Now I Understand the iPhone X Hype

Volume 104 - three minute read

September 21st, 2018

Last year when the iPhone X was announced, it was all the talk of the town and one of the prettiest pieces of hardware we had seen in a while. Despite the notch, everything about the iPhone X felt flawless and gorgeous.

As a digital product designer, I was also aware of the implications this screen and lack of home button that came with this upgrade. However, I decided to keep my iPhone 7 Plus for another year and wait it out until the next round of phones were introduced so I was never able to try out the phone myself.

Like I spoke about in last week’s article, I decided to pick up the iPhone XS Max and upgrade my Series 0 Apple Watch to the Series 4. I’ve had the new iPhone for not even a day and it’s such a drastic improvement from my iPhone 7 Plus. Not only is the screen absolutely massive, and yes it’s faster and more fluid as you’d expect, but it’s more than that.

You always hear Apple boast about working both software and hardware together but with this phone I feel I’ve truly experienced the merge of both coming together. It may sound trivial if you’ve had a chance to use an iPhone X, but I can’t get over how seamless and natural it feels to swipe up to go home. I thought for sure I would miss the home button, but removing that vibration of pressing home and smoothing from the slide up to the collapse of an app just feels amazing in-hand.

Not only swiping up from home, but swiping left and right on the bottom to quickly switch between apps you have in your drawer and swiping diagonally or pausing to open your app drawer feel so natural.

Another new incredible feature for me is Face ID. In comparison, my iPhone 7 Plus’ Touch ID feels archaic and cumbersome. I had my doubts about Face ID, especially in low light and side angles, but it has yet to fail in any situation I expected or tested it with. I was even able to open my phone in bed after taking off my glasses and being in a dark room.

I’m excited to see how else I learn to love the iPhone X screen and hardware design, but now I can say I do understand all the hype behind the iPhone X.

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Dennis Cortés
Designer that also codes, illustrates, writes weekly articles, and produces music. Hispanic. Pokémon Master.
www.cortes.us