
The iPhone X - nnx
https://daringfireball.net/2017/12/the_iphone_x
======
endorphone
"After two months using an iPhone X, I’m convinced Apple succeeded. The iPhone
X is a triumph, a delightful conceptual modernization of a ten-year-old
platform that, prior to using the iPhone X, I didn’t think needed a
modernization."

There's the tldr. And for anyone accustomed to Gruber's writing, it was a
predictable conclusion.

~~~
randomsearch
I would agree with this summary. I think Apple knocked it out of the park this
time, confounding my expectations that everything would be generally terrible
post-Steve.

They can reinvent something spectacularly well. But can they create something
entirely new that is also wonderful? This is the real test they have yet to
pass.

~~~
mitchty
I know everyone is all poo poo on the iPhone x in here. But my prior phone was
3 years old (original 6+, the battery was already starting to... well have
issues, was already at over 1k cycles), so I bought the X.

Have to say I like it, its just thinner enough width wise. And the one feature
it has is brilliant in winter. I can unlock my phone without removing my
gloves. And yes, these gloves are the ones that work with capacitive touch
screens. Good luck getting gloves to work with a finger sensor, or to be able
to type anything with them reliably in -20F weather.

So... basically it seems like a solid release overall. Of course I have
gripes, the control center swipe is annoying to hit for example but overall
its fine. Expensive sure, but if I upgrade every 2-3 years whatever.

~~~
jsgo
ha, same upgrade here (6 Plus to X). The swipes are the one area where the
notch is almost a feature: swipe down from left of notch - notifications;
swipe down from right of notch - control center. Doing it in landscape is
doable but sometimes I'm not 100% certain it is going to end up where I want
it.

I'm very pleased so far. I was tired of having the larger phone yet wanted the
better camera. Do I know if it is was worth the price premium? Not sure, but
it seems I had a choice between two of three items in price, performance, and
size. I chose performance and size.

------
brian-armstrong
This is an incredibly fanboy-y article even by Gruber standards. I'm not sure
he's physically capable of criticizing Apple, even if he wanted to.

~~~
mikestew
My take on Gruber is to not take him seriously. Don't take his
recommendations, he'll flip on a dime. For example, when the Pebble was
announced he was first in line on the Kickstarter. It shipped, he liked it. As
soon as the Apple Watch came out, the Pebble was suddenly a piece of shit.

I'm also convinced that he recommends things that he's either never used, or
took money to recommend. An outstanding example is a weather app he gushed
about that I'm convinced he never used because it was horrible (as in, the
forecasts weren't even close), and the visual design was something he'd
typically tear into.

For me, Gruber is in the "Dvorak/Cringley" bucket: entertaining, sometimes on
point, but for $DEITY's sake don't take it for gospel. But despite all that, I
read every post.

~~~
jgruber
I don't recall ever overly praising the Pebble. Here's everything I've ever
written about Pebble:

[https://daringfireball.net/search/pebble](https://daringfireball.net/search/pebble)

I really only wore mine for about a week, finding it more annoying than
useful. As I stated here:
[https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/02/24/pebble-
time](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/02/24/pebble-time)

I like Apple Watch, but only as one of several watches I own. The others are
mechanical, not digital.

I don't know which weather app you're talking about, but I've never
recommended anything I haven't used, and the only posts I get paid for are the
once-a-week sponsorships, which are _always_ clearly noted as being sponsored.

~~~
mikestew
I will say first that as it concerns the Pebble: _I react my statement_.
(Can’t edit now, sorry.) Ugh, I made a decent effort to find what I was
talking about, but you sure wrote a lot of mentions about Pebble. :-) All I
have to go on is an increasingly faulty middle-aged memory, despite your
giving me a handy list of posts, so I’ll leave it be.

As for the weather app, it might very well have been sponsored. But here’s the
thing: despite my critical comments above, I still take you as a person of
integrity even for sponsorships. Now maybe that’s just naive of me (I grew up
on Paul Harvey, I should know better), but even if you’re paid I just assume
you tried the product and said, “yeah, I can sincerely praise that.” Naive or
not, I just know that when I downloaded it, my first thought was “no way
Gruber’s seen this running, it’s horrible and I’m not _nearly_ the font and
design nut he is. That, and the forecast looks like it’s for Florida, not
Seattle.” Again, maybe that’s on me: it was an ad, clearly labeled as an ad,
caveat emptor. Made a good faith effort to find my purchases in the App Store
to back this up, but Apple apparently isn’t going to make that easy on me.

Finally, had I even suspected you might see this I probably would have not
used a Dvorak comparison. I meant it to mean “can go on a rant, but a rant
that’ll be worth consideration; whether you agree or not”, but that was Dvorak
30 years ago. I truly do enjoy reading what you write, and do read every post,
and that comparison was unfair.

------
jsz0
The iPhone X hardware is great but they dropped the ball big time on software
quality/reliability. I still encounter major home/swipe related glitches that
require a reboot a couple of times per week. It seems like the point releases
are causing more problems than they fix which is concerning. iOS seems to be
in a nasty downward spiral of reliability.

~~~
shizzleberry
I hear people saying this a ton, aside from the slow face unlock, I haven't
experienced many glitches. What am I not doing wrong? Is there a specific
gesture to trigger one of these bugs (genuine question)?

~~~
jsz0
The home/swipe related bugs seem to be related to accidental touch detection
and/or swiping before animations fully complete. For example this morning I
had to reboot my phone because I couldn't swipe to unlock from the lock
screen. It was stuck in 'notification mode' so it thought my swipes were to
view my notifications instead of unlocking. Immediately before this happened I
had cleared all my notifications which resulted in a very choppy animation. My
previous reboot before this was caused by getting stuck in Music after trying
to swipe down in Music to get off the 'now playing' screen. For some reason
this always requires multiple tries so I probably set off some accidental
touch detection lockout.

It's a death by a thousand paper cuts thing. There is no one bug that can be
easily fixed. It's dozens (maybe hundreds) of small annoyances like the
keyboard absolutely refusing to register a keypress that goes against it's
prediction of what I want to type. Another fun one is I get floods of old
notifications randomly usually from phone/messages -- like a voicemail
notification from a month ago. I don't even care if Siri doesn't work well or
if I have to enter my PIN slightly more often because of FaceID. I just want
the fundamentals to work reliably.

~~~
thinkythought
Did you select set up as a new phone or restore from a backup

I had all kinds of problems like this until i just bit the bullet and did it
clean slate, and i haven't had a single performance issue since. Not a single
reboot, nothing. The regular iOS11 gripes are still there but nothing truly
awful like this

It's a bit like doing a clean install when you order a new laptop right after
you take it out of the box. It's usually a good call, even if it's a bit of a
hassle

------
thinkythought
I think it's worth noting that even for someone like Gruber who often defends
things about apple others attack, he still craps on the notch in landscape
mode.

I have an X, and i have very few complaints about it. It's an awesome device
pretty much all around, and i wouldn't trade it in for an 8 or any other
phone. They did a bang up job on performance, display quality, battery life,
and i think the updates to the interface are spot-on.

But holy shit is the notch annoying in landscape, and so many apps that are
"updated" for the X still handle it HORRIBLY. Especially games.

They really screwed this one up, and they need to be way harsher on developers
who want to use the "ears" in-game to actually take the shape into account. I
find myself actually wishing i could force thing into the "letterbox" non-
updated app mode sometimes.

Fortunately this is something that could be fixed later, because it's
software, but right now it's _so_ bad. It doesn't even bother me in videos,
just when i need to actually interact with crappily thought through games and
apps treating that area like usable display

------
bla2
_In short, with the iPhone X Apple took a platform with two primary means of
interacting with the apps — a touchscreen and a home button — removed one of
them, and created a better, more integrated, more organic experience._ [...]
_Android handset makers seem willing to copy everything and anything from
Apple they can get away with..._

~~~
moogly
That's pretty funny considering the iPhone X is the most Android-like phone so
far, what with a) getting rid of the home button b) AMOLED screen (welcome to
2009) c) wireless charging. Finally an iPhone with some decent hardware
features.

~~~
calibration263
Getting rid of a physical button is hardly a decent hardware feature. I
would've been massively disappointed if apple had gone the android route and
just slapped a virtual button i can tap onto the screen.

If you want to say apple ripped some one off with removing the home button, it
wasn't android. It was Palm. Welcome back 2009 indeed.

------
juandazapata
This reads a lot like sponsored content.

~~~
Brendinooo
If you were to write a review of a product you really liked, how would you do
it differently?

~~~
willtim
Perhaps one might admit that Apple are late to the game with OLED and edge-to-
edge displays?

~~~
roc
Admit? Like it's a secret he's trying to cover up?

Apple people simply don't care. They know Apple's "late." (Inasmuch as someone
else has done a similar thing, or used a similar piece of tech "first".)
Because Apple is _almost always_ late.

Late to touch. Late to smartphones. Late to fingerprint readers. Late to face
identification. Late to attention detection. Late to wireless charging. Late
to big screens. Late to music streaming. Late to video services. Late to the
TV. Late to the wrist. Late to the wireless headphones. etc.

~~~
willtim
I agree, but he attempts to shame other firms when they decide to copy
something from Apple. He comes across as a hypocrite.

Personally I find many of Apples "innovations" abhorrent and it frustrates me
that they have been universally copied. They have popularised disposable,
unrepairable, slippery, ultra-fragile phones!

------
tobix
"And for reasons I’ve never been able to understand, Android handset makers
seem willing to copy everything and anything from Apple they can get away
with... but none have copied the iPhone’s mute switch, despite the fact that
it’s a brilliant idea." OnePlus 5 and onwards? Although I think it may be the
only Android phone to have one.

~~~
barrkel
I could do without that switch - I use Tasker to toggle silent mode based on
location rules, and I prefer to e.g. use a timer to turn on no-disturb for a
movie, rather than needing to remember to re-enable sounds.

The probability that I'm e.g. at a meeting and don't want to be disturbed is
far less likely than simply keeping the phone on silent for the whole work
day. It just doesn't fit a use case for me.

------
arielm
This is a beautiful way of looking at the X from a very zoomed out
perspective. To an extent, I agree with much of what’s said and felt the same
way when starting to use my X.

But, and this is the important but here, we’re existing users. I saw iPhones
develop over time, so for me this is evolution and I put up with it. But what
about new users, that are new to the platform.

Apple made some interactions so unintuitive that even I was confused. One
example is purchasing an app. Pre-X, you’d tap the “get” button and place your
finger on the home button or enter your password. With the X you have to tap
the button, look at your device, and then follow the most unintuitive
animation to actually press the physical side button.

That’s where I think we start to see the difference between evolution and
compromise.

~~~
nkristoffersen
I've had the X for a few days now. The animation to press the physical button
totally had me stumped the first few times! Overall I'm a fan (such as great
camera and great screen) but some of the new interactions are taking some
getting used to.

~~~
breatheoften
Yeah the explanation for the side button tap should be considered a straight
up bug — I had to google what to do.

------
mikewhy
This bit especially irked me:

"In iOS 11 X, almost every role of the home button has been subsumed by the
display, with the remainder reassigned to the side button:

\- Wake the device: tap the display.

\- Go to the home screen: short swipe up from the bottom of display.

\- Go to the multitasking switcher: longer swipe up from the bottom.

\- Even better way to multitask: just swipe sideways on the home indicator.

\- Accessibility shortcut: triple-click the side button.

\- Authenticate: just look at the display.

\- Reachability: swipe down on the bottom edge of display.

\- Siri: press-and-hold side button."

5 out of 8 of those things are already achieved without the home button since
the 6S.

~~~
Redoubts
Yeah, I was really surprised the long-press-left-edge wasn’t a gesture that
made it to the X, among other things.

~~~
calibration263
I loved that gesture, but I was shocked how many of my friends/coworkers
didn't know about it. I think the iPhone X up and over arc is more reliable to
trigger(once you figure out not to do up and hold).

~~~
jolux
it doesn't have to be up and over, you just swipe left and right on it

------
breatheoften
How did the move of the sleep/wake button from the top to side EVER get
approved ...? I’ve been ranting about this since the iPhone 6... I can’t count
the number of times I’ve:

\- inadvertently activated Siri while reaching blindly for my phone

\- put the phone to sleep when trying to use the hardware shutter button while
taking a picture

I don’t understand how this flaw has escaped widespread criticism...

~~~
thinkythought
The true face-palmer here is the new screenshot shortcut on the X, wherein you
press volume up + side button to take a screenshot

i seriously take probably 5-10 screenshots a day just trying to lock my damn
phone. I've taken to crooking my finger on the other side so it's far from the
volume buttons just to avoid this.

Seriously my only major UI complaint

------
ec109685
Some of the descriptions are so overwrought:

My acclimation to the iPhone X has made using an iPad feel _anachronistic_ — I
want to swipe up from the bottom to go home there too.

With Touch ID, after you tap a particular notification in the middle of the
display, you then must move your finger down to the home button to
authenticate. I always found that annoying. Now that I’m used to the iPhone X,
I find it to be _intolerable_.

Whereas the first bumps, on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, were like _blemishes_. If
you’re going to have a bump, have a _fucking bump_.

But if I pick up or glance at an iPhone without it, I’m _skeeved_ out.

Things I notice instantly: the display looks very small, the colors look too
cool at night (because of the aforementioned lack of True Tone), and the
perfectly square corners of the display seem downright _crude_.

It’s unique in Apple history — if not all of _consumer computing history_ —
for the same version of the OS to present two distinct interfaces that are so
markedly different.

~~~
parasubvert
It’s called good writing. He has a unique voice.

~~~
ec109685
There is too much Bill Walton in that review. We have an X and it isn’t life
changing.

------
makecheck
The extra step to kill processes on the X is bad enough that I would call it a
serious bug (i.e. it is harder to view processes in the first place, you can’t
swipe them out, and you can’t even _see_ the kill buttons without a delicate
push-and-wait). This _has_ to be easy to do because there are just too many
apps that can enter weird states, e.g. bank apps that will never accept log-
ins again once they encounter their first server blip.

Also, whether it is software or the X itself, sound is _atrocious_ : it is
very easy to generate nasty and loud pops/glitches/stutters on a regular
basis.

~~~
Paradise_Pete
I'm with you on the killing processes part. There are a lot of things I like
about the X, but that one is annoying and (as far as I can tell) pointless. It
seems like Apple intentionally made it harder in order to discourage people
from habitually killing apps.

------
nunez
I like Gruber, but this article has so many words for so little content.

As far as I understood it, he basically said, in many words, that iPhone X
(and, by extension, removing the home button) is the beginning of a new age
for the iPhone. That's well and good, but I don't agree with him.

The competitive gap between iPhone and everything else is WAY smaller than it
was in 2007, and with Google in the mix and actually-good cameras being
available on Android now, that gap is becoming smaller by the day. Face ID is
all well and good, but I don't think it's a major differentiator like multi-
touch was in 2007.

~~~
calibration263
I think that this can be a fundamental shift for the iPhone and iOS without
being a paradigm shift that puts apple years ahead of the competition. I also
didn't pick up an implication that this puts iOS years ahead of android while
reading the article.

------
jsgo
All in all, I'm pleased with the phone. There are some things that are pretty
rough, though, and that compensating for the removal of the home button has
caused a glaring problem. Shutdown being the biggest one so far for me. The
Konami code that you have to enter in order to initiate getting the slider to
appear is nothing short of amazing. I'm hoping at some point a button to
activate the slider ends up in Control Center.

~~~
pvinis
By "Konami code", do you mean lock button + volume up button?

I mean I understand it is hard- _er_ , but I wouldn't call it hard.

~~~
jsgo
for me, volume up + lock button typically fires off a screenshot even if
unintended. I use tap volume up -> tap volume down -> hold lock button.

~~~
charlesgres
What about holding volume _down_ \+ lock button simultaneously? Basically you
only have to squeeze two buttons at either side for a couple of seconds.. I do
not find this very hard to do at all.. With the added benefit that you disable
faceid at the same time.. Useful in some situations..

~~~
jsgo
didn't know about that one, thanks. Seems there are different ways to go about
it with this being less steps than the tap up, tap down, hold lock I've been
using and doesn't interfere with screenshot.

------
bitmapbrother
Cut Gruber some slack. He needs to stay in Apple's graces.

~~~
bsaul
That’s where we are now. We integrated sponsored content so much, that we
don’t even get angry when some bloggers, writing under his own personal name,
seems to have been paid to write a piece of ad, in what is supposed to be a
personnal opinion.

This whole culture needs to go down the sh_tter. We tolerate youtubers lying
about things they like, bloggers lying about their own opinions, companies
hidding abusive conditions in their terms of usage, reselling private data,
and we consider it all fine because it’s made for the purpose of gaining
money.

Man, capitalism isn’t _about_ moral, but even capitalistic societies need some
kind of ethic...

~~~
bitmapbrother
This isn't about being paid. Gruber has too much integrity to do such a thing
and a serious journalist would never risk their reputation. What Gruber isn't
above is heavily criticizing Apple for fear of getting blacklisted because,
for a pro Apple blogger, that would be a death sentence.

~~~
bsaul
The crux of the matter is : does he say what he thinks is the truth, or not.
And if not, is it for any reason other than money ?

~~~
Paradise_Pete
I am pretty certain that Gruber says what he thinks. Some of it may be biased
thinking, but I believe it's genuine.

------
hungerstrike
There's so much to hate about the iPhone X - I'm glad it's failing because I
never want to see another phone like it again.

My biggest gripes are that I like buttons (even the fake iPhone 7 home button
is better than swiping) and I like rectangular screens without notches in
them. I also think Face ID is a terrible idea with no future. I predicted (and
got downvoted here on HN) that it would fail miserably - and it did. Haha!

I like things to be simple and always work. The iPhone X with all of its anti-
features fails to do that. I will never use a phone with any kind of gimmicky
Face or Touch ID system.

~~~
lnx01
It's not failing though, it's selling more than its stable brethren combined:
[https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/26/iphone-x-outperformed-
by-8-an...](https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/26/iphone-x-outperformed-
by-8-and-8-plus/)

~~~
hungerstrike
Yeah - during the first month. And then people figured out how bad it actually
was.

~~~
dbbk
What metric are you basing that on?

