...and I love it!
Keen followers of this forum may recall a few weeks ago I asked the question of “am I mad to trade an iPhone X for an XR?” And the thread was very mixed with a split of opinions on what device to have.
Ultimately my eyes decided that the XR was the one for me as it turns out I am sensitive to PWM and after a few mins in a dark room with my X my eyes would throb, well I am typing this on my XR from my car in the dark whilst I wait for my little girl to finish dance lessons and my eyes are totally fine!
Let me just say I don’t regret trading in my X at all, for me the XR is hands down the better device.
I personally prefer the size of the XR as I missed having a plus sized phone (went from 6s+ to an X) and for me the 6.1” of the XR is lovely and comfortable.
Typing on this thing is so much better than my X due to the larger keyboard for my fat sausage thumbs, and I have less typos because of it and it’s also more comfortable for longer typing sessions.
More amazingly my wife who hated my 6S+ because it was too big compared to her 6S also traded her X in for an XR and her words were “it doesn’t feel any different to my old phone” although today she did mention that on a call it felt a little bigger but not uncomfortably so.
I like the fact that the phone has gained a little girth, it’s kinda reassuring after the stupidly thin models Apple have recently put out (bent iPhone 6 I’m looking at you)
I also didn’t realise how much I missed the plus sized interface features until I no longer had them and have now got them back, landscape apps are awesome and other apps just work better for example Twitch.
The Twitch app on the X would have the video at the top and the chat at the bottom but when you clicked into the chat to type the keyboard would pop up and the video window would disappear off the top of the screen whilst you typed, effectively turning the stream into a radio show which is not good for live video game streams.
On the XR however this is no longer an issue as when you click the chat to type the screen has enough room for video/chat/keyboard all at once and it’s brilliant, such a simple thing just done so much better.
The screen for the most part is perfect, lovely and bright clear, vibrant, nice colours and good to read in daylight HOWEVER there are a few little issues.
Firstly for the most part text is crystal clear however on certain apps and websites the text can be a little blurry the Amazon app being a prime culprit, as the rest of the text is clear on other apps I believe this is a case of apps/websites not being updated to the new resolution more than an issue with the screen itself.
And secondly and this is where if you were watching lots of media on your device then an Xs Max may be better and that is the black bars on certain video sources are a little visible. Now this for me is only noticeable when you are in a pitch black room with the brightness up a little bit to see the details of the scene. Not a deal breaker by any means but if you consume a lot of media then this may be an issue. Also if you’ve never used an X or any other OLED phone prior then this won’t be an issue either, and to be honest this to me is very minor it’s only because the notch looks out of place with a glowing black area around it and it being actually black rather than the black itself.
Now the bezels, if anyone says the bezels are an issue they are just looking for excuses to spend an extra £250-350 on a phone. The bezels are barely noticeable in normal use to me, I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve always had my device in a case thus adding to the bezels anyway but to me it’s not an issue.
Battery life seems decent and certainly a lot better than my X but I’ve not really had it long enough to form a full on conclusion with that yet.
Another thing that has seriously impressed me on this phone is the signal compared to my X, yesterday I was driving around using the phone as a sat nav and it rarely dropped below 3-4bar 4G LTE and in use the speeds over LTE were far better than my X, and amazingly the GPS seemed more accurate too with the arrow accurately tracking me whereas on my X the arrow would quite often be behind where I actually am and occasionally veer off onto neighbouring streets or fields before taking a couple of minutes to realise where I actually am again.
It seems that intel may have caught up with Qualcomm finally.
The camera is also very good and seems to produce more vibrant images when compared to the X and the loss of the 2x lens doesn’t seem to be an issue yet. I do wish they would have put a little 2x button to quickly trigger the digital zoom because let’s face it on the X the 2x zoom was quite often using digital zoom anyway.
The loss of 3D Touch is not a major issue as I am getting used to the haptic replacements, I have accidentally triggered the lock screen wobble trying to quickly jump into the certain settings but that’s about it, I never used 3D Touch shortcuts on other apps on the lock screen only the settings app.
I do however miss using 3D Touch to pop out an image on Google Images on safari to have it open in full without the whole webpage around it but it’s not a major loss.
Overall I am really impressed with this phone and I personally believe this to be the phone most people should be choosing with the 128GB option being the sweet spot.
I would only consider the XS if you really couldn’t handle the larger size of the XR.
The XS Max if you travel lots and it’s your main device for media consumption and you don’t have the space or are not home often enough to use that 4K TV you could buy with the £350 you’d be saving going for the XR.
Or you take a lot of daytime bright light photos and you use the 2x zoom a lot. But personally I don’t believe the Xs/Max are worth the extra £250/350 that they ask for.
Hopefully this little review/first impressions helps those who are on the fence between XR/XS or are in a position like myself where their carrier or Apple will allow them to trade in an iPhone X after a year to upgrade.
I’m glad I did and between myself and my wife’s new contracts I am also saving nearly £30 a month too and as an extra bonus I’m only on an 18 month plan meaning we got a years newer phone for only extending the contract another 6 months.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying the X is a bad phone, just I prefer the XR and what I am gaining far outweighs what I lost by swapping to an XR.
Keen followers of this forum may recall a few weeks ago I asked the question of “am I mad to trade an iPhone X for an XR?” And the thread was very mixed with a split of opinions on what device to have.
Ultimately my eyes decided that the XR was the one for me as it turns out I am sensitive to PWM and after a few mins in a dark room with my X my eyes would throb, well I am typing this on my XR from my car in the dark whilst I wait for my little girl to finish dance lessons and my eyes are totally fine!
Let me just say I don’t regret trading in my X at all, for me the XR is hands down the better device.
I personally prefer the size of the XR as I missed having a plus sized phone (went from 6s+ to an X) and for me the 6.1” of the XR is lovely and comfortable.
Typing on this thing is so much better than my X due to the larger keyboard for my fat sausage thumbs, and I have less typos because of it and it’s also more comfortable for longer typing sessions.
More amazingly my wife who hated my 6S+ because it was too big compared to her 6S also traded her X in for an XR and her words were “it doesn’t feel any different to my old phone” although today she did mention that on a call it felt a little bigger but not uncomfortably so.
I like the fact that the phone has gained a little girth, it’s kinda reassuring after the stupidly thin models Apple have recently put out (bent iPhone 6 I’m looking at you)
I also didn’t realise how much I missed the plus sized interface features until I no longer had them and have now got them back, landscape apps are awesome and other apps just work better for example Twitch.
The Twitch app on the X would have the video at the top and the chat at the bottom but when you clicked into the chat to type the keyboard would pop up and the video window would disappear off the top of the screen whilst you typed, effectively turning the stream into a radio show which is not good for live video game streams.
On the XR however this is no longer an issue as when you click the chat to type the screen has enough room for video/chat/keyboard all at once and it’s brilliant, such a simple thing just done so much better.
The screen for the most part is perfect, lovely and bright clear, vibrant, nice colours and good to read in daylight HOWEVER there are a few little issues.
Firstly for the most part text is crystal clear however on certain apps and websites the text can be a little blurry the Amazon app being a prime culprit, as the rest of the text is clear on other apps I believe this is a case of apps/websites not being updated to the new resolution more than an issue with the screen itself.
And secondly and this is where if you were watching lots of media on your device then an Xs Max may be better and that is the black bars on certain video sources are a little visible. Now this for me is only noticeable when you are in a pitch black room with the brightness up a little bit to see the details of the scene. Not a deal breaker by any means but if you consume a lot of media then this may be an issue. Also if you’ve never used an X or any other OLED phone prior then this won’t be an issue either, and to be honest this to me is very minor it’s only because the notch looks out of place with a glowing black area around it and it being actually black rather than the black itself.
Now the bezels, if anyone says the bezels are an issue they are just looking for excuses to spend an extra £250-350 on a phone. The bezels are barely noticeable in normal use to me, I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve always had my device in a case thus adding to the bezels anyway but to me it’s not an issue.
Battery life seems decent and certainly a lot better than my X but I’ve not really had it long enough to form a full on conclusion with that yet.
Another thing that has seriously impressed me on this phone is the signal compared to my X, yesterday I was driving around using the phone as a sat nav and it rarely dropped below 3-4bar 4G LTE and in use the speeds over LTE were far better than my X, and amazingly the GPS seemed more accurate too with the arrow accurately tracking me whereas on my X the arrow would quite often be behind where I actually am and occasionally veer off onto neighbouring streets or fields before taking a couple of minutes to realise where I actually am again.
It seems that intel may have caught up with Qualcomm finally.
The camera is also very good and seems to produce more vibrant images when compared to the X and the loss of the 2x lens doesn’t seem to be an issue yet. I do wish they would have put a little 2x button to quickly trigger the digital zoom because let’s face it on the X the 2x zoom was quite often using digital zoom anyway.
The loss of 3D Touch is not a major issue as I am getting used to the haptic replacements, I have accidentally triggered the lock screen wobble trying to quickly jump into the certain settings but that’s about it, I never used 3D Touch shortcuts on other apps on the lock screen only the settings app.
I do however miss using 3D Touch to pop out an image on Google Images on safari to have it open in full without the whole webpage around it but it’s not a major loss.
Overall I am really impressed with this phone and I personally believe this to be the phone most people should be choosing with the 128GB option being the sweet spot.
I would only consider the XS if you really couldn’t handle the larger size of the XR.
The XS Max if you travel lots and it’s your main device for media consumption and you don’t have the space or are not home often enough to use that 4K TV you could buy with the £350 you’d be saving going for the XR.
Or you take a lot of daytime bright light photos and you use the 2x zoom a lot. But personally I don’t believe the Xs/Max are worth the extra £250/350 that they ask for.
Hopefully this little review/first impressions helps those who are on the fence between XR/XS or are in a position like myself where their carrier or Apple will allow them to trade in an iPhone X after a year to upgrade.
I’m glad I did and between myself and my wife’s new contracts I am also saving nearly £30 a month too and as an extra bonus I’m only on an 18 month plan meaning we got a years newer phone for only extending the contract another 6 months.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying the X is a bad phone, just I prefer the XR and what I am gaining far outweighs what I lost by swapping to an XR.
