IPhone X offers a glimpse of the future
Apple phone has hefty price tag but it’s a beautiful break with the past
How do you get consumers to part with $1800 to $2100 for a smartphone? That’s the question Apple sought to answer with the iPhone X, which despite the high price has become a new consumer object of desire.
Having had an iPhone X for a week now, it’s clear the hype didn’t do it justice. But it’s not perfect, with Apple having to make some design trade-offs.
And the X is in many ways a break with the past.
It’s cleanly designed and beautiful, being mostly glass with thin bezels, and it makes the new (and very good) iPhone 8/8 Plus look dated.
You’ll want a case to protect the iPhone X and its glass body, as it’s likely to suffer damage if you drop it. Apple’s new silicon cases are nice looking, but they add thickness in return for protection.
The new OLED technology screen is bright and contrasty, with accurate colour. In fact, it’s the best screen, says specialist firm DisplayMate.
Despite the iPhone X being smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus, its OLED screen is bigger, has much higher resolution and a million to one contrast ratio. The display on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is very good, but the X blows them both away.
You have to be careful not to leave the iPhone X turned on all the time though, as the OLED display could suffer screen burn-in if the same image shows for too long.
One thing I thought would bother me is the black area on the top of the screen — The Notch — that houses the Face ID authentication system that unlocks the X, but after a while you don’t think about it.
I was dubious about Face ID being an improvement on the easy to use and quick Touch ID fingerprint sensor. It is: the technology from the Israeli company behind Microsoft’s Kinect system recognises your face accurately and quickly, even if you wear glasses. It also works in the dark. Face ID is faster to set up than Touch ID too, and soon becomes second nature.
Unlike Samsung, Apple thought a bit further than just making the technology work as an optional feature: it made Face ID secure and ensured it won’t compromise privacy.
But if you’re used to poking the Touch ID button to get into your phone while it’s lying flat on its back, that’s not going to work with Face ID. Instead, you have to raise the device towards your face, or enter a PIN code to unlock it.
That’s something to get used to, along with the ditching of the Home button at the bottom of the screen.
This was always going to happen at some point, and honestly, you won’t miss it.
Using the new swipey gestures to return Home and to multitask is actually more natural than pressing a button at the bottom of a phone. Apple says this is “interacting directly with the software” of the iPhone X and it kind of is, although most users will simply think it’s an easy way to operate the device.
Apple didn’t take the button-less design to its extreme though, as the iPhone X still has power, volume up/ down and a mute switch on its sides. These have been “overloaded” and do double duty for Apple Pay, taking screenshots, invoking Siri and more, and feel . . . a bit wrong really. It would be hard to make a buttonless phone, but I’d like to see that, maybe for the iPhone XXX.
That’s where we’re heading with smartphone design: a glass slab device entirely software-driven with sensors, instead of the clicky parts, that recognise your particular way of operating the phone.
There’s still room for innovation with smartphones and the iPhone X provides a glimpse of that future — at a steep price that surprisingly many are prepared to pay.