It's time to discuss the reviews about. The official sales of the smartphone have already taken place, many users received the phone even earlier by pre-order and already had a little experience of "communicating" with the new product. Should you buy the iPhone X or rather the iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus. Or maybe even opt for alternative smartphones from other manufacturers? Let's see what the real owners of the "apple" flagship, which everyone has been waiting for, are saying.
Unfortunately, this is the first iPhone in the last 10 years to have a flickering screen. The iPhone X has an AMOLED matrix manufactured by Samsung. As shown by iXBT testing, at brightness below 50%, the screen flickers (with 100% amplitude at a frequency of 60-200 hertz). For sensitive people like me, it causes visual fatigue and headaches. Also, the subpixels are made according to the PenTile layout (not RGB), which reduces the real screen clarity. In other words, the high resolution compensates for the PenTile drawback, but the battery and CPU are wasted on higher resolution calculations. These two disadvantages are inherent in all Samsung smartphones with AMOLED matrices. iPhone X is a very unusual innovative smartphone. But for me personally, the flickering of the screen makes it impossible to use this phone for a long time. New control gestures take some getting used to. If you are used to the Home button, it will be awkward and unusual at first. But I think that it will be possible to get used to it. Using Apple Pay for purchases also needs to be retrained. First, you need to turn on the smartphone (but not unlock), look at the screen perpendicularly for Face ID to work, then attach it to the payment terminal. With Touch ID, it was a little more convenient. I decided to stay on the iPhone 7 and wait for future models after the iPhone X - maybe they will add a Touch ID scanner and fix the flickering problems.
Pluses: Bright screen. Performance. Fits comfortably in the hand.
Disadvantages: Many games and applications are not optimized for this screen. As always, the battery lasts no more than half a day of use. No Touch ID Phace ID works noticeably slower than Touch ID. Not funny anymore. The bangs from above do not look very good. Due to the fact that there is no button, it is not very convenient to use the phone, but maybe I'm not used to it. Due to the fact that the camera on the back sticks out the phone when it lies on the table, it constantly knocks with the back cover, which is very infuriating.
A comment about the phone: I really love it, I like it very much.
Advantages: One way or another, ios is the main advantage of iPhones. I used both android and ayos, but my soul still lies with the second. Smoothness, crust, simplicity, new gestures without a button are very convenient, you get used to it instantly. Pairing with watches and headphones is fast, with cool animations, etc. The system is as always on top. This is where the positives end.
Disadvantages: Design. Bulging camera, Apple, what are you !? Why was the Samsung able to make it flush with the case, but you weren't? This is awful! The sharp-edged bezel around the camera, the microphone opening and the flash position are all ugly! Looks like a self-propelled gun, cheap china. There are no words!!! Framework. This is far from a bezel-less smartphone. It does not produce a WOW effect at first glance, like the same s8. The frames are large, in appearance, they are larger than the side frames of the previous models. Plus the body is more rounded and it also adds a "frame". Surprisingly, the island did not push me away from the rhinestone, and I even liked this idea and the norms look alive, but the frames for the most expensive apple flagship are very large. The camera is normal for 2d17, but this boke, as it was squalor, remains the same. Thanks to the neural network, portraits are obtained more or less normally, but still sometimes the hair and edges of the face are clouded, or, on the contrary, the background next to the border with the face is not clouded. In short, system processing, what does the second camera have to do with it, I still do not understand. Using Photoshop in 5 minutes, you can make the same bokeh on any photo, only 2 times better. Apple relied on a second portrait camera in last year's model, but it failed and didn't fix anything. The battery holds exactly the same as the seven NOT plus. About the lack of memory variations, the slowness of the face id, not the best screen brightness, the meager delivery set, everything has already been discussed by everyone. And of course the price. This phone is not even worth $ 1000, let alone RUR 80,000. Comment: I bought it in the USA at the request of a friend, I also wanted to take it myself, but changed my mind. I expected more. I used Samsung, but the android did not like it. ios is nicer even when it starts to lag on older models.
Not a bad, beautiful smartphone. I use it for 3 days, unusual but very cool. The screen is bright and clear saturated in moderation. Face ID works great. Faster than samsung smartphones. iOS 11 does not slow down.
Pluses: Design.
Disadvantages: Eyes hurt from the display. Glass. Annoying is this cutout on top. Lack of touch-id, it is terribly inconvenient to constantly pick up the phone to unlock. There are light friezes, they may soon be fixed.
Commentary: Not a bad smartphone with a great design, but everything is spoiled by the glass on the back. Most of all, the display was upset by a new technology for Apple, OLED, it has PWM (flickering at low brightness), which makes your eyes very tired and start to hurt, but not all people have such a reaction to these displays. Face ID is certainly not bad, but we are waiting for the print to be transferred to the display, but this is still an intermediate option. Price aside, it's not a bad smartphone. Fans of the brand will be delighted, and adequate people will most likely prefer a more serious model.
I have an iPhone X 256GB Space Gray and I really like the phone except ...I live in Finland and it is cold (-30-5 ° C) for about 6-7 months a year.I noticed yesterday that when I am outside and the temperature reaches around -1 ° C, the display of my iPhone X is not working properly.Some gestures are not recognized.The problem resolves on its own after about 3-5 minutes of use or when I return to a closed room.
We wrote more about the problem "iPhone X does not work in the cold".
Pros: Screen, battery life, eyebrow, Face ID, Camera.
Disadvantages: Face ID at night in bed, maintainability. It is very expensive to change a broken screen. Replacing a broken rear glass is even more expensive.
Comment: I bought it on the first day for 65K, I didn't have to sell the kidney. The first thing I noticed after 6s is the battery life. Now the phone does not discharge after 3-4 hours of use, but it may well live for a day, while not just lying in air mode, but working normally. (see photo). The glass looks rather fragile, the next day after buying the phone it was decided to buy an original leather case, it still looks cool. I was also pleased with the work of Face ID and notifications: the phone does not show the content of notifications until you just look at the screen - it’s right ️. The eyebrow is cool, I got used to new gestures on the very first day, there was no irritation at all that they had changed.
After walking for three days with a dozen, I took my old 6-ku, and realized that this is already history, and smartphones will now be like X. Whether you like it or not. There are no comments on the work, the face always recognizes, you just need to look at the phone, in the dark the same. Nicely heavy, the battery lasts a long time (but this is in contrast to my 6th killed at zero). The screen is cool, clear and large. At the same time, the phone fits freely in the hand and in the pocket of jeans, and it is as easy to use it as the 6th (read 6,7,8). I forgot about the home button after 15 minutes, and why did they even come up with it ?! By a combination of factors - quality, design, reliability - the absolute leader, no options.
Advantages: Finally, the phone was pulled up to the level of the Chinese / Koreans - wireless charging, OLED screen, frameless design, face scanner.
Disadvantages: 1. No 2 SIM 2. Beard at the top of the screen 3. No 3.5 headphone jack 4. Weak battery 5. Price.
Commentary: In my opinion, it is not profitable to take a phone - some competitors ask for the same functionality twice cheaper ...
Bulging camera. Constant fear of dropping. Blows heavily. I didn't like Face ID because it takes a long time to unlock (about 2-3 seconds pass). very high price (bought for 130 thousand rubles). We use it for 4 days, everyone is looking around. but you have to get used to using without a button.
I listen to music quite often through the iPhone X speakers, and I immediately noticed a slight crackling sound.Since many of us have noticed this noise, my guess is that it is software, not hardware.
Fresh iPhone 10 reviews from owners
A few more reviews about the iPhone 10 for today from the owners and users of the new product, which may be useful to you when deciding whether to buy a new iPhone X or not?
I have been using the device for almost a month and a half, so I have gained some experience of using it. Prior to this, a year passed with the Galaxy S7 Edge, so I will compare some points. So. 1. Autonomy. What I like about the IOS and iPhones "Plus" versions is their moderate appetite for everyday use. "X" was no exception. The battery consumption is easily predictable and it is always clear by what time it will be necessary to put it on charge. On the S7 Edge, guessing if I had enough until the evening or not was hard. Samsung sucked out the battery even while lying on the table. It happened that an hour and a half of the screen's work would drip, and at the same time the charge level was already in the region of 50%. The iPhone is discharged the way you use it. In defense of the S7 Edge, I can only say that in the game mode it holds tens better thanks to a more capacious battery. 2) Face Id. I was skeptical after the presentation. In fact, it works very well, unlocking is fast, errors are rare (at the same level as touch ID). Now I am absolutely not worried that I have gloves or that my fingers are wet. + really liked the implementation of notifications on the lock screen. The text of the notification is shown only to the owner of the smartphone, while the rest will be able to see only the shortcut with the name of the application. Friends and other curious people will not be able to read the correspondence. In the cons I will only write down the impossibility of recognition in horizontal mode. 3) No lags, no bugs. After S7 Edge, it's just a holiday, everything works smoothly and quickly. Samsung liked to dull, it bothered me. 4) The quality of the screen is good. My copy's white is better than the S7 Edge, but I use TrueTone, which makes the screen warm and stress-free. I often read books. But after Samsung with a comparable diagonal, the screen is narrow here. It takes a habit. 5) Design and dimensions. The smartphone looks just great for my taste. With a comparable diagonal, the size is smaller than that of the Galaxy S8. Lies well in the hand. The presence of glass in the back is upsetting, I personally like metal more.
I thought for a long time, read reviews and specifications before buying. Before that, there were 6. Dropped because it's time to update your phone. If I had 6s, 7.8 probably wouldn't change. Considered 8, but this is nothing new, just improved performance. Face ID fire, I really like it, it's definitely better than a fingerprint (fingerprint on 6 worked 50 to 50) !!! I did not take on credit and not for the latter, of course, a little expensive, but the last Samsung 55 is also worth it! SAMSUNG 55! Androyd did not even consider !!! Therefore, 80 for an iPhone is normal (I reassure myself)! Conclusion: take it if you have an extra 80 rubles, do not read negative reviews - everything works, he is glad, everyone is looking, envious. If you think it's better to take a car for this money, then you probably don't need such a phone).
A little too big, a little heavy, but generally satisfied. I chose between 8 and X. The issues of pros and cons of iPhone, Samsung, Huawei have already been discussed. You need to take what you like. I am used to IOS. I wanted to take 8, but I was not impressed. Slight difference from 7 and 6. Taking X-ku in my hands, I realized that at the moment he suits me with everything (especially with a large screen), except for the price. Of course the toad tormented me a little. Not an oligarch, but decided that I can afford to have one. I took the officially imported device for work at the recommended price for Russia 2 weeks after the start of sales. I never understood those who are ready to overpay in order to have it before others, unless it is just a gift for a loved one or a loved one. I did not find any glitches during my work. It works in the cold, the screen does not flicker, the sound is normal, applications fly. Nobody seemed to complain about the branded service. If there is no financial capacity, then you can choose something cheaper. Not everyone can distinguish an iPhone 6 from an 8 in a case. But my son is a fan of Huawei with a 20 MP camera and this phone suits him completely for work. A kidney is definitely not worth selling for an iPhone. I think in the spring Samsung will release more abruptly than the iPhone. Everyone decides for himself what to take. But today the X-ka is the most technically advanced device and, moreover, it is very convenient to work with.
The screen, stretched out, you can no longer use with one hand (for example, if you want to adjust the brightness, you need to pull the settings out of the upper corner, where you cannot reach with one hand) Face ID - to unlock the phone you need to look at it directly. Or dial the pin code. The screen, due to the protrusion at the top, some applications are not designed for the new design, and this protruding part closes the eran (in my case there were buttons that I could not press, I had to turn the phone over) Sometimes the screen closes with a message when you print and decided to add emoticons, after which you see nothing.
Hopefully a number of bugs will be fixed in the future. Since you can see that they were in a hurry to release something new (Steve Jobs would not approve of this approach to work, they made a device from a mega convenient phone that irritates) In general, the phone is normal, but there are some things that really piss off like Face ID, when you want to open but not it is convenient to look at it (I use the phone for several days) I think it would be better to take the iPhone 8. And in 1-2 years I would take a new one, where the errors will already be corrected.
If you do not want to overpay, then you can look at Tmall... The prices are much nicer there.
- 64GB version - about 60,000 rubles,
- 256 GB version - about 70,000 rubles.
Delivery from Russia to the door, all PCT devices and they have an official guarantee. So you can save a lot!
he will have to deserve us?
in 24 hours
in many stores in the country, and real reviews do not hide. This is one of them.
on the Apple website.
Uh, WOW
But emotions have dulled in 10 years
I managed to miss you.
such.
return to iPhone 4
I immediately noticed that
Natural steel color - silver
chips
the best white iPhone since the iPhone 5.
It's just very, VERY
In short - yes, but you have to be careful.
Adapted.
forget iPhone Plus as a relic of the past.
little
already, but longer
Drop iPhone X Easier
you.
frames are slippery SUPER slippery almost to the point of discomfort.
However, otherwise ergonomics X ok.
It's great.
nose
🗻 Is the bump interfering or not?
It gets in the way, but you'll get used to it.
Little... And in itself does not interfere.
sharp top edges
hide.
Firstly
Secondly
Thirdly
Oh yeah.
iPhone X
✅ Pros of the iPhone X screen
Black colors are now black.
The clarity of the screen is the highest.
The colors have become more contrasting.
True Tone works wonders.
There is HDR support!
The screen is simply brighter.
❌ Cons of iPhone X display
There is still a framework.
The display flickers.
The display width has decreased.
So I put it here a plus into the iPhone X's piggy bank.
Yes and no.
BUT.
looked and that's it
works flawlessly in any conditions.
straightaway go to desktop.
normal password
There is
It will hurt.
it is forbidden
Alas, nautical strip
how fast it was on the iPhone 7 Plus.
What's the logic?
The strip, however, has one GIANT plus
right left corner.
Compatibility Mode
Youtube, Chrome and Whatsapp
I'm not a fan of the new keyboard
🐱 Are Animoji worth it?
Yes, twice.
convey almost any grimace
blinking
🔋 Battery life?
iPhone X works
Finally no need to buy Plus
I almost forgot about wireless charging Working!
It got a little better.
f / 2.8 before f / 2.4.
lighter than before.
Google pixel, the miracle will not happen yet.
You can take it to everyone.
iPhone X in this sense - real iPhone of the future
No need to wait for other parties, in these complete order.
Don't forget necessarily take any case
Buy iPhone X for 64 GB in Russia: RUB 79,990
Buy iPhone X for 256 GB in Russia: RUB 91,990
💥 iPhone X Review. First Honest New iPhone
We have scolded Apple for too long to let it release another iPhone 6.
Do we deserve this iPhone X, or he will have to deserve us?
I do not know how this question could be answered in 24 hours which Apple gave to the first reviewers. Obviously, the company really wanted to give a minimum of time and make sure that they wrote well about the device and did not have time to dig into it.
But now the sales have started. You can buy iPhone X in many stores in the country, and real reviews do not hide. This is one of them.
I will not only praise him. In order not to waste time in vain, I will leave behind the scenes the obvious things, such as technical characteristics. You can see them on the Apple website.
You know, I really want to start the review with pure emotions. Like Uh, WOW and so on, lifting from the depths the startling feeling of 2007. The first iPhone that changed everything deserved these words.
But emotions have dulled in 10 years, and expectations have grown unreasonably. Maybe that's why Apple pushed journalists - to squeeze more emotion out of them instead of skepticism.
One way or another, I unpacked the device once or twice, leaving the kit untouched. I transferred data from my iPhone 7 Plus and went into the real world, where many surprises awaited me.
😍 Design and materials. Glass and steel, haven't seen each other for a long time
I managed to miss you.
Apple has been preparing a design for a new smartphone for several years so that we can hide it under a case. This is the fate of all modern expensive smartphones - practicality beats beauty.
But it's still great to know that you are holding a really cool, stylish device in your hands. iPhone X viz such.
To be honest, the design of the iPhone X evokes the best possible memories: in fact, it is return to iPhone 4, for many, the most beautiful iPhone in Apple history. We came to steel and glass again.
Purely in terms of sensations, the “ten” is not at all similar to the iPhone 4. It had sharp edges of both the glass and the steel frame. The iPhone X continues the shape of the iPhone 6 with its rounded edges except for one.
I immediately noticed that the steel case does not merge with the display: It has a thin small bezel flanking the module and visible from the front. If on a black model you feel it only tactilely, then on a white frame you can always see it, it shines in the light.
Natural steel color - silver... The frame in the black model has an additional glossy finish on the top, and I am beginning to suspect that this is even good: it should take on minor abrasions and keep the original look of the smartphone longer.
In the white model, the frame is simply polished, and I am already afraid of what will become of it after six months of wearing. It will scratch faster than aluminum. Also possible chips the top edge of the frame. I’m talking about this before the start of sales, be on the lookout.
Both iPhone X colors differ from iPhone 8... The black model is really black even in bright light - no milky gray like the iPhone 8. And the white model, unlike the same “eight”, is closer to mother-of-pearl: its shade under glass is slightly grayer, less saturated to better match the bezel of steel.
Confidently name the white iPhone X the best white iPhone since the iPhone 5.
It's just very, VERY beautiful smart live. A separate respect to Apple for the fact that the display in both models is black - oddly enough, even with a polished steel frame, it looks gorgeous.
When choosing between black and white iPhone X, be guided not only by your preferences, but also by the very practicality. The bezels of the black model are not that impressive. But on the other hand, they have to withstand more wear and tear than the white model.
Conversely, the frames of the white model can theoretically be polished (only very carefully so as not to touch the display) and return their shine. But with black it will not work.
✋ Ergonomics and convenience. Is iPhone X better than iPhone Plus?
In short - yes, but you have to be careful.
They say rightly that after trying Plus, you don't want a regular iPhone. I was completely satisfied with the 7 and got used to all the difficulties that a wide large smartphone brings. So much so that I stopped noticing how I was intercepting the phone for the sake of the far corners of the display. Or I support it with my finger. Adapted.
But like millions of other iPhone Plus fans, I often thought about cheating. After all, a small smartphone is logical and convenient. If they always had huge displays, we would never need shovels.
The result is predictable: a day has passed with the iPhone X, and I'm already ready forget iPhone Plus as a relic of the past.
The iPhone X seems to be the same as the 4.7-inch regular iPhones. Here you take it in your hands and out of habit you think that it little, quite straight. Only the soul immediately becomes good when the display turns on. No, buddy, you haven't lost anything.
The case in comparison with the plus has become already, but longer... Hence the impression that the phone is almost the same as the 4.7-inch model. The difference is felt instantly and confuses muscle memory - the habits are strong.
Be really careful the first day of use because Drop iPhone X Easier than any other iPhone in Apple history.
The first time you have to fight habits. It may seem that the iPhone X is somehow uncomfortable and is testing you.
For example, I noticed that I used to often put my thumb on the lower strip - now this is not possible, because there is a display. And when I had to reach the opposite upper edge, then (according to old memory) I threw the smartphone down my hand so hard that it almost flew out of my hands.
But okay habits. I already wrote that I am afraid for the steel frames of the iPhone X and their durability. There is one more problem: frames are slippery... No, guys, not even that. They SUPER slippery almost to the point of discomfort.
If you are unsure to hold X in your hands, it will simply begin to slide down. And vice versa, when you squeeze your hand tightly, the phone tries to slip out. Therefore, be sure to plan to buy a cover - whatever, if only there was something to confidently grab.
The glass back panel adds minor inconveniences. It has almost no effect on ergonomics in the hands. But she has an oleophobic coating smartphone slides bless you! If the phone lies on an uneven surface, it starts to slowly crawl down until it falls. And it will slide to the end, I promise.
When the vibration of an incoming call works, the iPhone X briskly drives on any surface, moving one or two centimeters, often to the edge of the table. So watch out for him! Do not leave unattended without wearing a case.
This may seem like nit-picking because it is nit-picking. But I can't help but warn you. Because the iPhone X is expensive, nothing is clear about repairs in Russia. It will be a shame to break it in the first two months.
However, otherwise ergonomics X ok.
Having overcome your habits and becoming a little more careful, you begin to notice: what used to require two hands can be done with one... It's great.
After another couple of days, I completely forgot that I had recently taken out my other hand to write a message or press a button in the corner of the screen. No joke, when I was 7 Plus, I periodically poked at the screen nose without being able to use both hands. Now you don't need to do that.
And it's a little nicer to carry it in your pocket.
Therefore, I highly recommend the iPhone X to anyone who currently uses Plus and has thought about buying a smaller smartphone at least once. It's really upgrade with minimal losses and your hands will be grateful for it. You just need to buy a cover and that's it.
🗻 Is the bump interfering or not?
It gets in the way, but you'll get used to it.
There was so much talk about the hump of the iPhone X screen before its release! And how strange it is to see him live. Because he is small. Little... And in itself does not interfere.
But he is, you cannot run away from him. Like a crack through the glass of a shattered iPhone, it reminds of itself on a regular basis. The first time is definitely annoying. It just doesn't visually fit into the shape of the screen, right?
I thought for a long time what exactly pissed me off in my hump, and I understood. Not its presence, but the fact that the display rests there sharp top edges... Too harsh, even though Apple tried to round them off. As if a piece had been cut with scissors.
On the other hand, this piece is almost never seen and can be partially hide.
Personally, I stopped hating the hump of the iPhone X just by writing a review. Three steps were enough for me.
Firstly, put for the first time a desktop picture with a black background. Or, already with a strip. On them, the bump of the screen is not visible at all. Denial works at first.
Secondly, run all programs that you use frequently. Many of them are not yet adapted to the high resolution of the iPhone X and therefore display black bars at the top and bottom. For example, Skype. This transitional period will ease the suffering of the perfectionist.
Thirdly, just accept reality: the hump is not going anywhere, and the developers will eventually come up with something to hide it organically. Maybe even Apple will help. There is no way out anyway, why not stop driving?
So I stopped. Exactly zero emotion. Because you get used to it, you accept it as it is.
So if a hump really stops you personally from buying - give it up, because very soon you will simply stop noticing it.
🔮 Full body display - do you need it?
Oh yeah.
Apple's competitors have pampered the world with large screens with thin bezels. After a dozen of these smartphones, the iPhone X display may seem mundane. But in vain.
I split the screen experience into pros and cons.
✅ Pros of the iPhone X screen
Black colors are now black. The wait for OLED in the iPhone was worth it: at any screen brightness, black does not turn gray-blue (hello iPhone 7). The contrast between light and dark fragments is now as strong as in real life. My wallpaper with a black background now looks awesome, as if merging with the edges at any brightness.
The clarity of the screen is the highest. The Retina HD display resolution has increased from 1920 x 1080 pixels on the iPhone Plus to 2436 x 1125 pixels, and the diagonal has increased by only 0.3 inches. The result: super-high sharpness of the picture, the absolute impossibility of seeing individual pixels. By running a 2K YouTube video at a distance of 5cm from my eyes, I see a lot more detail. The same goes for photographs.
Sharpness does not fatigue or interfere with readability. Apple is applying new anti-aliasing and image enhancement technology here. Therefore, high resolution does not expose too sharp edges around the letters, and ultra-fine details are not covered with “mesh” or moiré just because the screen has so many pixels: the picture is always solid, pleasing to the eye, but at the same time detailed and crisp.
The colors have become more contrasting. Not much and not so much as in the Korean flagships - but so that the iPhone 7 Plus looks faded next to it. Especially I noticed the difference in the display of green and red colors, they are now richer and brighter at the same time.
The screen responds better to scrolling. It's hard to explain, but it often seems that the iPhone X has a better understanding of how you want to scroll the screen and at what point you stop your finger. I read and found out that the touch panel "tens" reads data 120 times per second, and in previous models - 60 times. This does not affect the animation, but it gives the impression that the smartphone responds to commands a little faster.
Low brightness is more bearable than before. The high contrast of the iPhone X allows the highlights of the display to be slightly lighter than before, even at low brightness. This is best seen when reading books at night. Black always remains black: by changing the brightness, you only change it for the active light pixels, and the rest are simply off.
True Tone works wonders. Do not underestimate this feature and even more so turn it off if you are not working with the color of photos or videos. The display subtly and nicely adjusts to the surrounding lighting, greatly relieving the strain on the eyes. This is especially noticeable in yellow home lighting. The effect differs from the iPhone 8 in the direction of increased saturation of the white correction, and I have not yet figured out which of the two implementations I like better. True Tone also makes life easier for photographers, because you no longer have to bother with the lighting conditions around the iPhone, so as not to spoil the screen colors in the picture. But this is so, the problems of our profession.
There is HDR support! But so far only in iTunes and in the Netflix app. HDR enhances the contrast of lights and shadows on the screen while preserving their detail. It is difficult to convey in words, but, for example, the sky in films looks bright and juicy, and the sun seems to be really shining. It's bad that there is no support for YouTube yet - but nothing seems to bother her. So, we are waiting for the update.
The screen is simply brighter. I don’t know why this is so, because according to the data sheet, both smartphones have the same maximum brightness - up to 625 cd / m². But at max level, the iPhone X just crushes my iPhone 7 Plus on all fronts. Perhaps these are the wonders of OLED. In bright street light, this is especially pleasing, because screen readability in such conditions was not a strong point of iPhones before.
And the main thing. The frames are now smaller. To truly appreciate this, you need to watch the video on the iPhone X in full screen mode. Or photographs. Both look frankly cool. So much so that I want to somehow remove my own hands, blocking the active part of the display. Alas, it does not give the impression that you are holding one display, but emotionally, such a screen is banally liked more and is addictive.
❌ Cons of iPhone X display
There is still a framework. Now they are almost uniform, except for the tubercle at the top. The phone seems to be framed by an even black stripe, from which you can't run away on light backgrounds. This is a different approach than the rounded edges of Korean smartphone displays, and is a little less impressive.
The display flickers. I personally do not notice the fact itself, it can only be seen on video recordings. But the brain cannot be fooled. When you look at the iPhone X screen on the first day, it constantly seems that something is wrong, as if the picture is moving or a little soapy. OLED is not an LCD panel that reflects a static image. The strange feeling goes away after a couple of days of use, but I can understand people who will not like this screen. Some of you are physiologically doomed to notice OLED flicker more than others, so before buying, I advise you to watch the iPhone X live.
True Tone goes overboard at times. This was not the case on the iPhone 8. In amber lighting conditions at home, the iPhone X can expose a very, very yellow white balance, dramatically altering the color gamut of the smartphone. The effect itself cannot be adjusted, it can only be turned off. It lacks the saturation slider that Night Shift has. I think this will be fixed in the next iOS versions.
The display width has decreased. And not only in terms of aspect ratio: one line of the display often fits a little less content than the iPhone Plus. Since iOS uses dynamic scaling, web pages shrink slightly more in width than Plus. And the pictures of the desktop, placed on the "plus", now crawl out of the edges of the screen. Considering the resolution, this is a small minus, but you just need to know about it.
Of all this, I would single out only one real minus - the work of True Tone. The rest can be seen right away in the store, and if you don't like the iPhone X display, long-term use will not change anything.
While the review was being prepared, information appeared that some models of the iPhone X. I checked mine, I have a complete order. And even if it weren't there, OLED panels have a weakness in grayscale, and even Apple can be powerless here.
Personally, I am satisfied. I don't notice the flickering anymore, I'm used to such a picture. The eyes do not get tired, the head does not hurt. The OLED panel in the iPhone X has more pros to blindly abandon the device.
So I put it here a plus into the iPhone X's piggy bank.
😶 Face ID. Better than Touch ID?
Yes and no.
I love Face ID, but so far with more BUT.
I love that now all you have to do is look at the iPhone to unlock it. Here's the truth - looked and that's it... The sensor's response speed is even faster than the lock animation on the screen.
I take my phone out of my pocket, look at it and immediately use it. No need to pull your fingers towards the sensor. This is especially cool now, with the onset of cold weather. Gloves will not interfere now.
And I can now follow the notification to the app directly from the lock screen without entering a password - because the iPhone 10 has already let me in. In ideal use cases, Face ID beats Touch ID unconditionally and seems like a real boon from Apple.
Face recognition after 5 days works flawlessly in any conditions.
On the first day, the device did not want to recognize me in the hat, and on the second there were problems with insufficient or uneven lighting. But somehow miraculously (or rather, using machine learning), the iPhone X recognized me from all sides and now lets me in 99 times out of 100.
And how convenient it is to use Apple Pay with Face ID! I pressed the lock button twice and entered the menu with cards. It turned out to be easier than hitting Touch ID, because it will no longer be possible to accidentally unlock the display.
Only I really miss the times when it was enough for me to put my finger on the Touch ID and straightaway go to desktop.
The logic behind Face ID is clearly not thought out right now. Here is the phone on the table. How to unlock it without picking it up? You have to reach there with your face and wait a second. It looks strange, strange to do.
You say, they say, Nikita, and what prevents you from entering normal password? So I don’t know. Tim Cook, can you tell me?
The fact is that the password entry window opens only after an unsuccessful attempt to recognize Face ID. Or after twitching (you cannot say otherwise) the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, which in itself does not look like a thoughtful gesture.
To solve this problem, Apple needs to either add a quick access button for entering a password, or immediately show the password window instead of the lock screen, rather than wait for a Face ID recognition error. There is no such thing yet.
There is another loss in functionality... Touch ID had a cool setting in iOS: the iPhone would instantly skip the lock screen when you put your finger on the sensor. Face ID doesn't work that way. After face recognition, you have to swipe up from the bottom to go to the desktop - an additional movement, from which you have time to wean. It’s bad that there is no such setting now, or I didn’t find it.
Please note: my negative can be solved by simply adding settings in new versions of iOS. So, there is hope for Apple. Otherwise, I don't miss Touch ID. But sometimes I miss the button itself.
Now is the time to discuss what was tricky in Cupertino with iOS - and the methods of smartphone control, to which I still cannot get used to normally.
👆 iOS and interface. Will it hurt to get used to it?
It will hurt.
I remember the day when Apple released the first version of iOS 7. I put it on the iPhone and didn't understand anything, and the next week I was learning to use the iPhone again.
This strange feeling of the incomprehensible and new is alien to iPhone owners. But it greets the iPhone X buyer with a clawed embrace, nerve-wracking.
Expect to learn to use your iPhone again for at least a couple of days.
Here I will be more about impressions.
The navbar is a little annoying, but what can you do
As of iOS 11.2, I don't like that Apple has dedicated so much screen real estate to the navbar. Her it is forbidden turn it off, which is a little annoying after 5 days of use - after all, I already understood everything and know that it is there. Why can't you turn it off?
Alas, nautical strip at the bottom of the screen is your friend whom you do not love but cannot kick out because he is useful. The strip is almost always displayed, in any screen orientation. There is often an empty area defined for it at the bottom of the display so that you don't touch anything when exiting a program or invoking multitasking.
She replaced the Home button. And in many ways working with her slower than before... For example, Apple's definitive miss is how multitasking is now called.
Remember that double tapping Home takes a fraction of a second? On the iPhone X, multitasking requires 2-3 seconds of gestures. You need to put your finger on the navigation bar, pull up, then sideways, then swipe to the side.
I got used to it, but every time I remember how fast it was on the iPhone 7 Plus.
And how did the programs close before? Swipe across the window in multitasking, done. But in the iPhone X you have to put your finger on the window, wait a couple of seconds. Then the "minus" icon will appear, and already by pressing it, you can unload the application.
I already wrote that now you cannot open multitasking and close all 150 applications that you once opened with furious swipes. But then I realized: this option works if you have already called the "minus" icon. Live and learn, but this does not negate the strangeness of logic.
Sometimes iOS thinks that instead of a long press, you just want to scroll through the windows, and you have to lift your finger and pinch again, being afraid to move it even a millimeter. And why does swiping a program up just hide multitasking and bring it back to the desktop? What's the logic?
I understand that these are ridiculous problems. But such little things cause negative feedback from using the iPhone X - it seems that iOS does not understand you. Or you don't understand her. It's like you took an Android smartphone for the first time, and everything is different there.
The strip, however, has one GIANT plus... If you swipe to the left on it, you will open the previous application. It happens instantly, without complicated animations, and even works from the desktop.
The trick is unrealistically convenient if you use several programs at the same time. For example, you jump from the messenger to the notes with one easy swipe. It's quick access to multitasking without opening a list of all programs at once - and it really makes serious work on a smartphone easier.
You have to do something about multitasking in the iPhone X, and here all the cards are in Apple's hands. We are waiting for iOS 11.3 or iOS 12 in general next year.
Action Center and Control Center - Where are you
Both chips are tied to the upper corners of the display. To call the control point (where the brightness, flashlight and other buttons), you need to pull down right upper corner. And the notification curtain opens from left corner.
Apple did this because the bottom of the screen is now occupied by the navigation bar. And the options, I agree, the Cupertinians did not have. But calling the control center from the bottom up was a little more convenient than from top to bottom.
Plus it takes some time to get used to this scheme. I constantly confused these curtains at the beginning, now I figured it out.
Many applications have not yet been adapted for iPhone X
This is not unusual. It takes time for developers to prepare programs for the iPhone X. Therefore, almost everything I have runs in compatibility mode.
Compatibility Mode- these are black bars at the bottom and top of the screen. Inside them, the program runs in the standard definition of previous iPhone models. That is, compatibility in theory is complete.
In reality, many even adapted programs are working crookedly now... Letters can overlap. The buttons next to the hump of the screen are sometimes not pressed. In general, everything next to it tends to be buggy, because the developers have not yet had time to test the software on devices.
I caught a few glitches in popular programs like Youtube, Chrome and Whatsapp, due to which you had to close the application and reopen it. Well, there are sometimes freezes of third-party software, but rarely.
This transition period will end in about two or three months, so there are no complaints about Apple. Just get ready.
I'm not a fan of the new keyboard
The last iOS thing that has changed noticeably for the iPhone X is how the keyboard looks. It was expanded to full screen, removing the language switch and dictation button.
Both buttons are now located at the bottom, next to the navigation bar. Language switching is not so convenient to call, like before. It is necessary to additionally reach down with a finger. And the dictation button periodically falls under the palm of the hand during text input and accidentally triggers.
It would be cool not so much to change that as to add a button there for quick access to emoji. Well really, Apple people use them right and left. Dictation is clearly less needed, especially when you can send a voice message.
🐱 Are Animoji worth it?
Yes, twice.
First time - to my wife. The second time - to myself, because it was interesting to try. Enough for now.
Animoji are cool in the sense that you can through them convey almost any grimace... When Mikk sends in another mega-joke, I'll just act like a kind of disgust. Well, with girls, I'm sure animoji will be very in the subject.
It is a pity that only 12 types of faces are preinstalled, and their expressiveness is limited by the features of the 3D model. Some grimaces are simply not captured by the camera correctly. For example, it often does not work blinking with one eye. Will be fixed in the next iOS versions.
Otherwise, I have not noticed any changes in the way iOS works. Everything is as smooth and fast as it was on iOS 11.2 in the iPhone 7 Plus. The difference in performance between the two generations is quite large, by about 25-30%. But it will be possible to see it only in a year or two, when the new firmware starts to squeeze everything out of the processor.
By the way, the hardware in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X is the same - a 6-core A11 processor and 3 GB of RAM. So after the iPhone 8, you won't notice any difference at all, and that's okay.
🔋 Battery life?
Almost like on Plus - decent.
Here I am 100% satisfied without any buts. The end of the day, and I have 35% with constant use of the device and numerous tests of applications.
This is how my 7 Plus worked. Taking into account the difference in size, the result is really cool.
iPhone X works about 11-12 hours under moderate exercise- 2 hours longer than iPhone 7 and comes close to the results of iPhone 7 Plus. The difference between the plus is small and is about 1 hour in favor of the plus, which is nonsense for me.
Finally no need to buy Plus just because it has a large battery.
Small smartphones can be active all day, and the iPhone X proves it so far. Let's wait for what will happen in a year, when the battery starts to fail.
I almost forgot about wireless charging... Like the iPhone 8, the iPhone X supports Qi stations, which the market is full of. I have such a noname-platform lying around, in stores it costs less than 1000 rubles. And what do you think? Working!
However, the charging speed from it leaves much to be desired. From 15% to 100%, my iPhone X took almost 6 hours to charge. If the display is on, the process almost stops altogether, it turns out 1% in 15 minutes.
Having a chip is always better than not having it. In addition, the noname platform may simply not cope with the iPhone X. To make definite conclusions about the time, you have to wait for the proprietary wireless charging to be released - I do not exclude that its performance will be higher.
📷 Is the camera better or the same?
It got a little better.
There is almost the same module as in the iPhone 8 Plus - with one important exception. In order not to repeat myself: especially for you, I have already compared the shooting quality of the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone 7 Plus. With the iPhone X, the story is similar:
The only but important difference of the new camera is telescopic lens improvement... The one who brings the picture closer. It now has optical stabilization, and the aperture has been improved with f / 2.8 before f / 2.4.
This leads to two obvious conclusions, which I immediately confirmed in practice.
First, when using the zoom the picture is stable and does not blur the way it was on previous models. The difference is noticeable even at 2x zoom, which I love for the effect of the 40mm prime lens, which allows you to get rid of optical distortion when shooting subjects with an iPhone. Now there will be less blurry photos and jerky videos.
And secondly, photos and videos with zoom are obtained lighter than before.
Either way, if you've loved the camera since the iPhone 7 Plus, then the iPhone X won't disappoint either. And if you were expecting revelations, then I hasten to disappoint - this is not the market leader for you. Google pixel, the miracle will not happen yet.
🤔 In the end. Who should take this, and who should wait?
You can take it to everyone.
I believe that the time for a general upgrade has come. It's time to start saying goodbye to all previous iPhones.
Whatever the next iPhone is, it won't have the old bezels. And little by little we will step into a frameless future.
iPhone X in this sense - real iPhone of the future, which sets Apple's agenda for the next 4 years. This is the very step forward that many of you have been waiting for since the iPhone 6.
Having tried the iPhone X once, you don't want to go back to the iPhone Plus. And even more so for a regular iPhone. Isn't that an indicator of Apple's success?
The phone looks great and works great. All its real flaws come only from the work of iOS 11. It will be updated one day, the system management logic will be corrected - or we will get used to it.
You can buy iPhone X today. No need to wait for other parties, in these complete order.
If there is anything to be expected, it is the availability of smartphones themselves in stores. Finding the 256GB version is particularly difficult right now, with new shipments expected within 2 weeks. If you come across one, take it.
Don't forget necessarily take any case because the smartphone is slippery. For the rest, guys, it's almost five points even from me, a skeptic. Whatever your iPhone, the iPhone X will fit.
Maybe Apple is a cake after all?
Buy iPhone X for 64 GB in Russia: RUB 79,990
Buy iPhone X for 256 GB in Russia: RUB 91,990
By tradition, every September, Apple presents a new generation of smartphones to the world. This year, the event was held at the company's new headquarters located in the heart of the famous Silicon Valley. At the presentation in Cupertino, held on September 12, Apple showed three models at once: the updated iPhone 8/8 Plus and the new, revolutionary iPhone X. Today's review is completely devoted to the latter. Not yet available to consumers, it has already become a trendsetter in the world of mobile technology for the next few years.
Leap in numbering
2017 is a big year for Apple. Exactly 10 years ago, the world saw the first iPhone, which ended the era of push-button smartphones. By their anniversary, the Cupertinians approached responsibly. According to Johnny Ive, design director, the development of the “dozen” took five years. The company had to solve a lot of complex technological problems, but the new product turned out to be really interesting and is quite worthy of the anniversary issue.
Face id
It has been known for a long time that the new "apple" phone will receive an analogue of the "limitless screen". The main "battles" erupted over the placement of the fingerprint scanner. Most analysts and insiders agreed that it would be built directly into the display. However, this time, Apple has managed to keep the intrigue. At the presentation of the iPhone 10, a completely new user identification mechanism was demonstrated. The technology is called Face ID. The smartphone recognizes its owner by the face, more precisely, by a three-dimensional face map, consisting of 30 thousand control points.
Less than a month after the presentation date, Taiwanese analysts from KGI Securities Co. Ltd., have already recorded a threefold increase in orders for 3D face scanners from Android software developers. There is other news, disappointing for fans of the "green robot". The preliminary estimates of experts suggest that the creation of a similar recognition technology and the implementation of the necessary APIs in the Android OS will take at least 2.5 years.
Declared characteristics
Let's take a look “under the hood” and study the technical characteristics and parameters of the new “apple” product. Let's take a closer look at what the emphasis was placed on during its official show together and supplement it with well-known materials.
SoC A11 Bionic
The device received a new, six-core SoC, manufactured using a 10 nm process technology - A11 Bionic. Two Monsoon cores work with tasks requiring high performance, and four Mistral cores are responsible for energy efficiency. The introduction of neural mechanisms into the crystal allows flexible use of the available power. Departure from the cluster structure makes it possible to use from one to six cores simultaneously for solving problems. The operating frequency of the SoC is 2.34 GHz.
The A11 was the first processor to use a GPU developed directly by Apple. He does not yet have his own name and is reliably known only about the presence of three computing cores. At the presentation, a 30% increase in graphics processing speed was announced, compared to the GPUs used in the A10, manufactured by Imagination Technologies.
The main feature of the new processor is the built-in machine learning technologies, thanks to which the development and implementation of 3D face recognition technology has become possible.
It is rather difficult to judge the performance of the new model. So far, there are only screenshots of the test results that appear on the Internet. Their reliability can be questioned, but the results are impressive:
- GeekBench (version 4.1) ≈ 4400/9900 points;
- Antutu (version 6.3) ≈ 240,000 points.
By the time of the official start of sales, when the updated version of iOS 11.1 is released, the already high performance can be improved.
Display and appearance
The iPhone 10 is the first smartphone from the company to feature an OLED display. Up to this point, Apple has used IPS matrices in its products. At the presentation, it was designated as Super Retina Display. With a resolution of 2436x1125 pixels, the diagonal is 5.8 ”. As a result, the highest point density in the entire line of "apple" smartphones has been achieved - 458 ppi. According to Phil Schiller, vice president of marketing, the Super Retina display is free of the traditional OLED flaws. It has improved brightness, increased depth and saturation of the color spectrum. The standard contrast ratio is now 1,000,000 to 1, 70 times higher than that of the iPhone 8. In addition, support for HDR technologies and adaptive color change True Tone is introduced. As a result, the smartphone received a completely redesigned screen, in which only 3D Touch remained from the previous models, which allows to recognize the force of pressing.
With the absence of a Home button, both physical and virtual, it really stretches from edge to edge of the front. Only a small area in the center of the upper part of the screen remains occupied, in which the front camera and sensors responsible for the operation of Face ID are located.
Dimensions, materials and autonomy
If we evaluate the physical dimensions, then in the updated line of smartphones in 2017, the iPhone 10 takes an intermediate place. With a length of 14.4 cm and a width of 7.1 cm, it weighs 174 grams, slightly surpassing the size of the "eight" and yielding to the "eight plus".
The hull materials have been completely renewed. The new model has a frame made of corrosion-resistant alloy steel, similar to a surgical one. The front and rear panels are made of tempered glass with a seven-layer color coating.
Gold and pink flowers loved by the fair sex will not be in the top ten. At least, the start of sales is envisaged only in two colors: silver and "space gray".
Despite the available support for fast and wireless charging, the standard package does not provide for a special adapter, for example, the eighth model.
Cameras
The main camera is dual, with vertical lenses. The matrix resolution remains the same - 12 Mpx, the aperture is f / 1.8 for a wide-angle lens and f / 2.4 for a telephoto lens. The main improvements were made in the software part. The speed of photo processing has been increased, new color filters have been applied and the technology of adaptive backlighting has been introduced. The latter affects the quality of pictures taken in low light conditions. The ability to shoot video in 4K quality with a frequency of 60 frames / second, and slow-motion video, with a frequency of 240 frames / second, is declared.
The front camera, which has received its own designation True Depth, has the usual 7 Mpx matrix, which has received image stabilization, according to last year's flagship. The ability of the new processor and Face ID sensors has made it possible to use it to create a new generation of emoticons - animoji. A 3D mask read from the user's face conveys facial expressions, allowing preset animated characters to come to life and create short videos.
The set of software capabilities of both cameras is quite large. The neural unit of the new A11 Bionic allows you to expand the possibilities of image preprocessing and apply shooting technologies adapted to external factors.
Available in two colors - space gray and silver. There were rumors about the possibility of a rose gold-colored model, but this did not happen for some reason.
Below is a comparative overview of iPhone X models in two colors to help you make your choice!
Most of the previous iPhone releases, especially in recent years, have been characterized by the constancy of 3 color options offered to buyers when choosing devices. Even the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which went on sale shortly before the iPhone X, were available in three colors - space gray, silver, and gold.
By purchasing the iPhone X, regardless of its color, you are getting a wonderful device in every way and you will certainly not be disappointed with your purchase. When choosing a color, pay attention to one important detail - phones with different body colors look the same from the front. We haven't seen this on an Apple phone yet, starting with the iPhone 3Gs and 5C. Usually, when buying a silver or gold iPhone, you are sure that the front panel of your device will also be silver or gold, respectively.
This is the reason why many people stop buying phones in silver, white or gold - the screen does appear larger if the front of the device is black. The good news is that whichever color you choose for the iPhone X, the front of the phone will still be black, which visually enlarges the screen.
Although the front of both models is the same, there is a significant difference between the two at the back. The silver iPhone X has a grayish white glass back and a silver stainless steel bezel flanking the sides. The space gray phone has a dark gray glass back and a dark metallic stainless steel frame.
Pros and cons of two color options
When you buy a new smartphone for at least $ 999, your biggest fear is of being scratched. As you know, scratches can often appear on the surface of stainless steel. If you have an Apple Watch in such a metal case, then you should be familiar with similar problems. If you want to avoid scratching your frame, you'll need to purchase a phone case.
One interesting feature regarding scratches is that they are more clearly visible on the silver metal frame on the iPhone X, while on the space gray iPhone X, scratches on the dark metallic frame are less noticeable.
- Apple Philosopher: the best Lightning headphones for iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X
You know the iPhone X has a full glass front and back panel, and if you want the device to look like new for longer, you will often have to use a soft cloth to remove fingerprints from the surface. The prints are visible on phones of both colors, but they are more noticeable on the space gray panel.
Another subtle difference between the iPhone X and other models is that the labels and logos that were previously printed on the back of the device will appear in the software. Now all you can see on the back is the Apple logo and the word iPhone.
Verdict
And the last thing to be aware of is the iPhone 10th Anniversary Special Edition. This means that the Apple team took inspiration from the original iPhone to create it, with a black front, silver / aluminum back, and bezel.
- Best iPhone X cases: Apple-style flagship smartphone protection
Whatever color you choose, you won't be disappointed with the iPhone X - both models look stunning! To summarize, overall, space gray iPhone X is less likely to be scratched, and silver iPhone X has fewer fingerprints.
I wonder which phone did you decide to choose?
iPhone 2017 will be special - it became clear back in the summer of 2016. At first, there weren't even rumors, but fan theories: they say, in 2017, the very first Apple smartphone will be 10 years old, and the company will try to surprise with another novelty to the maximum, implementing innovative design and the most progressive technologies in it, as not yet mastered not by any other manufacturer, as well as those for the absence of which in the "iPhones" of the Californian company has long been blamed (for example, OLED screens).
And so it happened. For several years now, new generations of smartphones (both Apple products and products from other manufacturers) have only slightly improved and upgraded the user experience, but the essence has remained the same. The iPhone X (Apple pronounces it as "ten", not "X") changes it dramatically: a different method of unlocking and confirming purchases, a more functional selfie camera, a completely different control mechanics, a large screen in a compact body, finally, for the first time in three years the new design is controversial, but effectively "rebuilds" the iPhone X from dozens of "bezel-less" and seemingly such Android smartphones.
I received an iPhone X for testing on the afternoon of Tuesday October 31, and gave myself 48 hours to prepare a review - negligible compared to the usual testing period, but enough to identify the main pros and cons. Due to the limited time (after all, I really want to publish the text before the new items appear on sale), in this review I am not ready to draw unambiguous conclusions about two things: the battery life (in the early days, the smartphone battery is traditionally discharged faster than usual - new ones are installed programs, and just hands constantly reaching out to fiddle with the device) and the quality of the camera in comparison with the main competitors - Galaxy Note8 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro (Pixel 2 and 2 XL will be taken out of the brackets - in Russia they are unlikely to be officially sold and I have samples on no hands). But I'll tell you about the things that cause the most questions - FaceID and the quality of its work, the convenience of a new control scheme using gestures and the intrusiveness of a conspicuous protrusion with True Depth camera sensors, which some have already dubbed "the eyebrow". So let's go.
IPhone X review: taking Apple's new product in hand
I confess: I never held the first iPhone in my hands (I started writing on high-tech topics only two years after its release, in 2009), but for some reason I want to compare the new iPhone X first of all with it. Maybe it's the brightly shiny frame - polished "surgical" (Apple's marketers use this term) steel, unpainted on the white iPhone X and painted "at the molecular level" in black. Maybe - in a slightly increased thickness compared to previous models up to 7.7 mm (after putting on a proprietary cover that turns the "protrusion" of the double camera into a "depression", it increases even more).
The memories of the iPhone 4 are also appropriate: after all, it was with it that the design of the "glass sandwich" type debuted, then repeatedly copied by competitors. Design, quickly abandoned by Apple, and now, in 2017, again triumphantly returning. Maybe I'm just not used to it yet, maybe in recent years such a design had too many imitators, but something prevents me from experiencing the still alive in memory of the iPhone 4 (and how many years have passed) a sense of delight and involvement "with of the future "when you hold your iPhone X in your hand.
Maybe the line connecting the steel frame and the glass of the screen / back cover would not be felt at all. In the iPhone X there, if you look closely or run your fingernail, you can see the shock-absorbing and sealing structure of the plastic pad, and when you hold the smartphone in your hand, your fingers and palm feel uneven - it's tiny, but you can't ignore it. Maybe the vertically oriented dual camera looks too massive on a relatively compact body. Or maybe just the frames around the screen seem, after they got rid of the "forehead" and "chin" that have become almost native in 10 years, not narrow enough. After all, it is known - when you remove from somewhere "almost everything superfluous", what still remains will be striking with a vengeance.
Instead of the "forehead", attention in the upper part of the smartphone is now attracted by the "ears" of the screen and the "eyebrow" separating them - the protrusion in which the earpiece, light / proximity sensors and the same TrueDepth camera with an infrared illuminator, a projector of points and two (normal and infrared) sensors. The camera, which, in all honesty, is the main and only truly unique innovation in the iPhone X., and how it works in practice, I'll tell you later in this review.
Does the protrusion on the iPhone X screen get in the way, is it an eyesore? More likely no than yes. In the vertical orientation, applications optimized for the novelty (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat) have learned to "wrap around" it, in Safari, "Notes" or iBooks, it is effectively compensated by the increased "height" of the screen. In horizontal - and most often we turn the iPhone horizontally to watch a video or photo - it is simply not visible if the aspect ratio of the picture is 16: 9 or 4: 3, such in practice (YouTube, popular TV shows, photos and videos from a smartphone camera) are overwhelming majority.
Problems will arise with films where the aspect ratio of the picture is "theatrical" - 21: 9 or more. Then the owners of the iPhone X are left with two options, both bad: to watch a video with black frames on all four sides, or to "fit" it into the screen so that the unfortunate protrusion will "bite off" part of the picture from the edge. In this rather rare scenario, the "endless" displays of the flagships of Samsung or Huawei Mate 10 Pro are better suited - you have to put up only with black stripes at the top and bottom, or with the "cropping" of the picture on the right and left.
Finding fault with the appearance of the iPhone X, like any other smartphone, can be quite long. Perhaps if fate had given Steve Jobs six more years of his life, he would have forced his colleagues to create something more uncompromising. But the fact is this: the appearance of Apple's new product is absolutely recognizable, the screen with an "eyebrow" allows you to uniquely identify the iPhone X even from a distance of several meters, you can't even confuse it with the Essential Phone, which has a similar protrusion much narrower and contains only one front camera.
If Apple followed the path of Android-manufacturers, which cut side frames to the limit and leave smartphones with narrow "forehead" and "chin", the iPhone X would lose its recognition and risk being confused with "Samsung and other Huawei". And people who are going to give $ 1000 or more for it in the coming weeks would not forgive the creators of the novelty for this. It is much easier to forgive the not so thin, as some dreamed of, the framework.
IPhone X review: gestures instead of the Home button and other features of xOS 11
Although the iPhone X runs on the same operating system as other iPhones and iPads - iOS 11.1, it tempts to call it xOS, because there are quite noticeable differences, both external - rounded corners of the screen, and functional. Don't bother trying to find the Home button and TouchID fingerprint reader - they're not here. The front-facing TrueDepth camera and the FaceID function are now responsible for unlocking, the work of which we will discuss separately. As for the "business card" of the iPhone from the very first model - the round "Home" button - and functional combinations with its participation, they were replaced by completely new gestures and button "combos". Here is an exhaustive list of magic passes that all iPhone X owners will have to master:
How to control iPhone X
Unlocking: take the smartphone in hand / swing it slightly / touch the screen once / press the side lock button → slide your finger from the very bottom edge of the screen (if FaceID protection is installed, it manages to trigger during manipulations)
How to sign out of the app to the Home screen on iPhone X: swipe up from the bottom of the screen
How to call the "Control Center" or "Action Center": drag your finger from the top edge of the screen to the right or left, respectively
How to invoke Reachability on iPhone X(when the active application or the home screen "descends" to half the screen for convenient one-handed operation, on the iPhone 6-6S-7-8 Plus, double-tapping the "Home" button was called): slide your finger along the bottom edge of the screen from top to bottom. Works, including on the "Home" screen
Quickly switch between recently launched apps on iPhone X: slide your finger horizontally along the strip at the bottom of the screen, also works on the Home screen
Bring up the multitasking interface with "cards" applications on the iPhone X: swipe from the bottom of the screen to the middle, wait half a second for tactile feedback, release your finger
Force Quit Application on iPhone X: see the previous point, then touch and hold the application card until all cards have a minus icon in the corner, then swipe the application up or press the minus:
How to turn off iPhone X: Press and hold the lock button and any of the volume buttons for a few seconds until the shutdown / emergency call interface appears on the screen
How to take a screenshot on iPhone X: Press and then release the lock and volume up buttons at the same time
How to call Siri on iPhone X: Press and hold the side lock button
How to pay with Apple Pay in a store on iPhone X: quickly press the side lock button twice, select the desired card, wait for FaceID to work (most likely, it will have time to work in a second after double-pressing the side button), bring the smartphone to the payment terminal
How to turn on camera or flashlight on iPhone X without unlocking: press firmly on the corresponding icons on the lock screen and release:
Press and quickly release the "Volume Up" button, then the "Volume Down" button, then hold down the side lock button and hold it until the screen turns off and the Apple logo appears on it.
IPhone X control gestures: impressions
In my opinion, gesture control of the iPhone X is no more difficult, and in some ways more natural than previous models using the Home button and other keys. It took literally a few hours to get used to it - by the end of the first day of use, I was already automatically trying to exit applications by swiping from below on the iPhone 7 Plus. So far, my favorite gesture is a horizontal swipe along the strip at the bottom of the screen; it has not been possible to switch between programs so easily on any smartphone, be it Apple products or other manufacturers. There is a suspicion that in the coming year the market for Android smartphones will face a lot of, in varying degrees, successful attempts to imitate this function.
What is causing the most inconvenience so far is the "move" of the "Control Center" call zone to the upper right "ear" of the screen. Previously, it was possible to reach the camera, timer, alarm clock, calculator and, most importantly, the music controls by holding the smartphone with one hand - swiping from below could be done without any problems on the massive iPhone 7 Plus. Now you have to reach up with your finger, and this distance is not much shorter for the iPhone X than for the Plus, and without intercepting the body higher or using the Easy Access, it is impossible to reach there. It is also sad that there is no more room for a numerical indicator of the remaining battery charge in the status bar because of the "eyebrow" of the screen, even in power saving mode - "percent" can be seen only by "pulling out" the "control center" panel from the top.
Instagram, Facebook and a number of other popular programs no longer have problems with "wrapping" the screen protrusion.
However, these problems pale in comparison with the "perfectionist hell" in which you plunge, launching applications not adapted to the new aspect ratio of the screen - and this is the majority of programs, except for ultra-popular on a global scale, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. Applications, depending on the approach used by the developers to draw the interface, either display the picture in the aspect ratio of the iPhone 6/7/8, leaving huge black bars at the top and bottom (for example, "Sberbank"), or rebuild it automatically so that it would be better not to rebuild ... For example, the text input line may appear exactly in the middle of the screen, or the background in the "ears" area will be partially transparent. Popular applications like Telegram or VK will probably be promptly updated, but with less actively supported programs, I feel that I will have to suffer no less than in the first year after the iPhone 6/6 Plus appeared.
Interface glitches in Telegram
Another reason to grumble about the decrease in the usability of the interface is the keyboard. In general, typing on it is more convenient than ever: the keys are larger than on the iPhone 6/7/8, but at the same time the width of the keyboard (and the body of the smartphone) is smaller, that is, two birds with one stone are struck outright. Nevertheless, the Apple UI developers failed not to spoil the holiday for us: the button for switching the layout, which is relevant for Russians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese and any other users whose native language does not use the Latin alphabet, has moved to the most difficult to achieve with the "one-handed" dialing place - bottom left corner of the screen.
Thus, only left-handers were lucky. I really want to get a setting in future iOS updates that allows you to swap the input language switch and the "microphone" located now on the right to activate dictation. It is also interesting to see how third-party keyboards - Fleksy, Swype, SwiftKey, etc. will be updated for the iPhone X.
IPhone X review: how to set up and use FaceID
What is FaceID anyway? The answer is: this is the first ever 3D face and gaze recognition system to be produced on such a large scale and to work so efficiently. And yes, this is the most important innovation of the iPhone X - unlike wireless charging or the "endless" screen, no one has had anything like this. Yes, there were attempts to integrate unlocking by face and / or iris scan from Google and Samsung, but these systems were capricious and unsafe (for example, they were easily "fooled" by a high-quality photo). Apple managed not only to embed its own modified analogue of Microsoft Kinect into the "eyebrow" of the iPhone X, but also to make it work no worse than TouchID, at least no worse than its first version. About the device that provides infrared 3D scanning of the front camera face, I see no reason to repeat myself, here I will talk about the practical side of the matter.
The iPhone X will offer to register FaceID during the initial setup - just twist your nose twice (literally) in front of the front camera. You can skip this and do it later, but I personally don't see any point in avoiding registering FaceID - because it works, especially for a technology debuting for the first time in a mass product, just fine. Ideally, the iPhone X is unlocked by scanning the face like this: take the smartphone in your hand, while the screen turns on, you pull your finger to the bottom edge of the screen, swipe up, perhaps a split second delay during which an animation is displayed in the middle of the screen, and that's it - the smartphone is unlocked ...
In practice, in the first hours of use, FaceID is triggered about four times out of five, refusing to recognize a face at an angle, at too great or too small distance, in a backlight, wearing glasses (if you registered FaceID without glasses), wearing a hat, etc. But the system, as promised by Apple, learns very quickly, "remembering" each new image that it initially refused to recognize, but received its confirmation in the form of a PIN or password. By the end of the first day of use, the iPhone X recognized me both in large headphones on my head, and on the street with the lower half of my face covered with a scarf, and with a grimace on my face. This morning I used my iPhone X in the car for the first time, fixing it on the air duct grid - I had to "train" the 3D scanner again by entering the password, after which it was unlocked even when I was looking at the road, sitting behind the wheel in a normal position, without turning my head to the phone ...
What the system, alas, apparently, in principle, cannot be taught is to "see" you from a large angle when you are working at the table and the smartphone is lying nearby. You have to bring your face closer to the TrueDepth camera or put the iPhone upright - for the first time I regretted that I had not acquired a proprietary docking station. By the way, in this case, for the first time, a completely contactless launch of programs becomes possible: you "wake up" Siri through "Hey Siri", give the command to start, for example, Twitter, the voice assistant activates FaceID, the smartphone unlocks and launches the application.
By default, FaceID requires the user to look at the smartphone at the time of unlocking - otherwise, the device can be "opened" with your face while you sleep. However, if you often have to unlock your smartphone on the go, or, for example, do not want to take your eyes off the road while driving, you can disable this function. Regardless of this, "Attention" can be activated to prevent the automatic blocking of the smartphone in the absence of touching the screen for a long time - it is useful, for example, when you read some text for a long time.
Apple says that the chance of unlocking a FaceID-protected smartphone with the face of another person is 1 in a million (TouchID has 1 in 50,000). True, the probability is higher if a twin or a close relative similar to you tries to do it. In addition, FaceID is less safe for children under 13, whose not fully formed facial features are not as unique as in adults. They are advised to use only a PIN or password. And one more limitation: only one person can be registered per iPhone X. Using TouchID, it was possible to register an "alien" finger, for example, to give someone close to someone close to the smartphone, just in case. IPhone X owners will have to share a PIN to do this. Most likely, the limitation is caused by the fact that with the addition of the second face variant, the smartphone would have to perform twice as many calculations with each unlock request, comparing the "seen" not with one, but with two facial "3D-maps".
I have the most positive impressions of FaceID for two days of use: like any really thoughtful and advanced technology, after the initial stage of additional "training", it becomes completely invisible. As in the literal sense - infrared illuminators and lasers of the invisible spectrum are used, they are invisible in the dark, and in a portable one - you stop noticing the work of the "face" scanner, everything happens "by itself": unlocking the smartphone, authorizing in the banking application, confirming the download of new applications in the App Store (if you want, you can turn it off, but it's convenient!) It seems as if he has returned to the blessed times of unafraid youth, when it never occurred to protect the phone with a password.
IPhone X Review: True Depth Camera, Selfie Portrait Mode, Animoji
FaceID is just one of the features offered by the True Depth front camera. Accurate measurement of the distance to objects in the frame made it possible to turn on the "portrait" mode for a selfie camera with a blurred background (emulation of the bokeh effect typical for professional cameras with appropriate optics). Just like shooting with the rear camera of the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X's camera menu has “studio effects” that change the way the face and background light in selfies is changed. Among other things, you can (you just have to choose a background that is even and "equidistant" from the subject - otherwise oddities are possible) to stylishly "photograph" yourself against a black background, as if in a darkened studio. Here's an example:
Animoji is considered the dumbest by some, and the most innovative feature of the iPhone X, according to others. How to use Animoji: in iMessage, select the "monkey" in the lower bar with application icons, a window appears for selecting one of 12 characters to be "animated" (and, if desired, voiced). "Animoji" try to exactly repeat your facial expressions (or anyone else who looks at the front camera at this time), scanning the movements of about 50 facial muscles. Some characters are more expressive: of course, "turd" is out of competition. I also noticed that the characters work better with joyful and surprised grimaces than sad ones - apparently, Apple traditionally gave a positive attitude.
Finally, in a future version of the Clips app (in iOS 11.1 it has not been updated yet), it will be possible to "embed" yourself in various 360-degree scenes such as a night city or an illustration stylized in the spirit of the Prisma app. And this, of course, will also be realized with the True Depth camera.
IPhone X review: a few words about the OLED screen
In 2017, OLED screens - which do not require separate backlighting and are able to "turn off" completely separate pixels (and, therefore, giving out real black instead of dark gray in LCDs, and more economical) - made their way to Apple smartphones. ... It's just that no other company that knows how to make OLEDs can afford the required volumes for Apple (), so you have to mutually beneficially cooperate with the sworn competitor. What is important, Apple not only buys displays from Koreans, but (as the representatives of the American company claim) independently developed and set the necessary characteristics for them. Here is how the displays of the Samsung Galaxy Note8 (top) and iPhone X look in comparison (both have maximum brightness, auto brightness is off, the functions "Adaptive display" and True Tone, respectively, are on):
A lot, of course, depends on the setting and how the software displays colors, but it seems to me that the two flagships are on an equal footing here. In the photo with the leaves, it seems that the iPhone has a little more dynamic contrast, where the site is open, if you look closely, the white background of the Apple smartphone is barely distinguishable, but whiter. Testing is complicated by the fact that the Note8 has four different color options, I preferred to use Adaptive Display as it was enabled by default on my test device.
In my opinion, the 5.7-inch OLED screen of the iPhone X with (also a first for Apple smartphones!) Super Retina resolution (not quite QuadHD, 1125 x 2436 pixels) is the best thing that has happened to the iPhone screens in their entire history. ... Yes, like all OLED screens, the iPhone X screen changes slightly and loses contrast when viewed from a wide angle, but compared to OLED screens in the vast majority of Android smartphones, the change is almost imperceptible: it seems that they both developed and customized the display with perfectionism peculiar to the Californian company. But, I emphasize, the screens of the Samsung Galaxy S8, S8 + and Note8 do not look worse on the whole.
If you turn off TrueTone (also available on iPad Pro and iPhone 8/8 Plus), iPhone X can feel colder than an LCD iPhone. But with TrueTone they feel noticeably warmer when the user is indoors. Apple also seems to have applied tighter lamination to the iPhone X's screen, making the pixels appear even closer to the glass surface than in previous models. In short, beauty.
IPhone X review: photos and videos
I want to devote a separate material to a detailed study of the iPhone X as a photo and video camera, to compare the new product both with its predecessor and with the main competitor - I would only wait for at least a little sun from the Moscow autumn. In the meantime, briefly about the technical features of the main camera. It, like the cameras in the iPhone 8/8 Plus, processes data from the matrix with a new signal processor and color filter, providing richer colors. The dual rear camera of the iPhone X differs from the "big" "eight" in the characteristics of a telephoto lens that complements the "wide-angle". First, it's faster (f / 2.4 versus f / 2.8 for the iPhone 8 Plus). Secondly, it also received an optical stabilization system (the iPhone 8 Plus has only the "wide-angle" stabilized, while the Samsung Galaxy Note8 has both lenses). As a result, portraits with simulated bokeh require less light, and telephoto shots at night and indoors are sharper.
For the last few years, to get the best camera from Apple, you had to buy the Plus "shovel" and put up with not the most progressive ergonomics. Now the best camera fits into a much more compact body: only half a millimeter thicker and 3.5 mm wider than the iPhone 8. This, in my opinion, is a great joy for anyone who wants to take the highest quality pictures with optical zoom, but does not want to (or due to the small size of the palms, he simply cannot) use the "shovels".
IPhone X review: battery, performance
Having used the iPhone X for only two days, I, forgive me, will not dare to draw unambiguous conclusions about the "survivability" of its battery. Apple says on its official website 12 hours of internet surfing (2 hours more than the iPhone 7), 13 hours of wireless video playback and 60 hours of music. Since any test of a smartphone begins with the installation of a dozen or two applications and almost continuous use of the screen - I want to tinker with the novelty continuously, the first time I successfully drained the iPhone X battery literally in the evening. On the second day, the situation was a little better, but, let's say, so far, the battery of the Apple flagship did not impress me.
Yes, the battery really drains more slowly than the iPhone 7, the "big" iPhone 7/8 Plus, the new iPhone X, in my opinion, is inferior, but for a full day of use without fanaticism it should be enough. Again, I'll make a reservation - this is a purely preliminary impression, I will definitely supplement this part of the review in a week or two. In addition, while there was no opportunity to test wireless charging - there is no "plate" at hand with support for the Qi standard. Likewise, there is no high-power Apple USB-C charger (from a MacBook or MacBook Pro) and a USB-C cable to test the manufacturer's claims of fast charging with them: they promise a 50% full battery in the first half hour. I checked it with a charger from a regular iPad, it turned out 31% in the first half hour, another 30 for the second and another 24% for the third, and a full charge took a little over two hours.
When it comes to performance, we have one of the fastest smartphones on the market, no matter how you measure it. Here is a photo with the results of the Geekbench 4 computational performance test: (from left to right) iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Note8. Electronic computing "parrots" in the iPhone X and its A11 Bionic processor have been planted in abundance, do not worry.
Who needs it?
7 years ago, I held in my fist the equivalent of about 1100 rubles in rubles at the then exchange rate and went to Gorbushka for the gray iPhone 4. Because that smartphone was radically different from everything else that Apple's competitors offered at that time - it was distinguished by an ultra-clear screen, incredible in those times with a camera and design "from the future". I have never regretted the money spent in the fall of 2010, and I still sometimes turn on that iPhone 4 for nostalgic reasons, never ceasing to enjoy its appearance, despite the continuous grid of scratches approach iPhone 6s Plus, did not respect).
Today the situation on the market is different - there are many good (that is, meeting 90 percent of the needs of 90 percent of users) smartphones. "Gray" iPhone 7 costs from 35,000 rubles, iPhone 8 - from 45,000, Galaxy S8 - from 36,000, Huawei Honor 9 - generally from 23,000. And all these are smartphones, which, given the price, are quite difficult to find fault with.
iPhone X is a device not without nuances (especially if you are conservative and not ready to get used to new things), and it costs from 80,000 rubles. Its design, it seems to me, can hardly be called futuristic, the "wow" bar set by the iPhone 4 remains unattainable. Moreover, the latest Samsung smartphones with "disappearing" at the edges of the screens today are much more like an accessory from a science fiction movie. But the iPhone X is not the case when for the extra money you get just a gold back panel with a portrait of Putin and inlaid with semiprecious stones. And you get functions, albeit not absolutely necessary, but radically changing the user experience and preparing you for the next decade in the evolution of handheld computers: FaceID (no one else has analogues), wireless charging (with the support of Apple, this technology will surely receive a new impetus for development ), the "magic" capabilities of the cameras, provided by the "neurochip" in the A11 Bionic processor, the screen of new proportions, the absence of "margins" above and below it.
It is this new experience (and, of course, the prohibitive price) that serves as the source of the notorious "wow" in the new Apple flagship, which the happy owners of the novelty will have to hear from envious people in the coming months. Plus, this is one of the best pocket cameras today - although the Pixel 2 and Samsung flagships shoot just as well in most situations, they don't have the ability to really "see" the distance to each point of the user's face when shooting selfies. Finally, it is (as is the case with the latest flagships of Samsung, LG, Huawei and a number of other companies) a large screen in a compact dust-proof and waterproof (IP67 standard) case. True, measuring the screens diagonally is a crafty thing, you sometimes miss the wider and "lower" screen of the 7 Plus, and the Note8 display after the iPhone X seems just huge (but there, of course, proportionally huge problems with usability). The iPhone X is indeed more convenient than the iPhone 7/8 Plus, but not as convenient as the iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S8, whose body is almost 3 mm narrower than the case of "dozens".
iPhone X goes on sale in the US, Russia and 51 more countries around the world tomorrow, November 3. Prices: 79,990 rubles for a model with a rather modest 64GB drive by today's standards and 91,990 for a full-fledged 256GB version. From my point of view, you need to take the latter - photos, videos, applications, music stored on the device and podcasts will fill 64 gigabytes of memory much faster than you expect. If you nevertheless decide to save money, use Google Photo to upload photos and videos there from time to time and clear them from your smartphone's memory.
