iPhone X

Apple has been coasting for too long with the design it introduced for the iPhone 6, but that all changes with the iPhone X – in a big way. You don’t need me to tell you the iPhone X is a huge departure from the iPhone design of old – just look at the pictures. Not only does it look good, however; Apple has done a fantastic job at actually making it feel really good too.

The iPhone X was a huge gamble from Apple and this is the closest to Smartphone perfection Apple has ever got. Apple itself is calling it the future of the Smartphone, the embodiment of what it’s been trying to achieve for a decade. But while the iPhone X is all about premium parts and an all-new experience, it’s a huge gamble for the Cupertino brand too, as it tries to reclaim some leadership in Smartphone innovation. he iPhone has never been about specifications, and that’s never been more true than with the iPhone X, which shares most of its internals with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, but is nothing like any other iPhone - new or old - in terms of design or how you interact with it on an everyday basis. With Face ID and a UI paradigm reimagined without the Home button, Apple says the iPhone X is “the future of the Smartphone”.

Say Hello To The Future

“The Future Of Smart Phone Is Here.”

This phone is simply gorgeous. It’s slightly taller than the iPhone 8 (and 7 and 6) but much narrower and smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus. It strikes the perfect balance, especially since you’re getting a 5.8-inch display here .

The Art Of Photography Simplified

The other difference in terms of cameras is with the secondary rear lens. For the first time in an iPhone, you get optical image stabilization on both lenses, and the telephoto lens is now rated at f/2.4 compared to f/2.8 on the iPhone 8 Plus. As you would expect, this makes for slightly improved performance, especially in low light, but the difference is unlikely to be noticed by most people. Overall, just like the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X takes great pictures in nearly all scenarios - the colors are accurate with great details, and low-light performance is vastly improved compared to last year’s iPhone models.

OLED Designed For iPhone X

“ The first OLED screen that rises to the standards of iPhone, with accurate, stunning colours, true blacks, high brightness and a 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. .”

The 5.8-inch OLED display is, quite simply, the best thing Apple has ever crammed into an iPhone. It leaps ahead of the iPhone 8 and 8 plus for so many reasons: the sharpness, the quality, the fact that it fills the whole front of the phone, and the color reproduction. It’s also using a new, longer, screen, but while it looks larger than the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch display on paper, it’s only marginally bigger in terms of actual screen real estate – it’s just stretched upwards, so it's taller, not wider. The term ‘bezel-less’ has been bandied about for the iPhone X, but that doesn’t really tell the right story. Yes, there are slight bands around the edges of the screen as this isn't a curved screen iPhone, but they don’t mar the experience – they give the fingers something to land on, preventing accidental touches of the screen.

Talking of visual appeal, the notch at the top of the iPhone X is something that’s been divisive, and that’s fair. Apple has taken this little chunk out of the top of the screen to house the new True Depth camera, and it encroaches on the display. A lot newer Android phones, including the One plus 6, copy this style. While we’re talking about that longer screen, the 18:9 formats is something we’ve seen on a number of other phones this year, and in the Android world the apps are largely encoded to fill the display just fine. The new display on the iPhone X also showcases a new feature for Apple: HDR playback. The phone can show movies encoded in the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats, and combined with the OLED display the images offer so much more depth and realistic color reproduction. However, it’s inherently harder to make out detail in darker scenes in HDR movies – that’s something you’ll need to adjust to.

Smartphone Redesigned

The glass back is a huge fingerprint magnet, and, again, just like the other two new iPhone models, the iPhone X is prone to sliding off surfaces that are even slightly slippery or have even a bit of an incline. Be sure to protect your ‘precious’ in some sort of a case or you could end up with a repair bill that rivals the GDP of a small nation. The dual rear cameras on the iPhone X are laid out vertically, as opposed to horizontally on the Plus-sized models. We found the mute button on the iPhone X to be stiffer than expected, requiring more force than usual to toggle on two different units that we tested. On the lock screen, for example, the contents of all your notifications are hidden by default (see the image above), until Face ID authenticates you, when they automatically become visible. This is a great privacy feature in most scenarios, ensuring that no one can see your private messages.

However, at times, when you want to use your iPhone while you are half-distracted, it can be a problem as well. Ideally you shouldn’t be looking at your phone when you are driving, but if you get a notification on your phone and want to steal a quick glance when you are at a traffic light, you can no longer do that without directly looking at the iPhone X and establishing “attention detection” even if it’s just to see if the notification is important enough to need further action. If you find this to be a problem, you can disable attention detection via Accessibility settings and see if it improves your experience. The aluminum sides have been swapped out for stainless steel – as seen on the Apple Watch – and the front and rear of the device are glass. I received the Silver variant for review – and, unfortunately, it wasn’t long before it was covered in fingerprints, those shiny sides being a particular magnet. This is a phone that looks fantastic straight after a wipe-down; not so much a few hours after it’s been in your greasy palms. All of the components for Face ID (infrared camera, flood illuminator, dot projector) are housed in what’s affectionately being called the ‘notch’. You’ll find the notch at the top of the display, where it somewhat disrupts that all-screen look. There’s been much controversy concerning the notch with regards to it completely ruining the immersive experience. Once you begin using the phone, however, I’ve found that it simply blends into the background. The notch has become common sight since the iPhone X came out and Android phones like the LG G7 and Huawei P20 have both brought the design trait across.

With The Best Comes The Worst

You no longer see things like the name of the network, which might not seem like a big loss, but there are two other compromises that will potentially be more upsetting for most users. The battery percentage and Bluetooth connection status are now only visible only if you swipe down from the right of the notch, and there’s no way to have them always visible. If you use Bluetooth devices like Air Pods, speakers, or in-car units, you can no longer tell at a glance if your phone is connected.

It’s almost pointless to discuss the iPhone X price – it’s the most expensive flagship phone on the market, but iPhone users are more willing than most to look past cost. The iPhone X costs $999 / £999 / AU$1,579 for the basic, 64GB model. If you want the larger 256GB model it’s going to cost you $1,149 / £1,149 / AU$1,829 for the privilege. The initial issues with stock are now over, and you can grab the handset in a number of ways - with the iPhone X colors pretty limited this year, and the option of two storage sizes your main choices.

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