There is no shortage of reviews of the iPhone X, some very traditional (loved how The Verge portrayed Face ID working), some looking in the future, others a bit in the past. Now that I’ve had my iPhone X for almost two months, I have some short thoughts I’ve wanted to share.
When Apple presented the iPhone I didn’t like the notch, I thought the screen was good, not something groundbreaking and liked the camera improvements a lot (designated chip for the photo processing and OIS on both cameras were both great additions). I’ve had my iPhone 7 and was ready to keep it for another year, but I was reading more about it and looking at pictures and videos, so my wife persuaded me to order one. And here I was on day one of the sales with the brand new iPhone X.
I immediately fell in love with the X. First time I’ve set up Face ID, it looked like magic and I’ve had a smile on my face just from unlocking the phone, it still holds up, I think Face ID is great, except in the morning, when it doesn’t recognise my sleepy face. The phone itself, I loved the Plus size phones (it was when Apple introduced big screens, I’ve made a switch back from Android), but the X lies perfectly in the hand and the weight of it, makes it feel substantial and even luxury. I love how black it is, love how the edges look and feel, how it’s less slippery than 7 Plus (I’ve had matte black finish).
The home indicator is weird for about five minutes, after that it just feels natural, you mostly wish it wasn’t there all the time, gestures are easy to learn and discover. The one thing that is borderline unusable is Control Centre, I think Apple will change the position of it in one of the next versions of iOS, but as of now, I’ve noticed how I almost don’t use the Control Centre anymore.
The screen is gorgeous, you don’t notice the notch while using it, because you mostly look at the centre of the screen, it is considerably worse for video watching than the Plus sized phone, because both choices – embracing the notch or letterboxing the videos don’t look good – one hides some part of the picture and another one makes videos small.
As this new iPhone is all glass, I’m constantly worrying that I might shatter it and got Apple Leather Case as a present, but I still prefer to use it case-less, not only because it feels great in the hand, but because the screen looks better if there is no frame of the case around it. This may sound silly, but the screen just looks better when the iPhone is naked.
When Samsung first introduced the Galaxy S8 and I’ve seen Casey Neistat review of it, I’ve tweeted how iPhone looked dated compared to it.
iPhone looks dated as fuck, especially in this shot. pic.twitter.com/mdUVGWafRG
Now, with the iPhone X, I think Apple is ahead, the notch is clearly the great idea, considering choices. It looks more like an all-screen front than Samsung and it looks very recognisable, while Samsung looks like a very generic Android phone (thank god there is no space to put Samsung logo on the front of the device anymore).
In my opinion, iPhone X is a great device, showing us where the future of smartphones is heading. It’s very pricey, you can buy a MacBook for the same price, but you’ll just have to consider, how much the phone is worth to you, I think most people use phone considerably more than a laptop nowadays.