9 reasons you should buy the iPhone XS instead of an iPhone XR (AAPL)

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Apple has a new iPhone coming out next week.

The iPhone XR was announced in September alongside the iPhone XS and XS Max. The latter two phones were released to the public on September 21, but folks had to wait a month for the more affordable iPhone XR. It's currently available to pre-order, but goes on sale October 26.

The iPhone XR costs $749 to start, while the iPhone XS costs $999 to start. Still, there are several reasons to consider the more expensive phone, if you're on the fence.

Here are nine reasons you should buy an iPhone XS instead of the iPhone XR:

If you like the look and feel of the iPhone XR, you can only get it in one size, with its 6.1-inch display.

If you like the iPhone XS, however, you have two size options to choose from: you can get the 5.8-inch model, or the 6.5-inch "Max" size, which costs $100 more than the standard iPhone XS.

Your phone screen is important. It's the main window for all of your content: your files, documents, photos, videos, and more.

The iPhone XS features a "Super Retina" OLED display, while the iPhone XR features a "Liquid Crystal" LCD display.

OLED displays, in general, are brighter, show more accurate colors, and can achieve far better contrast than LCD displays; the 1,400:1 contrast ratio of the iPhone XR display doesn't come close to the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio in the iPhone XS. Since OLED displays can actually turn their pixels off, instead of just dim them like LCD displays, black actually looks like black on the iPhone XS, and images look much more vivid.

The iPhone XR has one of the best LCD displays in a smartphone, but it still doesn't come close to the iPhone XS display, which, thanks to HDR support, is the better way to view high-definition photos and videos. The iPhone XR screen is also a little less great since the bezel, or border around the edge of the display, is thicker than it is on the iPhone XS.

The iPhone XR is available in red, blue, yellow, black, white, and coral, which is kind of like orange-meets-pink.

The iPhone XS is also available in black, along with "silver" instead of white (they're pretty similar), as well as a new exclusive gold option.

The iPhone XR weighs 194 grams, while the iPhone XS weighs 177 grams. It's not a huge weight difference, but when you're lifting your phone dozens of times a day, and carrying it around on your person all day, the weight adds up.

To be fair, the iPhone XR is still lighter than the larger version of the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, which weighs 208 grams.

While the iPhone XR and iPhone XS have near-identical camera infrastructures on both the front and backs of the phone, the iPhone XR cannot perform optical zooming — only digital zooming — because it lacks the second telephoto lens that is exclusive to the iPhone XS. Optical zooming is superior because it allows you to zoom in without losing any quality; digital zooming often results in blurry, pixelated images.

What's more, digital zooming is also better on the iPhone XS: the iPhone XR can only achieve 5X digital zoom for photos and 3X digital zoom for videos, while the iPhone XS can achieve 10X digital zoom for photos, 6X digital zoom for videos, plus that desirable 2X optical zoom for whatever you're shooting.

See Also:

• 23 tips and tricks to get the most out of your Apple Watch
• As the much-hyped startup Essential runs into troubles, a smaller company called OnePlus shows the right way to compete with Apple and Samsung
• After using Samsung Galaxy phones for 5 years, I made the switch to the iPhone XS

SEE ALSO: Here's how to decide between the red, blue, yellow, white, black, and 'coral' versions of the iPhone XR

SEE ALSO: The iPhone XR is coming soon: Here are 9 reasons you should buy it instead of an iPhone XS or XS Max