iPhone XR Durability Test - is the 'cheap' iPhone weak?

Apple launched quite a few new phones this year. The iPhone XS and XS Max, which I already

test

ed on my channel, and then 6 different versions of this type: the iPhone XR. It's basically Apple's iPhone with a flagship price tag. I asked on Twitter which color of the iPhone tomorrow. He has a little performance anxiety. I'll plug it in and we'll start Peachy. (silence) Let's start. Inside the box we have the standard trickle charger, along with Lightning headphones that you can't use anywhere else. And the patented keyless Lightning cable for the missing headphone jack. Let's start with the scratch

test

.

The one feature that is used more than anything else on a smartphone by far is the screen. The biggest disadvantage of the iPhone XR, apart from being a budget phone with a flagship price, is the screen. There has been a 1080p resolution standard on computer screens, televisions, and cell phones for the past 3 years. Even the iPhone 6 Plus released 4 years ago had a super sharp 1080p display. But Apple, here, sneakily downgraded the iPhone and maintains the high price of $800 after taxes, while delivering 5-year-old hardware. However, glass is still glass and has scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7.

Apple has never been a leader in screen resolution, but going backwards in technology is a slap in the face to unsuspecting customers. There's a 7-megapixel front camera hidden in the notch, along with a metal headphone grill, very solidly attached and which will never come out on its own. Another difference between the XS and the XR is the construction material. While the more expensive XS is made of stainless steel, the expensive regular XR is made of softer aluminum: anodized aluminum. Anodizing is a pretty amazing process where metal is dipped and electrically coated with a super hard protective layer of oxide and could literally be any color we want.

This makes the color combination look pretty sweet. Even the SIM card tray without expandable memory slot was dipped in the same anodized bath. The buttons are made of metal, along with the top of the phone and the new slider switch here on the side. I still think every phone should have one of these switches. The volume buttons are made of metal. And the bottom of the phone, right next to the missing headphone jack, is also metal. The only thing down here is the Lightning port and the small metal grills for the speaker and microphone. The back of the iPhone XR is made of glass.

It still has that wireless charging. I think the coloring is a great idea and definitely adds a nice touch of uniqueness to the world of smartphones. If the Apple logo glowed softly for notifications like it does on the Razer Phone, it would look even better. The flash is under the rear glass and protected, along with the small wire microphone grill. Which now brings us to the camera. Apple's cameras are incredibly good. However, just remember that the screen on this iPhone Let's say you take a photo and post it on Instagram. Instagram posts images in blocks of 1080 pixels.

The iPhone XR is missing 252 pixels and literally can't display Instagram images at full quality. This is an $800 phone that can't even use social media. Not to mention, Apple still advertises a sapphire lens cover that protects the camera, which should scratch at a level 8 or 9 on the Mohs hardness scale, but we still see strong marks at levels 6, 7, and 8. Other manufacturers of sapphire like this Tissot watch face handles pure sapphire perfectly. The Tissot sapphire has no scratches below level 8. It's a bit tricky that with Apple you don't get what you pay for at so many levels. However, the phones are very nice.

No doubt about that. But if all you want is just a beautiful, superficial aesthetic, or you just want to cover the Apple logo, just spend a few bucks and slap a dbrand case on your current phone. Then I used the rest of the money I had saved to literally book a round-trip ticket to Hawaii. You can get to Hawaii and back from virtually anywhere in the US for the price of this phone. Inexpensive masks are linked in the description. Big thanks to dbrand for sponsoring this video and inspiring colorful phones everywhere. Not to mention, if you bought basically any other phone in the last 3 years, you'll be able to Instagram at maximum quality during your trip.

You might say, "But Jerry, what about YouTube?" Will the YouTube app still work well with this lower resolution screen? It works. 720P is fine, it will even claim to let you select 1080p. And of course, the XR will use your data to stream that 1080 to the phone, but you won't see the high definition on your screen. The pixels just aren't physically there to do it. Of course, if you've seen someone who owns or loves this phone, you don't need to make fun of them. Remember, it's only 252 rows of pixels away from the full image, and they don't go that far hardware-wise...if you know what I mean.

The iPhone It's a risk to burn pixels on the XR when you don't have any to spare in the first place, but they all came back to life with a full recovery. Now it's time for the bending test. Apple is using the stronger 7000 series aluminum in the iPhone XR, so it should be solid. But the only way to know for sure is through structural bending. Leaning from the front produced no movement on the phone. No bends in the frame or bends in the body. Bending from behind got the slightest flex, but it was nothing to get excited about.

Our little orange friend is built like a solid low-resolution brick. If Apple charged $500, or maybe even $600 for this hardware, I'd be pretty excited. But charging $800 after taxes for this is like robbing a nursing home. Yes, it's easy and your targets won't notice, but it's just... wrong. However, Apple fell short of being a trillion-dollar company by selling things at a fair price. So, it is what it is. The XR is structurally sound, even if the sapphire is not pure and the screen automatically degrades Instagram and YouTube, it passes my

durability

test. I'll probably give away this blue iPhone XR unscathed on my Twitter or Instagram.

So come hang out there to enter the giveaway. You can always sell it and buy a real phone. Customize your current phone with the dbrand link in the description. And thank you very much for watching. I'll see you there.