iPhone X Review – The New iPhone
The new iPhone X has been advertised by Apple as a real innovation: some sort of a new standard for the new generation of smartphones. They were right. After years of basically rebooting and improving the iPhone 6, the iPhone X is the biggest leap the company has made in this field since the original 2007 iPhone.
Wireless charging, bezel-less display, no home button and fingerprint scanner – other than still no jack obviously – face recognition… Is it worth its price though?
PRICE
The iPhone X goes for 999$ in the US, 999£ in the UK, 1,570AU$ in Australia, and that’s just for the basic 64 GB model. The larger one, 256GB, is going to cost you 1,149$.
It is, undeniably, a lot, making it one of the most expensive devices out there, though that’s never scared off iPhones aficionados.
DISPLAY
5.8-inch OLED display, finally updating to the technology many Androids have packed long before it, the iPhone X has the best screen Apple has ever put into a phone. The colors are clear, bright, vibrant, and the bezel-less design allows you to have a much bigger screen without that much of a bigger device.
Full disclosure: there are some slight bands around the edges of the screen, but they’re small enough to be ignored, and they’ll actually give you a little more grip on your phone.
What will really take away a bit of your display, is the TrueDepth camera. You won’t really notice it unless you’re watching a full-screen video, but then it might be annoying as some elements might even be cut out.
The screen is not only larger but also longer. The 18:9 format is nice, as long as you’re using 18:9 friendly apps. Otherwise, it’ll look a bit weird.
TrueTone, also present in the 8 Series, will adjust colors according to the lighting conditions and, overall, the OLED is no competition for the previous LCD display.
FACE RECOGNITION
Face recognition will now be replacing your fingerprint since the home button parted its ways with the iPhone X. I have to say it works pretty well. Just don’t train it to recognize other people by putting your passcode immediately after other people tried to unlock your phone with Face ID.
The only annoying thing is that it’s going to take a little longer for the phone to recognize your face than it did with your finger, plus paying with Facial Recognition could get a little awkward at times.
Face Recognition is also used for Animojis, allowing you to be anything from animals to robots, as you create animated emojis thanks to the TrueDepth camera. It’s really fun and the precision with which your expressions are replicated is quite frankly impressive.
You might get tired of it after a while, but it’s a nice feature nonetheless.
CONTROLS
Not having a home button means getting used to a whole lot of new commands based on swiping.
It might take a while, but it’s all pretty intuitive and works great. IOS 11 is a fantastic system and, though you might have tried it on other iPhones after updating them, it’s a completely different thing on the incredibly powerful iPhone X.
The Control Center has been redesigned to fit into the new button-less mentality and it’s another very positive note.
The iPhone X runs thanks to an A11 Bionic chip combined with 3GB of RAM. The new processor is also incredibly powerful, so when you sum everything up you really can’t complain as you’re holding one of the most powerful devices to ever fit your hand. This will make it possible for you to game on your phone smoothly, which will also be enhanced by the Taptic Engine and OLED display.
DESIGN
The glass back is a nice touch, but it’s mostly efficient as it allows you to charge your phone wirelessly simply by putting it on the pad.
The iPhone X doesn’t have a revolutionary design, but it’s a nice restyling of what we’ve seen so far, plus we’ve been asking for a new design for years now after Apple got a little lazy with the 7 and 8 series.
It’s IP67 water-resistant, but rather delicate when it comes to scratches, so you might want to put it in a case. It’s also prone to getting fingerprints and grease all over itself in no time, which is another good reason to buy a cover.
CAMERA
This is always a positive note when speaking of iPhones. The camera on the X model is not that different from the one in the 8 Plus – both have a 12 MP sensor – but it’s got an f2.4 aperture rather than the 8 Plus f/2.8, which will make it better in low light situations.
The front camera has a 7 MP sensor and is equipped with TrueDepth technology, which will make your face really stand out when taking selfies, since its designed to really give a, well… a sense of depth as its name might suggest.
This will blur the background and the Portrait options will also change the lightings of the scene so to focus on the object in the front (likely to be your face, we guess, since your using the front camera).
The cameras are easy to use and work very swiftly, thanks to the A11 Bionic chip and iOS 11, which will allow you to use Live Photos free of stress or waits.
Video capability is also one of the best in the market. You can shoot 4K at 60 fps, but that’ll really take up some space, so you might want to buy the 256GB option, if you’re thinking about using your phone as a camera on holiday.
BATTERY
The battery on the iPhone X is better than average. It’s definitely better than some older iPhones, especially if you consider the more demanding performances of this premium version, but it isn’t mind-blowing. Depending on your usage, you should get to the end of the day though.
The wireless charger was introduced with the 8 and 8Plus models, so it’s nothing new to us. It’s handy for when you just want to drop your phone on the desk near you, while it simultaneously charges, but it’s not particularly fast. If you want a faster alternative you can buy a USB-C Lightning cable to charge 50% in half a hour, but it’ll cost you around 75$ and you won’t be able to plug anything else while you do so.
CONCLUSION
The iPhone X is by far the greatest iPhone leap since the 4 series. It’s an imperfect device, which is nonetheless really close to being the best one on the market. Having said that, it’s definitely not affordable and it’s probably not worth it if you’re used to Android and want a more customizable phone. On the other hand, if you’re an Apple aficionado who wants to invest his or her money on an upgrade, after being let down by the 7 and 8 series, this is the iPhone you’ve been waiting for.