The Apple iPhone XR Review: A Different Display Leads To Brilliant Battery Life
by Andrei Frumusanu on February 5, 2019 9:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Apple
- Smartphones
- iPhone XR
Battery Life - Excellent
For all their strengths, battery life is the one aspect where things didn’t quite pan out for the iPhone XS and XS Max. Even though Apple promised that the phones would see longer battery lifetimes in day-to-day usage, in our tests we weren’t able to replicate this. The main reason for both models not being able to match the battery life of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is because of their significantly higher base power consumption. I’ve attributed this to the OLED display – here either the OLED panel itself or the DDIC driving the panel see a big degradation in base power consumption, amounting to an extra 150mW. This is a figure that is unavoidable and a power drain that will be present any time the screen is on – no matter the actual display brightness.
The iPhone XR avoids this issue as it uses a more conventional LCD screen:
As expected, because the XR doesn’t suffer from the same high base power consumption, this significantly helps the actual battery life results for the phone. Here we see the iPhone XR reach the highest battery runtimes of any past iPhone – almost beating some of the record holders – and is only outmatched by the more recent Mate 20 with its 33% larger battery.
The results here are a lot more in line with the iPhone 8 Plus, and better represent the overall power efficiency improvements of the A12 SoC. Compared to the iPhone XS and XS Max, the XR lasts 37% and 25% longer respectively in our test.
Overall, if battery life is something you value the most, then the iPhone XR will absolutely not disappoint.
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shabby - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - link
Typical iPhone user, you give them an identical phone but in a different color and they'll say it's faster, smoother and lighter.Byte - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - link
My friend finally upgraded from his original 6 to an XR after his camera died. He says the 6 feels faster. Go figure.808Hilo - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link
The same new phone now newer. Waiting will cost you.Cook really has no new ideas but that's not what the church of apple is all about. Tithe one tenth of your income for the promise of salvation.
@shabby you summed it up. Its a psychiatrical condition.
Azethoth - Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - link
Typical Android user. Just admit that Apple has the faster CPU and GPU on a smartphone and move on. Just don't lecture us about how superior you are because 5 or 6 hundred of you "customize" your phones.cha0z_ - Monday, February 11, 2019 - link
More likely it has to do with the screen itself (the panels are different after all, albeit both designed around the same tech and pixels density).Samus - Saturday, February 9, 2019 - link
The huge advantage of keeping this phone with an LCD (particularly one lacking 3D Touch) is the repair/replacement cost is a fraction of the OLED screens. There are no decent 3rd party OLED screens from any phone vendors in my experience so your either stuck with new OEM screens (which Apple doesn’t sell to end users) or harvested screens from used phones.At last glance Apple charges $300 for an Xs and $350 for an Xs Max screen. That’s double that of the 8 series and nearly double that of the Xr.
And that’s from Apple. Considering the simplicity in manufacturing and repairing LCD screens, especially those without 3D Touch, you can find quality screens from 3rd parties for under $100 and do it yourself in 30 minutes with a screwdriver and a hair dryer.
Since 50% of smartphone users have reported breaking their phone screens AT LEAST ONCE at some point, this is a huge boon to the Xr’s long term investment cost.
zodiacfml - Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - link
But plenty people like to show off that they have an expensive phone, hence, the value of the iPhone X despite the existence of the new XR.shouterreview - Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - link
I am XR user too, I love iPhone 7. But I have some display issue. How to solve it?Lolimaster - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link
The resolution is just craptastic vs a 5.8" S9 where you can have TRUE 1080p RGB AMOLED when going 1080p in the options down from 1440 pentile mode.star-affinity - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link
I have trouble seeing why a ”TRUE 1080p” display is so important on such a small device as an Iphone XR. I think the resolution is just fine. Black levels are more of a concern to me since the backlight of the LCD makes black slightly greyish compared to an OLED display.