Take a bite of this

THERE’S BEEN a lot of hype about the new iPhone XR with Apple’s advertising gurus describing it as “Brilliant: In every way”. But does it live up to the claims?
It’s certainly fast, boasts a beautiful display and attractively designed and comes with, as Apple says, the most durable front glass ever in a smartphone. This is apparently made to a special industry-leading glass formulation that improves durability and scratch resistance. And Apple says the back glass is more durable than the iPhone X.
Made of aerospace-grade aluminium, precision-machined to create structural hands, and anodised to complement the colour of back glass, the iPhone XR is available in six beautiful finishes - black, white, blue, yellow, coral and red. Part of the sales from the red smartphone – Product Red as Apple calls it – goes to the global fund for fighting Aids.

And iPhone XR has achieved a splash, water, and dust resistance rating of IP67, meaning it can be under water of up to one metre for 30 minutes and resist everyday spills like coffee, tea and soda.
The XR’s 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display with 1792x828 pixels is an advanced LCD with colour accuracy. Precision-milled glass, advanced pixel masking, and sub-pixel anti-aliasing let the display follow the curves of the device, while a new backlight design allows the display to extend into the corners, enabling a larger LCD than ever before seen in an iPhone.
The new display comes with True Tone technology that uses an advanced six-channel ambient light sensor to subtly adjust the white balance onscreen to match the colour temperature of the light around you. This results in natural looks of images and can also reduce eyestrain.
The display of iPhone XR supports fast and fluid iPhone gestures. For example, you can tap to wake, swipe up to the Home screen, swipe down to access notifications and the Control Centre, and use the new haptic touch feature for pressing the Home screen to instantly launch the camera or flashlight.
The iPhone XR has good performance because it is powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic chip with Apple's next-generation Neural Engine. The chip uses real-time machine learning to transform the way you experience photos, gaming, augmented reality, and more. The A12 Bionic features a 7-nanometer chip that delivers industry-leading performance in a more efficient design.

It also has six-core fusion architecture with two performance cores that are up to 15 per cent faster than the CPU performance cores in the A11 Bionic chip with four of the high-efficiency cores using up to 50-per-cent less power. There’s a performance controller that dynamically divides work across these cores, harnessing all six when a power boost is needed.
The iPhone XR uses a four-core GPU that is up to 50-per-cent faster with lossless memory compression. The GPU brings big gains in graphics performance to games, video editing and visually demanding apps.
The iPhone XR runs on Apple’s iOS 12 that brings performance improvements and new features. It’s also more responsive when launching apps, typing and taking and sharing photos.
One of the new features is Group FaceTime that lets you communicate with lots of friends and family all at once.
And the iOS 12 has augmented reality built in so you can experience it in the apps you use everyday. Apple apps like Mail, Messages, Safari, and Files can open augmented reality files with AR Quick Look.
I was very impressed by the performance during the test, The apps, menus and touchscreen were responsive and when I used the AnTuTu Benchmark v7.1.9 to measure its performance and the iPhone XR got an impressive score of 322,359 points. Compared to the ever-growing AnTuTu online database of benchmark results from iOS users worldwide as of December 5, the iPhone XR I was testing ranked fourth, after iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and another iPhone XR.
The iPhone XR has fast Internet speed. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and I found it downloaded apps very fast. I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the Internet connection speed and I found that it got 64.4 Mbps and upload speed of 38.2 Mbps.
Although the iPhone XR employs a single-camera system for the rear camera, it uses advanced algorithms so you can take amazing photos, including beautiful portraits with blurred background. 

The iPhone XR’s rear camera uses the same 12MP wide-angle camera sensor as the iPhone XS and a lens with f/1.8 aperture. Its Smart HDR system can bring more highlight and shadow detail across photos.
The new sensor features deeper pixels to improve image quality and the pixels are larger to boost low-light performance. The sensor has more focus pixels making auto focus twice as fast. 
Apple says the iPhone XR uses next-generation Neural Engine and advanced machine learning to add depth to portraits that are sharp and in focus with an artfully blurred background. That’s no wild boast as during my test, iPhone XR captured beautiful portraits with bokeh effect when I used Portrait mode.
The camera lets you adjust depth of file by sliding the aperture bar. The aperture bar can be activated by tapping the aperture icon at the top right corner of the camera screen. The less the aperture value, the more the background will be blurred. 
And iPhone XR also provides Depth Control that lets you adjust the depth of field after you shoot. Simply go to Edit and adjust the Depth Control.
The iPhone XR also enhances portrait shots with Portrait lighting that uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate how your facial features interact with light. Then it uses that data to create stunning lighting effects. The rear camera supports three lighting effects: Natural, Studio, and Contour.

The front camera of iPhone XR is called TrueDepth Camera with a 7-megapixel resolution. It also delivers advanced Portrait mode with sophisticated bokeh, background blur and Depth Control.
With the TrueDepth camera, iPhone XR provides Face ID for unlocking the phone. The Face ID system uses an infrared camera to read the dot pattern and captures an infrared image. Then, it sends the data to the Secure Enclave in the A12 Bionic chip to confirm a match and unlock the phone. The invisible infrared light helps identify your face even when it’s dark. During the test, I found Face ID worked very fast for unlocking the phone.
The glass back of iPhone XR allows faster wireless charging and improved off-axis performance even when your iPhone is off-centre on a charging pad. Its battery last up to 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 8 Plus.
Apple iPhone XR is available in three storage options – 64 GB for Bt29,900, 128GB Bt31, 900 and 256GB Bt35,900.

>> Networks: LTE, CDMA, HSPA+, GSM
>> OS: iOS12
>> CPU: A12 Bionic chip
>> Capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB 
>> Cameras: Rear: 12MP wide-angle camera with ƒ/1.8 aperture lens; Front: 7MP TrueDepth camera with f/2.2 lens
>> Display: Liquid Retina HD display 6.1-inch (diagonal) all-screen LCD with IPS technology and 1792-by-828-pixel resolution
>> Location: Assisted GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS, Digital compass, Wi-Fi, Cellular, iBeacon microlocation
>> Sensors: Face ID, Barometer, Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor
>> Sim card: Dual SIM (nano-SIM and eSIM)
>> Finish: Black, White, Blue, Yellow, Coral, Product Red 
>> Dimensions: Height: 150.9 mm, Width: 75.7 mm, Depth: 8.3 mm
>> Weight: 194 g