Apple has announced the iPhone XR, which the company says integrates “breakthrough” technologies from the iPhone XS (see separate article) in an all-screen glass and aluminum design with the “most advanced “LCD in a smartphone featuring a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display and six finishes.
It also brings the A12 Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine, the TrueDepth camera system, Face ID and an advanced camera system that creates dramatic portraits using a single camera lens, says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The all-screen design pushes the display of iPhone XR to its edges. The most durable front glass ever in a smartphone is wrapped in a matched anodized band made from 7000 series aerospace-grade aluminum, and the glass back design enables wireless charging. The iPhone XR comes in six new finishes: white, black, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED. This new design is splash and water resistant, with a rating of IP67, and protects against everyday spills including coffee, tea and soda.
A portion of proceeds for iPhone XR (PRODUCT)RED purchases will go directly to Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants that provide testing, counseling, treatment and prevention programs with a specific focus on eliminating transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies.
Schiller says the 6.1-inch all-screen Liquid Retina display is the most color accurate in the industry, with wide color support and True Tone for a more natural viewing experience. Precision-milled glass, advanced pixel masking and sub-pixel antialiasing allows the display to follow the curves of the device, while a new backlight design enables the display to stretch into the corners.
The iPhone XR supports iPhone gestures like tap to wake, swipe up to the home screen, swipe down to access notifications and the Control Center, and the new haptic touch feature for pressing on the home screen to instantly launch the camera or flashlight.
The Apple-designed A12 Bionic features the first 7-nanometer chip ever in a smartphone. It sports a six-core fusion architecture with two performance cores that are up to15% faster, four efficiency cores that are up to 50% more efficient, a four-core GPU that is up to 50% faster, powerful Apple-designed Image Signal Processor (ISP), video encoder and more. All of this unlocks new experiences for games, photography, video editing and graphics-intensive apps while still offering great battery life, according to Schiller. Even with all this power, iPhone XR lasts up to an hour and a half longer than iPhone 8 Plus, he adds.
The next-generation Neural Engine is built for advanced machine learning in everything from photography to augmented reality. A new eight-core design allows it to complete up to 5 trillion operations per second compared to 600 billion in A11 Bionic.
This enables new capabilities like faster plane detection for ARKit and new features that use real-time machine learning. For the first time the Neural Engine is open to Core ML, empowering developers to build apps that utilize this highly efficient machine learning engine. Core ML running on the A12 Bionic Neural Engine is up to nine times faster than on A11 Bionic, with as little as one-tenth the energy usage.
Face ID is faster on iPhone XR, enabled by software optimizations and a faster secure enclave, Schiller says. The TrueDepth camera system uses precision depth-sensing technology that goes far beyond the capabilities and security of two-dimensional facial scanners to unlock iPhone, use Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more features with just a simple glance, he adds.
The iPhone XR features a 12-megapixel f/1.8 aperture wide-angle lens with an all-new sensor, delivering faster auto-focus, while larger and deeper pixels improve image fidelity and low-light performance on photos and videos. Improvements to the ISP, Neural Engine and improved software algorithms enable portrait photos with a bokeh effect. Smart HDR brings better highlight and shadow detail across photos.
New Depth Control allows users to adjust the depth of field both in real-time preview and post-capture to create striking portraits with said bokeh effect.iPhone XR uses LTE Advanced for fast download speeds4 and introduces Dual SIM5 through the use of a nano-SIM and digital eSIM.
The iPhone XR will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models in white, black, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED starting at $749 from apple.com and Apple Stores, and is also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers (prices may vary).
Through Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, customers in the US can get iPhone XR with the protection of AppleCare+, choose their carrier (no multiyear service contract required) and have the opportunity to upgrade to a new iPhone every year. The iPhone Upgrade Program is available for iPhone XR at apple.com and Apple Stores in the US with monthly payments starting at $37.41
Customers will be able to pre-order iPhone XR beginning Friday, Oct. 19, with availability beginning Friday, October 26, in more than 50 countries and territories including Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UAE, UK, US and US Virgin Islands.
With Apple GiveBack, customers in the US can trade in their eligible device for an Apple Store Gift Card or a refund on their purchase. If their device isn’t eligible for credit, Apple will recycle it for free.
