iPhone X
A Review
I waited patiently as the UPS drive walked to the door, and thanked him before rushing inside to rip open the packaging. My first thought was, “wow.” My second thought was, “I hope I can set this up quickly, because I’m really hungry.”
Over ramen, I began to configure the new phone, deciding to eschew the iCloud backup in an effort to slim down my apps, and save on space. I’d chosen the 64gb, and thus far, that’s plenty of space. Within minutes, I’d almost forgotten there ever was a home button. Reaching for my iPhone 7 to take photos for this review, I repeatedly tried to swipe up to go home, to no avail. It’s a great interaction.
The Camera
The past few days I’ve taken loads of photos, both with and without the portrait camera. When the portrait feature works, it’s a dead-simple way to feel like a good portrait photographer. When it doesn’t, it can make some quite spooky photos, pictured below:
My cats are a great subject, so I’ve included a few iPhone 7 and iPhone X photos as well, to compare the cameras:
Overall, the camera seems to do better at night, and the telephoto is a nice addition that I haven’t tested much, but might be good for concerts. If you love taking photos with your phone, this is the one to get.
The Battery
Wow. I don’t know if my iPhone 7 battery had gotten worse, or what, but I’m consistently getting 3–4 more hours of iPhone X battery life, even with heavy use. I regularly had to charge throughout the day to keep going with my 7, but now, I’ve got something in bed at 1am that still has 3–15%. I’m sure this will change as I use it through the year, but for now… wow. I only tried the contact-charging feature once, at which time I found out my charger wasn’t good at holding the phone on it when the cats wandered around on my nightstand. I might try something magnetic later, but for now, plugging in isn’t a chore. Also, I use a magnetic car mount as well, so charging in on a wireless charger requires me to first take the phone out of its case, which is more annoying than plugging it in.
The Chomp
I don’t really notice it. It’s there, but meh. Content either ignores it or goes around it, and after a few hours, it wasn’t really there to me, just a part of the phone.
Apps
Apple obviously has their apps working around the chomp, and so do quite a few app makers. Everyone else has what I call “the shame bar,” which shows as black while in the app, or grey when you’re in the app switcher. I hope Google apps, and a few others that I use regularly update soon, but until then, they just feel like the app I used on the iPhone 7. Special shout out to Halide, the camera app I use, for redesigning the controls for the taller screen, bringing them closer to my thumbs. Love it.
Overall
This phone feels like a serious upgrade. This isn’t quite as big of a jump as when I went from a Nokia S60 phone to the iPhone 3GS, but it’s significant, and certainly better than any other iPhone I’ve owned. Because I use a case, and my friends don’t love tech as much as me, not many people have noticed it, but when they do, they’re all eager to try out the home-button-less phone. If you’re on the fence, and wondering what phone to get next, I think this is well-worth the bit extra every month for your payments, or the few hundred extra if you buy it outright. If this year feels too soon to upgrade, I’m sure next years iPhone will be even better, and you’ll get to benefit from Apple’s learned lessons with this one, but in my mind, this phone is already pretty damn fantastic.
Rating:
X/X
