Apple recently released their new iPhones, which is exciting news. Apple is arguably the largest influencer on the smartphone marketplace; trends they start are often followed by other companies, like their iconic notch, or the removal of the headphone jack. Whether you like it or not, Apple is an influencer on all of our smartphones, so it’s smart to keep an eye on them.

They announced three new iPhones: the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS, and XS max. They all have some special features, but they share a lot of similarities. All the phones will ship with Apple’s new A12 Bionic chip, which will be 15% faster than the A11 Bionic chip. It will have 50% lower battery consumption compared to the A11, which is probably the most exciting news about the chip. Everyone loves a bit more battery life. They will have a 4 core GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). What all of tech jargon comes down to is that the phone will be really fast, especially with any form of gaming, or video processing if you are into that. They all offer dual sim capability.

But a major difference that may be overlooked is the phone’s ram. The iPhone XR will only have 3 Gigabytes. This isn’t horrible, but with today’s ram gobbling games and apps, it raises some concern in me. I feel that Apple should have put another gig into the phone, especially with the price they are charging. If you aren’t aware, it will start at $749.99, which is a lot for a “budget” phone.

The XR is very similar to the much-beloved iPhone 5c. The 5c was cheaper than the other iPhones at the time but still sported a lot of the same tech. It was a hit worldwide. Their variety of bright colors appealed to many. The XR shares several of those features. With the XR sporting these fun colors and cheap price, I predict it to be a very popular phone.

Something that the iPhone 5c didn’t have is the IP67 waterproof (1 meter of water resistance for 30 minutes). This is an amazing feature for the phone to have. I don’t want to tell you how many phones I’ve seen dropped in water and broke, so for it to have waterproofing is a big bonus for me.

Senior Ashton Gilmore, a Techie here at Taylorsville, said about the XR,  “I like that they are going for a cheaper option […] the only thing I can complain about is that they cheaped out on the screen. Most phones around 600 to 700 dollars have OLEDs.”

He’s right. They did cheap out. It has a big screen in terms of the smartphone game, 6.1 inches, but it’s an LCD instead of an OLED. If you don’t know the difference between the two, OLED screens look a lot better than LCD. They have richer blacks, better viewing angles, and cleaner colors. It will not look as “crisp” as the XS’s either. It has a lower pixel density than the other two, 326 ppi (pixels per inch) while the XS’s have 458 ppi. Don’t read this wrong; the screen will still look fairly nice. But for the price they are charging, it should look better.

There are many phones in this price range that offer better features. Phones like the One Plus 6 or the Google pixel 2. These two phones are both under 700 dollars and have OLED screens, bigger batteries, and more RAM. These facts make it very hard for me to recommend the iPhone XR. It’s a much cheaper option compared to the other two new iPhones, but it’s still excessively expensive for what you are getting. If you are in the market for a new phone, don’t get the iPhone XR.