Apple iPhone XR officially announced

Besides unveiling two new flagships in the form of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, Apple also took the covers off an affordable iPhone XR. This variant of the iPhone will be available in a range of colors, feature and edge-to-edge display, FaceID and gesture based navigation. 

Design

Just like its costly siblings, the iPhone XR borrows heavily from the design of the iPhone X offering a modern, bezel-free design,  and glass panels on the back and the front. Apple has replaced the higher quality stainless steel with 7000 series aerospace-grade anodized aluminum. The handset also comes with IP67 water and dust resistance, slightly lower than the IP68 protection found on the XS devices. The iPhone XR will also be offered in 6 vivid colors:  white, black, blue, coral, yellow and (Product) Red. 

The front of the device, much like the iPhone X is all display, with the notch on the top housing a True Depth camera and Face ID functionality. Since there is no home button the device will use the gesture based navigation available on all new iPhones.

Display

The iPhone XR comes with an LCD display instead of an OLED one. The 6.1 inch panel has a 828 x 1792 pixel resolution. Apple is calling this their "Liquid Retina" display and claims it is "the most advanced LCD ever put in a smartphone".

Apple has replaced 3D Touch on the iPhone XR with haptic touch, similar to what the company uses on its ForceTouch trackpads on its MacBooks. While haptic touch can be used to quickly launch the camera or the flashlight from the lockscreen, it is not known if it will fully replace the functionality provided by 3D touch on these devices.

HARDWARE

Apple A12 Chipset

The iPhone XR is powered by the same Apple A12 Bionic chipset found on its flagships. This chip also happens to be the first 7nm chip to reach the market, featuring a six-core CPU based on Apple's Fusion architecture. The new processor is said to be 15% faster and 40% more efficient than its predecessor.

Apple has also improved its custom quad-core GPU on the A12 promising a 50% increase in speed. Considering how well the iPhones last year performed against its competitors, we can expect even better output from this year's iPhones.

Additionally the A12 Bionic chipset has an improved neural engine, which has been upgraded to an eight-core setup compared to the dual-core design from last year. The neural processor on the A12 is capable of handling up to 5 trillion operations per second compared to the 600 billion on the A11.

RAM

While the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max offer 4GB of RAM, the cheaper iPhone XR comes with 3GB, much like last year's iPhone X and iPhone 8 models.

Camera

Apple has given the iPhone XR a single 12MP camera on the rear with a 1.4-micron pixels (previously 1.22) sensor. Even though it doesn't have the secondary camera, Apple still allows the device to capture Portrait mode with bokeh (blurred background) effect.

Just like the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max, the iPhone XR camera features Smart HDR with faster sensors, an enhanced ISP and advanced algorithms.

The larger sensor also allows for better low-light photos with improved image fidelity allowing more light to hit the sensor.

You also get sharper action shots thanks to the faster sensors, Smart HDR and zero shutter lag that Apple promises with their iPhone XR. The iPhone XR is also capable of capturing 4K video and wider stereo playback with improved low light performance, stereo recording and extended dynamic range in videos up to 30 fps.


Pricing and Availability

The iPhone XR will be available for pre-order starting October 19th, with shipping set to begin on October 26th. The handset will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB variants and in  white, black, blue, coral, yellow and (Product) Red. Pricing is as follows:

Prices	64 GB	128 GB	256 GB
iPhone XR	$750	$800	$900