Pricey new iPhone has the X factor
It’s pricey, but new iPhone feels like the future
Apple iPhone X From€1,179. Seeapple.com/ie
Apple probably didn’t need to make an iPhone X. The company’s enormous profits are mostly earned from iPhone sales – over a billion have been sold around the world. The new iPhone 8 is a great phone and Apple will probably sell tens of millions of them over Christmas, cementing another hugely profitable year’s profits.
Apple, though, have been criticised for their lack of innovation over the past few years. As successful as their last few iPhones have been, each model bears a striking resemblance to the previous model. With iPhone X, Apple have gone back to the drawing-board and produced an iPhone they believe will shape the next decade of smart phones.
Unboxing the iPhone X reveals a new shape for Apple. It’s is made from steel and glass and the new glass back is stunning. The back also facilitates wireless charging, a first for Apple that’s been available on competitor phones for some time.
iPhone X, like new phones from Huawei and Samsung, has an elongated shape – the large 5.8’’ screen runs from edge to edge, as there is no home button. Although the X is tall, it feels well-balanced in your hand. It’s ridiculously slim for such a tech-laden device, and is less than a third of an inch thick, weighing just over six ounces.
Powering up the X brings the remarkable new screen to highdefinition life. The screen, which Apple call super retina HD, is the first OLED screen on an iPhone. OLED screens are used in higher end phones as they provide greater colour depth and contrast. Apple have done a remarkable job on theirs. It uses their True Tone display, meaning the screen compensates for the light around you.
Setting up an iPhone is as easy as ever and, once I had my contacts/ emails synchronised, the feature I was most eager to try was FaceID. With the Home button gone, Apple have moved away from fingerprint ID. Setting up FaceID was quick and it worked well, letting me unlock the X with just a glance.
The water resistant iPhone is powered by Apple’s A11 Bionic chip. The performance is absolutely blistering and once I was used to the new gestures required, I noticed how quickly apps load and run. Switching between apps is smooth and there is a lovely fluid look and feel to icons and images on the screen. This improved performance makes even the new Augmented Reality features run smoothly and the new Animojis all play without a shudder. The cameras on iPhone X are even more impressive than the iPhone 8 Plus. The rear camera has a telephoto lens and the front camera works brilliantly.
There is one odd feature on the X: the notch at the top of screen. This facilitates FaceID, but it initially seems a little intrusive. Apps created for iPhone X should work around this notch, but with some apps not yet updated, it can be a little distracting.
It’s difficult to ignore the X’s price tag. Starting at €1,179 for the 64GB version, the 256GB X seems better value at €1,349. Given the new glass design and price, if you get one, you must buy a good case and have insurance cover.
This may be the most hyped smart phone in history – maybe justifiably so as it’s almost a work of technology art. It’s expensive, and other iPhone models are better value, but iPhone X really does feel like the future.