
First field report of iPhone X - steven
https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-x-first-impression/
======
jack6e
Even though the overall tone of this review was upbeat and positive, it seemed
that the baseline conclusion was: "hopefully we find a use for the minor
iterative improvements that will make this more than just the next release in
a series of underwhelming releases." For one of the first, selectively-chosen
reviews of what is supposed to be a ground-breaking product, the article
essentially told us 1) the pictures look better; 2) Apple finally imitated
Samsung's Infinity Display; 3) my fingers learned new motions that were
useless with other Apple products; 4) FaceID became familiar and even worked
sometimes; 5) I could put my face on a pile of poo, which required some cool
technology.

Not that those features or the article suggest the iPhone X is a bad product,
or bug-ridden, non-usable, or anything else. But how in the world are people--
is Apple--still not embarrassed pretending that this is a revolutionary
device? Even if FaceID is intensely innovative and unparalleled new technology
- that is just the feature that people use to get to the features they
actually want to use. No one is going to buy a phone to play around with the
unlocking mechanism, they buy it for what that phone can do for them once it's
unlocked. Hyping on FaceID is like saying, "We are revolutionizing mobile
computing by entirely overhauling the millisecond process by which you gain
access to a slightly improved version of the product you already have."

~~~
dntrkv
What was so revolutionary about the original iPhone? I don't think anyone
could point at any single feature throughout the whole smartphone revolution
and claim it was "revolutionary." It was always a combination of features and
design decisions that made the phones so easy and pleasant to use. There were
many phones before the iPhone that were way more capable, yet nobody talked
about them.

Siri, TouchID, FaceID, capacitive touch screen, great cameras, app store, full
fledged browser, LTE, etc...

Any of these features by themselves aren't "revolutionary" until you combine
it all into a cohesive experience where you look at your phone to unlock it,
take a photo that until very recently could only be produced by a DSLR, upload
it nearly instantly to a social network within 5 taps, and then receive real
time notifications when other people comment on it, all on a device you can
hold in one hand.

Sure, you could say this is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but again, I
don't believe there was this time where it was revolutionary to the extent you
claim. It's always been a slow iterative process.

~~~
ggg9990
I've always upgraded my iPhone only for the camera and I've never regretted
that. There are so many photos I have from a long time ago that I wish were
higher quality, so I'm always willing to spend $ to make sure that today's
photos are as good as they can be. 90% of the time I don't have my proper
camera with me, so the phone is what it is.

Tangentially, after seeing some NFL replay highlights this weekend, I really
wish HD high-frame rate cameras had been invented when Barry Sanders (perhaps
the most electrifying football player of all time) played.

~~~
photojosh
Yep, I'm more excited about the 56mm-e camera getting a wider aperture and
image stabilisation than I am FaceID in the immediate sense.

But I am interested in what app developers will be able to do with a miniature
3D scanner!

------
waterflame
While I love the phone and find it a big improvement over all current market
phones (not that innovative though), I wonder how many people will die trying
to unlock their phones while driving.

 __And they will unlock it while driving.

~~~
madeofpalk
I would say similar to the amount now, and less than passcode-based unlock

Using your phone while driving is reckless, regardless of the authentication
mechanism.

~~~
Shivetya
however the touch id does not require you to look at your phone to unlock and
unconsciously people will look at an X to unlock it even though it only needs
to see you, not the reverse.

neither is a good idea but Apple recently pushed out lockouts for Do not
disturb while driving. I have not tried this feature and it defaults to off.
So how well it works, well it won't stop me from using the phone as it appears
to be not allowing the phone to interrupt me.

~~~
jack6e
> _unconsciously people will look at an X to unlock it even though it only
> needs to see you, not the reverse._

That does not seem to be the case as the reviewer puts it. Even when he was
looking at his iPhone X he could not always get it unlocked: _" There have
been times when, despite a clear view of my face, the iPhone X has ghosted me.
(Apple tells me that perhaps I wasn’t making what the iPhone X considers eye
contact.)"_

~~~
johnbellone
You’re looking at it wrong.

------
dean
I keep reading about how the "notch" is ugly and annoying, but "you get used
to it". Like sitting behind someone with a big hat in the movie theatre, after
awhile, you don't even notice. Personally, I change seats in that scenario.

I just find it hard square claims of "the future of the smartphone" with
reviews like "you get used to it".

~~~
pwython
Then again... maybe you _do_ get used to it?

Like how our parents got "used to" prior technology's "annoyances"?

I'm not saying this is a "get off my lawn" annoyance, but... I'm curious to
see how phones evolve after this notch.

~~~
ProAm
Everyone got used to OSK's but I'd still prefer a physical keyboard.

------
bsaul
"the most anticipated product in years"... stopped reading there. Anticipated
product in years ? Really ?? not even "most anticipated _Apple_ product in
years " ? For a phone with a missing button and a face recognition feature
nobody cares about ??

I am an iOS developer, and i generally love apple product, but frankly it's
time everyone, including hard-core apple fans, agree that apple has been
under-delivering those last 3 years.

If i had to say "anticipated" about something, i'd say the watch 3 is far more
interesting and opens more application use.

~~~
baby
Considering the iPhone 6S is the best phone I ever had, I can see how you
might feel like they're under delivering. But maybe it's just because we've
reached a point where phones are so good that we don't notice updates that
much. On the other hand, what would really be a revolution in the mobile
landscape would be to have long-lasting batteries. Recharging a phone every
day is still a huge pain.

------
twoodfin
Interesting PR strategy by Apple, considering the general review embargo
hasn’t been lifted yet (I’m assuming more than a few of the usual suspects got
review units...this past Friday, maybe?)

This is certainly the way Apple would like the X to be perceived, and Levy
makes sense as someone likely to be on their wavelength.

------
Slaul
I am excited for this phone (as a lifelong Android user) because of the large
screen in the small form factor. I really appreciate high resolution screens
but I'm tired of needing ginormous phones to get it.

This device seems to have a great screen in the perfect form factor for me.

I'm waiting to see some reviews before purchasing but the iPhone X is probably
going to be my next phone.

Sidenote, anybody have any tips on migrating from android to iOS?

~~~
simonsez
The galaxy s8 and LG V30 also have large screens in relatively small form
factors - are those too big for you?

~~~
Slaul
For whatever reason I was under the impression that those phones were larger
than they are. Thanks for pointing those out to me!

I'm still probably going to switch to Apple because I've been working towards
being more privacy conscious in the last several months and Apple's stance on
privacy and encryption is appealing.

~~~
Aloha
I was an android early adopter who switched in 2012 - and I'll explain why.

At the time I had a T-Mobile G2 which was approaching the end of its natural
lifecycle, I was also dissatisfied with the software quality of android
overall - at the time I was looking for another android phone running stock
android with a keyboard (something that didnt exist effectively), because the
android on screen keyboard at the time was so awful - so I started looking at
the iPhone - at the time I expected the same difficulties with iOS that I had
with android (android always felt like it was half-done, for example non-
scrolling context menu's that scrolled off the screen) - but I found overall
that the software quality was just better with iOS - and added benefit is, my
iPhone largely 'just works' \- I spend all day repairing and building
technology, the last thing I want to do is have to invest cycles to keep my
own kit working.

With iPhone when it doesn't work (or has an issue), I take it back to the
'fruit store', and they make it all better, without me having to be much
involved in the process - however with iOS this has happened precisely twice
(once for a software bug, the other for a hardware issue), versus in two
Android phones, I was performing a factory reset of the device about once a
year due to software bugs (text messaging DB, apps that wouldnt uninstall,
having to perform space management with a SD card and internal storage, email
that would just stop syncing randomly, digitizer would stop working, etc), as
well as a lack of updates to still new-ish hardware. While I realize with
Google I have much more control and flexibility with how I can use my device,
for me at least this added control is largely unimportant for my use case -
yes there have been a few cases I wish I could do things with my iPhone that
it doesnt do, but these are mostly edge cases, when I want to use my phone in
a non-typical use case.

In addition with Apple, I know what the product they're selling is - and its
not me. With Google, I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'm the product -
don't get me wrong, I use Google, I like Google, but the relationship between
Apple and I is much more clear cut. I also trust Apple as more likely to keep
my data secure, and to stand at my side if someone (specifically the
government) wanted at it.

~~~
iamatworknow
This mirrors my own experience.

As a Samsung Note 2/4 owner I used to give myself a lot of excuses as to why
iPhones were "bad" \-- non-expandable storage (even though I never maxed out
the storage that came built in with my Android phones), non-user replaceable
battery (even though my battery hardly ever dips below 50%, as whenever I'm in
a place where I can plug it in, it's plugged in), a more restrictive ecosystem
(even though I barely use more than the web browser and a few other common
apps on any phone).

My tipping point was visiting Canada one time with data roaming turned off.
Despite this, Sprint decided overnight that my Note 4 needed to download the
Sprint NASCAR app that I did not request or have any intention of ever using.
The download, since I was roaming in another country, cost me about $20 on my
next statement.

Shortly thereafter I got an iPhone 6S Plus and haven't looked back. I'm still
with Sprint, but thanks to iOS's restrictions I don't have to have any of
their junk installed on there, which couldn't be removed from my Note 4
without rooting it.

I will say, however, that I'm still not a fan of iPhones killing the headphone
jack, so I don't intend to upgrade until it becomes strictly necessary.

~~~
Aloha
I only use the headphone jack for a wired headset telephone style headset, I
only very rarely listen to music on my phone. For my use case, getting a
charging headphone adapter dongle and leaving it hooked up to the headset I
use, will serve my needs perfectly.

~~~
iamatworknow
And that may be how I go, but for now I have no need to upgrade. iOS 11 hasn't
given me any of the issues on the 6S Plus other people talk about (perhaps
because I use my iPhone in a more limited capacity than many other people).

~~~
Aloha
It's clear to me that the RAM limitations of my 6S are present, I'm more often
then not seeing apps starting fresh rather than resuming state.

------
waytogo
Slightly OT: I am most impressed by Apple‘s bold move to drop the iPhone‘s
decade old, iconic symmetric design while establishing a new iconic asymmetric
design almost over night.

As odd as the new design feels, Apple already _owns_ this design, this buckle,
this asymmetry.

Edit: Why the downvotes (just wondering)?

~~~
parzivalm
Apple probably owns the design because most other manufactures hopefully see
that you shouldn't be looking at a notch every time you are viewing a video.
I've been an iPhone user since day 1 but the screen shape on this phone just
makes so little sense.

It wouldn't be the worst if Apple made it that iOS scaled everything so media
wasn't blocked by the notch but instead if I get the iPhone X I have to wait
for app developers to fix the issue. Seems like a poor decision.

~~~
bgentry
My understanding is that media fills the screen in the same way it does on any
other iPhone. A double tap will change the zoom setting such that it will
letterbox and not cut off any part of the video. This setting is supposed to
be saved when you view another video.

And because this screen has such a wide aspect ratio, in most cases you can
zoom out and only have black bars on the notch side and opposite side (left &
right when in landscape mode).

That being said, I do find the designs that “embrace the notch” (especially in
landscape) repulsive. I’d much prefer if that area just stayed dark to blend
in with the notch.

~~~
goatforce5
From what I understand (from a 'The Talk Show'/John Gruber podcast, IIRC), the
default view for fullscreen landscape video has black bars on the left and
right. It's only when you double tap to go to full screen (and thus cropping
the top/bottom) that the notch interferes with the video. He made the point
that Apple showing the notch covering video was them kinda going out of their
way to highlight that the notch was there.

~~~
dep_b
It's not only about the notch it's also the curved lines at the edges. Those
would still cut out your video if the notch wasn't there. In my opinion the
usable area of the phone is much smaller than it seems at first sight and the
iPhone 8 Plus is a lot better in that respect.

I do like the fact that they managed to restrain themselves from abusing the
rounded edges for display, that was something I always hated about the Samsung
Edge family.

------
saagarjha
> it took me awhile to get the hang of pressing down on one of the little
> cards representing an app in order to evoke a minus sign that allowed me to
> close it.

You're not supposed to perform this action regularly.

> I knew I’d mastered the gestures when I found myself trying to use them on
> my iPad. Oops. My finger no longer drifts to the home button, but
> pathetically swipes upwards, to no avail.

This should work on iPad if you're running iOS 11.

------
pasbesoin
If my $300 Moto G5+ (temporary replacement for my bootlooped Nexus 5X) were
to, well, f-ing _receive timely updates_ , I'd stick with it for a while. 4 GB
/ 64 GB (and the option to add a MicroSD card), Snapdragon... 625, IIRC. And a
decent IPS display. It's just fine.

I'd love to have a better camera, but not at 3x the price.

Yeah, this isn't an "Apple" comment. But it is a "US$800 - $1200" comment. And
an "it's not really your device" comment. Not when we are at the "mercy" of
vendors to provide necessary updates -- or, more often, not to.

On that front, Apple is clearly winning. But a grand is a lot to pay for it.

P.S. My G5+ has a headphone jack. Useful that now Bluetooth is borked until it
receives the update/fix -- IF it ever receives it.

Yeah, I'm a broken record... But it's a song these vendors ripely deserve.

------
RoyTyrell
My two questions are:

1\. Is the X worth the extra $200/$300 on top of the 8? 2\. Is the X worth the
$1k+

I know "worth" is relative and depends on your personal requirements, but from
someone who's likely a software dev on this site, is it really worth spending
that kind of money?

~~~
Aloha
Personally - I picked the X because of a desire to try something new. Also, as
a photographer, the new camera looks fairly impressive as well, in addition I
expect the larger screen in a small form factor to enable me to use my phone
for even more things - beyond that, its upgrade time for me anyhow, the price
difference between a 256 gig iPhone 8 and iPhone X is effectively rounding
error, as in, its not a significant amount of money for something I use every
single day for so many tasks and activities.

~~~
RoyTyrell
Not to be one of _those_ guys, buuuut... using T-Mobile as a carrier, the
8plus with 256GB is $949 and the X is $1149, which is 21% increase. You're
still sepending around a grand though so I see your point.

I appreciate your reply. Thanks!

------
jnsaff2
Is ios11 as sucky on it as it is on 6S for me is the real question me thinks.

~~~
PacketPaul
IOS on the 7 has been rock solid. What is wrong on the 6s?

~~~
jnsaff2
Random freezes, phone calls not having sound, and for me as a
podcast/audiobook listener that side is awful, widget not working, having to
restart the app or the whole phone, bluetooht connectivity being very
unreliable. Usability gone much worse regarding audio.

In situations where with ios9 I could rely that I put my headphone on and push
the button on the headphones the correct thing would start playing immediately
this got worse with ios10, things started to not work always and with ios11
it's so bad that I can't bring myself to spend money on a new ios device. When
my 6s dies I hope there will be something other then the duopoly available.

~~~
Strom
The situation is perhaps even worse on iPhone 6, which I have. It feels like
Apple doesn't test iOS on older hardware. For example the camera app has
rotation freezing problems [1] half the time I open it. It's not a rare
occurance, it's a constant issue. It's not a case of slow hardware either,
because there are still plenty of times when everything works smoothly.

\--

[1] When I rotate the phone, half the UI elements react to the rotation and
update, but the other half of the UI remains at the previous mode. So I have a
UI which is half landscape, half portrait. Depending on the mood of the
iPhone, the UI will fix itself in either a second, 5 seconds, or not until I
restart the app.

~~~
passivepinetree
I'm still clinging to iOS 10 on my plain 6. It sounds like you'd recommend I
don't update; is that true?

~~~
ambivalence
If you're using Apple CarPlay, don't upgrade (yet?). On iOS 11 it cannot even
keep up playing music without glitches. Crashed twice on me when receiving a
phone call. Never had those issues on iOS 10.3.

Rebooting helps. Feels like trying to use Windows on a cheap desktop to watch
an HD movie in 2001.

------
mgleason_3
Can't help wondering if FaceID's more of a PITA than a help. Do I always have
to stop and stare at my phone? What if I'm walking?

~~~
Sevauk
Don't you need to look at your phone to use it anyway ?

~~~
JustSomeNobody
No. Often my phone is on a desk. So with Touch ID I can walk back into the
room, lay my finger on the phone and it wakes and shows me if I have any
messages. I don’t have to pick it up, move it, stare directly at it or
anything.

I get that most people don’t work this way but for me it’s great.

~~~
macintux
Disclaimer: mine hasn't arrived yet, but you should be able to walk into the
room, tap the phone, and it will unlock but leave you at the lock screen to
see your notifications.

You don't have to be facing it directly, you don't have to lift to wake it.

~~~
macintux
Welp, apparently you do have to lean over it, per reports. A shame.

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
My biggest issue with it is finding out that the aspect ratio has changed and
so even thought the screen is roughly the same length diagonally as iPhone
6/6S/7/8 Plus it's width is really like that of a iPhone 6/6S/7/8 and not a
Plus. So for Plus users, there's no replacement here it seems.

~~~
matwood
Good point. Here's hoping for an iPhoneX+ next year.

------
gigatexal
A surprisingly honest take on the phone. Faceid will take some revisions to
get right but overall he seems to like the phone and looks forward to app
developers to make use of its killer features.

------
gallerdude
I always have some sort of dream that one year I’ll watch the keynote knowing
nothing, but in reality I read every article or rumor leading up until the
event.

------
hndamien
The price is revolutionary. It is a low cost vehicle for high cost signalling.

------
c517402
I wonder if that protruding sensor block can be used for touch ID somehow?

------
remarkEon
>The iPhone X (pronounced “ten,” not as in X-ray)...

Do people really not know Roman Numerals anymore?

~~~
joefourier
Lack of an iPhone IX might have confused some. And plenty of people pronounced
"OS X" as the letter "x", and in that case there was an actual Mac OS 9 to
justify the jump from 9 to 10.

------
finchisko
One thing to Apple PR credit is faceid. For me it's hot needle replacement for
failed attempt to integrate touchid into display, but for most people it is
innovation.

~~~
dbbk
Please do explain why you don't view Face ID as an innovation over existing
technology.

~~~
bane
Unlocking your phone with your face has been a regular feature of many
smartphones for at least 5 years.

~~~
pwdisswordfish
No wonder Android people do not understand why people pay good money for very
locked down iPhone, to them crappy implementation for hardware and software is
good enough.

~~~
parzivalm
Why the troll comment? There are good and bad points to both ecosystems. For
instance the Fingerprint reader on my Pixel is faster and more accurate than
the TouchID on my iPhone 7. That doesn't make me go, iPhone sucks. The
implementation on Facial Recognition may not be as great on the android phones
that support it, but that doesn't mean you should bash a whole ecosystem and
community of people.

------
unabst
> “Don’t worry about price, just specify the computer’s abilities,” he told
> the original team leader. At his first retreat with the Macintosh team, he
> began by writing a maxim on his whiteboard: “Don’t compromise.”

That's Steve Jobs.

The notch is a compromise. The spec Apple needed was "no notch". Forcing
developers to embrace a premature design decision based on a feature that they
couldn't make happen is hypocritical at best.

If Jobs had come back to life, we would have been blown away by something from
Apple by now. At this point, not sure which is more likely to happen.

\-----

[https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-
steve...](https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs)

~~~
caio1982
I hope you don’t mind a slightly off-topic comment here: we should really stop
using the if-steve-jobs-were-alive card; we don’t do this with other iconic
tech people who have died, do we?

~~~
unabst
Maybe we just miss him the most?

------
hungerstrike
Face ID is going to be a monumental failure for people who dock their phones
on their desk or car. It's also going to annoy everybody who likes things to
happen fast _all the time_ because Face ID will definitely cause a delay and
frustrate every user at some point. I have no doubt about this.

The lack of a home button is probably the worst design decision. They should
have gone with dedicated virtual home button or better yet, stick with the
iPhone 7 style home button. iOS 10 and 11 already has too many problems
distinguishing between "global gestures" and "application gestures".

EDIT: _Oh please_ \- tell me why you disagree and prove to me that you're not
just an illogical, emotional mob. You think Apple never made a mistake?
Pffffftttt! I just spilled my coffee.

~~~
dmode
Down votes are unfortunate. I think it is a legitimate concern at this point.
I dock my phone in my car and it is far easier to unlock using fingerprint.
But I am convinced that Apple is aware of this use case and iPhone X will not
be any different.

~~~
hungerstrike
We'll see. "I will admit I have not tried Face ID yet, but it's hard to
imagine a facial recognition system that solves the problem of having to
carefully aim a phone at your face." \-
[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/face-id-on-the-
iphon...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/face-id-on-the-iphone-x-is-
probably-going-to-suck/)

"[Face ID] worked the vast majority of times I tried it"... (NOTE: Not ALL the
time) - and "...it’s definitely faster than the first generation of Touch ID,
though perhaps slightly slower than the second gen." \-
[https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/31/review-the-iphone-x-
goes-t...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/31/review-the-iphone-x-goes-to-
disneyland/)

In any case - I don't lock my phone and swiping will definitely, definitely,
definitely be way more annoying than being able to click a button.

------
nowherecat
I guess that’s as good as you can make the iPhone X appear, without having to
be embarrassed about what you are writing. I am tired of seeing one iPhone
release after the other, the marketing machinery desperately trying to get
people excited to buy buy buy more, while nobody really needs this. I am
saying this from an environmental activists perspective and it is very
frustrating and upsetting to see so many large corporations completely ignore
their catastrophic impact on the environment and people’s lives.. this
ultimately costs us our planet, clean air, clean water, dignity ... is it
worth it? Do we really need all these gadgets?

~~~
nowherecat
It's ridiculous that I am getting downvoted for having a moral compass. For
people who are having any questions about this issue or doubt its validity
please watch the Documentary "Death by Design".

