$750 for another camera/movie screen? Ha ha ha - does this gizmo make telephone calls, too?
14
I use an Android-Moto G I got for $200- on Amazon Prime. It does what an I-Phone can. These expensive phones are the tech version of $300- "stressed" blue jeans with a designer label. Hats off to Apple...they are a brilliant marketing company.
17
Great comments, crazy prices but it is to many people’s points not just a phone of course. I noticed the dual sim functionality is not being mentioned, it does not work on a XR ?
1
Those people criticizing buying an iphone for $750 because it's just a phone are missing the point. An iphone is not just a phone, it's a portable computer and camera as well. Twenty years ago consumers spent far more on far less capable computers and cameras. It might be a legitimate argument that other smart phone brands are a better value, but I don't think you can argue that smartphones like the iphone are waste of money given all their functionality.
39
@bella
So how high a price would you begin to consider it a waste of money?
7
I agree with the article’s suggestion that less and old can work fine, but the article could’ve gone one step, or version, further. Aside from not being able to download updates, my iPhone 4s still suits me just fine! Plus, I was able to get a refurbished Mophie case for it for only $12!
7
Smart phones are getting too expensive. When my current iPhone dies, I'm going back to a flip phone.
11
@Speedo
You can get good quality phones for less than $200.
12
OMG! If you think $750 is much better than $1,000 you are living on Mars! We who cannot afford to spend $1,000 cannot afford to spend $750.
God.
57
The only photo you could find to compare the reds and the shadow details was from a funeral of a good man terribly murdered?
“In this photo, which shows people carrying a coffin, the reds looked more accurate on the XS than on the XR, and the shadow details of the coffin looked more pronounced on the XS screen.”
9
I appreciate the thoughtful review from Mr. Chen. But I feel compelled to point out that it is in poor taste to use a funeral photo in comparing color reproduction capabilities. It's a moving photo, but seems out of place here.
10
This is a review of a device not an op-ed about life with or without a smartphone. Why are some comments so bent on criticizing something that has absolutely nothing to do with their life? If you don't want to buy a $750 phone, buy something else. There are plenty of other options out there.
23
I'm sorry but how can you think it appropriate to use a photo of people carrying a coffin for something as trivial as a comparison of phone camera capabilities? Did it not occur to you that doing so was trivializing what was a solemn occasion for these folks? No, I suspect it was just the first photo you came across so you used it without considering the gravity of the subject matter. It appears that the insensitivity and tone-deafness of the current administration is bleeding into every aspect of our lives. In my opinion you owe the Niscué family an apology.
39
@Victor Wright Thank you for raising this, Victor. We flagged your comment for our Technology editors, and they replaced that example with another one. The intention was not to trivialize a sad event, and we thank you again for noticing this and writing in.
20
My two-year-old iPhone SE seems perfectly adequate, and I agree with others who prefer a smaller form factor.
The iPhone is fine for consuming media, but to create media, even print media, I prefer a desktop; OK, a laptop will do in a pinch.
WRT pricing, yes the devices all seem to cost more than they're worth, but the real killer is monthly service charges. I recently switched my wife's phone (iPhone 6s) and mine from Verizon to a plan that uses Verizon towers but charges $12 per Gigabyte of usage, which translates to around $100 less per month for the same service.
7
When I finally bought an iPhone, I asked for an older, smaller model that was on display. I had to stand firm with the sales agent, who kept coming up with excuses as to why I needed to buy a much more expensive model.
I wanted a model that was not too heavy to carry around and would fit in my pocket.
20
Are we somehow forgetting about the fact that you are buying a phone for $750!? And that's before the $100 or more per month to run the thing. When it works, of course. Honestly I just want my old flip phone from like 1998 back. It was cheaper and worked better.
6
My wife ran over her iPhone 6, so I gave her my iPhone 7 and upgraded to an Xs. There are many features I like in this upgrade, waterproof near the top, but given I use around 50 different apps for my work, the stand out feature is the face recognition, it’s brilliant!
4
$750! Is. Not. Inexpensive. Listen, I purchased a iPhone 7 for $750 1.5 years ago, and it's okay. But I'm still paying it off.
Apple has become the greediest company on the planet. It's a company of incremental innovations and skyrocketing profits. Why don't they take a break. Not release anything new until they have something new. In the meantime, focus on the customer--what do we want? Longer battery life. Less-expensive data plans. Bigger storage. We are being ripped off constantly by this company. Worse than Microsoft in the 90s. But media is in love with it.
24
Apple doesn’t sell data, your wireless provider does. Try a virtual mobile carrier.
6
I never thought that the cost of mobile phone would make a large screen television purchase, and that includes the new feature rich high performance TVs, look like a comparative bargain!
13
Brian X. Chen's reviews keep focusing on the camera and on the shiniest features of the new iPhones. What I really want to know is how Apple is addressing it's most annoying features: does the phone constantly ask me to upgrade the operating system to the latest version? Does it constantly ask me to upload all data to iCloud, or demand my latest credit card information to download a free app from the App Store? The incessant attempts by Apple to keep my phone and credit card connected to their cloud and cash register are what make me want to switch to Google Pixel. I'd love to have the iOS reviewed by the NY Times; these reviews focusing on camera optics are disappointing.
32
@Bryan. Tech here. With respect, you are very confused with your phone’s settings. All of those are resolvable issues. Also what makes you think Google is any different? In many ways they’re worse.
5
I have never paid more than $120 for a new phone and guess what, they work just fine. Only a fool would consider $750 for a telephone a bargain.
7
@Paulie If it was just a phone, you would be right. But when you consider it's a great camera, computer, display, GPS device, and more, it's not so bad.
10
@Michael
Those exist for < $200 in the smartphone world.
2
The comments decrying this phone and its feature set are not well rounded and are uninformed. Many buyers work in a corporate environment, where their company pays their data plan, negotiates a better price with the phone carrier, and offers a corporate discount over that. I just paid $100 for an entry-level 64 GB XR to replace my nearly 4-year old iPhone 6. Working with attorneys, I can assure you they work off their devices all the time and use phones as their primary computing devices for email, calendaring, texts, and good ol' phone calls. The Android proponents don't get it either. Take it from someone on the front lines of mobile device support-- Android phones are not "as good as" and certainly not "better than" iOS devices. Admittedly, iOS is more of a closed environment, but that yields repeated successful results with critical 3rd-party components such as Device Management Software, whereas the implementation can very greatly between manufacturers on Android devices (I'm looking at you, Google and Samsung).
15
@byteman, ok, why does apple intentionally break ordinary, industry-standard text messages, so that the iphone owner cannot reliably communicate with the 75% of people who use android phones?
8
@Larry
Hey Larry, I hear what you're saying and I've encountered this issue myself. Which is whey there's an option to disable iMessage. Would have to agree that it's not an optimal solution, though.
Take it from someone else on the front lines of mobile support: the flagship android phones are consistently more reliable than iPhones. And cheaper. And more compatible with the rest of the world. My last complaint from an iPhone user who couldn't find the apple-only cord his phone requires to charge: why can't the rest of the world standardize with Apple? The answer of course is that the rest of the world did standardize on usb, but Apple refused, because using an open standard would eat into those profits they don't pay taxes on, and because their user base will happily overpay for anything Apple.
12
$750 is a bargain -- like when restaurants post an $80 entree to make the $50 ones seem like a good value
13
"you will be rewarded with a great phone "
But the column doesn't discuss the quality of actual phone calls.
22
Only $750 for a sub-par phone with a pathetic camera and an old LCD screen! Never mind, it's something for the less-affluent Apple fans to buy.
4
Yeah, who cares about what the “less affluent” want.
8
$750 is NOT a relief. These prices are getting ridiculous.
28
"The cheaper iPhone...". $750 vs $1,100 is a technically correct statement. And the Porsche Panamera ($86,000) is 'cheaper' than the Panamera Turbo ($151,000).
Motorola Moto G6 ($217) is a full featured phone that the average person would be ecstatic about. There is no discernible feature on offer with an iPhone that this phone lacks.
Save your money and have a bottle of Beaulieu Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Napa Valley ($33) with your next special meal and experience a real difference!
26
And then there is my $30 flip-phone, bought used online. It doesn't sing, or dance, but it tells time, and it's a phone. It did not cost an arm either. I can still use both my arms to do normal human things. My head is not permanently tilted downward. I can even look at people when they speak to me face to face. If I am crossing the street, I can watch for approaching drivers who might be paying more attention to their phones than to the road. I carry it in my pocket, and people rarely guess that I have it with me. Occasionally, I forget to bring it with me, but I don't miss it. Life is good.
76
If you can shell out $750 on a smartphone, you certainly can shell out $1000. It would bring you a much better device. In many ways, iPhone XR is a step backward in technology. I find it exceedingly disappointing. Even my iPhone 6 (an almost 5 year old version) has fingerprint scanner. What sense does it make for me to go back to a non-fingerprint-scanner device? Second, the XS has optical zoom, a huge improvement over digital zoom. Finally, the display resolution is higher than iPhone 6, but that's only because the display size is larger. Otherwise, the display is on par with older phones. So in nutshell, I would rather spend an extra 25% and get the most advanced phone than something that Apple makes sound like it is a good compromise, when it is not.
If price is your main concern, you'd be far better served with an iPhone 7 or even a 6s. I have found that my 6 has sped up significantly after iOS 12.
26
Crazy times we’re living in, when a $750 device designed to last only 2 years is considered a bargain.
42
I am very disappointed with the first comments to this article disparaging people who get a smartphone. I teach in a community college and I find that my students use their phone as their computer. They use the phone to put in their answers in the homework we assign online, type and turn in papers, access digital textbooks, or our courses in Blackboard, prepare projects that require video, scan class notes. The students cannot always carry a laptop. Many of them do not have a laptop so a smartphone is academically a lifesaver for them.
61
i also use my smartphone as a computer. it is significantly more powerful than my old computers/netbooks etc. i can afford it but $750 doesn't seem like much savings at all.
5
Maybe your students should consider a revolutionary device to use for notes: a legal pad and a pencil. They can both be had for about $5.
14
@Paulie They do take notes in their notebooks. In our technology based education, they can't pass the classes only with a pen and a notebook. The college corresponds with them by email. They need to access the College website for announcements. All applications to further their education have to be submitted online.
3
One reason phones have been able to get so ridiculously expensive is that most people lease them for a monthly payment that includes the phone and data plan. Just like cars, leasing allows people to possess something they couldn't otherwise afford -- and they don't understand or care that it actually costs more in the long run; only that they can have it today.
22
@Pat
Except it doesn't cost more. The price is simply split over X number of months. Once the phone is paid off, you are only paying the phone bill, not the cost of phone anymore.
5
...Except that the cost is typically spread out over 2 years, and the phone get quirky after 2 years.
4
@indisk
Do you think you're getting an interest-free loan? You are paying interest if it is a plan where you own the phone at the end, and if it is a true lease then you must turn in the phone at the end of the period and you own nothing for all your payments just like a car lease.
3
I was hoping for a more helpful review. The author begins by saying that the differences between the XR and other new iPhones are minimal, but then spends most of the article detailing them before dismissing them. Also, I am interested in how the camera works taking photos of landscapes, not dogs. (no offense).
8
And of course absolutely no mention of how it has been improved as an actual "telephone." Sorry, I have no need to always carry a fancy camera or watch action movies in HD on a hand-held device. I suspect most grown-up folks feel the same.
19
I suspect you’re wrong about that, and no need to judge. Many “grown ups” including myself, enjoy the additional features tremendously.
14
How it works as a phone kind of depends on your service provider (Verizon, Sprint, AT& T etc) doesn’t it? A phone is a phone is a phone since kind of, well - “Watson, can you hear me?”
Not even sure they bother with the actual phone feature at the annual Apple Product launch, nor do most other product reviews that I read cover it.
Basically if you can’t hear a phone call or they can’t hear you, bring it to get fixed or swapped because something isn’t working. Or if it’s not comfortable to use, bring it back OR get comfy Bluetooth wireless headphone/microphone set. That’s all.
These aren’t phones anymore, they’re multimedia devices, computers, cameras, Swiss army type devices.
If only it could put an end to robocalls :/
4
Oy. So we've arrived at a place where a $750 phone is the bargain.
64
@Andy
I have read that 86% of phones are not iPhones so there seem to be some intelligent buyers.
2
You don't get it. People do not buy these phones for the features. People buy them to show their status - to show they belong to a tribe.
In their view $1000 every two years is a bargain.
Everyone who wants value for money bought an Android phone years ago and still has it.
11
<yawn> Who cares about two big and expensive new iPhones when they're quite pleased with their said-to-be-obsolete iPhone SE which is as large a hand-held device as many of us will ever need? One only hopes that Apple understands this and carries through with the long-discussed SE2.
25
@Gene Rankin
I couldn't agree more. I only -- reluctantly -- got rid of my old flip phone after throwing it to the ground one time too many while asking friends anxious to demonstrate the features of their new iPhones, Galaxies, etc., if their phone could do THIS! That made for a great demo... until it didn't.
It's hard to see how my iPhone SE is obsolete. It allows me to make calls, check email, read The Times, monitor my solar roof, tune brass instruments, and get directions... and it's not much larger than the old flip phone. I'd consider upgrading to a similar size device with more screen real estate some day, but there's no urgency whatsoever.
3