Apple iPhone X Review
The tenth anniversary iPhone is here
There’s a saying within consumer electronic circles that Apple, contrary to popular belief, is never the first to introduce something -- but when it does, it gets it just right. That’s the iPhone X in a nutshell.
Almost all of the new features in this handset are old news for smartphones. That bezel-less, almost all-screen face? Xiaomi did that in late 2016. Wireless charging and an OLED display panel with richer colours and deeper blacks than the LCD screens on older iPhones? Samsung’s handsets have had those for years.
But what Apple does best is adding value and ingenuity instead of just filling out spec sheets. For example, when Samsung reduced the bezels to get rid of the home button on the Galaxy S8 last year, it merely moved from a physical button to a digital button on screen -- which meant the phone still operated just like older editions. The benefits of going bezel-less were mostly aesthetic.
Apple, however, saw the removal of a tactile physical button as an opportunity to rethink the way users interact with the phone, giving the iPhone X a button-less navigation system of swipes and taps that feels way more futuristic -- and completely changing how users unlock the phone.
Even that OLED display (which is sourced from Samsung, by the way) has a decidedly Apple touch. The American tech giant calibrated the panels itself and the result is the most balanced and colour-accurate display on the market -- even moreso than Samsung's own phones. The Galaxy’s saturated and bold display may still be more eye-catching at first glance, but the the iPhone X’s display is more true to life.
Face ID
The iPhone X is a refined, polished package all around with one true innovation: The TrueDepth Camera system. This series of sensors located at the top of the display (created by the company behind Microsoft’s original Kinect motion sensor for Xbox 360) allow the iPhone X to create a 3D map of your face. It can then use this for a myriad of things, such as projecting a pair of 3D, virtual glasses on your face in eyewear shopping apps; turning you into an animated emoji with facial movements that mimic yours; or most importantly... unlocking the phone.