The iPhone XR is the latest in the 2018 trio of new iPhones. It’s also the most “affordable” with its base price at $749 for the 64GB model, while it takes $999 to get the base iPhone XS and $1099 for the base XS Max.
For a guy that operates a camera tech blog, you might think that I’m one who has to have the latest and greatest gadget. However, I like tech that lasts a long time and I try to milk every mile out of great tech. I still use my Canon 5D Mark II as my main camera (although I’ve been eyeing an upgrade the past couple years) and my 2011 MacBook Pro is still in service as a video editing system. In fact, I think that old MacBook Pro is a superior product in terms of design (and performance in its day) than the newer, thinner MacBook Pros, which have “clicky” keyboards with keys that stick, limited ports, no disc drive and internals that can’t be upgraded. I prefer my 2010 Mac Pro over the modern Mac Pro trash can too.
In a lot of ways, I feel the same about the iPhone XR. I’ve had the iPhone XR for a week or so and its a good phone but it doesn’t do anything special that other phones don’t do better. My best praise for it is that it is faster than the iPhone 6 from which I traded up. [Read more…]