back to article iPhone XR guts reveal sizzle of the XS without the excessive price tag

After years in the doldrums, the iPhone XR could boost Apple's phone shipments. iFixit's teardown revealed that the trusted, conventional iPhone design now incorporates a modular (removable) SIM card reader and single-deck motherboard. Intel provided the LTE modem – not surprising given Apple's ongoing legal dispute with …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I like the orange one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I like the red one. It it nice and I like that it's Bonio's charity. He's a nice man.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I like blinking I do

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          I'd get the yellow one and pair it with some yellow Sony Sports Walkman headphones from the 1990s via a 3.5mm jack... Oh, wait.

          1. imanidiot Silver badge
            1. paulf
      2. NeilPost Silver badge

        U2 Dutch Tax dodgers

        https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/tax-bono-harming-world-poorest-glastonbury-avoidance-paradise-papers

        Just forgive the bands tax dodging.

    2. caffeine addict

      I love lamp.

      1. Kane
        Happy

        "I love lamp."

        Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?

        1. Aladdin Sane
        2. caffeine addict

          "I love lamp."

          Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?

          I love Wamp? *shrug* I love lamp!

    3. Babbit55

      I like rusty spoons?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Keep your hands off my sister!

  2. BigSLitleP

    It's still way, way, WAY above what i'm willing to spend on a phone. I'll stick with my iPhone SE until it breaks and then switch to android.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No! Please! No!

      The capitals in your post reveal the passion that rages through your hot blood, but please don't switch to Android. I beg you. We all beg you.

      If you post your bank account details right here, I will deposit the money needed so you can remain a happy Apple user. If you post your home address, along with times and dates when you'll be around and where you keep the spare key, I'd be happy to come to your house and set up the new iPhone I bought you so when you got home, it will all be ready to go. If you post details of your daily itinerary here, them I'd be happy to follow you around at a discrete distance for a year or so (I'd be the one in the pink gimp suit screaming out your name every minute) in case you wanted any iPhone support.

      Us Apple people are here for you. We love you.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: No! Please! No!

        Sorry - was that all a bit weird?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: No! Please! No!

          Not weird, I read it as a humorous commentary on the Cult of Apple. Their advertising often does read like some kind of evangelical preacher five minutes before the buckets come round.

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
            Devil

            Re: No! Please! No!

            Sick buckets?

      2. BigSLitleP
        Pint

        Re: No! Please! No!

        I down voted this originally due to my hot blood. Then i read it and realised i was being a gimp.

        Have a pint on me, my old china.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: No! Please! No!

        And by knowing their bank account details, their home address, and (by implication) the times when they’re not in, you could probably get all the money you loaned them back, and then some…?

    2. Cavehomme_

      SE

      Yep, we need an SE2 but i cannot see Ms Burberry and St Ives allowing such a cheap phone again in their pseuds portfolio. I’m going to buy another SE brand new for merely a couple of hundred quid while stocks last.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: SE

        I think we will see an SE2, but since the SE was released six months after the regular release next spring is the most likely time for an SE2 release.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    I still want a fingerprint reader...

    As I don't like face id. Shame Apple never managed to get this to work, and of course, they'll now never introduce it - even though the OnePlus 6T demonstrates the technology is here - because that'll mean losing face (as it were).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I still want a fingerprint reader...

      Yep, 100%. Face ID is a gimmick that will just never be as straightforward to use as fingerprint recognition. Consider the Apple Pay use case - you literally hold your phone over the reader with your finger waiting in place - the RFID signal wakes the phone up into payment mode, reads your finger and makes the payment. With Face ID, you need to loom your face into shot of the cameras like an idiot.

      I wouldn't rule them out reintroducing a fingerprint reader though - they'll just pretend it's an evolution of Face ID, not a backwards step. And as something that Apple invented.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: I still want a fingerprint reader...

        https://www.biometricupdate.com/201805/apple-receives-patents-for-ultrasonic-fingerprint-sensors-and-in-display-fingerprint-system - May 2018

        Of course you folk don't need reminding that an Apple patent is no guarantee of Apple implementing said patent in a shipped product.

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: I still want a fingerprint reader...

      > Shame Apple never managed to get this [ under the screen fingerprint reader] to work, and of course, they'll now never introduce it

      Apple have researched ultrasonic fingerprint scanners for use under a display - as have Samsung. This approach is faster and more secure than the camera approach that OnePlus are using, but is more expensive.

      Apple may or may not use such a sensor in future - guess it depends on what they learn from their user's Face ID experiences, as well as engineering challenges to bring an ultrasonic sensor at an acceptable cost and size. Reports suggest Samsung may use an under screen ultrasonic sensor on some models, whilst a cheaper version of the upcoming Galaxy S10 'Retro' (it doesn't have a 'Edhe' curved screen) having a side-mounted conventional fingerprint scanner, a la Sony.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I still want a fingerprint reader...

      My mum had started using the fingerprint reader on her iPad, but after a little while she said it had stopped working, so she was ignoring it.

      I was round recently to do the seasonal family IT checkup, and applying some updates meant iTunes was asking for my mum's fingerprint again. I asked her to give it a go while I was there, in case I could find a way to fix it, so she reached out, and vary carefully placed her finger on the picture of a fingerprint that shows up when TouchID needs you.

      Once I'd explained that the finger print reader was actually in the home button it worked fine, but I don't think I can blame my mum for this one, that picture of a fingerprint does look exactly like an instruction to put your finger there.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If they had Face ID first

        And had replaced it with Touch ID, we'd have people wanting Face ID back.

        I doubt we will see them offering both, but it would be nice for the corner cases where Face ID doesn't work - like at a Halloween party last weekend. If had I thought of it at the time time it would have been interesting to see if I could have used the mask as my second face...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cost effectiveness

    I note too that if you manage to break the fragile glass back the repair is only $400 instead of $450 as for the more expensive iPhones.

    (That design is to me the most cynical thing I've ever seen in a consumer product. Though I do seem to remember a Volvo model in which damage to the sill resulted in a writeoff, I don't think they persisted with that into the next model generation.)

  5. 0laf

    Too much. I had an SE and have got a Huawei P20 Pro for about £300 less than the 'cheap' iPhone.

    Huawei has copied a lot of Apple stuff so it's not that big a jump. I'd have rather stuck on the same platform but the cost was too much.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Funny you should mention Huawei... One of my colleagues is a serious Apple fanboy, and has been so for a *long* time.

      He bought the original iPhone the month it came out (possibly the same week or day). He travelled to the nearest Apple store (c. 60 miles away) to queue overnight when the original iPad launched in 2010, and got in the local paper for being first in line (having arrived at midnight, four hours ahead of anyone else and eight hours before the store opened).

      He's not exactly loaded, but he's always been fanatical enough about Apple to save up and afford them... until now.

      Around the time the iPhone XS launched, he informed us- in an announcement akin to hell freezing over- that it was just too expensive, and that he planned on his next phone being a Huawei.

      Truly, we are living in the strangest of times.

      On the flip side, another of my colleagues spent £1500 of his student loan on an iPhone XS Max with all the trimmings. :-O

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poor mans Pixel.

    Even iVerge had to grudgingly admit that the IphoneXS is slightly worse that the 18 month old Pixel 2, and twice the price... It also turns out the iPhoneX camera sucked really badly, they just didn't tell people that the time...

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/17878018/iphone-xs-x-pixel-2-galaxy-s9-camera-comparison

    1. Dave's Jubblies

      Re: Poor mans Pixel.

      Did you have a special 'time travel' version of the pixel 2?

      Because it wasn't launched until 17th October '17, so not even close to 18 months ago.

      In your rush to make a point, you ruined it.

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Poor mans Pixel.

      > Even iVerge had to grudgingly admit that the IphoneXS is slightly worse that the 18 month old Pixel 2

      You're taking rubbish. That Verge article was by Vlad who places a lot of emphasis on cameras - and he's a big fan of the Pixel camera. He also reviews dedicated cameras for the Verge. In the past he's championed Android phones that were worthy of promotion, such as the Xperia Z3 Compact.

  7. Quentin North

    Apple blew it for me when it removed the finger print sensor and the audio jack. I still have my trusty iPhone 6s and just got the screen and battery refurbished. I also have another 6s in a box unopened for when my current one does eventually die or goes down the loo. I would like the XR for the IP67, but there is nothing else about it that makes me want it and the notch in general disrupts my sense of symmetry. I live in hope that a 6s like SE will appear as a budget option in the spring.

    1. My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

      Always behind on purpose

      When the 7 came out (Sep 2015), missus and I got the 6, our first iPhone. (She liked the size more than the 5S but didn't want the 6 Plus.)

      When the 8 (and X) came out (Sep 2017), we upgraded to the 7.

      Next year (Sep 2019), I'm thinking the 8, since I like the fingerprint home button. I might even go for an 8 Plus. We've saved a fair bit of money going with year-old hardware; hopefully they'll still sell us two-year-old hardware come then.

      XR seems really nice, but that FaceID / notch is a hard sell.

  8. Jemma

    So basically....

    This is the Apple version of Ford's ST-line cars. For those of you who don't know Ford do ST cars and ST-line cars. The ST stands, for most other drivers, for Suicidal Twat, because they're over powered, crappy handling and tend to catch fire. The ST-line is more Sad Twat, because they're the poor man's third rate VW Gti, they're advertised as being for poor people, and because they're not powerful enough to kill their owners outright before breeding age but they are powerful enough to make them drive like deranged idiots (no, Timothy, you do not drive a double roundabout like it's the Senna S's with your foot nailed to the floorboards, trust me on this, dear).

    The sort of person who'll end up with the XR will be the Arnold Rimmer of the iPhone collective - hated by the normal people for being a smug pretentious iPhone wielding git - and hated by the rest of the iPhone collective for not spending £1500. The only sad thing is iPhones don't tend to kill owners - but I'm sure that can be added - perhaps a small dart with blue ring octopus venom - fired when the owner forgets their password 3 times consecutively..

    We can but hope.

    1. Michael Strorm Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: So basically....

      Either way, we all know that people are only going to be buying the ST because they can't afford an Amiga.

      (Why yes, I *am* trying to reignite a 25+ year old playground battle!)

      1. Jemma

        Re: So basically....

        Ah.. Memories. Like the school Atari ST music computer with the "tap on the top to reboot" function - whole lessons were wiled away doing that. And the lovable SPED kid who gave me the immense pleasure of Jane Appleby mysteriously sat on my lap (kind of fancied her) - it turned out he'd been playing the five knuckle shuffle for the *entire* music lesson - tackle out - and she'd slowly been inching to my end of the desk as her friend (sat next to retard boy) had been inching her way into Janes seat to get away from Captain Handjob..

        Oddly enough no more "special needs" kids were ever taken.

        That kid whacked off for almost an hour straight... One of the times I'm deeply glad humans aren't telepathic..

      2. Siberian Hamster

        Re: So basically....

        Must. not... bite...

        <nasally voice> Ah but the STe blah blah blah...

        Graphically yes I will now concede the Amiga was the superior machine but the Atari being clocked at 8MHz to the Amiga's 7.14MHz meant for 3D games like Elite it was the better machine.

        At least the rivalry wasn't as intense as it was between C64 and Spectrum owners previously.

        1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

          Re: So basically....

          Didn't the Amiga's blitter (not included in the regular ST, IIRC) give it a slight advantage when drawing that offset the marginal difference in raw speed?

          The STe? Nice idea on paper, but the two biggest (and most obvously Amiga-baiting) sales points- the improved palette and sampled sound- were hobbled by the retention of the existing 16-colour on screen limit in normal use (#), and by the restriction on playback rates which meant that- unlike the Amiga- you couldn't generate all the notes in an octave from a single sample.

          I mentioned more about the STe here.

          (#) Compared to 32 regular colours in normal use on the Amiga, plus 64 colour "extra half-brite" and 4096 colour HAM modes.

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: So basically....

      Good Grief! It's only a bloody phone!

      OK, it's horribly overpriced - but then so are all the top-end smartphones. But while people keep paying those prices, that's where they'll stay. Companies only turn down fat profits when forced to. And tablet prices prove that top-end phones are way overpriced.

      As for disliking someone because they use an iPhone. That's just sad. Now admittedly if they were a disgusting Amiga user - I could understand it.

      ...Says the man who had an Amstrad PCW9256...

      1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

        Re: So basically....

        @I ain't Spartacus; "Says the man who had an Amstrad PCW9256"

        That's not worthy of contempt, just sympathy... ;-)

        (Joking aside, as far as I'm aware, the PCWs were only ever intended- and sold as- specialised systems designed for word processing and light office work at the lowest possible price, so it's probably not fair nor meaningful to compare them against general-purpose computers like the Amiga. The fact that some people got them to play games- albeit in glorious green-screen- is more a bonus than anything).

  9. FlossyThePig

    Is it just me?

    Whenever I see iPhone X I read it as "X" rather than "10". Now we have the iPhone "excess". Are they 'aving a larf?

    1. Annihilator
      Coat

      Re: Is it just me?

      Given it's meant to be said "Ten-S", I hear/read it as "tennis" and think, "yep, at those prices it certainly is a racket.."

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it just me?

      The iPhone "Xcess" Max is even worse. It sounds like a cheesy attempt to revive 1990s "Xtreme" advertising a la this "classic" Pepsi Max advert.

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it just me?

      #MeToo

  10. Sil

    Still very expensive.

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