First field report of iPhone X

Even though the overall tone of this review was upbeat and positive, it seemed that the baseline conclusion was: &quot;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.&quot; 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&#x27;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.<p>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&#x27;s unlocked. Hyping on FaceID is like saying, &quot;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.&quot;

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.<p><i></i> And they will unlock it while driving.

I keep reading about how the &quot;notch&quot; is ugly and annoying, but &quot;you get used to it&quot;. Like sitting behind someone with a big hat in the movie theatre, after awhile, you don&#x27;t even notice. Personally, I change seats in that scenario.<p>I just find it hard square claims of &quot;the future of the smartphone&quot; with reviews like &quot;you get used to it&quot;.

&quot;the most anticipated product in years&quot;... stopped reading there. Anticipated product in years ? Really ?? not even &quot;most anticipated <i>Apple</i> product in years &quot; ? For a phone with a missing button and a face recognition feature nobody cares about ??<p>I am an iOS developer, and i generally love apple product, but frankly it&#x27;s time everyone, including hard-core apple fans, agree that apple has been under-delivering those last 3 years.<p>If i had to say &quot;anticipated&quot; about something, i&#x27;d say the watch 3 is far more interesting and opens more application use.

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?)<p>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.

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&#x27;m tired of needing ginormous phones to get it.<p>This device seems to have a great screen in the perfect form factor for me.<p>I&#x27;m waiting to see some reviews before purchasing but the iPhone X is probably going to be my next phone.<p>Sidenote, anybody have any tips on migrating from android to iOS?

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.<p>As odd as the new design feels, Apple already <i>owns</i> this design, this buckle, this asymmetry.<p>Edit: Why the downvotes (just wondering)?

&gt; 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.<p>You&#x27;re not supposed to perform this action regularly.<p>&gt; 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.<p>This should work on iPad if you&#x27;re running iOS 11.

If my $300 Moto G5+ (temporary replacement for my bootlooped Nexus 5X) were to, well, f-ing <i>receive timely updates</i>, I&#x27;d stick with it for a while. 4 GB &#x2F; 64 GB (and the option to add a MicroSD card), Snapdragon... 625, IIRC. And a decent IPS display. It&#x27;s just fine.<p>I&#x27;d love to have a better camera, but not at 3x the price.<p>Yeah, this isn&#x27;t an &quot;Apple&quot; comment. But it is a &quot;US$800 - $1200&quot; comment. And an &quot;it&#x27;s not really your device&quot; comment. Not when we are at the &quot;mercy&quot; of vendors to provide necessary updates -- or, more often, not to.<p>On that front, Apple is clearly winning. But a grand is a lot to pay for it.<p>P.S. My G5+ has a headphone jack. Useful that now Bluetooth is borked until it receives the update&#x2F;fix -- IF it ever receives it.<p>Yeah, I&#x27;m a broken record... But it&#x27;s a song these vendors ripely deserve.

My two questions are:<p>1. Is the X worth the extra $200&#x2F;$300 on top of the 8? 2. Is the X worth the $1k+<p>I know &quot;worth&quot; is relative and depends on your personal requirements, but from someone who&#x27;s likely a software dev on this site, is it really worth spending that kind of money?

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

Can&#x27;t help wondering if FaceID&#x27;s more of a PITA than a help. Do I always have to stop and stare at my phone? What if I&#x27;m walking?

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&#x2F;6S&#x2F;7&#x2F;8 Plus it&#x27;s width is really like that of a iPhone 6&#x2F;6S&#x2F;7&#x2F;8 and not a Plus. So for Plus users, there&#x27;s no replacement here it seems.

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.

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.

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

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

&gt;The iPhone X (pronounced “ten,” not as in X-ray)...<p>Do people really not know Roman Numerals anymore?

One thing to Apple PR credit is faceid. For me it&#x27;s hot needle replacement for failed attempt to integrate touchid into display, but for most people it is innovation.

&gt; “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.”<p>That&#x27;s Steve Jobs.<p>The notch is a compromise. The spec Apple needed was &quot;no notch&quot;. Forcing developers to embrace a premature design decision based on a feature that they couldn&#x27;t make happen is hypocritical at best.<p>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.<p>-----<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2012&#x2F;04&#x2F;the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2012&#x2F;04&#x2F;the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve...</a>

Face ID is going to be a monumental failure for people who dock their phones on their desk or car. It&#x27;s also going to annoy everybody who likes things to happen fast <i>all the time</i> because Face ID will definitely cause a delay and frustrate every user at some point. I have no doubt about this.<p>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 &quot;global gestures&quot; and &quot;application gestures&quot;.<p>EDIT: <i>Oh please</i> - tell me why you disagree and prove to me that you&#x27;re not just an illogical, emotional mob. You think Apple never made a mistake? Pffffftttt! I just spilled my coffee.

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?