Compare and Recycle
09/05/2024

What You Need to Know About the iPhone XR!

The iPhone XR is the new "budget" phone from Apple and now it has been officially released. We can look at what the real benefits are of owning this new phone, and conversely, what you need to watch out for if this is your next phone.

Since the announcement back in September, the specifications have been discussed over and over again, and we have a full discussion of the specifications on our blog.

But we feel there are some additional positives that we need to shed light on.

The Good Bits

  • The LCD screen will be cheaper to fix as LCD displays are obviously cheaper to manufacture than the OLED displays on the iPhone XS duo.
  • The colour options are vibrant and are of a much higher quality than the 5c range of a few years back.
  • Same processor and battery as the XS, this means the XR will be as "future-proof" as the XS and less effected by throttling.

The Bad Bits

  • Dropped resolution from 1920 x 1080p on iPhone 8 Plus to just 1792 x 828p resolution.
  • Hardware from 5 years ago and charging £800 for basic model.
  • The camera is still just as good and takes quality pictures, but the screen will not show all of these pixels accurately because of the 323.61 pixel density.
  • The XR has glass back so will be prone to dents and damage (whereas scuffs  could be polished out)
  • Even though the screen is cheaper to replace, should you break the back casing, it will cost £396.44 to fix it.

Conclusion

The iPhone XR is a great phone and for anyone that wants one of the new iPhones, but finds the cost of the XS a little too pricey, it's an option worth considering. Besides the price differences, there isn't much the iPhone XS can offer on top apart from display quality that most of us care less about.

We would still recommend going for a refurbished iPhone X, but then the calling of the latest processor might be a too strong for some to ignore. A good workaround could be to wait for a refurbished XS and XS Max to be available on the market if you're keen on having OLED screen and dual rear cameras.

Andrew Marchant

See more posts by Andrew Marchant

an illustration of three hands holding mobile phones with social media icons and notifications in the background

A Reality Check On Online Cheating

Unfortunately, the digital age has made cheating harder to spot, but it doesn’t make it any less real. Over the past decade, the concept of what constitutes “cheating” has expanded to include a variety of behaviours that might not have been considered cheating a generation ago.

5 Min Read

Galaxy S Lineup Depreciation Trends

The Galaxy S25 marks the latest addition to Samsung’s flagship portfolio. In the lead-up to the launch of the S25, we analysed on-site trade-in prices of the past four generations of Galaxy S series (S21, S22, S23, and S24) to gain insights into how well these models retained their value during their first year on the market and what the first 12 months for the S25 might look like.

5 Min Read
Man using phone with ai integrations

Tech Trends To Look Out For In 2025

As each year progresses, it seems as though AI and GenAI is being woven into our society creating more and more innovative tech advancements. From generated text, images, videos and even technology that works to detect cancer, you can expect AI to be able to create all types of content and task completion which is only to be improved on in 2025.

3 Min Read