Phone

The iPhone XR is going to be the undercover hit of the Apple launch - there, we’ve said it.

The presence of the XR shows that the days of a physical home button is over - that’s going to worry some people, but now all the new iPhones launched are using this all-screen design with Face ID facial recognition to unlock your phone.

But here’s the big question: is it the one you want to upgrade to? Apple has made some compromises to drop the price, so will you still feel like you’re getting enough for your money?

What's the difference between the three new iPhones? Watch our handy explainer below:

In terms of the iPhone XR release date, you’ll be able to pre-order it from October 19, and pick it up in stores from October 26. We were expecting that this model might be a little delayed, so that’s good news for those that wanted a slightly cheaper iPhone.

The price of the iPhone XR is something that’s going to attract buyers: at $749 for the 64GB model ($799  for 128GB and $899 for the 256GB) it’s far more affordable than the iPhone XS, which is taking all the headlines from Apple’s launch event.

All the rumors around the iPhone XR in the build-up to the launch event was centered around how this would be the ‘affordable’ member of the new line-up… meaning it became known as something that could be a gross hybrid of Apple’s parts, a Frankenstein’s monster of a device.

Well, unsurprisingly for a brand that puts such a focus on design (and whose chief designer was flipping knighted) it’s not an ugly device in any way. 

Next to the iPhone XS, sure - it’s not quite as attractive. It’s got thicker bezels around the screen, the edges aren’t made of the same premium-feeling materials, and the back is still glass.

But as a standalone device it looks just fine - it could easily be mistaken for the iPhone X of last year if the two devices weren’t held closely.

The size is obviously larger than the iPhone XS / X, thanks to that larger 6.1-inch display that needs to be wrapped in metal and other assorted components.

It still feels like an iPhone in the hand, something that has the curved edges that fall away from the side of the screen, and the two speaker grilles at the bottom of the iPhone XR (even though only one is actually functioning).

It certainly feels chunkier than the other two models that were launched by Apple at the same time - but not in a terrible way and is a fine tradeoff for the cost.

There’s no headphone jack there as you can imagine - Apple still bravely battling against the tyranny of the 3.5mm connector - so you’ll be stuck using the bundled earbuds in the box, which come with a Lightning connection at the end.

You should be able to use your own 3.5mm-shod headphones with an adaptor - but we’re hearing rumors that will be taken from the box this year, in a bid to cut costs, so we’ll have to see if that plays out.

The rest of the iPhone XR’s design is predictable if you’ve seen the iPhone X or checked out pics of the new XS, with the same buttons for the volume and to activate Siri on the left- and right-hand side of the phone respectively.

It’s hard to put a price on how much a phone costs just by feel these days - largely because they’re so much more expensive - but the ‘cheap’ iPhone certainly doesn’t feel that way and actually impresses quite profusely compared to the XS.

In the build-up to the iPhone launch, much of the talk was around the screen of the iPhone XR. It was going to be 6.1-inches, have thicker bezels and use LCD technology over OLED to keep the costs down.

Well, it seems that has indeed come to pass, with the new Liquid Retina display that Apple’s developed for the model. What that means is that although it’s technically lower quality - HDR playback isn’t present here, for instance - the color reproduction and overall screen effect isn’t that bad at all. 

After all, Apple’s been using LCD technology in its iPhone range even last year (where rivals like Samsung have eschewed the tech) so it knows how to make a decent-looking LCD display.

A phone with a screen this big obviously feels larger in the hand - you definitely get the sensation that this is a plus-size phone - but it doesn’t feel unwieldy due to the fact the display stretches from edge to edge.

There is one thing to note for those upgrading from older iPhones: there screen ratio is close to 18:9, which is a narrower than the usual 16:9 widescreen that many will be used to.

This is really only an issue when using apps or watching movies in landscape, as that little notch at the top (housing the cameras, speaker and sensors) will get in the way when you decide to fill the screen with content.

While that will be quite rare, it’s probably worth noting as some people were irked by the notch-notion with last year’s iPhone X.

The camera on the iPhone XR is the weakest of the three phones announced by Apple - it’s only got a single sensor rather than two for portrait mode, but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible quality in comparison and it’s the same as the one in the XS, just lacks the second lens.

It more means that you won’t be able to have a telephoto lens for lossless zooming in, or be able to take clever portrait modes using the two sensors together, as you can with the iPhone XS pair announced (although with the Focus pixels, it can do depth sensing and blurring the background. It works rather nicely, considering it’s ‘faked’.

You can also then change the depth of the blur effect with a scroller on the bottom of the phone - Apple is claiming it’s the first brand to do this, but we’ve seen it plenty of times on handset like the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, so it’ll be interesting to hear where Apple sees the difference.

It’s a 12MP sensor on the rear, with the front packing the TrueDepth camera for facial unlocking and selfies, and while Apple didn’t make a big deal about the functionality on stage it’ll be equally as good as that seen on the iPhone 8 last year, which was far from terrible.

It’s also got Smart HDR in the mix, allowing the iPhone XR to really capture the high-end elements of a photo, fusing the light and dark elements well in the demo pictures we saw.

In our very rapid testing in the demonstration area, the pictures we took were clear and sharp and colorful - but that’s largely because all smartphone cameras are more than half-decent these days.

It seems that if you just want a camera that can take a nice picture when needed, and no fancy bells and whistles, the iPhone XR will do you just fine.

While we don’t know the full spec list for the iPhone 9, there are a few good reasons to think that the iPhone XR could have better battery life than expected.

Apple’s likely put a little less RAM in here alongside the A12 Bionic chipset, combining less power with a more efficient engine. The screen resolution on the iPhone XR will also be likely a little less too - although LCD technology is sometimes more power-hungry than OLED.

We’ll need to properly test the iPhone XR to see if its battery life can hold up to scrutiny - we’ve been burned by iPhones not lasting as well as we’d like in the past, but the larger size of this phone does mean Apple could have shoved a little bigger power pack inside.

The cheaper iPhone is never the most interesting one, but it’s often the volume driver - and you could make a good few arguments that the iPhone XR will do just that.

However, the decision to make it larger is an odd one: this is a phone that perhaps is better suited to the Asian market (where bigger screens are more popular), which could be an issue for Western buyers.

The lack of a smaller, iPhone SE sequel is what people will be wondering about - but it’s clear that Apple had decided bigger is better, shaving off some of the more expensive elements of the iPhone XS and bringing it together in this still-impressive package.

Nikon was a little late to the mirrorless game with its 1 system, and it wasn't what a lot of people expected (nor wanted). With relatively small 1-inch sensors and bodies that were a little too devoid of physical control, there just wasn't enough here to tempt the enthusiast away from either their DSLRs or rival mirrorless systems, and they quietly disappeared from Nikon's website. 

The more senior of the pair is the Nikon Z7, whose closest equivalent in the company's DSLR lineup is the hugely successful D850. With Sony's now on its ninth full-frame mirrorless camera, and Canon spoiling Nikon's fun quite recently with its own full-frame mirrorless EOS R model, the Z7 has been launched at a time where it won't get an easy ride. That said, many photographers have been waiting patiently to see what Nikon would end up doing, and, minor card slot debacle aside, the response from the photographic community had been overwhelmingly positive.

The Z7 shares a 45.7MP (effective) pixel count with the company's still-popular D850 DSLR, and both sensors have a backside-illuminated (BSI) design to help with light capture, together with no anti-aliasing filter for better detail capture. The sensor in the Z7, however, is different; while we're not told quite how it compares in terms of performance, it contains 493 phase-detect AF pixels to help with focusing – more on this later.

There's also a new lens mount, which currently accepts three native lenses, but many more are promised over the next few years. The flange depth measures just 16mm and the diameter of the lens mount is a wide 55mm, which bodes well for high-quality lenses with wide apertures. Next year will, for example, welcome a NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens, which Nikon has made a lot of noise about since the launch of the Z system.

Images from the Z7 are output at a maximum resolution of 8256 x 5504 and tend to weigh around 17-31MB, depending on what it is you're capturing, ISO setting and so on. Opened up in Photoshop, these measure a hefty 130MB at default settings. 

The Z7 can also be set to capture 14-bit Raw files, in either compressed, losslessly compressed or uncompressed formats, and you can also output TIFFs straight away if you need to.

One of the most significant changes between the Z7 and its DSLR cousins is that Vibration Reduction is located inside the camera, rather than in the lens. This system is said to be effective for up to five stops, and can work over five axes: roll, pitch, yaw and X an Y shift. 

The main advantage of this VR system for the current Nikon user is that their older non-stabilised lenses can suddenly benefit from the equivalent technology inside the Z7. This is made possible through the optional FTZ adapter, which allows F-mount lenses to be mounted. Nikon assures owners that AF and auto-exposure will be maintained with around 90 or so lenses, and AF will be maintained for around 360 in total. And, if you happen to be using an optic with VR included, the two systems with join forces and work together.

4K video recording is offered only in the 4K UHD (3840x2160) flavour, rather than in both DCI 4K and UHD 4K, and footage can be captured at 30, 25 and 24p. If you're happy to apply a DX crop to footage  – this may, after all, even be preferable depending on your subject, lens and so on – Nikon promises that you'll actually benefit from slightly crisper footage, as it will capture 5K-worth of information with full-pixel readout, before downsampling this to a 4K output.  

As is now becoming standard on such cameras, 4K recording is supported by Full HD recording to a maximum 120/100p, which can respectively be output 5x and 4x slower, and the option to capture 4K-resolution (8.3MP) stills during recording has also made the cut. 

Nikon has also chosen the Z7 to debut its own Log shooting function, dubbed N-Log, and this is bolstered by a raft of features such as zebra patterning, focus peaking, timecode. An electronic version of the company's Vibration Reduction can also be called upon to steady recordings, either on its own or in conjunction with the sensor-based system, and you can hook up both a microphone and set of headphones through ports at the camera's side for audio monitoring and recording respectively.

Get ready for an all-new breed of iPhone - this is the iPhone XS Max. That's the iPhone 'Ten S' Max, not the 'Excess Max', but that's what most people will be seeing in this name. That would miss out on what's an interesting new product, especially for iPhone fans.

Update: iPhone XS Max pre-orders are now open!

Although in the past Apple has differentiated the Plus models with a better camera setup, the iPhone XS Max is identical to the iPhone XS other than the larger screen and battery.

Below you'll find links to all of our other iPhone and Apple hands on reviews from the big event...

The iPhone XS Max, along with the iPhone XS, pre-orders in most countries around the world are now open, and will go on sale from September 21.

It'll be available in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB configurations, and it'll be Apple's most expensive phone to date – although that was expected after Apple introduced the only slightly less expensive iPhone X last year.

On average, the iPhone XS Max price is about $100 / £100 more expensive than the smaller iPhone XS, with the 64GB model priced at at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799 / AED4,649. The 256GB price is $1,249 / £1,249 / AU$2,049/ AED5,279 while the most expensive 512GB version will set you back $1,449 / £1,449 / AU$2,369 / AED6,129.

That makes the iPhone XS Max the most expensive 'regular' handset on the market, with only special editions such as the Huawei Porsche Design costing more.

The iPhone XS Max measures 157.5 x 77.4 x 7.7mm, which puts it around the same size as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which comes in at 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8mm. This is a big phone, and there's no way you'll be able to use it with one hand.

Interestingly, even though the iPhone XS Max is slightly heavier than the Galaxy Note 9 (208 grams vs 202 grams), in the hand it feels lighter than its rival. In other words, the iPhone XS Max looks like a big and heavy device, but you'll be pleasantly surprised when you pick it up.

Like other iPhone X models, the iPhone XS Max is basically two slabs of glass with a stainless steel frame joining them. 

Apple claims that it has used the most durable glass ever made for a smartphone, and it felt less slippery than we expected – but it is a big glass device at the end of the day, and we recommend getting a cover for it if you're spending all that money on one.

The new iPhone XS and XS Max are now rated at IP68, which means they're water-resistant for up to two meters and 30 minutes. Apple says it has tested these new phones by submerging them in fresh water, salt water and various other liquids – including beer – to make sure they come out unharmed.

The button and port configuration on the iPhone XS Max is the same as on the smaller model, with the volume buttons and the silence switch on the left, and the power button and SIM card tray on the right.

Apple is bringing dual-SIM functionality to its iPhones for the first time, with the new handsets able to support eSIM in addition to having a nano SIM slot. eSIM means 'embedded SIM', and it's a piece of hardware which acts like a SIM card but saves you having to physically swap cards – instead you download software to the phone to change your plan or carrier. 

You'll use a QR code to upgrade it, and in the future apps may be developed where you can download it from a carrier and sign up from within it - although that won't be around for a while.

The iPhone XS Max will be available in three color options: space grey and silver make a return, with a new gold version that looks pretty impressive, especially with the golden stainless steel band around it. 

The biggest draw for anyone thinking about the iPhone XS Max will be the OLED screen, and it's simply stunning on Apple's largest phone. It's gigantic at 6.5 inches, and provides quite the immersive experience, especially with movies and games – provided you can overlook the notch.

Yes, the notch is still present on the iPhone XS Max, although because of the larger screen you have more screen to the left and right of the notch than on the iPhone X. 

That being said, we've been using the iPhone X for almost a year now and we don't really think about the notch anymore; you learn to live with it, and before long it just disappears into the background, although that may not be your experience initially.

Specs-wise, the OLED panel on the iPhone XS Max has a resolution of 2688 x 1242 pixels, giving it the same density as the smaller iPhone XS at 458ppi. Apps can now work in split mode, much like they do on the Plus versions of previous iPhones.