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iPhone XR Why I went from iPhone XS to the iPhone XR

RMP28

RMP28

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 24, 2017
50
80
So I decided to yesterday make the transition from iPhone XS to iPhone XR and here is my reasons why. I’m either extremely unlucky or Apples quality control has taken a massive hit and spiraled downward into a heap of explosive flames. I have now had 7 iPhone XS replacements, both XS and XS Max. Every single one has had issues and had me literally baffled as to what I should do. Most of them had dead pixels, one had a charging issue beyond the software fix and another that kept dropping calls constantly. ALL of them bar one had scratches and chips in the glass to some degree and I got to a point where I just wanted to give up and accept that perhaps Apples $1800 to $2049 iPhone is just not worth its price.

I then decided to give Apple one more shot with the iPhone XR. After watching and reading many reviews I decided to get the iPhone XR 256gb as I knew LCD was less troublesome and a technology that has a lot more history behind it, I also had the mentality that perhaps being of lesser demand it might not be as “rushed” and therefore not damaged out of the box. Turns out my theory was right or I had a strike of luck! I LOVE my iPhone XR. The display is beautiful and to be holding an LCD that is so uniquely shaped actually feels pretty cool! The colours pop, its sharp and looks super crisp, I am extremely impressed. One of my biggest fears and hates for OLED is the the burn in that will inevitably occur at some point and having to relearn how to use your phone to avoid burn in and be more mindful of how bright the screen is, how long it has been left on for, what types of wallpapers you use and so on and so forth. I felt like I couldn’t enjoy my phone with the iPhone X and XS because of these constant concerns that burn in will occur faster that usual. It turns out that people have already noticed burn in on their iPhone X after about to 10 months of use and these are people that claim they aren’t using the phone for heavily or aren’t power users. I love that with the iPhone XR I don’t have to worry about this and I can just simply enjoy the phone. My iPhone XR also came out of the box pristine which is fantastic! I was so pleased! The battery life is amazing and it really is a great screen size. I feel like I get a premium iPhone experience without the worries and concerns of burn in, dead pixels and other garbage that seems to have plagued the iPhone X, XS and XS Max.

With regards to the plethora of dead pixels that I found on the iPhone XS and XS Max I found them to be the green sub pixel that was the biggest issue. Im not sure why this is but I flicked the phone to a plain white or green screen and on the green image it was extremely noticeable followed by white. I know nothing is perfect but when Apple wants to charge a premium for their top tier iPhones... you expect they wouldn’t come with dead pixels, scratches, chips and other defects out of the box, at least not on a consistent level like I have experienced. In the case of the iPhone XR... well done Apple... I’m impressed and I love it.

I hope this can help someone if they are tossing up whether to choose between the iPhone XS/XS Max and the iPhone XR. The XR is a mixture of innovation and reliability.
 
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So to summarize don't buy an Xs because its junk, get the Xr instead. Okay got it.
 
Yogosans14 said:
I’m picking mine up Friday and my concern is how are apps like Snapchat and instagram? Is the aspect ratio making them look messed up?
Click to expand...
No not at all! They look perfectly fine! I was wondering the same thing myself but all is working as expected and with no issues
 
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MCube74 said:
I am happy with my iPhone XS Max.

I didn’t even bother with iPhone Xr but I know a couple of people who are happy with their iPhone XR so far.
Click to expand...
That’s awesome! I’m glad you got one you’re happy with. I guess I just had a bad run, ah well haha. Love the XR though, super happy with mine.
 
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One thing I did get to do yesterday evening was compare a 4K HDR movie from iTunes on my husband’s Max to the same movie running on my Xr. I was surprised to see they matched well in terms of crispness and detail. In fact in scenes where the camera pans or there’s a lot of motion it looks smoother on the Xr.

Where the Xr falls way back is in darkly lit scenes. Blacks look gray and washed out in the xr, while contrast is better in such scenes on the Max. But HDR shows a bit more detail in shadows on the Xr due to contrast being less dramatic and shadows looking less intense. Still, OLED looks miles better in such scenes.

But overall I didn’t lose the clarity and detail I was expecting to lose on the Xr. It also compares well to my 8 plus, though in that comparison I was using movies from Amazon Prime that weren’t 4K HDR.
 
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iApPel said:
The Xr is really a great iPhone, Max better
Click to expand...

Of course or else Max wouldn’t be called Apple’s best premium phone.

I believe Apple has done a good job with all their new phones.

IPhone Xs was actually not needed. They could have just released 2 phones but then Apple knows how to make people pay for their products so they know their business.
 
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GrumpyMom said:
One thing I did get to do yesterday evening was compare a 4K HDR movie from iTunes on my husband’s Max to the same movie running on my Xr. I was surprised to see they matched well in terms of crispness and detail. In fact in scenes where the camera pans or there’s a lot of motion it looks smoother on the Xr.

Where the Xr falls way back is in darkly lit scenes. Blacks look gray and washed out in the xr, while contrast is better in such scenes on the Max. But HDR shows a bit more detail in shadows on the Xr due to contrast being less dramatic and shadows looking less intense. Still, OLED looks miles better in such scenes.

But overall I didn’t lose the clarity and detail I was expecting to lose on the Xr. It also compares well to my 8 plus, though in that comparison I was using movies from Amazon Prime that weren’t 4K HDR.
Click to expand...

I thought the resolution of iPhone Xr was like 720p, which is not acceptable for a product released in late 2018.

We have 4K displays already with 8k displays soon to be widely available.
 
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MCube74 said:
The main thing is that you are finally happy with your phone. I guess that is what matters the most.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s awesome, it’s funny how you can spend a little less money and be JUST as happy. I’ve always preferred LCD over OLED too, I’m weird like that haha.
[doublepost=1540815615][/doublepost]
GrumpyMom said:
One thing I did get to do yesterday evening was compare a 4K HDR movie from iTunes on my husband’s Max to the same movie running on my Xr. I was surprised to see they matched well in terms of crispness and detail. In fact in scenes where the camera pans or there’s a lot of motion it looks smoother on the Xr.

Where the Xr falls way back is in darkly lit scenes. Blacks look gray and washed out in the xr, while contrast is better in such scenes on the Max. But HDR shows a bit more detail in shadows on the Xr due to contrast being less dramatic and shadows looking less intense. Still, OLED looks miles better in such scenes.

But overall I didn’t lose the clarity and detail I was expecting to lose on the Xr. It also compares well to my 8 plus, though in that comparison I was using movies from Amazon Prime that weren’t 4K HDR.
Click to expand...
The LCD on the XR is really impressive, they’ve worked some magic here to keep it crisp and vibrant for 326ppi. I’ve always preferred LCD over OLED, I find OLED makes my eyes feel fatigued a lot quicker and I hate the idea of OLED screen burn in. Im one of those people that when laying down my hard earned money on a product, I want the product to have strong longetivity as I always take pride in what I have and look after what I have. The LCD on the XR really is easy on the eyes and a joy to look at and use.
 
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I know Apple is placing this in the market as a "cheap alternative" but $750 is still a lot of money for a device rocking a 720p display in 2018... Apple marketing will have you believe they are helping get the phone in as many people's hands as possible.... but in reality they are helping their balance sheets
 
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bigjnyc said:
I know Apple is placing this in the market as a "cheap alternative" but $750 is still a lot of money for a device rocking a 720p display in 2018... Apple marketing will have you believe they are helping get the phone in as many people's hands as possible.... but in reality they are helping their balance sheets
Click to expand...
It's not a 720p display. 720p=1280x720, Xr=1792x828 about 61% more pixels than 720p.
 
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RMP28 said:
So I decided to yesterday make the transition from iPhone XS to iPhone XR and here is my reasons why. I’m either extremely unlucky or Apples quality control has taken a massive hit and spiraled downward into a heap of explosive flames. I have now had 7 iPhone XS replacements, both XS and XS Max. Every single one has had issues and had me literally baffled as to what I should do. Most of them had dead pixels, one had a charging issue beyond the software fix and another that kept dropping calls constantly. ALL of them bar one had scratches and chips in the glass to some degree and I got to a point where I just wanted to give up and accept that perhaps Apples $1800 to $2049 iPhone is just not worth its price.

I then decided to give Apple one more shot with the iPhone XR. After watching and reading many reviews I decided to get the iPhone XR 256gb as I knew LCD was less troublesome and a technology that has a lot more history behind it, I also had the mentality that perhaps being of lesser demand it might not be as “rushed” and therefore not damaged out of the box. Turns out my theory was right or I had a strike of luck! I LOVE my iPhone XR. The display is beautiful and to be holding an LCD that is so uniquely shaped actually feels pretty cool! The colours pop, its sharp and looks super crisp, I am extremely impressed. One of my biggest fears and hates for OLED is the the burn in that will inevitably occur at some point and having to relearn how to use your phone to avoid burn in and be more mindful of how bright the screen is, how long it has been left on for, what types of wallpapers you use and so on and so forth. I felt like I couldn’t enjoy my phone with the iPhone X and XS because of these constant concerns that burn in will occur faster that usual. It turns out that people have already noticed burn in on their iPhone X after about to 10 months of use and these are people that claim they aren’t using the phone for heavily or aren’t power users. I love that with the iPhone XR I don’t have to worry about this and I can just simply enjoy the phone. My iPhone XR also came out of the box pristine which is fantastic! I was so pleased! The battery life is amazing and it really is a great screen size. I feel like I get a premium iPhone experience without the worries and concerns of burn in, dead pixels and other garbage that seems to have plagued the iPhone X, XS and XS Max.

With regards to the plethora of dead pixels that I found on the iPhone XS and XS Max I found them to be the green sub pixel that was the biggest issue. Im not sure why this is but I flicked the phone to a plain white or green screen and on the green image it was extremely noticeable followed by white. I know nothing is perfect but when Apple wants to charge a premium for their top tier iPhones... you expect they wouldn’t come with dead pixels, scratches, chips and other defects out of the box, at least not on a consistent level like I have experienced. In the case of the iPhone XR... well done Apple... I’m impressed and I love it.

I hope this can help someone if they are tossing up whether to choose between the iPhone XS/XS Max and the iPhone XR. The XR is a mixture of innovation and reliability.
Click to expand...

To summarise, the Xs is the premium flagship, the Xr isn't.
 
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I love my XR, but I think it's disingenuous to say the XS phones are at risk of getting burn-in. If anything they might suffer from IR(image retention) but that goes away.
 
Yeah I own the XS Max and this is also my 5th replacement phone. Apple have lost their way with quality this time around, and I honestly am still not completely happy with my Max.

I had a play with the XR in store the other day and really loved it, the screen looks so much better than the OLED on this Max. The size is also a little better to me as it’s right between the XS which is too small (to me) and the XS Max which is too big.

The main reason I like the XR more is the LCD screen, I’m not bothered about dual cameras anyway. I’d switch to an XR in a heartbeat if I could, unfortunately however, I can’t, as I’ve had my XS Max for a little over 2 weeks. Will just have to put up with it for another year I suppose. :(
 
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macdragonfl said:
It's not a 720p display. 720p=1280x720, Xr=1792x828 about 35% more pixels than 720p.
Click to expand...
Actually 61% more according to my math.

1280*720=921,600
1792*828=1,483,776

1,483,776/921,600=1.61

And it’s only 28% fewer pixels than 1080p. Calling this a “720p” screen is a lie, because even if you’re going to round it to the nearest 16:9 standard, it’s proportionally closer to 1080p than 720p.
 
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