touch function. I personally believe that this feature is highly underrated. I really like having all the extra options on my homescreen. For stock apps and many 3rd party apps. For a VO user, it just makes life easier. For example, the notes app, Just 3D Touch it and a few swipes later I’m starting a new note. The phone app, just 3D Touch it and a few swipes later I’m calling one of my favorites. It’s just quick and easy. Another example for its use is in Safari. Since VO always jumps to the top of a page after opening a link and navigating back, I instead 3D Touch a link and preview the site. If it’s not what I was looking for, no problem. I just close my Preview and my focus is where I was. These are only a couple of examples for the 3D Touch functionality and as said, in my opinion, one of the better features that an iPhone has and that most people ignore or don’t use or don’t even know it exists.
I also like the size of th XS better as compared to the XR. The XS is quite thinner and somewhat smaller in length and width. I have normal sized hands for a man and the XS just fits better in my hands. It’s tight, but it’s possible for me to use it one handed and with one finger as where with the XR I cannot. In general the XS seems to react to swipes and gestures in general somewhat snappier. But this is a very subjective observation, but at least for me that is my impression.
As for the battery, I’m a normal user to my definition. Check the mail, listen to music, scan with Seeing Ai, use a little blind Square and check for bus and subway departure and arrival times. I usually can go for about three days before I need to charge.
From my understanding the XS has a somewhat more durable glass back than the XR and as previously mentioned, the stainless steel frame is sturdier as well. If all these things are worth the price difference, is a question everyone needs to answer for them selves, and price is always an issue. But for me it’s worth it. I’m glad I got the XS, probably the best iPhone I’ve ever had. HTH
First off, regarding the last post—the loss of 3D touch is the one thing I feel is an actual sacrifice for me with the XR. I didn't use 3D touch a ton, so it wasn't worth $250 to me, but I used it enough to be sad that I no longer have it. I'm also sad that Apple never did a very good job of maximizing this feature, as I think it could really have fundamentally changed the way we use our phones, but instead is probably on its way out of use completely...but that's another story.
As for durability, obviously iPhones are legendary for being selectively durable...you hit one with a bulldozer and it's fine, then you drop it on a carpeted floor and it breaks into a thousand pieces. That said, I am not proud to admit that my XR has definitely proven to be more durable than I would have expected, after a couple of heartrate-increasing mishaps when I was sure I had just thrown away $800...
One other minor and subjective thing that I forgot to mention in my initial post is that, personally, I like the feel of the aluminum more than the stainless steel. This is, obviously, a very subjective point, but one worth considering if you're really on the fence. Hold both phones and see which feels better. I like the fact that the aluminum is a little more textured than the steel, which also makes the phone feel a tiny bit less slippery in your hands if you're using it without a case, and when upgrading from an all-aluminum phone, anything to ease that transition helps.
Even though I'm not the original poster, and I don't think we've heard much again from him/her, this has been what I'd consider good and healthy conversation! Maybe they are reading in the background weighing everything out and trying to make an informed decision. :)
I for one am planning to get the XS when I do upgrade from my 7. I've played with both XR and XS and also have read the various reviews, looked at tech specs, and I think the XS has greater value. I also tend to just sell stuff when I upgrade, because I keep things in very good condition, and it gives friends and family members, customers or anyone else a chance to get something at a lower price but that is still in great condition.
But i, like others have mentioned feel that the OLED screen is more responsive and the phone feels better to me. With evidence that battery isn't such a big problem, I'll take the XS with the support for future connectivity, 3d touch, better cams (I actually use the camera for videos and shooting pix, and as someone else mentioned, I'm sure that apps like Seeing AI and such will start to use the cameras more powerful features and perhaps even the nural engine to process AI tasks).
@Roxann, please do let us know the experience of switching from XR to XS, if you end up doing so.
@ Ann Marie, when you say you can go a whole day without charging your XR, do you charge it every day? If so, what percentage is your battery at when you do charge at the end of the day? What's your usage like?
@Fritz, thanks for the input, appreciate it! Three days on a charge is good! :)
@Joseph, Roomour has it that 3d touch is on its way out, hopefully that's not true. It may be that it's getting difficult to implement on the OLED screens? Others say Apple is using the phone differences to see if 3D touch will be missed or not, to decide if it's worth it. Or perhaps they aren't getting rid of it at all, and it was just cheaper to remove the feature from the XR, or since the LCD had to be tweaked so much, and it's no secret that they had a few setbacks with the XR, 3D touch was the sacrificial lamb there :)
For those of you who are on the XR, don't forget to experiment with long presses, as double tapping and holding (or sometimes single tapping and holding) gives ou access to some nifty shortcuts, especially in Safari!
Actually, I am currently using the 6S. When I read Devin's post, I seriously considered updating to the XR. However, after Reading the post from Lukas, I really think I want the higher qualities of the tech, found in the XS, along with being able to continue using the 3D touch. I think the XS will suit my needs and gratify my inner nerd much better than the XR. I think the XR has a lot going for it, but if I'm going to throw down cash on the table for a device that will have to last me several more years, I'm going for the best that I can afford, to provide the best longevity. I am upgrading tomorrow. Can't hardly wait to start using the new XS. Currently, my battery life is maybe five hours per day before it drops below 10% and needs a charge. Was going to utilize the battery recall program that Apple has, which is still available until 12/31/2018, but I think it's just time to update now.
Yeah based on something I read, 3D touch was a necessary technical sacrifice in order to get an edge-to-edge LCD display. That said, the rumor mill is definitely buzzing that Apple is also just phasing it out, which would not be surprising because it was never particularly well-integrated. They never had a good way of communicating to users when 3D touch options were available, which means it was a pretty inconsistent experience and was not exciting enough for a lot of third-party developers to tap into its potential. And since Apple is all about consistency across the UX I would not be surprised if this went away within a generation or two.
For those who have examined both the XS and the XR side-by-side, are these the same size? I got an impression that the XR is slightly larger, but I don't know where. I'm looking for something a little easier to hold and do braille screen input on due to hand strain issues than my 6S, but not as large as the plus phones. Does what I want even exist?
Yes, the XR is slightly larger than the 6s. I don't know the official measurements, but if I had to guess I would say it is in the neighborhood of 1/4"–1/2" wider and taller.
Hi.
Yes I charge my phone every night. Love the wireless charger! :) I can keep the wireless charger at home and have a charger to carry around with me. My battery is usually at 10 or 20 percent before I charge it. I mostly use my phone for texting, calling, games, Facebook, safari, and I have various news apps on it.
Got an XR yesterday and loving the size!!! The extra height makes braille screen input even more comfortable and fast. Still adapting to unlocking and such, but I'll get there.
@Roxann, I agree with you, which is why I'm getting the XS; if I'm going to spend on something, I like to get the best I can afford, knowing that I'm not holding back (within reasonable expense). As a techy I look at the specs and value everything when deciding.
On the other hand, I know not everyone can spend so much, and I'm glad that the Xr is an option for that reason. Some others don't really care about stuff like that, so to them they just want something that's functional. Which is why I keep saying, when making a decision, test for yourself, identify as much as you can what you want, need, and what you don't; or what you are willing to pay for what feature. By our sharing of experiences and information we help those who may not have a full idea of what they want, or cannot evaluate each product side by side.
@Anne Marie, I'm surprised that your Xr's battery is at such a low value in just 1 day! I know usage patterns greatly affect battery, but most people have reported at least 2 days on a single charge. Do you use the screen at all?
Also, something you guys might want to consider, it is not such a good idea to charge your battery if it's not at a low level. I know of some people who will charge their batteries every night, even if the battery charge level is at 40-50 percent! I understand that not everyone can risk being out a full day with a battery at such levels, but charging the battery when it's that full only kills the cells faster.
I normally charge my battery when it drops under 10 percent, (of course there are times when I can't wait, so I have to charge it with a little more charge), but this has been my charging pattern for the most part. My 7's battery which I purchased the day it came out, 2 years later it is at 90 something percent health! My previous phone was a 6, and that battery lasted about 4 years! Just thought I'd share that just in case it helps anyone :)
@Sean, Congrats on your upgrade! What did you have before?
Hey another interesting thought I just had, for you guys who purchase Xr phones, are you guys picking particular colors? are you basing your purchases based on favorite colors, or do you just go with whatever is available?
Regarding overnight battery charging, I do this. Perhaps this is why my 6S battery was performing so bad. Was purchased in 2016. I'm sort of in a quandary about this one. Since my spouse passed away, the only way I can get assistance, if needed, is with the iPhone. Also, should the power go out, I must be able to continue to have my media fix. So, to charge or not to charge overnight? Probably, due to the above listed things, I will still continue, and will have to pay the price of a battery that fails more quickly. The logic of not charging when not needed makes perfect sense to me, but given my circumstances, I think I'll have to pay the price later. Thanks for sharing.
Well, it's been a little more than a full 24 hours with my new iPhone XS. It's been a very positive experience for me, except for reconnecting my Apple Watch. I suspect that was due to operator error.
The facial recognition took a bit to understand but I think I'm doing okay with that now. Apparently, it's a three step process. Assuming you have raise to wake on, first you lift the phone and place it In front of your face, next the facial recognition does its thing, then you use the gesture that is used to go to the home screen. Then the phone becomes unlocked. Also, the whole process of setting up facial recognition was a surprise. I didn't expect all the voiceover feedback that was provided. Apple did well on that one.
Some comments have been made regarding the XR's hight and thickness being greater than the XS. Unfortunately, I forgot to examine this difference while in store, however, due to the fact that I have girly hands, I'm glad that I chose the XS for ease of use and a slimmer form factor. I really wanted to get the 512 memory storage, but I'm also having to update the Apple watch when I can so I had to sacrifice some memory and chose the 256 instead. This is still double what I had on the 6S. Overall, the performance of the phone seems much faster and I found that screen time actually works on the XS; whereas, the 6S model never did produce any data. I am so glad that I got the XS and look forward to many years with this device.
Thanks to all who posted on this thread. I feel I made a more sound purchase because of it.
Perhaps this is the wrong forum to request assistance, but it is connected to my new XS so forgive me for going off topic.
I have an app on my 6S that is called Repeat CheckList, which works just fine. However, when trying to open the same app on my XS, the icon indicates that it's in iCloud and I am given the choice to delete or keep the app. I have search the web to try to solve it and all I see is the typical info regarding going to the App Store, Updates, Account, and selecting not on this iPhone. The problem is that, despite not scrolling all the way through the 177 pages, I don't think it will show there for two reasons including the app icon is still on the device and when trying to open the icon it states that the app is no longer in the App Store.
So, if the app is in iCloud, and it works on my 6S, I'm wondering if there is any last ditch efforts to be made to somehow capture the app from iCloude and make it work on the XS.
Yes I have my screen on and brightness is at 100 percent This makes it easier to see the screen; I have light perception. . I know this greatly effects the battery life. I also use para transit and I am on hold with the company for a good half hour before a live human picks up the phone. I do carry a charger with me due to me taking public transport; can't have my phone die on me while I'm waiting for those unreliable people...
So what version of iOS were you running on your 6S? It is possible that if you were not running iOS11 or later then the app is no longer supported. On the other hand, it is possible the developer pulled the app from the app store. Sorry, probably not much help, but hope maybe it will point you in the right direction.
@DJX I actually read a number of articles recently explaining that the healthiest practice for lithium-ion batteries is to charge them for short periods throughout the day, essentially "topping them off" when convenient, rather than running your battery down and then doing long, full charges. The reason being that the battery cells are kept in a state of stress while charging, and it is healthier to charge your battery for less duration at a time, more frequently, verssus more duration at a time, less frequently. This is also why it's less healthy to leave the phone plugged in overnight.
So yeah, one of the things I love about my XR is that I can usually leave it unplugged overnight. Even if my 6S wasn't practically dead by day's end, by some miracle, I couldn't leave it unplugged for fear it would die sometime in the night.
And regarding early comments about battery drain, screen brightness definitely makes a huge difference. My wife accidentally left her XR on 100% the other day and commented on how much it kills the battery, even compared to the default brightness. So I'm sure my great battery performance has a lot to do with the fact I always have the screen curtain on, and would not be the same for someone who uses the backlight.
I agree with you Joseph in reguards to lithium batteries. Also, if an app says something like "in iCloud" it's probably pulled from the app store, I had this when i upgraded to the iPhone X last january.
Both devices are running the current version of iOS12. I was hoping that, since the icon on the new devices states that the app is in iCloud, that there would be some way to force the app on to my new device. It works fine on the 6S but I can't get it to download on to the new device. Frustrating as I use this app to track my 90-day workout cycles.
If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate them.
I use the auto-brightness feature for the screen and leave the screen curtain off, despite being totally blind. I'm certain that if I were to put the brightness to zero and turn on screen curtain, I would gain much battery life. These are good things to keep in mind during a power outage. Turning off the above features will lend more precious time when the lights go out.
Comments
Iphone Xr
I have an iPhone X and if I were to upgrade it would be to the Xs not the Xr. The Xs has 4 Gb of RAM and the Xr has 3 Gb of RAM. On paper this may not look like much but the reality of it is that it makes a diference. I was able to look at an Xr and Xs side by side and between the display not being not as responsive and the less RAM the Xr lost out in the small comparison I did. Now that was not a scientific test, but I was able to proceave a disparity in responsiveness between the two devices. In my book the Xs is worth the extra money. I am not going to upgrade from my X. It does all I need. If you are using any phone below an 8 or 8 plus then by all means upgrade if you can. Don't worrry about Face ID or the lack of a home button. I adapted with in about two hours. All you have to figure out is what size screen you must have and how much storage you require. Or perhaps you must figure out how much your finances will allow you to splurge.
iPhone 10 r
Thats interesting, because wen I saw the 10 r I thought it was very responsive.
I have the XR butt traded it for to HomePod’s!
at Eric Davis, you have no idea what you’re talking about! The extra RAM in the XS and Maxx is strictly for the OLEDdisplay as well as second camera management! I don’t doubt your perception is real however, if it is, it could be down to the differing display Technology as the XR uses and LCD display!
I am blessed enough to have used the XR for a week and let me tell you, it is blisteringly fast! So why did I trade it up for to HomePods? Well… The short answer is that I already have an iPhone 8! The long answer is that the XR does not have 3D Touch and I use 3D Touch quite a bit! Moreover, unlike most, it took me more than 10 minutes to master the new jesters . No problem going home but, the app switcher jester was not as reliable as I had hoped! Whilst Face ID works fine, the reduced security to accommodate voiceover users means that someone could. point The handset at me and get unfettered access to the phone!
The good? The phone has insane battery life! With brightness set 2zero along with a couple of other tweaks, I was at 60 to 75% after a heavy day of use! I mean, I need to wireless charge my eight around 1 o’clock! Ha ha! Whilst Face ID offers less security, password auto fill is brilliant! The speakers are really loud however the DSP utilized does make music sound like it’s synthesized Dolby 3-d At Most sound! Those of you who have lived with the old HTCM-series and they’re boom sound, will know what I mean! Do not despair, it’s great for voiceover and the spoken word it’s just I like my music natural and flat! So, I give the speakers on the new iPhones a huge thumbs up! Finally, the handset it’s quite heavy! It’s the thickest phone of the Bunch! If you’re coming from an iPhone X I’d say wait until next year! If you’re coming from an earlier model, and as a totally blind individual, I highly recommend the XR! Why pay hundreds of dollars more for a fancy screen and the extra camera? Makes no sense for a totally blind person! Good luck let us know what you do cheers… Rocker
Iphone 10 r
I really love the design of the 10 r, my thing is how long is the battery life on the phone it self. also, how good are the speakers on the phone for movies and audiobooks?
iPhone XR
Hi, I upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an XR. So doing that, the XR seems plenty respnsive. Honestly the only real thing lacking is 3d touch, if you use that. I never did so I haven't missed it. But you should consider that if you do.
As for performance, let's be honest. Today's phones are fast. Doing many daily tasks, e.g., email, texting, you're not going to be able to tell. Possibly a placebo effect, and hey if that works for you great. Going from the 7 to the XR I really dont' notice it for these tasks.
Now there is an area I have noticed a significant performance increase: and that is using Seeing AI. Especially for scanning barcodes (product setting), the XR is significantly quicker at detecting barcodes than my old 7. Again if you have a newer phone you probably will realize less of an increase. But if you have an older model and you use Seeing AI or similar apps a lot, then it may well be worht considering. Of course the XS and XS Max surely do this too.
Secondly, if you have an older phone older than an 8, then the Bluetooth has been upgraded to 5.0. This may not matter to many. However it does help to a degree with made for iPhone hearing aids, at least ones knew enough to be using Bluetooth 5.0 themselves. And I've noticed it helps with the one Braille display I have that also has 5.0, the Actilino, in connecting more reliably. Although to be fair I've only had the XR a few days so that observation may need to be updated although I am hoping not. If you do not do these but instead use more mainstream Bluetooth devices lie Aftershokz, AirPods, etc., you likely will not notice any difference in real-world Bluetooth performance.
I did read the question about speakers. I am not qualified to give a fair review. However, I think they're fine. If you were to go with the concept that speakers need to move air as sound is mechanical after all at the end of the day, the XR is the thickest phone according to specs, so it is quite possible it has the best audio quality.
Even mainstream media says the best value is the XR and even the critics seem to have a hard time telling the difference in screen quality. And there are mixed reviews which camera setup is more effective. For OCR work the depth of a picture the main purpose of the second camera, does not matter. Unless perhaps someday OCR software can use that to read far away things like signs, but I do not think we're there yet so it is not of concern to OCR users.
I assume since you're on Applevis you likely don't have enough vision to be able to tell about the screens, or the photos. So I say save the $250 and put it towards a Braille display, AirPods, or something else and you will have the best of both worlds. Unless you are just rich, in which case I'd think you'd not be here asking anyways. haha.-Travis
My two cents
Though of course the XR is worth a few more cents than that...
I'll echo a lot of what has been said. Ridiculously fast, and the power of the processor in this phone makes it as close to future-proof as you can get. The battery life is insane. Last week I took my phone off the charger Tuesday morning, and didn't plug it in again until Thursday evening, when it was at 20% or so. Granted, I wasn't doing a *ton* of streaming or processor intensive work, but I did download a few apps and watch an hour or two of Netflix, as well as a fair bit of time on Facebook, which used to devour battery on my old 6S. In other words, my battery lasted probably 3-4x longer than it would have on my 6S whose battery health was, according to the diagnostic in Settings, about 80%.
What else... Some people express concerns about Face ID. Personally, the security issue of someone grabbing my phone and unlocking it with my face without me noticing is not an issue for me, because that seems like a pretty outlandish possibility. I did have some initial issues with Face ID inconsistency, but once I found the sweet spot, it has become as natural as unlocking with my fingerprint, if not more son. I also love the new gestures, and personally am very pleased with how intuitive and consistent they are. I actually find going to the control and notification centers much easier on the XR than my 6S. I also like the added screen real estate—typing feels much more comfortable for my long-fingered hands.
To my ears, the speaker is significantly more powerful than on older phones, though I haven't done much listening to the 8 or 8+. As with most iPhone speakers (and probably smart phone speakers in general) it's very treble-heavy, making the sound very crisp and bright but not as rich as some might like...but then again, you really can't generate a lot of bass with a tiny little speaker like that. Certainly nothing to complain about.
So in short, there is nothing that would cause me to recommend against the XR. In fact, I would heartily recommend it. If someone wanted to get something that wasn't the XR, I'd say probably the 8 or 8+, depending on which size you prefer. There is no real advantage to getting the XS for blind users, that I can think of—certainly not one to justify a $250 price tag. If you want to spend less, I'm sure the 8 would also make a fine phone, just bear in mind that you would be buying a processor that's one generation older, and a smaller battery and smaller screen.
There you go, my two cents, or maybe a few more. Good luck with your decision!
Well played boys!
Real nice crop of interesting and informative reviews hear! How refreshing! Thanks… Rocker
Earlier comment
As I stated in my comment, I looked at the Xr from the aspect of upgrading from an iPhone X. It was probably the display that slowed down the device I looked at. The only point that I was making was that I could see that Voice Over appeared to respond faster on the iPhone XS and the Xs max. Sorry if I offended any one.
XR vs XS Max
I haven't even seen a XR in person yet but here is why I eventually decided to go for the XR: 3D touch, yes, that's a real priority and issue for me that I would be lacking this on the XR. The OLED display actually presents an advantage even to the blind - as far as I understand it, the XS and XS Max have faster touch input digitizers (120 hz) than the XR, and the display, when truetone is disabled, brightness is at 0 % and screen curtain is on, can be more power efficient than an LCD, so the fact that the XR is supposed to have slightly better battery life than even the XS Max doesn't bother me for this very reason, either. In any case, the battery life on these new generation phones is absolutely phenomenal!
By the way, I don't see what everyone's issue with the decreased Face ID security is. Yeah, I do have mine set to not require attention because of VoiceOver and my eye condition, that's true, but I also have raise to wake and tap to wake turned off as well, and absolutely zero brightness and screen curtain on all the time as I said above. So, even if someone snatched the phone from me, they would have to be educated enough to know to press the side button to turn the phone on, then point it at me, then press the side button three times to turn off VoiceOver or ask Siri to do that by holding the side button down, all of that still with the display seemingly off and black, with VO still on, and in time for the phone not to lock back again. How realistic does that seem to anyone? True, a person who wouldn't be able to unlock the phone using my face right away would most likely still steal it anyway, and I would then have to block the phone on my iCloud and contact the police and whatnot, and I might never be able to get it back, but I'm really not concerned with the however slim possibility of someone accessing my data stored on the phone. Remember people who are determined to steal your phone would most likely still do so no matter what, even if they couldn't unlock it. They don't usually do that to unlock it and get to your data, you know. They don't care a bit about that. They care about selling it somewhere, to someone who knows how to dismantle it and exchange some parts around to make it behave as new again.
Lukas
Thinking about getting an iPhone XR, what are peoples opinions?
I will post an unpopular opinion here, but i say go for what works for your situation and not what a bunch of people tell you on a forum. First of all price point should be considered and then features. If you want all the latest technology, fastest processor, etc then the iPhone XR, is a good choice. If you don't want all the latest and greatest technology and pay a tremendous amount then go with an older model. I got the SE again before the new phones were announced and I am perfectly fine with it. I don't need a bigger form factor, the price point is right for me buying the phone outright, and I can do without three d touch. It all depends on what your needs are and how much your willing to pay though. I like to research products, see what people say, but ultimately pick what fits my situation. I don't want to be paying off a phone for the next 2 years every month so the SE fits my budget and it has enough features that I need.
xr would be my pick
Even though I ended with an iphone max, over the XR, I dont know why,god help me I tend to do that quite often lol.
But to a blind user the XR with its better battery life, similar specs as compared to the max, besides the ram that and the optical camera, being $250 less, it seems like a no brainer for me.
But up to you, and if you think you will need a touch ID, I am missing it already, go for the 8 plus instead.
good luck with whatever you choose to get!
Grryf
Love it!
I've had mine for a week now, and am loving it. Actually, because of the upgrade plan I am on, I am paying less than I was for my 8 plus with 256 GB of memory. Granted, it's only about $1.50 less each month, but that still surprises me. The new phone is an XR with 256 GB as well. That being said, once you get past the frustration of learning to use face ID, I love using it, including the new feedback gestures to access the home screen, app switcher, control center, and notification center. I wish Apple would have done these gestures a long time before the iPhone X. I did not use 3D touch all that often and, quite frankly, don't miss it.
Re: returned mine
Hi, I put my iPhone 7 on top of the XR and was surprised to see it really isn't that much larger. It does feel larger to use though because there is so much more screen due to little bezel and no home button. I agree with you, I hope phones sotp growing. Or they make them foldable. Or foldable and smaller would be even better.
I am not entirely a fan of the Home gesture yet. It work mostly but it occasionally does not seem to want to recognize I am starting at the edge. This may be one consideration of the XR where an XS with its fancier screen does a better job. Without using both side by side I have no way to know. And it isn't worth $250 to me. But if Apple were to ask me (and they won't) I'd say keep the gestures but you have plenty of room for another side button for Home. Sigh.
Size
Regarding the 7 (and comparably sized phones) not actually being much smaller than the XR—this is true. However, the experience of using the XR makes it feel significantly larger. That's because the increase in screen size is far greater than the increase in phone size. So, while the thing you're holding doesn't take up much more room in your hand, the amount of screen real estate you are stretching to reach is significantly larger. For some, this is an advantage, for others, a disadvantage. But when people complain about the phone being larger, I think what they're really complaining more about the experience of using a phone with a larger screen, not the physical dimensions of the phone.
XR/XS batteries
Has anyone here done a comparison on battery life between the xr and xs? It be interesting to know how much battery life one can get out of an XS with brightness at 0 and screen curtain on?
Do note, the difference between the 2 screens is not just LCD to OLED, it's also the graphics processor having to do more work (and thereby using more battery) on the xs, because the xs has many more pixels than the xr. Therefore, the xs uses more power to draw out on screen graphics as oppose to the xr. The screen resolutions are actually different as well, with the xs supporting true 1080p, and the xr having to downsample because it doesn't have enough pixels for 1080p. Thus my interest in battery life difference in actual daily use. This is why unfortunately benchmarks don't give us the full story, though they do help.
Another interesteing difference that not many places mention is the fact that the XS/XS max have 4 MIMO antennas as oppose to the XR, X, 8, 8+ etc, which only have 2. Now this may not matter much to you, and it may not even matter now, but as 5G starts to roll out, XS/max users will see speed increases. Some reports have also mentioned wifi being faster on the XS/max, but I'm not sure if it was just mere chance, since the reviewers didn't conduct a "scientific" test. If upgrading from a previous iPhone, it won't matter, since all phones until this year only had 2 MIMO.
Another small thing to consider (depending on how you upgrade your phone) is resell value. Odds are that the xs will hold more value next year and you could get more for it.
That being said, the xr is a nice phone, and if you are willing to deal with the differences, it does make sense to save the money; speaking from a non-visually oriented perspective, the xr makes sense; but it is not the same case with folks who are more visually oriented, because there are noticeable differences between the screens. Though initial reviews stated otherwise, people in regular daily use are finding otherwise; especially with apps that are not Apple's, which were obviously super optimized to reduce aliasing and such. The LCD is also not as "Sharp" as the OLED, according to tests I've personally conducted for some of my customers. What happened with initial reviews that were out and hot, was that Apple had given quite a few reviewers a chance to play with the xr in New York (not at the iPad event, this took place weeks before the xr was released), but they only had 1 hour and they all mostly focused on the camera and its features, and the various colors. A few just mentioned the screen looking fine, but then again they were mainly using Apple stock apps and the content on those phones seemed to be limited, so the case of use was somewhat limited. Now that people have been using the phone, from what I've read it seems not everybody agrees with the screen looking just as good or "differences not noticeable" as was originally thought.
Not trying to persuade or promote 1 unit or the other, I believe they both have their place, strengths and weaknesses; and right now with Apple's line up, you really have some good options! the iPhone 7 for 450, is a great deal, that phone in terms of power is much much better than the sc which sold for almost the same. The 7+ for 570ish if you want a bigger size, and then the 8 at 600 or the 8+ at 700 (7 starts at 32gb while 8 starts at 64). The 8+ and xr is actually a much harder choice than the xr/xs, seeing how they are so close in price (50 dollar difference), and the 8+ is still a very good phone, with nice features, better screen resolution than the xr (note that screen resolution and screen size are different things, resolution refers more to the quality and sharpness of the picture, kind of like bit rate refers to the quality and clarity of a lossy sound file such as mp3 or WMA), 3d touch, and the beloved touch ID!
But anyway, I digress :) so anyone following this thread and is an XS user who's got some numbers for battery usage with 0 brightness and screen off? The more people who reply the better, since everyone's use pattern is more likely different. Likewise for XR owners, mind sharing some battery info?
I'm mainly asking about this, since it is the one thing that is persuading to allot of people, at least here it seems that way. When dealing with people who are more visually oriented, it seems that the xr is not such a winner. So much so that Apple has closed some of its XR production lines in Foxcon, and has instead asked for more 8+ units to be made, as those seem to be the hotcakes right now. I guess the demand for the xr is not as high as they estimated. Ironically, this same thing happpened last year when the X came out, where the 8/8+ were left on the shelf, and people were going to the pricier X, or with the price drop, many people went for the 7/7+ instead! That's mainly because the improvements between those phones (7 and 8) were not so noticeable, at least in terms of design and stuff. Apple had pushed the wireless charging features, but that wasn't such a hot topic amongst average users, and the fact that their promised airPower charger has yet to be seen hasn't helped that issue lol.
iPhone X R
Have had the iPhone X R for just over a week now and it is a dramatic upgrade from an iPhone 7.
I will highlight three areas where I think the X R provides serious advantages both over its cheaper and more expensive siblings.
1. Ram
while there has been discussion on the relative merits of 3 vs 4 gigs of ram in the X R vs X S, as has been stated above, most of the advantages of more ram are needed for the larger video buffers needed on the X S and X S Max's larger displays. One significant downside of increased ram is power draw. Ram requires constant voltage to be enabled, unlike the processor, which can dynamically power down specific cores ram is always enabled and if a significant percentage of that ram is mostly going unused, you are sacrificing battery life for no gain. i.e. if ram usage is mostly below 3 gigs and you have included 4 gigs, then a quarter of the power draw on the ram package is empty battery drain. Memory, just like CPU clock speeds and battery capacity is one variable in a system wide balancing act in which more is not always better.
2. Javascript optimisations
The A12 processors in the latest iPhones use a new version of the arm instruction set, v8.3, which includes optimized floating-point to int conversions which cater to javascript particular architectural needs.
In English, this means that javascript performance on webpages is significantly increased, and for anyone who has experienced voiceover hanging inexplicably in the middle of reading a webpage will be a significant upgrade in terms of using the device. I've noticed significantly better rendering on javascript and ad heavy pages.
Two quick examples are
www.salon.com
www.seriouseats.com
These sites were practically unusable on an iPhone 7 and while still at times slow, are significantly improved. Since javascript benchmarks on all of the new iPhones have doubled in speed this seems an obvious improvement.
3. The neural engine
This improvement is more theoretical rather than practical at the moment so I am listing it last, but as algorithms start to take advantage of hardware processing through the improved 8 core neural engine on the new iPhones, we should see both speed increases in areas such as camera text recognition and lower power draw for these tasks. When using seeingAI on my old iPhone 7, I was always conscious of closing seeingAI immediately after performing a task to limit its effect on my battery. The simple fact is that general purpose CPU instruction sets are not optimized for these types of tasks, and rendering them through instruction sets like coreML which are more optimized to the neural engines hardware pipeline can significantly improve their efficiency.
Taking the three above points into consideration I would argue that the X R provides the sweet spot in terms of price, hardware, and future proofing.
Apple's marketing strategy for years now has been to offer a baseline product which is just underpowered enough in some measure to gently nudge people to the middle tier of the product line. Those who are cost impervious will opt for the top end, but for a relatively small additional fee, the upgrade from the base to middle tier for most consumers can be justified.
I see the argument between the 8, the X R, and the X S in this context.
The X S is in some ways the top of the line, although for blind users, it could be argued that the better battery life of the X R is a better set of tradeoffs.
But given the limitations of the A11 in the 8 and the future possibilities of the neural engine in the A12, for a modest economic outlay, the X R seems to hold that middle position.
In my opinion the iPhone 8 just has too many hardware compromises and excludes future improvements to justify its modestly lower price. If it were half the price of an iPhone X R, the calculus would be different, but not at a relatively modest $100 discount.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Here's my take on XR vs XS/X
Here's my take on XR vs XS/X/XS max. As someone who has had an iPhone X for almost a year, I can safely say the the Oled display is a huge energy saver over the previous LCD displays. If pixels are black, then they're not lit, thus saving battery life. Now for us blindies out here, lol! Personally the new XR is a great phone based on specs. However, wouldn't you get more battery usage with OLED and screen curtain turned on? brightness doesn't matter in this case because if curtain is enabled, then the display with OLEDS in it isn't being lit. Sure it is using battery, sometimes more significantly due to apps, but it's not as much as older LCD devices. In my view, a 5.8 inch screen is quite large enough, I've got small girly hands lol. and can safely use it in one hand with a battery case installed.
Storage
I am trying to decide what storage configuration to buy. I need something that will need my nails.
Storage
If you are talking about the XR, I'd go for the 800 US dollars with 128 gigs, since the 50 dollar increase for double storage is a fair deal IMO.
RE: iPhone X R
Hello Devin. I just wanted to tell you thanks for the technical review. This has helped me greatly in making a decision for iPhone upgrade. I presently use the iPhone 6S. I was leaning heavily toward the XS but after your very descriptive prospective, I think I'm inclined to agree that the XR seems to be the sweet spot. Appreciate you taking the time to share.
I got mine 2 days ago.
I broke down and bought myself one 2 days ago. I really like it. I had an SE before this one and its battery was starting to crap out. I know it sounds crazy, but I did comparisons on Apple’s website between my SE, the 8, the XS, XR, etc. I got the XR for its battery and lower price compared to the XS. Because, the crazy thing is that when I was doing comparisons on the website, they said that for most tasks, the battery performed just as well or in some cases better, on my SE, than it did on the 8. So the XR was the best one to get for the battery life. I have used an SE for over 2 years before this, a 5S for over 2 years before that, and a 5 for a little over a year before that. So changing body styles on a phone for the first time in 5 and a half years has been something to get used to. But I really am happy with it. I’m surprised, pleasantly, with how happy I am with the home gestures and in some cases, Face ID. I don’t have the easiest time with Face ID at night when I’m in bed and my room is totally dark, but I can usually get it to work after a couple of tries. During the day, it works sometimes faster than Touch ID did. I’m not having as hard a time with it as I thought I would. I do recognize the potential security compromise, being someone who can’t control my eye movements and thus, can’t use attention mode. But, someone would have to know how to turn off screen curtain and turn up the brightness if they really wanted to get into my phone anyway. So I got over it. I like the new haptic feedback in the new phones. The SE didn’t have that, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the phone vibrating to the beat of my ringtones, as dumb as that is. I’m really liking the speed and battery improvements, again. I couldn’t be more happy with this phone even though it is kind of a monster. Size wise, that is.
No XS?
So, is it fair to say that most people here, well most reading this thread at least, own XR units, and no XS? Other than Justin?
I'm still interested in hearing from either parties about how long battery lasts for you; perhaps I'll start my own thread with a more proper title :)
To the OP, have you made your choice on which phone to get yet? If so, could you share why? I have a feeling as the months go by and people start to upgrade this thread will be visitted over and over, so any info we can leave behind for those future readers will be helpful.
XS Max here
I've owned an XS Max for a few days short of two weeks now and I am becoming really happy with it. I've mastered the way to lean the phone to use Face ID so well that I am having no more issues with unlocking it even when lying in bed at night, which means that the front camera has to be pointed sort of down at me, vertically as opposed to more or less horizontally when sitting or standing.
The battery in combination with the energy saving OLED display is a real beast! I got myself a 10 Watt Connect IT wireless charger which is QI certified for reliability (even though I still use it with the default shipped 5 Watt power adapter :-D) and I put the phone on it every night when I go to sleep, but I've always had 50 percent of battery or more left when doing that. The truth is that I have a regular job during the day which I do on my PC but I still use the phone a lot even during the day to take a look at something (e-mail, the weather, other notifications), and I read a lot in Voice Dream and a local audiobook publisher app, and I watch quite a lot of Youtube semi-regularly. So I reckon that having 50 percent of battery or more at the end of the day, even on weekends when I use it a lot more, is amazing.
Thanks Lukas!
Hey finally! One report about XS and its battery performance, thanks Lukas!
From that report I can say that turning the screen off must help with the battery, since I know for a fact my wife's XS Max will last about a day and a half before it needs to be recharged, something she only does after it's dropped under 10% and she uses her phone quite a bit. Of course when watching movies or streaming allot of videos the battery dies sooner, but that's the case with any phone.
Lukas if you don't mind, 2 questions:
Why did you go for the Xs instead of the Xr? What phone did you own before?
If there are any other XS or even XS Max users out there, please chime in. XR users, which I know there are a few of you, please let us know what your battery life is like, and what your usage is.
Again, I'm only making a big deal about the battery, since it seems that it is one of the main deciding factors, at least for those who don't care about the screen, 3d touch, dual cameras, and better antenna system which the XS has. So if you remove all those from the equation, battery seems to be one of the only other things to decide upon. Of course the battery on the Xr is better from a normal point of view where both screens are turned on, but we've already explained the fact that the LCD has less pixels than the OLED, so the XS has to use more power to render graphics since it has more pixels to push. But our interest lies in having both screens disabled, which should in theory get some battery gains on the XS. Is that gain enough to compare to the Xr? Does the battery on the XS still not last as long even with screen curtain on and brightness down? That's what we're trying, or at least I'm trying to find out lol. :)
Another XS Max user here.
Unfortunately I am no expert, so I bought the phone simply because many people say it's apparently top of the line. I can easily go a day and a half when I'm not using my phone too much. However, certain apps like WhatsApp for example, drains my phone's battery quickly. So far I have not really experienced any difference turning on the screen curtain, or turning off brightness. If you ask me, I'd say it's all about how frequently you use the phone as well as which apps you are using. Just my thoughts.
Re: IPhone XS Max questions
Hi,
I decided to go for the XS Max because precisely the things you removed from the equation were the main deciding factors for me. :-)
Screen: OLED, like someone else said before, actually is an advantage even for a blind person, as that display technology combined with 0 % brightness and screen curtain is a huge energy saver. Unlike LCD, when the pixels on an OLED display are not being used, they are not being lit at all. That's physics, so yes, screen curtain and zero brightness in deed *are* deciding factors when it comes to battery life. So, even when people actually do make use of the OLED display and do look at it, it's still more energy efficient than LCD as not every single pixel is actually lit up at every single moment. This is true even more so for a totally blind individual like myself.
3D touch: I was and am actually using that thing, and would be missing it. Plus, I was using the 7 Plus before, so suddenly not having this feature would just feel like a downgrade to me overall.
The cameras: I do believe every single camera improvement, even software wise, is a noticeable improvement in speed and possibly even quality even with OCR and recognition apps like Seeing AI or KNFB Reader.
Better antennas: Yeah, I definitely want gigabit LTE when that becomes available in my area, and the faster and more advanced WIFI (MIMO 2). I do have a connection and router that the phone can definitely make full advantage of.
Better durability over the XR: I wanted the stainless steel frame and the IP68 rating. The XR still has only IP67, so no practical upgrade there in one of the areas of interest in every day real life usage for a blind person, of which us visually impaired probably have fewer than the general sighted public. :-)
In general, I knew I wanted to upgrade my phone anyway, so it made no sense for me to go for the cheaper, more compromising model when I was using the previous top of the line before. Upgrading from the 7 Plus to the 8 Plus didn't feel like that much gain to me, not to mention that I would be consciously upgrading to the one generation older and less powerful chip than what was actually available. The XR, although it does have the A12 Bionic, was too much of a compromise for me in other areas that were important to me.
If memory serves, it's said that the XR has an hour better battery life over the XS Max. Maybe it was just half an hour, I really am not sure. So come on, one hour or half an hour difference in common every day usage scenarios? What a difference is that? Not an interesting deal to me. The XS Max was still a significant battery improvement over the 7 Plus anyway.
To give you a better idea of the battery life, I spent the day (from 9 AM my time to 6 PM, which is 9 hours) reading a book in Voice Dream, checking some e-mail and iMessages, making an online grocery purchase, checking my bank account in my bank's mobile app, watching a Youtube video which was about half an hour in length, having an hour long phone call and looking at other notifications. The battery was at 100 % at 8 o'clock in the morning, which was an hour before I actually started using it. AFter all this, it's now at 65 %. All of this is, of course, with screen curtain on and brightness at 0 %. Most of the stuff I described was done with the Airpods on. I assume using a Bluetooth headset for any and all audio output, and it's a lot of audio if you consider VoiceOver, drains the battery faster than if you were using the phone's built in speakers, but I'm not sure about this, so this assumption could easily be wrong on my part.
Hi Roxann,
Hi Roxann,
glad it was of use. After dropping my 7 a couple months back I was forced to use an old 6+ for a couple months as my main device. Even with the serious speed improvements of the iOS 12 beta, moving back to a modern device was an unbelievable improvement in interface lag and overall usability of the device. If you're coming from a 6s, you'll really notice the difference in general performance. Also, in my testing so far, the "U.S. siri female" voice seems to be noticeably more responsive than any of the nuance voices.
Dev
Thanks Lukas
Thanks for the info! I removed those things from the equation as I call it because most people seem to not care about that. I personally consider all those things and the phones' actual values, and how well that will hold up, especially if I sell mine when it comes time to upgrade. And I do like the feel of the xs better than the xr.
RE: iPhone X R
Although I do agree with the info laid out in Devin's post, after further consideration and reading the posts from Lukas, I will be choosing the iPhone XS. Will be upgrading this Thursday. I really do want the better technology edge that the XS model will provide.
iPhone XR
Hi.
I upgraded from a 6S to the XR last week. Yes, I came out of the dark ages... haha. I have to say the battery life on the XR is amazing! The battery on my previous 6S would drain so fast and with the XR I can go a whole day without charging it. I figured out the new voice over gestures rather quickly but still trying to master face ID. I have a passcode and attention turned off. The speaker quality on the XR is much more enhanced than the 6S. I do miss touch ID but I will get used to face ID fingers crossed. Still figuring out how to use face ID with third party apps... If you want a better quality phone overall with great battery life, I recommend the iPhone XR. Yes you have to pay it off every month but it's worth it. I traded in my 6S and used the trade in value on the XR. It lowered the monthly payment alittle... Any little bit helps.
I’m a happy XS owner
Hello all,
I went from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone XS. After the release of the XR and reading this blog, I became to think that maybe I bought the wrong device. So I went to my local Apple Store and tried out XR. The XR is a really great device, but my XS, is for my needs, the better device.
First and foremost is the fact that there is no 3D Touch on the XR. I love the 3D Touch function. I personally believe that this feature is highly underrated. I really like having all the extra options on my homescreen. For stock apps and many 3rd party apps. For a VO user, it just makes life easier. For example, the notes app, Just 3D Touch it and a few swipes later I’m starting a new note. The phone app, just 3D Touch it and a few swipes later I’m calling one of my favorites. It’s just quick and easy. Another example for its use is in Safari. Since VO always jumps to the top of a page after opening a link and navigating back, I instead 3D Touch a link and preview the site. If it’s not what I was looking for, no problem. I just close my Preview and my focus is where I was. These are only a couple of examples for the 3D Touch functionality and as said, in my opinion, one of the better features that an iPhone has and that most people ignore or don’t use or don’t even know it exists.
I also like the size of th XS better as compared to the XR. The XS is quite thinner and somewhat smaller in length and width. I have normal sized hands for a man and the XS just fits better in my hands. It’s tight, but it’s possible for me to use it one handed and with one finger as where with the XR I cannot. In general the XS seems to react to swipes and gestures in general somewhat snappier. But this is a very subjective observation, but at least for me that is my impression.
As for the battery, I’m a normal user to my definition. Check the mail, listen to music, scan with Seeing Ai, use a little blind Square and check for bus and subway departure and arrival times. I usually can go for about three days before I need to charge.
From my understanding the XS has a somewhat more durable glass back than the XR and as previously mentioned, the stainless steel frame is sturdier as well. If all these things are worth the price difference, is a question everyone needs to answer for them selves, and price is always an issue. But for me it’s worth it. I’m glad I got the XS, probably the best iPhone I’ve ever had. HTH
Everyone have a great day
Just more thoughts
First off, regarding the last post—the loss of 3D touch is the one thing I feel is an actual sacrifice for me with the XR. I didn't use 3D touch a ton, so it wasn't worth $250 to me, but I used it enough to be sad that I no longer have it. I'm also sad that Apple never did a very good job of maximizing this feature, as I think it could really have fundamentally changed the way we use our phones, but instead is probably on its way out of use completely...but that's another story.
As for durability, obviously iPhones are legendary for being selectively durable...you hit one with a bulldozer and it's fine, then you drop it on a carpeted floor and it breaks into a thousand pieces. That said, I am not proud to admit that my XR has definitely proven to be more durable than I would have expected, after a couple of heartrate-increasing mishaps when I was sure I had just thrown away $800...
One other minor and subjective thing that I forgot to mention in my initial post is that, personally, I like the feel of the aluminum more than the stainless steel. This is, obviously, a very subjective point, but one worth considering if you're really on the fence. Hold both phones and see which feels better. I like the fact that the aluminum is a little more textured than the steel, which also makes the phone feel a tiny bit less slippery in your hands if you're using it without a case, and when upgrading from an all-aluminum phone, anything to ease that transition helps.
THX guys
Even though I'm not the original poster, and I don't think we've heard much again from him/her, this has been what I'd consider good and healthy conversation! Maybe they are reading in the background weighing everything out and trying to make an informed decision. :)
I for one am planning to get the XS when I do upgrade from my 7. I've played with both XR and XS and also have read the various reviews, looked at tech specs, and I think the XS has greater value. I also tend to just sell stuff when I upgrade, because I keep things in very good condition, and it gives friends and family members, customers or anyone else a chance to get something at a lower price but that is still in great condition.
But i, like others have mentioned feel that the OLED screen is more responsive and the phone feels better to me. With evidence that battery isn't such a big problem, I'll take the XS with the support for future connectivity, 3d touch, better cams (I actually use the camera for videos and shooting pix, and as someone else mentioned, I'm sure that apps like Seeing AI and such will start to use the cameras more powerful features and perhaps even the nural engine to process AI tasks).
@Roxann, please do let us know the experience of switching from XR to XS, if you end up doing so.
@ Ann Marie, when you say you can go a whole day without charging your XR, do you charge it every day? If so, what percentage is your battery at when you do charge at the end of the day? What's your usage like?
@Fritz, thanks for the input, appreciate it! Three days on a charge is good! :)
@Joseph, Roomour has it that 3d touch is on its way out, hopefully that's not true. It may be that it's getting difficult to implement on the OLED screens? Others say Apple is using the phone differences to see if 3D touch will be missed or not, to decide if it's worth it. Or perhaps they aren't getting rid of it at all, and it was just cheaper to remove the feature from the XR, or since the LCD had to be tweaked so much, and it's no secret that they had a few setbacks with the XR, 3D touch was the sacrificial lamb there :)
For those of you who are on the XR, don't forget to experiment with long presses, as double tapping and holding (or sometimes single tapping and holding) gives ou access to some nifty shortcuts, especially in Safari!
RE: THX guys
Actually, I am currently using the 6S. When I read Devin's post, I seriously considered updating to the XR. However, after Reading the post from Lukas, I really think I want the higher qualities of the tech, found in the XS, along with being able to continue using the 3D touch. I think the XS will suit my needs and gratify my inner nerd much better than the XR. I think the XR has a lot going for it, but if I'm going to throw down cash on the table for a device that will have to last me several more years, I'm going for the best that I can afford, to provide the best longevity. I am upgrading tomorrow. Can't hardly wait to start using the new XS. Currently, my battery life is maybe five hours per day before it drops below 10% and needs a charge. Was going to utilize the battery recall program that Apple has, which is still available until 12/31/2018, but I think it's just time to update now.
Re: 3D Touch
Yeah based on something I read, 3D touch was a necessary technical sacrifice in order to get an edge-to-edge LCD display. That said, the rumor mill is definitely buzzing that Apple is also just phasing it out, which would not be surprising because it was never particularly well-integrated. They never had a good way of communicating to users when 3D touch options were available, which means it was a pretty inconsistent experience and was not exciting enough for a lot of third-party developers to tap into its potential. And since Apple is all about consistency across the UX I would not be surprised if this went away within a generation or two.
Physical sizes
For those who have examined both the XS and the XR side-by-side, are these the same size? I got an impression that the XR is slightly larger, but I don't know where. I'm looking for something a little easier to hold and do braille screen input on due to hand strain issues than my 6S, but not as large as the plus phones. Does what I want even exist?
Re: Physical Size
Yes, the XR is slightly larger than the 6s. I don't know the official measurements, but if I had to guess I would say it is in the neighborhood of 1/4"–1/2" wider and taller.
Re: Size
Yes the xr is slightly larger, a little thicker too. The screen on the xr i believe is 6.1 inch, while the XS is 5.8.
Battery
Hi.
Yes I charge my phone every night. Love the wireless charger! :) I can keep the wireless charger at home and have a charger to carry around with me. My battery is usually at 10 or 20 percent before I charge it. I mostly use my phone for texting, calling, games, Facebook, safari, and I have various news apps on it.
Thanks guys
Got an XR yesterday and loving the size!!! The extra height makes braille screen input even more comfortable and fast. Still adapting to unlocking and such, but I'll get there.
More thoughts
@Roxann, I agree with you, which is why I'm getting the XS; if I'm going to spend on something, I like to get the best I can afford, knowing that I'm not holding back (within reasonable expense). As a techy I look at the specs and value everything when deciding.
On the other hand, I know not everyone can spend so much, and I'm glad that the Xr is an option for that reason. Some others don't really care about stuff like that, so to them they just want something that's functional. Which is why I keep saying, when making a decision, test for yourself, identify as much as you can what you want, need, and what you don't; or what you are willing to pay for what feature. By our sharing of experiences and information we help those who may not have a full idea of what they want, or cannot evaluate each product side by side.
@Anne Marie, I'm surprised that your Xr's battery is at such a low value in just 1 day! I know usage patterns greatly affect battery, but most people have reported at least 2 days on a single charge. Do you use the screen at all?
Also, something you guys might want to consider, it is not such a good idea to charge your battery if it's not at a low level. I know of some people who will charge their batteries every night, even if the battery charge level is at 40-50 percent! I understand that not everyone can risk being out a full day with a battery at such levels, but charging the battery when it's that full only kills the cells faster.
I normally charge my battery when it drops under 10 percent, (of course there are times when I can't wait, so I have to charge it with a little more charge), but this has been my charging pattern for the most part. My 7's battery which I purchased the day it came out, 2 years later it is at 90 something percent health! My previous phone was a 6, and that battery lasted about 4 years! Just thought I'd share that just in case it helps anyone :)
@Sean, Congrats on your upgrade! What did you have before?
Hey another interesting thought I just had, for you guys who purchase Xr phones, are you guys picking particular colors? are you basing your purchases based on favorite colors, or do you just go with whatever is available?
RE: More thoughts
Regarding overnight battery charging, I do this. Perhaps this is why my 6S battery was performing so bad. Was purchased in 2016. I'm sort of in a quandary about this one. Since my spouse passed away, the only way I can get assistance, if needed, is with the iPhone. Also, should the power go out, I must be able to continue to have my media fix. So, to charge or not to charge overnight? Probably, due to the above listed things, I will still continue, and will have to pay the price of a battery that fails more quickly. The logic of not charging when not needed makes perfect sense to me, but given my circumstances, I think I'll have to pay the price later. Thanks for sharing.
My First 24 Hours With iPhone XS
Well, it's been a little more than a full 24 hours with my new iPhone XS. It's been a very positive experience for me, except for reconnecting my Apple Watch. I suspect that was due to operator error.
The facial recognition took a bit to understand but I think I'm doing okay with that now. Apparently, it's a three step process. Assuming you have raise to wake on, first you lift the phone and place it In front of your face, next the facial recognition does its thing, then you use the gesture that is used to go to the home screen. Then the phone becomes unlocked. Also, the whole process of setting up facial recognition was a surprise. I didn't expect all the voiceover feedback that was provided. Apple did well on that one.
Some comments have been made regarding the XR's hight and thickness being greater than the XS. Unfortunately, I forgot to examine this difference while in store, however, due to the fact that I have girly hands, I'm glad that I chose the XS for ease of use and a slimmer form factor. I really wanted to get the 512 memory storage, but I'm also having to update the Apple watch when I can so I had to sacrifice some memory and chose the 256 instead. This is still double what I had on the 6S. Overall, the performance of the phone seems much faster and I found that screen time actually works on the XS; whereas, the 6S model never did produce any data. I am so glad that I got the XS and look forward to many years with this device.
Thanks to all who posted on this thread. I feel I made a more sound purchase because of it.
How To Restore An App from iCloud But Not In App Store
Perhaps this is the wrong forum to request assistance, but it is connected to my new XS so forgive me for going off topic.
I have an app on my 6S that is called Repeat CheckList, which works just fine. However, when trying to open the same app on my XS, the icon indicates that it's in iCloud and I am given the choice to delete or keep the app. I have search the web to try to solve it and all I see is the typical info regarding going to the App Store, Updates, Account, and selecting not on this iPhone. The problem is that, despite not scrolling all the way through the 177 pages, I don't think it will show there for two reasons including the app icon is still on the device and when trying to open the icon it states that the app is no longer in the App Store.
So, if the app is in iCloud, and it works on my 6S, I'm wondering if there is any last ditch efforts to be made to somehow capture the app from iCloude and make it work on the XS.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
More Thaughts
Yes I have my screen on and brightness is at 100 percent This makes it easier to see the screen; I have light perception. . I know this greatly effects the battery life. I also use para transit and I am on hold with the company for a good half hour before a live human picks up the phone. I do carry a charger with me due to me taking public transport; can't have my phone die on me while I'm waiting for those unreliable people...
RE: How to Restore an App from App Store
So what version of iOS were you running on your 6S? It is possible that if you were not running iOS11 or later then the app is no longer supported. On the other hand, it is possible the developer pulled the app from the app store. Sorry, probably not much help, but hope maybe it will point you in the right direction.
Battery Best Practices
@DJX I actually read a number of articles recently explaining that the healthiest practice for lithium-ion batteries is to charge them for short periods throughout the day, essentially "topping them off" when convenient, rather than running your battery down and then doing long, full charges. The reason being that the battery cells are kept in a state of stress while charging, and it is healthier to charge your battery for less duration at a time, more frequently, verssus more duration at a time, less frequently. This is also why it's less healthy to leave the phone plugged in overnight.
So yeah, one of the things I love about my XR is that I can usually leave it unplugged overnight. Even if my 6S wasn't practically dead by day's end, by some miracle, I couldn't leave it unplugged for fear it would die sometime in the night.
And regarding early comments about battery drain, screen brightness definitely makes a huge difference. My wife accidentally left her XR on 100% the other day and commented on how much it kills the battery, even compared to the default brightness. So I'm sure my great battery performance has a lot to do with the fact I always have the screen curtain on, and would not be the same for someone who uses the backlight.
I agree with you Joseph in
I agree with you Joseph in reguards to lithium batteries. Also, if an app says something like "in iCloud" it's probably pulled from the app store, I had this when i upgraded to the iPhone X last january.
RE: How to Restore an App from App Store
Both devices are running the current version of iOS12. I was hoping that, since the icon on the new devices states that the app is in iCloud, that there would be some way to force the app on to my new device. It works fine on the 6S but I can't get it to download on to the new device. Frustrating as I use this app to track my 90-day workout cycles.
If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate them.
RE: Battery Best Practices
I use the auto-brightness feature for the screen and leave the screen curtain off, despite being totally blind. I'm certain that if I were to put the brightness to zero and turn on screen curtain, I would gain much battery life. These are good things to keep in mind during a power outage. Turning off the above features will lend more precious time when the lights go out.