Phil Schiller Defends iPhone XR Screen in Interview

Andrew Orr

1 minute read
| Editorial

In a new interview with Engadget, Phil Schiller talks about the iPhone XR, including the iPhone XR screen and why the resolution shouldn’t matter.

[5 iPhone XR Cases to Protect Your Device]

iPhone XR Screen

The resolution of the iPhone XR screen has been a hot topic. The iPhone XR has a 1792 x 828 screen with a pixel density of 326 PPI. This is the same pixel density of the iPhone 8 coming in at 750 x 1334 pixels. Yet Apple calls the iPhone XR screen a new Liquid Retina display, with Mr. Schiller saying:

I think the only way to judge a display is to look at it. If you can’t see the pixels, at some point the numbers don’t mean anything. They’re fairly arbitrary.

iPhone XR screen comparing to other models My issue with this is if 326 PPI is an arbitrary number, then why even bother to make screens more dense than that? Don’t bullsh*t us with new marketing terms like Liquid Retina and Super Retina. Call it regular Retina and be done with it, because according to your own argument it doesn’t matter anyway.

I haven’t seen the iPhone XR in person, but I believe Chris Velazco when he said that he couldn’t find much to complain about the screen. I’m sure the screen is fine, and that’s my point. If there’s something I’m missing about Liquid Retina, such as a different manufacturing process, then please call me out. But if it’s the same old Retina screen, then you’re just putting lipstick on a pig.

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2 thoughts on “Phil Schiller Defends iPhone XR Screen in Interview”

  • It’s a screen with less pixels than a Plus phone, and a larger screen area and you don’t think Apple (beloved because of it’s displays) needs to spin the heck out of it? I’m surprised they didn’t call it the Sagan Retina to make you think you can see the whole universe…
    (remember the run in with Sagan?)

    I love the way there were no reviews, much less proper examination of the display by experts before pre-order. This will be a legendary blunder of the magnitude of the 5C and the Mac Pro dustbin, not to mention the LC display that nearly lost Apple the education market single handedly. When Apple goes cheap, they go really… embarrassingly cheap and deserve to be pummelled, because they never charge cheap prices.

    What “doesn’t matter” to me is – when I upgrade my Plus phone, I want a bigger screen, for showing people photos I’ve put some time into. None of the new phones display a photo larger than a Plus phone. They aren’t as high, no matter how wide they are. 4:3, 3:2 and even 16:9 photos don’t need wider, they need higher to be physically bigger to show people. If I put my glasses on I can marvel at the resolution of a screen, but day to day… bigger is what I need.

    And what ‘I’m no expert’ reviewers (of which there are WAY too many, even the respected names, you think they’d ask an expert if they were doing a responsible review) seem to be responding to in the XR display is the P3 colours, which is nice, but the X phones are a lot of money for no tangible increase in display size and the XR in particular is a lot of money for less pixels spread over a larger display area than my 4 year old 6Plus!

    It’s really got to the point I have to upgrade because my phone is just too slow and I don’t see anything worth my money, much less that extreme prices Apple is charging now (nearly $2500 for the Maxi in Australia, add in AppleCare and it’s way over).

    I got a replacement phone when I took mine in for the cheap battery replacement, so I have effectively a “new” 6Plus and it just takes too long to respond to taps (technically the screen draws and I tap something and the app wasn’t actually ready for the input yet).

    And I’m still waiting for the one thing I need from a viable replacement… a physically larger (higher) screen. And it goes without saying, but apparently now we do have to explicitly say it (Phil)… a better resolution display.

    XR (pronounced X err…) will sell because it’s the cheapest and granted, the guts are fast, but it won’t be remembered for its display… except in the negative MacPro dustbin sense.

    Why do you think they put Phil on the spin? They need Jobsian level mind control for this one.
    The 5C was a failure because Apple didn’t think they could afford to drop the price on the 5 second year in, yet they’re going again with XC simply because they didn’t think they could afford to sell the X cheaper. I’m sure they’ve factored the loss of sales for a crap phone into their calculations (not calculus as the smarter-than-thou media like to say) and are gambling on good guts to get this cheap-out display over the line. Cynical as ever, but now a zillion dollar hippie!

    Thank you for your time.

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