The iPhone XR (along with the iPhone XS and XS Max) was announced today at Apple’s September special event. It will feature a 6.1-inch LCD display with an “edge-to-edge” and “top-to-bottom” screen, thus limiting its bezel size. It also boasts a 1792 by 828 resolution at 326 PPI (pixels per inch) and is described by the company as having a “Liquid Retina” display. The new smartphone will release on October 26, 2018.
Apart from its screen specifications, the iPhone XR also uses the new A12 Bionic processor that the XS and XS Max also use, which boasts more cores and faster speeds than previous models. On the camera front, the XR features a single 12-megapixel wide-angle camera on the rear, with the same specifications as the XS. On the front, it has a 7-megapixel camera that is capable of Face ID and portrait mode photography. Additionally, it will feature all the same upgrades to the camera software that the XS range will receive.
However, compared to its more expensive counterparts, the new iPhone XR does have some compromises that were made to shrink it down. Rather than a stainless steel frame, it will have an aluminum one. Instead of the impressive IP68 dust and water resistance rating that the XS range has, the iPhone XR will only have IP67, which is an international scale judging how water or dust resistant something is. In addition to this, it will have an LCD based screen, rather than an OLED based screen. Finally, rather than offering 3D touch, the iPhone XR will use a haptic touch system similar to the recent MacBook Pro trackpads.
As for battery life, Apple promises that the new phone will last one and a half hours longer than the iPhone 8 Plus. The XR will come in black, white, red, yellow, coral, and blue colors. There will also be three versions available for the smartphone: a 64GB model, a 128GB model, and a 256GB model. The iPhone XR will start at $749.