Apple’s latest iPhones, including that iPhone SE, iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro maxare sure to be candidates if you are considering a new phone. They are fast and contain many updated camera and video tricks. Just because these iPhones are newer doesn’t mean that previous models are out of date.
For example, the iPhone XR is one of the few options you have if you want a large-screen iPhone but don’t want to pay more than $ 1,000 for the latest models. It starts at $ 599, £ 629 and AU $ 1,049, and its key features include 2018 A12 Bionic chip, vibrant color options and a camera that still takes great photos – without an extravagant price.
In addition, the iPhone 8 Plus 2017 is also good. Apple has discontinued selling the phone instead of the new iPhone SE, but you can still purchase it from other retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon, as well as from regional vendors. The 8 Plus has a classic iPhone design with a well-known physical home button.
To help you decide which phone is right for you, I’ll look at the designs, cameras, hardware features, and pricing of the two phones to find which one best suits your needs.
Josh Miller / CNET
With its gesture navigation, animated emoji and face unlock, the iPhone XR ensures that you get used to the latest iPhone product lines better than the iPhone 8 Plus. It is also a great phone in itself. It has an excellent large screen in a comfortable case, fast performance and wireless charging, and a camera that is largely as good as the iPhone XS.
Sarah Tew / CNET
Apple has stopped selling the iPhone 8 Plus, but retailers are still selling it. Is it worth saving that extra money with the 8 Plus with a less advanced processor and camera and no dual SIM features? My short answer is no. If you really want to have a physical home button, you can also find it in the newer iPhone SE. And while the 8 Plus’ second 12-megapixel camera may be tempting, the iPhone XR is objectively the better phone in terms of specs.
How we tested
Design: Vibrant colors of the iPhone XR or home button of the iPhone 8 Plus?
The iPhone XR has a larger 6.1-inch display from the two phones. Nevertheless, the slimmer bezel of the XR means that the physical space requirement of the phone is actually smaller than that of the iPhone 8 Plus and also lighter.
The iPhone XR is also available in six colors, including bright red, blue, yellow, and coral over standard black and white. The iPhone 8 Plus, on the other hand, is only available in three colors: white, black and gold.
Sarah Tew / CNET
But even if there are no additional color options, the iPhone 8 Plus offers some design advantages. The smaller 5.5-inch display is actually sharper than the iPhone XR: it has a higher resolution and more pixels per inch (the exact technical data can be found in the following technical table). And unlike the iPhone XR, the iPhone 8 Plus has no notch and it retains a classic home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
However, whether the home button of the iPhone 8 Plus is considered an advantage or not depends on your personal preferences. The button is well known and allows you to simply tap to go back home and double tap to go to the latest apps. The new iPhone SE also has this function. The iPhone XR is without the home button Integrated swipe gestures for navigation instead. Learning may take some time, but is easy to adjust after a while.
Camera: Face detection compared to two rear cameras
The iPhone XR has a front-facing camera that can capture the depth and image your face. For this reason, you can unlock your phone or authorize saved passwords with the face ID instead of a fingerprint and create animated emojis that reflect your facial movements.
Unlike other phones in the iPhone X series, the XR also does not have a secondary telephoto lens. That is, there is no 2x optical zoom (a digital zoom is used instead) and portrait photos are rendered using software. not improved with the telephoto lens.
Sarah Tew / CNET
Although I expected the 8 Plus to take better photos due to its dual camera configuration, the photos taken with the XR looked sharper and more vivid. That doesn’t mean the 8 Plus is a fool, but I can clearly see details in the XR that the 8 Plus could blur a little.
And although the portrait photos are rendered with a single lens, the effect looks just as good, if not better, on the XR than on the 8 Plus. With the XR, the precipitation between the foreground and background is smooth, the skin tones are more realistic and the blurring effect looks natural.
Zooming a scene twice with the XR worked just as well as the 8 Plus telephoto zoom. Objects with clear and small details, such as the lines of the tree bark or individual leaves that fell on the floor, had finer lines and focus.
Also note that both phones have studio lighting effects for the rear camera (s), but the 8 Plus does not for the front camera.
Performance: The processor of the iPhone XR is faster
My daily use of both iPhones showed no noticeable speed differences, and when it came to daily tasks like starting apps and starting the camera, both phones seemed to work as fast as the others.
Thanks to the more advanced A12 processor (the iPhone 8 Plus has the 2017 A11 chipset), the iPhone XR is actually faster on paper. Check out the following benchmarks:
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Geekbench v.4.0 single core
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
Geekbench v.4.0 multicore
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
We’re in the process of changing our battery test method for phones, and we’ve tested the iPhone XR with a new streaming video test. It took 12 hours and 7 minutes. (For reference, the iPhone 11 clocked 13 hours and 52 minutes.) Last year, when we tested continuous video playback in airplane mode, the iPhone XR was on average 19 hours and 53 minutes long. In comparison, the iPhone 8 Plus lasted 13 hours and 45 minutes. This discrepancy is likely due to an increase in the XR’s battery capacity. Although Apple does not confirm this, the iPhone XR has a larger 2,942 mAh battery compared to the 2,675 mAh battery in the iPhone 8 Plus.
Other points to consider: capacity, dual SIM and 3D touch
capacity: 64 GB models are still available for both the iPhone XR and the 8 Plus. At the start, they had 256 GB of storage capacity and the iPhone XR had a third storage option of 128 GB. After the iPhone 11 devices were no longer available, the 256 GB option was discontinued. The iPhone XR and 8 Plus are currently available in 64 GB and 128 GB. That is not bad in itself; 128 GB is generally considered the “sweet spot” for storage. That’s because 64 GB may not be enough to take all of your photos and 4K videos. 256 GB may be too fancy.
Dual SIM functions: Newer iPhones have dual SIM functions. This means that with one nano SIM and one E SIM, you can manage two different phone numbers on the same iPhone XR. For more informations, Read the FAQ on CNET for Dual-SIM and eSIM here.
3D touch: The screen of the iPhone 8 Plus is pressure sensitive and has a function called 3D Touch. If you tap a little more on your finger, you can preview the links, apps, and messages before opening them. Aside from a few things that you can long-press (like the keyboard shortcuts for camera and flashlight), the iPhone XR, as well as the iPhone 11 devices, do not have this function for the most part.
iPhone XR vs. iPhone 8 Plus specifications
| iPhone XR | iPhone 8 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Display size, resolution | 6.1-inch LCD retina display; 1,792 x 828 pixels | 5.5 inches; 1,920 x 1,080 pixels |
| Pixel density | 326ppi | 401 ppi |
| Dimensions (inches) | 5.9 x 3.0 x 0.33 inches | 6.24 x 3.07 x 0.30 inches |
| Dimensions (millimeters) | 150.9 x 75.7 x 8.3 mm | 158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5 mm |
| Weight (ounces, grams) | 6.8 ounces; 194 g | 7.13 oz .; 202 g |
| Mobile software | iOS 12 | iOS 11 |
| camera | Individual 12 megapixels | Dual 12 megapixels |
| Front camera | 7 megapixels with facial recognition | 7 megapixels |
| Video recording | 4K | 4K |
| processor | Apple A12 Bionic | Apple A11 Bionic |
| warehouse | 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB | 64 GB, 256 GB |
| R.A.M. | Not revealed | 3 GB |
| Expandable memory | None | None |
| battery | 2,942 mAh (Apple does not confirm this) | 2,675 mAh (Apple does not confirm this) |
| Fingerprint sensor | None (face ID) | Home button (Touch ID) |
| Interconnects | lightning | lightning |
| Headphone jack | No | No |
| Special features | Waterproof (IP67); Dual SIM functions (nano-SIM and E-SIM); Wireless charging; Face badge; Memoji | Waterproof (IP67); Wireless charging |