iPhone XR vs. iPhone 8 Plus vs. iPhone 8, What's the Difference?
Among the three new iPhone models released this year, iPhone XR is the lowest priced, starting from $749. Actually, the iPhone XR looks more like an iPhone X which follows the design of iPhone 8. Except the price is quite close, what are the other differences among iPhone XR, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus? Here are some comparisons you may want to know.
Display
Both iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus use Retina HD display and multi-touch display with IPS technology, with the aspect ratio of 16:9. The only differences are size and resolution: iPhone 8 has a 4.7-inch widescreen LCD with the resolution of 1334 x 750 pixels at 326 ppi, while iPhone 8 Plus has the 5.5-inch widescreen LCD with the full HD resolution at 401 ppi.
Compared with the aspect ratio of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR definitely has a larger screen. It is equipped with a 6.1-inch all-screen LCD that has a 1792 x 828 pixels resolution at 326 ppi, and the aspect ratio is 19.5:9. But what values the most in iPhone XR's display is the Liquid Retina HD display, which is called "the most advanced LED screen to date" by Phillip Schiller, Apple's vice president of worldwide product marketing.
One thing that may disappoint users can be the lack of 3D Touch in iPhone XR. But it is quite satisfactory with a larger screen and the same display quality, as well as the True Tone technology to adjust the screen's brightness.
Processor
One of the key features of iPhone XR should be the upgraded chip. Different from the A11 Bionic processor carried by iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR's new processor, the A12 Bionic chip is a 6-core processor which is said to be the earliest mobile process with 7nm in the world.
There are 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the A12 Bionic processor, which makes the phone up to 15% faster while less 50% battery usage than the A11 Bionic processor. Thus the iPhone XR can last up to 1.5 hours longer than iPhone 8 Plus, according to Apple.
What's more, the new Next-generation Neural Engine in iPhone XR involves Machine Learning ability, which can make the whole device faster and more intelligent.
Camera
The camera acts as one of the spotlight features, iPhone XR also makes some improvements on it. Although it only has one single rear camera, unlike the dual 12MP cameras in iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR still offers a powerful 12MP wide-angle camera with f/1.8 aperture, supporting optical image stabilization (OIS). Sounds the same as iPhone 8, but iPhone XR actually has a new camera sensor and the pixel size has been increased to 1.4μm.
The iPhone 8 Plus has the portrait mode that iPhone 8 doesn't offer, and this portrait mode has also improved in iPhone XR. That new sensor, along with the new A12 Bionic processor's machine learning ability mentioned before, allows iPhone XR to provide the Portrait mode with advanced Bokeh and Depth Control, and another improved function: Smart HDR for photos, adjusting the aperture size for better background blurring. By the way, True Tone flash is both available in iPhone 8 series and iPhone XR.
As for the front camera, in iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the 7MP front camera with the f/2.2 aperture and the Retina Flash is offered; while iPhone XR provides the 7MP TrueDepth front camera for Face ID and Animojis.
Color Options
The biggest difference between iPhone XR and iPhone 8 series, as well as the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, is supposed to be the color options.
The same as previous models, both iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus only have the three typical colors: silver, space grey, and gold. While iPhone XR offers 6 color options, including blue, white, black, yellow, coral and red. The various color options make the appearance of iPhone XR more appealing.
Storage
As usual, both iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have 64GB and 256GB storage capacities to choose from. But this time, apart from the common 64GB and 256GB, iPhone XR also offers the 128GB version, each of them with different prices: $749 for 64GB, $799 for 128GB and $899 for 256GB. In general, the newly-added 128GB is a quite attractive choice with a fair price.
Price
When launched last year, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were set the price as $699 (64GB) and $799 (64GB) respectively. However, the price has been reduced to $599 and $699 now. As for the 256GB version, iPhone 8 costs $749 and iPhone 8 Plus costs $849.
Not difficult to find that iPhone XR, with the minimum selling price of $749 for 64GB, is only $50 more than iPhone 8 Plus' 64GB version, and it is the same price as iPhone 8's 256GB.
Briefly conclude, to have an iPhone XR, you just need to pay more $50, then you can get a larger screen, a more powerful processor with a better camera and the more advanced Face ID recognition. Of course, it all depends on your preference. If you get more used to fingerprint and the traditional Home button, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are still the most cost-effective iPhone models.
