Shot on iPhone XR: Real-World Photos and Portraits With Depth Control From New York City

MacRumors traveled to New York City this week to spend some time with the iPhone XR ahead of its release. While there, we spent the day testing its camera and Portrait Mode with Depth Control with help from some volunteer New Yorkers.

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Behind the scenes of shooting with the iPhone XR (not taken with iPhone XR)

The photos below were shot with the iPhone XR's default Camera app on iOS 12, and are unedited beyond being resized for this gallery. For some photos, we took advantage of standard features of the Camera app, such as Depth Control and manually adjusting the exposure of photos by tapping on a focus point.

While the iPhone XR does not have a telephoto lens like the iPhone XS and XS Max, the single wide-angle lens captures an impressive amount of detail. And with Depth Control, Apple has taken Portrait Mode to a whole new level, resulting in photos of people that are comparable to those shot with a DSLR camera.

We'll have more impressions about the iPhone XR cameras in the days to come, but after one day of testing, we can safely say that most people should be more than happy with the quality of photos shot on this device.

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iPhone XR launches tomorrow, Friday, October 26. Stay tuned to MacRumors for continued coverage of the device.

Related Forum: iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

duervo Avatar
95 months ago
Maybe it’s just me, but I always hold my phone in landscape mode when I take a photo or record a video.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tonewheelz Avatar
95 months ago
Not gonna lie, these are impressive.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mi7chy Avatar
95 months ago
Looks oversaturated and not natural.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EBone12355 Avatar
95 months ago
I want a TV show starring the two guys in the eighth photo.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Baymowe335 Avatar
95 months ago
They look good, as expected since it's the XS system in 1 camera.

I think Apple really took a step forward in cameras this year. Clearly better than the X.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joejoejoe Avatar
95 months ago
Will apple bring the wide angle, low light portrait mode to XS and XS Max? I really do hope so!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)