iPhone XR Hands-On Videos Offer Best Look Yet at Apple’s Latest Flagship

Today a variety of YouTube videos have been published featuring hands-on looks at the iPhone XR, which becomes available for pre-order tomorrow and ships Friday, October 26th. We’ve embedded several of the best videos below.

One common message across multiple videos is that the iPhone XR doesn’t feel at all like a budget phone. Despite its similarities, this isn’t the iPhone 5C all over again; instead, the iPhone XR feels very much like a premium device, just at a much lower cost than the iPhone XS and XS Max.

Sara Dietschy’s video includes a variety of important camera details. She mentions how Portrait mode on the XR only works on human subjects due to the way the single-lens camera operates, and interestingly she also says that the two Stage Light effects in Portrait mode aren’t available with the rear-facing camera. It’s not all bad news though: one camera advantage of the XR over the XS is that you don’t need to back up as far when taking Portrait photos since there’s only one lens being used, and all depth recognition is being done via software rather than the dual-lens hardware.

A video by Tyler Stalman mentions a couple other strengths of the XR, including that its LCD display looks excellent, and that even though the device is technically heavier than the XS due to being larger, it actually feels lighter in the hand relative to what he expected. He also highlights a detail about the device that was shared in Apple’s September keynote, but which has been commonly overlooked: the XR actually has the longest-lasting battery of all available iPhones, lasting 1.5 hours longer than last year’s 8 Plus model.

Finally, a short video by SuperSaf TV provides the best look yet at the six color options for the XR. I especially appreciated getting a good view of the colors of each aluminum band that wraps the phone; I’m a big fan of the Coral option for the glass back, but that color’s aluminum band is more orange than I’d prefer, which is good to know.