Apple has finally put on its 2017 tech update presentation and the big talk is on it’s upcoming super special fancy smart phone, but with its high price tag the question is what’s so good about the iPhone X. The device is essentially Apple’s new marquee iPhone, so if you’re not bowled over by the prospect of the iPhone 8 then you can crank things up to 11 with the iPhone X.
Disappointingly, the device is pronounced iPhone 10, which is pretty confusing. What the fudge nuts has happened to 9 and why the hooded python we’ve skipped a generation is beyond us. However, that aside, it does have a few cool features that can help you to overlook the annoying naming convention… and anyway, you can always just call it iPhone Ex with an ironic wink and a silly knee slap.
What’s so good about the iPhone X top 10:
1. The screen – this is probably the most significant difference between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. Competing with the infinity screen on the Galaxy S8, Apple has essentially taken up the entire front face with its own super-screen, doing away with the Home button to make room.
It results in a 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED screen and a single swipe motion to activate the Home command. If we’re being brutal, the fact that the screen for the iPhone X doesn’t go edge to edge means that it doesn’t quite look as aesthetically impressive as the S8’s infinity display, but it’s definitely a step up from the iPhone 8.
2. Facial recognition – You’ll be able to unlock your phone with your face!!! This makes the iPhone X more secure than the finger print unlock. It works thanks to the TrueDepth camera installed on the device, which identifies and checks 30,000 invisible dots on your face.
The security bonus is good if you’re nervous about your phone being nicked, but having to waggle it in front of your face to unlock it could be a pain in the lightning port. The convenience of just holding your thumb on the Home button comes in handy, so you could easily see the facial recognition feature being more of a hindrance than a help.
3. Battery life – the iPhone X will give you an extra couple of hours of charge over the iPhone 7 and 8, so its going to have Apple’s best smart phone battery life.
4. 12mp lens – this gives the iPhone X a whole lot of pixels to capture to increase the detail and scale of your pics. It’s the same as the rear camera on the Samsung Galaxy S8, so it matches the competition, as opposed to going one better, which seems like a missed opportunity. It’s also the same as the iPhone 7 and 8, so again no better than its own “lesser” tech.
5. Telephoto camera – this means you’ll be able to do genuine, bona fide optical zooming. It appears to be just 2x optical zoom, but there’s also 10x digital zoom to add to that, along with wide angle and 6x digital zoom for video, which includes 4K recording. The telephoto camera comes equipped with dual optical image stabilisation, which results in less camera shake and better detail quality when you’re taking telephoto images.
However, these are features that will also be on the iPhone 8 Plus, so it’s not going to be that much of a differentiating factor. In fact, all of the remaining “what’s good about the iPhone 8” top 10 items are also available on the iPhone 8 Plus, so the real difference is just the screen, facial recognition and Home swipe.
6. Faster lens – this will essentially help you to capture more detail in low light. The lens features an ƒ/1.8 wide-angle aperture and ƒ/2.4telephoto aperture, both of which should give it pretty good range when there’s not much in the way of natural light.
7. Portrait mode – this will give you heightened detail in the face and natural background blurring for more attractive portrait shots.
8. Wireless charging – you’ll be able to drop the iPhone X onto one of Apple’s new AirPower mats and charge up without rummaging around in the dark, trying to give the lightning cable and dock the time of their lives. However, the additional accessory does add to the price tag, so you’ll need to up your budget if you want to take advantage of the feature.
It will also do away with problems like the iPhone 6 charger not staying in.
9. Water and dust resistant – this is something that has been available since the iPhone 7, so it’s far from groundbreaking or new tech, but it is still one of the cool things about the iPhone X.
10. The Animoji animosity – OK, so this is probably less of a positive factor than Apple might have thought, but essentially you can get Animojis to copy your facial features. It just seems like a bit of a waste of effort for us. It would have been better to divert resources to improving Siri’s voice recognition and dictation features than rolling out silly animation gimmicks that no one is going to use.
iPhone X UK release date and price:
The iPhone X UK release date has been confirmed for the 3rd November 2017, and you’ll be able to pre-order one from the 27th October. The price will be £999, or from £47.95 per month with a 24 month contract.
It’s a lot to pay over and above the iPhone 8, which is priced at £699 and then there’s the extra wait time until November to get your hands on the iPhone X. The 8 and 8 Plus will be available on the 29th September and pre-orders start on the 15th September, so it’s going to be interesting to see how many people plump for the later delivery of the X with the extra cost for the benefit of a better screen, facial recognition, smaller size than the 8 Plus and 2 hours more battery life.
