I recently got the iPhone XR to replace my iPhone 7, as I had reached the end of my two year contract for the phone. Since there is a constant rivalry between iPhone and Android users, I decided to stick to what I knew and upgrade to another Apple product. I was told when looking at new phones that the XR was sort of like the iPhone 5c. Remember the ones that were plastic, rather than glass, and overall had poorer quality? However, they were cheaper and more colorful. It was about a $6 difference per month on top of the already $5 difference compared to what I was already paying (meaning it would be $5 more per month for me to get the XR, but the XS would be $11 more per month). This isn’t a huge difference, but over time, it would definitely put a dent in my bank account. Because the sales associate told me there weren’t any huge differences between the phones that I should notice, the XR would be a fine fit for me. Great, easy enough. However, since I’ve brought it home from the store, I’ve noticed quite a few new things.

This phone was a lot bigger than my iPhone 7, which I automatically liked. I really couldn’t tell the difference until I saw it compared to my old phone, so it wasn’t too much of a jump that I wasn’t able to adjust. After playing around, I decided that I hate the Snapchat camera; no offense to the android users out there, but we all know that their Snapchats look different than those who have iPhones. My camera makes it look super magnified and the quality is horrible. However, when I use my normal front camera, I don’t seem to have this problem. In fact, the front camera actually makes my face look more smooth than anything, so that took some adjustment. The battery is amazing. I used to have to bring a portable charger with me everywhere I went when I had the iPhone 7, but now a charge can last me a whole day. I’ll be the first to admit that I use my phone a lot, so this is a huge plus for me because it’s a pain to have to consistently charge it throughout the day.

Everything about the phone isn’t great to any extent; I’ve had issues that I’ve noticed since getting it, such as people being able to hear themselves speak on the other line of the phone when we’re talking. Maybe that’s just my phone and I need a replacement, but that’s an annoying problem to have. I do love my speaker, I can listen to my music freely in the shower which is a huge plus for me. It was difficult to get used to the loss of my home button, but I’ve since learned to live without it (unless i’m watching Netflix, I’m still having trouble getting out of the app). It’s annoying that I can’t always see my battery percentage, unless I pull down the screen page. However, I do love how easy it is to switch between apps: I just slide the bottom of the screen to the left.

Overall, it was an adjustment, but not one that was too annoying to make. The pros definitely outweigh the cons, so I’m pretty happy with my purchase. Especially for only $5 more a month, I think it was worth it for me. If you don’t want to deal with the small, irritating issues I addressed earlier, I suggest just getting the XS or the X if you don’t need the newest version.