VentureBeat Homepage
  • The Machine
  • GamesBeat
  • Jobs
  • Special Issue
  • Account Settings
  • Log Out
  • Become a Member
  • Sign In

VentureBeat Homepage

VentureBeat

  • AR/VR
  • Big Data
  • Cloud
  • Commerce
  • Dev
  • Enterprise
  • Entrepreneur
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Mobile
  • Security
  • Social
  • Transportation

Follow

follow us on Twitter follow us on Facebook follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS

The Machine

  • AI
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Robotic Process Automation

Follow

Follow us on RSS

GamesBeat

  • Games
  • Esports
  • PC Gaming

Follow

follow us on Twitter Follow us on RSS

Events

  • Upcoming
  • Transform
  • Media Partner
  • Webinars

General

  • Newsletters
  • Got a news tip?
  • Advertise
  • Press Releases
  • Guest Posts
  • Deals
  • Jobs
  • VB Lab
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
×

Join the VentureBeat Community

Free: Join the VentureBeat Community for access to 3 premium posts or videos a month.

Learn More
Please wait...

Share

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Profile

  • VentureBeat Homepage
  • Newsletters
  • Events

iPhone XR hands-on: A 6.1-inch LCD screen that looks good (Updated)

Dean Takahashi@deantak September 12, 2018 6:15 PM
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Data: Meet ad creative

From TikTok to Instagram, Facebook to YouTube, and more, learn how data is key to ensuring ad creative will actually perform on every platform.

Register Now

Apple executive Phil Schiller made me chuckle when he was onstage at the Apple event today in Cupertino, California. He said the new iPhone XR had “aerospace grade aluminum” for its case, as if we were going to launch this thing into outer space.

But I would say he doesn’t have to do that hard a sell for one particular group of enthusiasts: gamers. I tried it out at the event for the briefest time, and it was pretty impressive. It’s not Apple’s flagship phone, but it has some features that game players are going to love.

I think that other people will go crazy about the photo and video capabilities of this phone, but I perked up in the demo of Todd Howard’s new game, The Elder Scrolls: Blades. This swords and sorcery game looked beautiful on the iPhone XR. At $749, the Xr is less expensive than the iPhone XS ($999) and the iPhone XS Max ($1,099). But the Xr will make gamers happy because it has a 120-hertz screen, which means it refreshes 120 times in a second.

It competes with the Razer Phone, which is Razer’s Android smartphone for gamers. The Apple device’s resolution is 326 pixels per inch, or 1792 x 828.

The Liquid Retina display uses an updated version of LCD tech. It has TrueTone support, with a 1,400:1 contrast ratio. The more expensive phones can do deeper blacks, more like watching a movie on a great screen.

The iPhone XR has a 6.1-inch LCD display, in contrast to the OLED displays of the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max.  The aluminum case, by the way, is a small step down from the “surgical grade stainless steel” case on the Xs and Xs Max. You can only sink it in water up to 1 meter in depth, compared to the two meters for the other phones, before it goes haywire. The Xr is also missing 3D Touch. In its place is Haptic Touch, which felt interesting to feel on the screen.

Yet the iPhone XR will let you express your inner smartphone creativity, as it comes in more colors: black, white, red, yellow, coral, and blue — versus just three for the iPhone XS and Xs Max.

Sadly or not, there’s no home button. It gets rid of Touch ID in favor of a notched screen with Face ID user authentication. It has a single camera in the rear.

If you don’t care about these things, and you really want to play games, then you’re in business. The Elder Scrolls: Blades, the new sword and sorcery game from Bethesda, looked great on this screen. The high-dynamic range screen was awesome, with details drawn out in a scene whether it was well-lit or in the shadows.

I could tell no difference between the game running on the Xr or the more expensive Xs or Xs Max. The Xr is a step up from the 4.7-inch iPhone 8 and the 5.8-inch iPhone X.

The iPhone XR has a new A12 Bionic chip,which is Apple’s new top-of-the-line, 7-nanometer, 6.9 billion transistor chip. But it’s lighter on main memory than the other models, at 3 GB of RAM.

The battery life is 25 hours of talk time. That’s a lot better than the usual times gamers are accustomed to. It has dual SIM cards and comes in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. The product hits stores on October 26, and preorders will begin on October 19.

Updated: 9:19 p.m. Pacific 9/12/18 — We’re checking claims that the tech isn’t truly 120 hertz and will update the story when we can verify it. The 120 hertz figure evidently refers to the rate at which it detects finger touches, not how often the screen is refreshed.

Read all the latest stories from Apple's Gather Round event

Transform 2021

Join us for the world’s leading event about accelerating enterprise transformation with AI and Data, for enterprise technology decision-makers, presented by the #1 publisher in AI and Data

Learn More

Join forces with OHUB & VB to include & hire 1,000 BIPOC students at SXSW

Sponsor & hire
  • VentureBeat Homepage
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on RSS
  • VB Lab
  • Newsletters
  • Events
  • Special Issue
  • Product Comparisons
  • Jobs
  • About
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

© 2021 VentureBeat. All rights reserved.