iPhone X: Hands-On With Apple's New Flagship Device

@1:05 Pay with Touch ID :eek:

I was well aware when I chose to be an early adopter for the 2012 retina MBP and the iPhone 3G, 4 & 6. At that time, I felt it was worth the tradeoff. This time however, I have serious reservations about compromising my entire usage pattern for a value proposition that's frankly not really there. I'm happy with TouchID, full-screen apps, established touch gestures and so forth.

I've also been craving for and ranting about a redesign on the super tired iPhone 6 form factor. I just don't think this is it. Not yet at least. Liking "most of what they've done" doesn't merit a €1300 investment (sans AppleCare) that's only optimised to create animojis.

For me it’s a bit different though, I’m prepared to accept that out of box, it’s going to need work still to make it the device it’s supposed to be. And that many apps are going to need updating, some may never be updated of course. I still have apps that were never updated for the Plus sized phones, or not updated well (hell one of my own apps that I still use has never been updated for the Plus, it’s been discontinued for years, but stilll, never even updated it for myself :D) So I’ve always had to compromise on apps that aren’t full screen, nothing new to me.

And I know I’ll get shot for this one, but horror of horrors, I actually prefer touch gestures to a button now. I doubt I’d have said that 10 years ago :D but I don’t know, I think I’ve evolved a little with the devices. The touch gestures for navigation just feel natural using these screens, I miss some of them when I switch from my iPad to my iPhone. Still hate touch for anything but basic games though but no phone is likely to ever fix that. Certainly not one with a picture of an apple on the back of it anyway ;)

I am entirely certain though that Apple will in a reasonably short period of time, hold up their end and get the refinements to iOS finalised to better suit the X, they have something to prove (or to some, try and prove) so they won’t rest on their laurels.

I’m prepared to accept the relatively minor shortcomings, because I love the iPhone Plus models far too much to even consider using a regular iPhone 8. Never going to happen. But at the same time, having a screen that’s almost the size of the 8 Plus in the smaller form factor will make things much easier on me.
It’s a situation very specific to me, so I don’t expect my reasons to appeal to anyone else (or at least not many.)

But crucially I do still like the hardware in the X, I wouldn’t get it otherwise, even if it does make life easier. And I know I like iOS 11. So there’s little doubt I’ll like the X.

I love Touch ID but I can see potential for Face ID being more useful in my life. Living in a particularly wet part of Scotland and worse still, enjoying going up into the hills and mountains, believe me I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve cursed Touch ID to hell and back because it’s wet. Or when my hands are grubby as often happens and I’m trying to pay for something in the shop, frantically wiping my hands over whatever clothes I’m wearing, much to the wife’s delight :D

I’m not, contrary to popular belief, a fool though. It’s not going to be perfect, nothing is, so I am prepared for certain limitations to annoy and even frustrate me, for a while at least, until software is updated. But that I can cope with.

OMG!! Less than 24 hours, very hyped

Did you watch Nilay use the phone in the supermarket as an instance of it not working? He had the phone held down at his waist/hip line nearly straight down. I literally don’t blame the phone for it not working as I have never witnessed a person using a phone like that before.

Yeah, it was the bit just before the supermarket when he started talking about the bright sunlight for me, I damn near spat my coffee out. And I do NOT like to waste coffee, not even the cheap horrible stuff you get at Starbucks.

Now, ok, fair enough I don't know how tall Nilay is. He may be a person of short stature (is that what we call midgets these days? I lose track of all of that PC arse gravy, it's forever changing :p) for all I know. But were talking about a device designed to operate within 10 - 20 inches, so probably 15 being the sweet spot.

I'm 6 foot 3" and on me, where he's holding it is a lot more than 20 inches from my eyes. In direct sunlight, with a quick glance, while strutting down the street.

Really Mr Patel? That's your testing methodology for something? Put it just enough outside of it's defined operational parameters so that it fails but doesn't look too obvious. Yeah, that gives me complete faith in your impartiality, not to mention your usefulness as a product tester and opinion giver.
And before anyone makes a crack and we all know you will, I've been professionally testing pre-release products for over 20 years. It takes a little bit more, let's say for simpleness, actions grounded in reality than that particular "test" to cut it.

I mean for God's sake, I'm not expecting it to be perfect, I'm not even expecting it to be quicker or always as convenient as Touch ID. But give me a break.

**Edit**

I've just realised I've not taken my morphine this morning, oops. That, the fact I’ve not slept for three days and a distinct lack of coffee in this damn house may be making me ever so slightly grumpier than usual. Just a tad, a wee bit, minuscule even :D

Oh, and obviously if Nilay does happen to be 4 foot 2", then I take back everything I just said.


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All these "hands-on" reviews over the last few days and not one comment about call quality; it's a phone after all....

Wow, people still do that with them? Weird :p

It's a supercool device only at first glance. Then the issues take hold. Face ID will certainly take a learning curve, and it doesn't work all that flawlessly (according to the Verge's early review it's a hit or miss in broad daylight).

The Verge is no longer a reliable source. They’ve embarked in an all-out anti-Apple crusade, while everything Google does is golden.

The final turning point has been the Apple Watch LTE review, completely built on a single connectivity bug. Once the bug got solved, the review remained largely the same, including the 5 score. At this point it’s clear they have an agenda.

As far as the iPhone X is concerned: no other reviewer found problems in full daylight. And someone took the device for a full vacation at Disneyland.

It's a supercool device only at first glance. Then the issues take hold. Face ID will certainly take a learning curve, and it doesn't work all that flawlessly (according to the Verge's early review it's a hit or miss in broad daylight).

UX-wise, it seems the only states optimised for this new display shape are the home and lock screen. Every other app and media, native included, is letterboxed to a fault. Sorry but not sorry Apple, that's just bad experience and a dealbreaker to me.

And yet several other reviewers didn’t seem to have anywhere near the same trouble with Face ID Nilay did. Tom’s Guide for instance said it got tripped up in an elevator once for some reason but they had no issues with it in bright sunlight/darkness/in a bar/at home.

There’s a lot of mixed opinions, which to be fair is exactly what I expected there to be.
The UI does need some improvement, but that’ll come. Remember how awful apps were when we moved to the 4.7 and 5.5 inch screens. It takes time for everyone, usually including Apple to catch up.

That aside I’m still looking forward to the X, I’ve been one of those waiting on a major redesign for years and I like most of what they’ve done.

Really need to stop watching these previews though, I’m over excited as it is :D One more sleep to go.