iPhone XR teardown shows few differences versus iPhone XS [u]

As might be expected, one of the first teardowns of Apple's iPhone XR shows few obvious differences with the XS apart from screen size and having a single rear camera instead of two.

The XR is missing the XS's antenna band and symmetrical grills, repair outfit iFixit did note on Friday. Bezels on the XR are also slightly larger, and the SIM slot is moved towards the bottom of the device.

The interior is described as a "fun hybrid between the 8 and the X," with both a rectangular battery and rectangular logic board.

iFixit is still in the middle of its teardown, but noted that opening an XR is similar to the XS, and that each device has a gap above the battery for a display-mounted earpiece speaker.

Image Credit: iFixit

The phones share A12 processors, edge-to-edge displays, and TrueDepth cameras for Face ID and animoji. The XR uses a 6.1-inch LCD instead of OLED however, lacks 3D Touch, and has less RAM. The extra camera on the XS gives it access to 2x optical zoom, better depth data, and more Portrait options.

The XR launched on Friday to short or non-existent retail lineups, but that may be because of online orders, carrier-based upgrades, and/or early adopters favoring the XS.

Update: iFixit has completed its teardown of Apple's iPhone XR, assigning the device a repairability score of 6 out of 10.

6 Comments

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

This confirms what we knew: The fundamentals of the Xr & Xs are the same. The differences are in the more superficial stuff like the screen and camera*. So, it makes the choice fairly easy: Do you want to pay extra for a higher performance screen and camera? It is seldom that consumers get such a clear cut distinction between tech products.

* The Xs also has more memory and better antennas but I suspect that won't make a difference to most average users.

macgui 2456 comments · 17 Years

Given as many of us suspected and is now confirmed, that they're essential the same under the hood, I'd like to know why Apple made the XR bigger than the XS.

So they could have a 'medium'? Bridge the gap between the XS and XS Max? Skew purchases of those wanting a 'smaller' phone to the pricier XS?

Granted, it's not much of a difference, but every little bit helps, as far as I'm concerned.

mattinoz 2473 comments · 9 Years

Little difference except dual board assembly and L shaped battery. Both must add to build cost.

hammeroftruth 1354 comments · 16 Years

macgui said:

Given as many of us suspected and is now confirmed, that they're essential the same under the hood, I'd like to know why Apple made the XR bigger than the XS.

So they could have a 'medium'? Bridge the gap between the XS and XS Max? Skew purchases of those wanting a 'smaller' phone to the pricier XS?

Granted, it's not much of a difference, but every little bit helps, as far as I'm concerned.

It’s probably because of the display. The display is bigger on the XR and it’s not an OLED display, so they had to come up with a design that had actual apertures to cover the pixels on the edges.

curtis hannah 1834 comments · 12 Years

GeorgeBMac said:

This confirms what we knew: The fundamentals of the Xr & Xs are the same. The differences are in the more superficial stuff like the screen and camera*. So, it makes the choice fairly easy: Do you want to pay extra for a higher performance screen and camera? It is seldom that consumers get such a clear cut distinction between tech products.

* The Xs also has more memory and better antennas but I suspect that won't make a difference to most average users.

The thing is that “high performance screen” is larger than the XS, and it has quite a bit better battery life, which are less superficial and more of productiveness things, making the higher price product an arguable sell at best.