Yet just because the iPhone XR is cheaper than the iPhone XS doesn’t mean it's inferior. Quite the contrary.

Check out 9 reasons why you should buy an iPhone XR instead of the iPhone XS or XS Max:

1. The iPhone XR ... is US$250 cheaper than the iPhone XS to start

Price is probably the biggest consideration for most people, and the iPhone XR beats the iPhone XS in terms of price.

• The iPhone XR starts at US$749 for 64GB of storage. It can cost up to US$899 for 256GB of storage.
• The iPhone XS starts at US$999 for 64GB of storage. It can cost up to US$1,349 for 512GB of storage.
• The iPhone XS Max starts at US$1,099 for 64GB of storage. It can cost up to US$1,449 for 512GB of storage.

Not many people need 512GB of storage on their phones – I’m using only 62GB of my available 256GB on my iPhone X, and I have more than 200 apps, plus lots of old photos and texts.

Even if you opt for less storage though, you’re still saving more money with the iPhone XR compared with the iPhone XS.

2. ... is available in more colours

Apple sells the iPhone XS and XS Max in three colour options: silver, space grey, and a new gold option.

The iPhone XR, meanwhile, comes in six different colours: black, white, yellow, red, blue, and coral, which is like orange.

3. ... has a larger screen than the iPhone XS

While it doesn’t compare with the gargantuan 6.5-inch display on the iPhone XS Max, the iPhone XR actually has a larger display than the standard iPhone XS.

The iPhone XR has a 6.1-inch liquid crystal display, which should show you more of your content compared with the 5.8-inch organic light-emitting diode display on the iPhone XS.

4. ... has a front-facing camera that is identical to the one on the iPhone XS

Check out the comparisons of the iPhone cameras from Apple’s official website above. There are literally no differences.

The iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max smartphones all feature the same 7-megapixel camera on the front to power Apple’s TrueDepth Camera system for Face ID.

All three smartphones also come with the same features that use the front-facing camera, including portrait mode with advanced bokeh and depth control, 1080p HD video recording, Smart HDR for photos, and Animoji.

5. ... has a near-identical rear camera system to that of the iPhone XS, despite having one fewer lens.

The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all feature the same 12-megapixel wide-angle lens on the back, and most of the same features, such as optical image stabilisation, Smart HDR and portrait mode.

As you can see from the specifications of the phones pictured above, the only difference is how the phones zoom.

The iPhone XR lacks a telephoto lens, so it can achieve only a 3x digital zoom.

The iPhone XS and XS Max both have a telephoto lens, so those phones can achieve 2x optical zoom, and also a 6x digital zoom. But unless you’re using your camera’s zoom function a lot, the iPhone XR camera experience will be nearly identical to that with the iPhone XS.

6. ... is powered by the same chip as the iPhone XS

If you’re worried about getting less performance for less money, don’t be.

The iPhone XS, XS Max and XR are all powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic chip, which includes a 6-core CPU, a 4-core GPU and a next-generation neural engine that is dedicated to machine learning.

Compared with the A11 Bionic chip that powered last year’s iPhone X – which could do 600 billion operations per second – the A12 Bionic chip can power 5 trillion operations per second.

7. ... has a better battery life than the iPhone XS

• Last year’s iPhone X could last about 12 to 13 hours on a single charge.
• This year’s iPhone XS lasts 30 minutes longer than the iPhone X – about 12.5 to 13.5 hours.
• The iPhone XS Max lasts 90 minutes longer than the iPhone X, so about 13.5 to 14.5 hours.

But the iPhone XR is even better.

Apple says the iPhone XR lasts 90 minutes longer than last year's iPhone 8 Plus, which had the best battery life of any iPhone that Apple released in 2017: it could last about 14 to 15 hours on a single charge.

That means the iPhone XR gets about 15.5 to 16.5 hours on a single charge. And that extra two-to-three hours of battery life, compared with the iPhone XS and XS Max, is a meaningful difference.

8. ... has the same dual-SIM system as the iPhone XS and XS Max

Even though it was introduced as a feature in the iPhone XS, all the new iPhones, including the iPhone XR, have Apple’s new dual-SIM feature. This lets people hold one physical nano-SIM card in their phone, as well as an electronic SIM card, or “eSIM.”

Having two SIM cards in your iPhone will let you have two phone numbers and connect to multiple carriers or networks, which is ideal for people who travel, or people who do not want to be bound to a single carrier.

(China is getting separate versions of these iPhones that support two physical SIM cards, instead of the eSIM and nano-SIM combination which every other country gets.)

9. All three phones – the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max feature the same Apple ecosystem

All three iPhones come with iOS 12, Apple’s latest mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads.

That means all three iPhones get the same software updates straight from Apple, the same App Store and the same great security and privacy features.

Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter