A Super Timely iPhone XR Review

Been using an iPhone XR for a few months now and overall I am very pleased with it. I upgraded from an old 6S so this is also my first real, full-time experience using an X-style phone. Here are my thoughts on it so far:

Pros:

  • FaceID is amazing with minimal drawbacks. I really thought this was going to take longer to get use to it but after about a day it just felt normal. There are times when a fingerprint would still be nice but I’m not missing it too badly.
  • Larger screen than my 6S but somehow doesn’t feel as bulky as Plus or Max model.
  • Battery life is great. Part of this is just from having a fresh battery vs my old phone but it lasts all day even when playing games or using lots of antennas.
  • Swipe gestures are awesome and it took almost no time to get accustom to using them. Whenever I test something on an older phone now I constantly catch myself swiping up or across the bottom of the screen.

Cons:

  • No clock indicator in the status bar when an alarm is set and the timer does not always display on my home screen.
  • Blue is not as bright in real life as it is in nearly every press photo I’ve seen for it. Closer to a Carolina blue than electric blue. I still like it, just wish it was brighter.
  • FaceID can be a bit of a hassle when trying to open the phone while it is sitting on a desk or table.
  • Not the biggest fan of the lock screen flashlight/camera buttons.
  • So. Many. Accidental. Screenshots.
  • My first iPhone without a headphone jack for me. I mostly don’t mind as I use the EarPods anyway but if the cord gets twisted I can’t just spin it at the connector like with the 3.5mm jack.

Draw:

  • 3D touch. Thought I would miss this more but it hasn’t really been an issue so far.
  • I feel like a giant picking up my old 6S and even more so with my older 5S. I can now relate to Andre the Giant or Man-Hands from Seinfeld.

Ready

Demo data has been removed from the site. I already miss Chrome asking me if I wanted it to translate the lorem ipsum text. Here is the github repo for the site, should have the code posted there sometime soon. Project pages still do not exist but they are being worked on.

Things Are Happening

After multiple years on WordPress I finally decided to do something fun and build a static site using Vue.js and Nuxt. Most of the old blog's content was just status updates for apps I was working on at the time so I decided to start fresh. Currently pages for individual projects do not exist but blog posts and the tag system are working now. Once a couple more things are wrapped up I will post the code on GitHub.

As for apps, ChronoCat has been removed from the store until the new version is a bit further along and Eugene Murals should be out before the end of the year.

More updates soon.


overall enthusiasm © 2018