**The iPhone 10r: A Reliable Budget Option**

In recent months, I have had the opportunity to test and review various budget smartphones, including the iPhone 10r. As one of the latest offerings from Apple's mid-range lineup, the iPhone 10r promises to deliver a seamless user experience at an affordable price point. In this article, I will delve into my hands-on experience with the iPhone 10r, exploring its strengths and weaknesses in various aspects such as performance, battery life, camera capabilities, and more.

**Performance: A Step Down from the iPhone XR**

When comparing the iPhone 10r to its predecessor, the iPhone XR, it's clear that the latter boasts a slightly more powerful processor. However, when I actually put both phones through their paces, I found that the differences were not as pronounced as I had anticipated. In terms of multitasking, the iPhone 10r did struggle with running multiple applications simultaneously, often requiring me to restart apps after switching between them. This was particularly noticeable in games, where frequent relaunching became a necessity due to the phone's inability to handle demanding tasks without a hitch. While this may not be a deal-breaker for casual users, it does highlight the iPhone 10r's limitations in terms of processing power.

**Battery Life: A Concern**

One area where the iPhone 10r fell short was in its battery life. While I didn't find myself needing to recharge my phone every hour or two, I did experience some lag and slowdowns throughout the day. This was particularly noticeable when using resource-intensive apps or social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. Given the iPhone 10r's compact design and relatively modest battery capacity, it's no surprise that battery life became a concern. It's worth noting, however, that this issue may not be as significant for users who only plan to use their phone for basic tasks like browsing the web or sending texts.

**Face ID: Not as Impressive as Expected**

In terms of biometric authentication, Face ID was another area where I felt the iPhone 10r fell short. While the technology has improved significantly over previous models, I found it to be slightly less accurate than expected. The iPhone 10r's eight-core neural engine, while a step up from its predecessor, didn't quite live up to the standards set by newer iPhones like the iPhone 12 and 14 series. However, I must stress that this was not a major issue for me, as I never found myself experiencing any significant problems with Face ID.

**Software Support: A Concern**

The future of software support is always a pressing concern when it comes to budget smartphones. Unfortunately, the iPhone 10r's limited future in terms of updates and security patches is a stark reminder that its lifespan will be shorter than that of more expensive models like the iPhone XR. While Apple has promised to support the iPhone 10r for at least two years, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes one of the oldest devices supported by iOS 18 or later versions of the operating system.

**Conclusion: The Best Budget Option**

Despite its limitations, I firmly believe that the iPhone 10r is still an excellent choice for those on a tight budget. With its compact design and user-friendly interface, this phone is perfect for casual users who only need their device to handle basic tasks like social media browsing or messaging. While it may not be the most powerful smartphone available, the iPhone 10r offers a seamless user experience that's hard to beat at this price point. If you're in the market for a budget-friendly iPhone option and have a budget of $200, I would highly recommend giving the iPhone 10r a try.

**Upgrading from an iPhone XR: A No-Brainer**

For those who currently own an iPhone XR, upgrading to the iPhone 10r may seem like a no-brainer. While the iPhone 10r is not significantly more powerful than its predecessor, it offers a range of improvements that make it well worth considering. If you're due for an upgrade and want the best return on your investment, I would strongly recommend opting for one of Apple's newer models like the iPhone 14 or 14 Plus. With their improved performance, longer battery life, and enhanced camera capabilities, these phones offer a far more compelling value proposition than the iPhone 10r.

**The Verdict: Buy Now or Wait for the iPhone 15?**

As I conclude my review of the iPhone 10r, I'm left with mixed feelings. While this phone offers a reliable user experience at an affordable price point, its limited software support and mediocre battery life are significant drawbacks. If you're in the market for a budget-friendly iPhone option and have a budget of $200, the iPhone 10r is still an excellent choice. However, if you're willing to spend a bit more and want the best return on your investment, I would recommend waiting until the iPhone 15 gets announced later this year. With its improved performance, longer battery life, and enhanced camera capabilities, this new model will undoubtedly be a step up from the iPhone 10r in every way that matters.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe iPhone 10r has been a favorite here on the channel for many years and I actually called this the best iPhone to buy in 2020 but as the saying goes all good things must come to an end and unfortunately I think the end is here for the iPhone XR see what he wants you can buy an iPhone 10r for less than $200 now I was just about to make this video on why you should not buy the iPhone 10r in 2023 but now after reading that text message I think that I need to dig a little bit deeper so yes I normally wait to talk about the pricing but this video would not make sense if I didn't bring it up right away because right now you can buy the iPhone 10r for under $200 on eBay for the 128 GB model in great condition and if that seems too good to be true it kind of is so don't go buying one until you hear me out in this video so right off the bat the 2018 iPhone 10r is and always will be a budget friendly iPhone so the build quality and the display are going to reflect that so we have the aluminum chassis holding in the 6.1 in LCD display with those big thick bezels and those bezels really stood out to me after using newer iPhones for so long with much less bezel around the screen but regardless of having an LCD display you know I've said this a thousand times this is the best LCD display you can get on an iPhone or any phone in my opinion it's Apple's liquid retina HD display and it has a resolution of 1792 by 828 and a pixel density of 326 pixels per in and along with that you get 625 nits of peak brightness which is the same level as the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 but using it out here you know I'm just getting a lot of Reflections when I'm around all these trees and everything I'm just getting a lot of Reflections and I'm kind of squinting my eyes a lot when I'm trying to see what's on the screen so not the greatest especially coming from an OLED phone on the iPhone 14 I'm just used to being able to see everything Great Outdoors it's just not the best here however when I was indoors I did thoroughly enjoy everything watching videos browsing Tik Tok everything was perfectly fine when I was indoors and not under direct sunlighter not under a direct light where I got a lot of Reflections on the screen but still at the end of the day this is an LCD display and it's not going to be comparable to an OLED display the OLED display is always going to be better so if you're trying to decide between LCD or OLED I would go with the OLED phones especially now that they're more affordable than they were back then I'm looking at you iPhone 12 but as far far as the exterior design I think it's better than the iPhone 11 or the iPhone 12 it's just so clean looking with that simple single camera design and you also get six color options to get one that matches your aesthetic I chose red and it's still one of my favorite Shades although if I had to choose again I would probably go with the coral color because it's a bit more unique and rare and it just looks really good in person but having this phone out in public nobody's really going to know that this is a 5-year-old phone unless they saw the camera on the back but but even then they wouldn't think it's a 5-year-old phone and that's because you know the lack of the home button on the front makes it look more modern and speaking of that clean design let's talk a little bit more about that solo camera on the back it's a single firing 12 megapixel lens and since we only have one lens that means you don't get the0 5x option or the 2x option to zoom in or zoom out you're just stuck at 1X so if you want to digitally zoom into something you know while taking a photo or video prepare for the quality to be let's just say less than ideal I noticed a lot of green every time I zoomed in we're also missing night mode deep Fusion HDR video and quick take video all of which I actually use regularly on the later generation iPhones so that was kind of disappointing to go back to especially not having night mode or deep Fusion this was however Apple's first foray into po image processing in the form of smart HDR and it made a huge difference at the time and even today I mean the photos and videos taken from this phone are not bad at all when you get it in good lighting conditions it's just when those lighting conditions are not the greatest or when that object isn't close enough that you need to zoom in a little bit that's where you start to see the age of the camera system on this phone at the end of the day the iPhone XR is just a basic barebones camera and there's nothing wrong with that especially given the price but it's nothing more than just a barebones camera given the current landscape in smartphone cameras so now we have to talk about battery life and you know I'm at 94% battery health on my 10r which I think is tremendous I mean most people have under 90% after this long and I've been using this every single day since it launched maybe not as my main device but it's always been on I've always been using it pretty much every single day as a secondary device so 94% is quite impressive but if you're under 80% or if you're near 80% you could always replace your battery for I think it's 89 bucks from Apple or you can do it for $40 yourself via iix it but in terms of usage here in 2023 it's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be you know I get around five 5 and 1/ half hours of screen on time when doing basic things like web browsing watching YouTube scrolling on Tik Tok and just messaging but the battery does take a big hit when I start gaming and using the camera a lot especially in applications like Snapchat and Instagram like third party apps using that camera that's when I start to notice a more dramatic decrease in battery life and when I anticipate that big hit to battery life coming on I make sure to charge up my iPhone 10r or any iPhone with ug Green's nexo Chargers and they just so happen to be sponsoring this segment of the video so this one right here is the 45 watt mini charger so it has two USBC ports on the front and it charges up at 45 Watts no 30 W slow charging around here and if you want to charge up your Macbook your iPad or something that takes a little bit more power they also have a 100 wat charger which is the one I've used the most for the past like year or so you can plug in four devices at once and get that blazing fast 100 wat speed so my iPhone 14 will charge up way faster than the Apple charger that comes in the box and I don't need that super bulky block to charge up my MacBook Pro efficiently and these Chargers are not just practical and aesthetically pleasing they're also safe ug Green's power dispenser system intelligently adjusts the power output to protect your battery and ensures no overheating is going on with the charger or with your device so if you want to pick up one of these ug green Chargers or one of their awesome braided cables click the link in the description below to grab one today inside is the a12 bionic chip which was not only the first chip to bring smart HDR to the iPhone but it's also nearly just as powerful as the two succeeding iPhones so it has the same amount of CPU and GPU cores as both the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 now those two phones are slightly more powerful than the iPhone XR but honestly when comparing the three phones I really was not able to tell a massive difference in really any category that I tested them in we do have 3 GB of RAM so multitasking is not going to be the greatest you will have to constantly relaunch applications when going out and back into them it was frustrating at times especially in games you know I would have to restart the game because I couldn't go to Twitter and tweet something and come back to the game without it relaunching so it did get quite annoying after a while and definitely not something I could see myself using on a constant basis since I'm kind of all over the place I'm always going into different applications at the same time but that is something I did want to point out but like I always say if you just need a phone for your basic tasks like most people probably do you know where you're just on social media you're messaging or maybe using SnapChat Instagram the iPhone 10r is going to be perfectly fine just don't put too much strain on the CPU or GPU on this phone like don't do you know hourlong gaming sessions if you're not hooked up to a charger don't you know consistently be posting on Snapchat or Instagram stories that's going to drain your battery and it's also going to lead to more lag I should also mention that face ID was not as bad as I was expecting given the 8 core neural engine which is compared to the 16 core on the iPhone 12 and up so it did take a little bit longer to scan my face and it wasn't as accurate I would say but it never drove me crazy so I call that a win for the iPhone 10r we also cannot talk about the iPhone 10r in 2023 without talking about its life expectancy in terms of software support and unfortunately the iPhone XR has a limited future I would say maybe one to two maybe even three more years of software support is left in the tank for the iPhone XR I think it could very well be the oldest device supported by the time iOS 18 gets released in a couple of years but if you're only needing a phone to get you byy for the next couple of years and you have a $200 budget I don't think you can go wrong with the iPhone 10r as a matter of fact I think this is the best phone you can buy right now under $200 out of any other phone out there on the market iPhone or not but if you have a slightly larger budget you might want to consider going to the iPhone 12 I did just recently make a video on that and I would say this is the ideal option for those with a budget of $350 to $400 but if you're in the middle consider the iPhone XS or the iPhone 11 both of which you can pick up for around $250 to $300 now if you have an iPhone 10r right now in 2023 what should you do well in my opinion I think this is finally the year to upgrade your beloved iPhone XR and while you could go for the iPhone 12 for like $220 more after you sell your iPhone XR I think honestly if you want the best Roi the best return on your investment you should go all the way up to the iPhone 14 or 14 plus that's where I think you will see the biggest difference in terms of everything performance battery life display everything I think you should go up to the iPhone 14 or 14 plus maybe wait until the iPhone 15 gets gets announced later this year and then you can find the iPhone 14 for $100 less plus you'll see a lot of people selling their iPhone 14 or 14 plus on the used market for much less because they're just trying to get some money so they can get the iPhone 15 but all in all the iPhone 10r would be one of the best phones to buy in 2023 if it were not for the limited future ahead in terms of software support and the now mediocre battery life that you get from this phone and that unfortunately is the sad truth about the iPhone XR in 2023 it will one day soon die just like the iPhone 7 did with iOS 16 and that's going to be a sad day because I loved the iPhone 10r I will probably always love the iPhone XR so if you have an iPhone 10r in 2023 or if you plan on getting one this year let me know your thoughts down there in the comments below do you agree do you disagree with everything I said I'm curious to see what you have to say and if you enjoy this video you'll probably also enjoy this one right here so go ahead and click on that link right there and check that out but anyways thanks for watching I'll see you soonthe iPhone 10r has been a favorite here on the channel for many years and I actually called this the best iPhone to buy in 2020 but as the saying goes all good things must come to an end and unfortunately I think the end is here for the iPhone XR see what he wants you can buy an iPhone 10r for less than $200 now I was just about to make this video on why you should not buy the iPhone 10r in 2023 but now after reading that text message I think that I need to dig a little bit deeper so yes I normally wait to talk about the pricing but this video would not make sense if I didn't bring it up right away because right now you can buy the iPhone 10r for under $200 on eBay for the 128 GB model in great condition and if that seems too good to be true it kind of is so don't go buying one until you hear me out in this video so right off the bat the 2018 iPhone 10r is and always will be a budget friendly iPhone so the build quality and the display are going to reflect that so we have the aluminum chassis holding in the 6.1 in LCD display with those big thick bezels and those bezels really stood out to me after using newer iPhones for so long with much less bezel around the screen but regardless of having an LCD display you know I've said this a thousand times this is the best LCD display you can get on an iPhone or any phone in my opinion it's Apple's liquid retina HD display and it has a resolution of 1792 by 828 and a pixel density of 326 pixels per in and along with that you get 625 nits of peak brightness which is the same level as the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 but using it out here you know I'm just getting a lot of Reflections when I'm around all these trees and everything I'm just getting a lot of Reflections and I'm kind of squinting my eyes a lot when I'm trying to see what's on the screen so not the greatest especially coming from an OLED phone on the iPhone 14 I'm just used to being able to see everything Great Outdoors it's just not the best here however when I was indoors I did thoroughly enjoy everything watching videos browsing Tik Tok everything was perfectly fine when I was indoors and not under direct sunlighter not under a direct light where I got a lot of Reflections on the screen but still at the end of the day this is an LCD display and it's not going to be comparable to an OLED display the OLED display is always going to be better so if you're trying to decide between LCD or OLED I would go with the OLED phones especially now that they're more affordable than they were back then I'm looking at you iPhone 12 but as far far as the exterior design I think it's better than the iPhone 11 or the iPhone 12 it's just so clean looking with that simple single camera design and you also get six color options to get one that matches your aesthetic I chose red and it's still one of my favorite Shades although if I had to choose again I would probably go with the coral color because it's a bit more unique and rare and it just looks really good in person but having this phone out in public nobody's really going to know that this is a 5-year-old phone unless they saw the camera on the back but but even then they wouldn't think it's a 5-year-old phone and that's because you know the lack of the home button on the front makes it look more modern and speaking of that clean design let's talk a little bit more about that solo camera on the back it's a single firing 12 megapixel lens and since we only have one lens that means you don't get the0 5x option or the 2x option to zoom in or zoom out you're just stuck at 1X so if you want to digitally zoom into something you know while taking a photo or video prepare for the quality to be let's just say less than ideal I noticed a lot of green every time I zoomed in we're also missing night mode deep Fusion HDR video and quick take video all of which I actually use regularly on the later generation iPhones so that was kind of disappointing to go back to especially not having night mode or deep Fusion this was however Apple's first foray into po image processing in the form of smart HDR and it made a huge difference at the time and even today I mean the photos and videos taken from this phone are not bad at all when you get it in good lighting conditions it's just when those lighting conditions are not the greatest or when that object isn't close enough that you need to zoom in a little bit that's where you start to see the age of the camera system on this phone at the end of the day the iPhone XR is just a basic barebones camera and there's nothing wrong with that especially given the price but it's nothing more than just a barebones camera given the current landscape in smartphone cameras so now we have to talk about battery life and you know I'm at 94% battery health on my 10r which I think is tremendous I mean most people have under 90% after this long and I've been using this every single day since it launched maybe not as my main device but it's always been on I've always been using it pretty much every single day as a secondary device so 94% is quite impressive but if you're under 80% or if you're near 80% you could always replace your battery for I think it's 89 bucks from Apple or you can do it for $40 yourself via iix it but in terms of usage here in 2023 it's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be you know I get around five 5 and 1/ half hours of screen on time when doing basic things like web browsing watching YouTube scrolling on Tik Tok and just messaging but the battery does take a big hit when I start gaming and using the camera a lot especially in applications like Snapchat and Instagram like third party apps using that camera that's when I start to notice a more dramatic decrease in battery life and when I anticipate that big hit to battery life coming on I make sure to charge up my iPhone 10r or any iPhone with ug Green's nexo Chargers and they just so happen to be sponsoring this segment of the video so this one right here is the 45 watt mini charger so it has two USBC ports on the front and it charges up at 45 Watts no 30 W slow charging around here and if you want to charge up your Macbook your iPad or something that takes a little bit more power they also have a 100 wat charger which is the one I've used the most for the past like year or so you can plug in four devices at once and get that blazing fast 100 wat speed so my iPhone 14 will charge up way faster than the Apple charger that comes in the box and I don't need that super bulky block to charge up my MacBook Pro efficiently and these Chargers are not just practical and aesthetically pleasing they're also safe ug Green's power dispenser system intelligently adjusts the power output to protect your battery and ensures no overheating is going on with the charger or with your device so if you want to pick up one of these ug green Chargers or one of their awesome braided cables click the link in the description below to grab one today inside is the a12 bionic chip which was not only the first chip to bring smart HDR to the iPhone but it's also nearly just as powerful as the two succeeding iPhones so it has the same amount of CPU and GPU cores as both the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 now those two phones are slightly more powerful than the iPhone XR but honestly when comparing the three phones I really was not able to tell a massive difference in really any category that I tested them in we do have 3 GB of RAM so multitasking is not going to be the greatest you will have to constantly relaunch applications when going out and back into them it was frustrating at times especially in games you know I would have to restart the game because I couldn't go to Twitter and tweet something and come back to the game without it relaunching so it did get quite annoying after a while and definitely not something I could see myself using on a constant basis since I'm kind of all over the place I'm always going into different applications at the same time but that is something I did want to point out but like I always say if you just need a phone for your basic tasks like most people probably do you know where you're just on social media you're messaging or maybe using SnapChat Instagram the iPhone 10r is going to be perfectly fine just don't put too much strain on the CPU or GPU on this phone like don't do you know hourlong gaming sessions if you're not hooked up to a charger don't you know consistently be posting on Snapchat or Instagram stories that's going to drain your battery and it's also going to lead to more lag I should also mention that face ID was not as bad as I was expecting given the 8 core neural engine which is compared to the 16 core on the iPhone 12 and up so it did take a little bit longer to scan my face and it wasn't as accurate I would say but it never drove me crazy so I call that a win for the iPhone 10r we also cannot talk about the iPhone 10r in 2023 without talking about its life expectancy in terms of software support and unfortunately the iPhone XR has a limited future I would say maybe one to two maybe even three more years of software support is left in the tank for the iPhone XR I think it could very well be the oldest device supported by the time iOS 18 gets released in a couple of years but if you're only needing a phone to get you byy for the next couple of years and you have a $200 budget I don't think you can go wrong with the iPhone 10r as a matter of fact I think this is the best phone you can buy right now under $200 out of any other phone out there on the market iPhone or not but if you have a slightly larger budget you might want to consider going to the iPhone 12 I did just recently make a video on that and I would say this is the ideal option for those with a budget of $350 to $400 but if you're in the middle consider the iPhone XS or the iPhone 11 both of which you can pick up for around $250 to $300 now if you have an iPhone 10r right now in 2023 what should you do well in my opinion I think this is finally the year to upgrade your beloved iPhone XR and while you could go for the iPhone 12 for like $220 more after you sell your iPhone XR I think honestly if you want the best Roi the best return on your investment you should go all the way up to the iPhone 14 or 14 plus that's where I think you will see the biggest difference in terms of everything performance battery life display everything I think you should go up to the iPhone 14 or 14 plus maybe wait until the iPhone 15 gets gets announced later this year and then you can find the iPhone 14 for $100 less plus you'll see a lot of people selling their iPhone 14 or 14 plus on the used market for much less because they're just trying to get some money so they can get the iPhone 15 but all in all the iPhone 10r would be one of the best phones to buy in 2023 if it were not for the limited future ahead in terms of software support and the now mediocre battery life that you get from this phone and that unfortunately is the sad truth about the iPhone XR in 2023 it will one day soon die just like the iPhone 7 did with iOS 16 and that's going to be a sad day because I loved the iPhone 10r I will probably always love the iPhone XR so if you have an iPhone 10r in 2023 or if you plan on getting one this year let me know your thoughts down there in the comments below do you agree do you disagree with everything I said I'm curious to see what you have to say and if you enjoy this video you'll probably also enjoy this one right here so go ahead and click on that link right there and check that out but anyways thanks for watching I'll see you soon\n"