Apple iPhone XR or Samsung Galaxy S10e, which one should you buy?

Apple iPhone XR is currently available with discounts up to ₹17,000. Apple is offering discounts on all the storage models of iPhone XR. If you've been planning on upgrading or buying a new iPhone, this is possibly the best deal right now.

The price drop on iPhone XR also brings it closer to the Galaxy S10e which sells for ₹55,990 in India. Apple iPhone XR is still more expensive, but HDFC customers can get it for an even cheaper price of ₹53,990. Just like the iPhone XR is Apple's cheaper offering, Galaxy S10e is also the most affordable from Samsung's flagship series.

Here's a comparison between Apple iPhone XR and Samsung Galaxy S10e.

Design, display

Unlike the premium glass bodies of iPhone XS, the iPhone XR has a metal body but in six colour options. Apple iPhone XR is available in black, white, blue, yellow, coral and red. Another trade-off with the iPhone XR is no OLED display. Apple instead used the LCD screen on the iPhone XR which is a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display. But Apple is known to offer the best LCD displays in the market.

You get a better display with the Galaxy S10e as it offers a 5.8-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen. Samsung also offers five colour options for the Galaxy S10e including a 'Canary Yellow'. The smartphone doesn't look as premium like the Galaxy S10 and S10+, but it comes wrapped in a Gorilla Glass 5 body.

Performance

Both Apple and Samsung have their most powerful chipsets running on the iPhone XR and Galaxy S10e respectively. iPhone XR comes with the A12 Bionic chip which powers the iPhone XS series. Similarly, Galaxy S10e runs on in-house Exynos 9820 processor.

Apple doesn't reveal battery capacity of its iPhones, but the iPhone XR is claimed to last 1.5 hours longer than iPhone 8 Plus. In comparison, Galaxy S10e packs a 3,100mAh battery. In terms of storage, Galaxy S10e comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The base model of iPhone XR is available with 64GB in-built storage.

Camera

For photography, iPhone XR sports a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 7-megapixel selfie camera. On the iPhone XR, camera features include OIS, portrait mode with depth control, portrait lighting and smart HDR. The same features are available on the selfie camera as well. Also, the iPhone XS series comes with the same selfie snapper.

On the Galaxy S10e you get a dual-camera setup where one's a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and the other's a 16-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens. This means that you can shoot up a 123-degree wide-angle photo on the Galaxy S10e. For selfies, Galaxy S10e offers a 10-megapixel front camera. Galaxy S10e also offers live focus, and its own version of Animoji simply called 'AR emoji'.

Summing up,

As said earlier, Apple iPhone XR and Samsung Galaxy S10e are in similar in many ways. Both smartphones aim to give each company's flagship-level experience but with minor trade-offs. If you're an iPhone loyalist, iPhone XR with slashed pricing seems like a good deal. But if you prefer Android and don't intend to move to an entirely new ecosystem, Galaxy S10e is the one for you.