Here’s why Apple iPhone XR is a more compelling upgrade over iPhone 8

Apple iPhone XR looks just like the expensive iPhone XS and iPhone XS. And it comes with lesser price tag. But, there’s more.

Apple iPhone XR is available for pre-orders starting today in India. (Apple)

With price starting at ₹76,900, Apple's iPhone XR is not a cheap phone, but is cheaper than the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The smartphone will hit the shelves on October 26 while pre-orders for the phone have started today.

Arriving about a month later than the expensive iPhone XS, Apple's iPhone XR is a far more interesting device. The phone retains the look and feel of the iPhone XS-series but costs much lesser.

Of course, the phone makes some trade-offs to keep the price down, but the features that have been removed are the ones you were most probably not even using. For instance, 3D Touch. Introduced with iPhone 6S in 2015, 3D Touch is a pressure-sensitive feature that lets you access key features of an app depending upon degrees of pressure on the screen. The feature has remained a standard on iPhones since then. But within the iPhone ecosystem, 3D Touch remained a novelty feature.

That said, let's focus on what iPhone XR brings to the table.

New colour models

Last time when Apple experiment with such peppy colours was iPhone 5C in 2013. Apple's new iPhone XR comes in yellow, white, coral, black, and blue along with Product Red version. These colours are not even available for the expensive iPhone XS which comes in silver, space grey and gold variants.

Same processor/performance

iPhone XR may be the least expensive in the lot but it does not compromise on the performance bit. It runs the same A12 Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine that powers iPhone XS. This essentially means iPhone XR will be capable of handling the graphic intensive games and Augmented Reality-based apps, just like iPhone XS and iPhone XS.

There's also an improvement in the battery department. According to Apple, the phone lasts 1.5 hours longer than iPhone 8 Plus. It is said to deliver up to 15 hours of backup on internet use. It also supports wireless charging. As far as the last year's iPhone 8 Plus goes, Apple on its website confirms it lasts about the same as iPhone 7 Plus.

Same screen, sort of

Apple's iPhone XR skips OLED display in favour of a 'Liquid Retina HD display'. Essentially, iPhone XR has older LCD display with slight tweaks. But LCD panels are from being obsolete as yet. The smartphone comes with 6.1-inch LCD IPS display with 326ppi, 1400:1 contrast ratio (typical), True Tone display, Wide colour display (P3), 625 cd/m² max brightness (typical), and Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. More importantly, the notch on the top comes with TrueDepth sensor for enabling much secure and high-end 3D face mapping.