WSJ reviews Apple’s 6.1-inch iPhone Xr: ‘The best feature-to-price ratio of any iPhone possibly ever’

“After nearly a week of testing the XR, I can confirm that it’s the ‘just right’ iPhone for most people,” Joanna Stern writes for The Wall Street Journal. “In fact, it has the best feature-to-price ratio of any iPhone possibly ever, and given that Apple’s lineup now has as many choices as the cereal aisle, that has never been more important.”
“Face ID is faster and more reliable than the fingerprint scanner. If you’re upgrading from an older model, you’ll get used to the lack of a home button in no time — though it may take longer to get used to the notch at the top of the phone,” Stern writes. “You really have to be looking at the XS or XS Max’s OLED screen and the XR’s LCD screens side by side to notice that the XS screens are sharper, have better contrast, deeper blacks and richer colors—even when you hold them off axis… Two screen things that were harder to get used to: the slightly bigger bezel around the screen and the lack of 3D Touch. It’s true, I thought 3D Touch was as useful as a pet rock when it was first introduced, but now it’s muscle memory to hold down on a button in Control Center to get to deeper settings.”
Apple’s A12 Bionic-powered iPhone Xr comes in six new finishes: white, black, blue, yellow, coral and (PRODUCT)RED.
 
“On paper, the XS is a more premium product than the XR, but I don’t know who I would recommend the XS to,” Stern writes. “OK, maybe animal portraiture artists and screen obsessives. Anyone else willing to spend up to $1,450 for the top-spec iPhone XS Max is putting status over substance.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We still don’t know who the iPhone Xs is for. It seems to exist only because Apple already had some of the important parts (especially the 5.8-inch OLED display from the iPhone X).
It is instructive to realize, however, that Apple has now successfully trained everyone that the modern “entry-level” iPhone’s entry price is $750. (Remember when people lost their minds over the “expensive” $499 price of the original iPhone? Even those without a mind tried (and failed miserably) to laugh it off as “the most expensive phone in the world.”) Anyone who claims Tim Cook isn’t a genius need remember only this mass pricing psychology readjustment.
Anyway, back to the iPhone Xs:
The Xs is a tough sell, especially to those of us who have iPhone X units and extra especially to those of us who always felt the X was a bit too small (narrow). We obviously want the Max.
As for everyone else, why would the hoi polloi choose the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs when they can get the 6.1-inch iPhone Xr? They don’t know the difference between LCD and OLED, they have no idea what 3D Touch is, and it looks/works pretty much the same to them – plus it comes in colors (that they’ll immediately cover with a case; no matter, colors sell).
We have no idea who iPhone Xs is for. We’d be surprised if iPhone Xs even hits 10% of total iPhone sales. — MacDailyNews, September 17, 2018
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Everyone on earth expects iPhone Xs Max to outsell iPhone Xs which, due to the existence of the Xr, has a remarkably small target market in comparison to Apple’s other new iPhones. — MacDailyNews, September 24, 2018
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Sales of the 6.1-inch iPhone Xr will be additive to iPhone sales overall, not cannibalistic of the 6.5-inch Xs Max, but the same might not be true of the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs. – MacDailyNews, October 17, 2018
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As Apple intended. The iPhone Xr is the X-class iPhone for the masses! – MacDailyNews, October 16, 2018
Why would the hoi polloi choose the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs when they can get the 6.1-inch iPhone XR? They don’t know the difference between LCD and OLED, they have no idea what 3D Touch is, and it looks/works pretty much the same to them – plus it comes in colors (that they’ll immediately cover with a case; no matter, colors sell). — MacDailyNews, September 20, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Analyst: Apple’s 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max sold out over weekend, 5.8-inch Xs orders ‘very weak’ – September 24, 2018
How Apple can mitigate 6.1-inch iPhone XR cannibalization of 5.8-inch iPhone Xs – September 20, 2018
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple Watch Series 4 pre-orders above expectations, 5.8-inch iPhone Xs seeing lackluster demand – September 17, 2018