42 MACWORLD JUNE 2019
iOSCENTRAL LESSONS APPLE CAN LEARN FROM iPHONE XRXS brothers—black and silver and even
gold just can’t compete with a handful of
carefully-chosen color options.
Color iPhones aren’t easy. You have to
manage production of different-colored
models in a way that matches demand,
and distribution gets a lot more complex,
as different colors are likely more popular
in different markets. But just as not
everyone wants a black or silver car, not
everyone wants a black or silver phone.
Maybe Apple’s higher-tier phones would
sell better if they weren’t so stodgy.
MAYBE OLED DOESN’T REALLY
MATTER THAT MUCH
The tech press gets excited about OLED
displays, obsessing about true blacks
and super-high resolutions. But if your
LCD is really good, as it is in the iPhone
XR, most customers won’t really see the
value in OLED.
The iPhone XR
may have a lower
resolution, but
because most LCDs
have a straight RGB
stripe layout and
OLEDs have a PenTile
(go.macworld.com/
ptle) layout, the
subpixel resolution
and density is actually
better on an
equivalent LCD. When you’re sitting there
reading a webpage, email, or tweet, the 326
pixels per inch of the iPhone XR looks
almost as sharp as the 458 pixels per inch of
the iPhone XS or XS Max. And the XR has all
the other important features like a wide P3
color gamut, True Tone, high maximum
brightness, and high contrast ratio.
Some devices, like the Apple Watch,
are particularly well-suited to OLED’s
advantages. But maybe, just maybe, it’s
not as necessary for a premium phone
experience as we first thought.NOBODY REALLY CARES
ABOUT 3D TOUCH
When talking to someone about which
iPhone they should buy (go.macworld.
com/rvxs), I make sure to mention that the
iPhone XR doesn’t have 3D touch.
Invariably, I then have to explain what 3DWhy should the less expensive phones have all the fun?