I'm curious, feature-less in what sense?

Not an Apple fan myself, but everyone I've heard has praised the XR for basically being an XS with a cheaper screen.

Personally, I think the price points for these phones have become irrational. Supposedly their entry level model, the XR starts at €859.

So for 859 I can buy an XR that doesn’t even include 3D-Touch (A feature standard since the 6S). For 450 I can buy an iPhone 7 with 3D-touch. Doesn’t rly impress me.

As someone who switched from a Pixel XL to XR, I have to partially disagree. I don't have the telephoto camera nor the 4GB RAM (3GB on XR) of the XS line and the screen is not OLED. Having seen the screen quality first hand in store, I cancelled by Pixel 3 XL pre-order and got a XR, my first iPhone since 3GS. For me, the differences between XR and XS was not worth the extra 250$.

There was a YouTube video comparison with a 'blind' test comparing the XR screen to higher specced screens and the large majority of those tested picked the XR screen. The other thing the XR has is the longest battery life of all of the new iPhones.

It was with the Pocophone, a phone costing ~$300. Let that price sink in.

Sure, but the listed stats are better. So you're saying that stats do not mean much if they are also cheap? It shows there are screen qualities that make it better that are beyond spec sheets.

We're on HackerNews. We know that anything has a long list of stats and vendors will optimize for the stats that are actually shown on a spec sheet, at the expense of others.

And how is it in any way fair for reasonable people to compare a $300 phone with a $750 one? Put the XR next to Samsung S9 and have the XR cry (and by the way, the S9 is around $600 on Amazon now!).

Mmm, I know someone who purchased one of those, and it seemed to be totally fine – basically the same experience as the X, but with slightly cut-down specs to reduce the cost. Presumably for all the people who complained about the cost of the X last year, no?

People who want a semi-affordable Apple phone in 2 years when the 8 is discontinued.

I got the XR. Better camera for one, nice upgrade to my 6s. Cheaper, has the full screen look. Who am I? I'm an iPhone developer and I needed the notched screen for testing my apps.

People who want the cult of the new but can't afford the XS.

Why does it always have to be "can't afford"?

How about "can't justify"?