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

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.

iphone xr portrait

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.

iphone xr photo 6
iphone xr photo 1
iphone xr photo 3
iphone xr photo 2
iphone xr photo 8
iphone xr photo 14
iphone xr photo 13
iphone xr photo 9
iphone xr photo 10
iphone xr photo 5
iphone xr photo 4
iphone xr photo 7
iphone xr portraits 2
iphone xr portrait 3
iPhone XR launches tomorrow, Friday, October 26. Stay tuned to MacRumors for continued coverage of the device.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iphone duo

Apple Announces Foldable 'iPhone Duo'

Wednesday September 9, 2026 10:56 am PDT by
Apple today announced the "iPhone Duo," a new kind of iPhone featuring two screens and a foldable inner display. The two halves of the iPhone Duo connect into a single continuous frame with the same aspect ratio across both displays, and Apple said the transition between open and closed is designed to feel fluid. When fully open, Apple says it is the thinnest iPhone ever made, with an...
Surprise and Shine Live Coverage Article

Apple Event Live Blog: iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, and More Expected

Wednesday September 9, 2026 9:10 am PDT by
Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event kicks off today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, where we're expecting to see the foldable iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models, new AirPods 5 earphones, and perhaps some other announcements. Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company's TV app across various platforms. We...
iOS 27 Feature Dark

Apple Announces iOS 27 Release Date

Wednesday September 9, 2026 10:46 am PDT by
At its event today unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12, and more, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released later this month. iOS 27 has already been available as a developer beta since June and as a public beta since July, and Apple today said that the update will be released for all users with a compatible iPhone model on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 is...

Top Rated Comments

duervo Avatar
103 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)
mi7chy Avatar
103 months ago
Looks oversaturated and not natural.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
103 months ago
Not gonna lie, these are impressive.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EBone12355 Avatar
103 months ago
I want a TV show starring the two guys in the eighth photo.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
103 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)
roncron Avatar
103 months ago
These photos don’t look very good to me, but I don’t think I’m seeing the actual original photo files the author of this article took. The photos I’m seeing look like they were posted at lower resolution to take less bandwidth for people reading this online.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)