Table of Contents
- embrace the notch
- Face ID: The facial recognition of the future is almost here
- Gestures and iOS 11
- Clicked with iPhone
- Battery for almost a whole day
- Conclusion
After what felt like an eternity of speculation and rumours, the iPhone X It's been on the market for just over two months, having been announced four years ago. “The future of the iPhone”, “the next ten years of Apple's mobile”, among other great catchphrases, can already be found by consumers around the world and also in Spain.
There's a lot to like about the iPhone X: the best OLED screen on a smartphone on the market, facial recognition ahead of any other manufacturer, plus a enviable software and hardware optimization – despite the recent bugs with iOS 11. That's because I didn't mention the cameras that make anyone look like a pro and, of course, the Animojis.
After a month with the iPhone X, in the space gray version, of 256 GB, provided by Apple to the Techlifers, you can check the complete analysis of the device.
embrace the notch
At first, the iPhone X it's just about the notch, affectionately dubbed the forehead, tooth, brim and, why not, 'ear'. This is the first thing you notice when you are seeing it for the first time or when you meet someone at the bus stop with a smartphone that costs R$ 7.000,00.
And believe me, aside from being the new brand of what an iPhone stands for, it doesn't bother you at all, but we'll get to that in a moment.
O iPhone X is Apple's biggest smartphone that fits perfectly in the hand. With one 5,8 inch screen, in a body between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus, it is comfortable, thanks to the glass and stainless steel finish, and has a firm grip.
With the virtually borderless display, the switch from LCD to OLED screen is very well received. And despite taking longer than competitors, Apple lived up to it by delivering an excellent screen – the best of OLEDs, according to tests.
Another interesting point is the tech true Tone do display which makes the iPhone image even more real. That's because the screen adapts to the environment. If it is warmer/yellowish, the screen follows – and the same goes for light/blue environments. The best part is that the user doesn't notice this change in color, it's all natural.
In addition, we are talking about the return of glass to the iPhone, which spent six years with aluminum as its back finish. For the first time in history, the rear is composed only by its name, the Apple and the vertical dual camera – the cleanest design made by Apple. It's worth noting that cleaning up the X has never been simpler. With a flannel or even a t-shirt, just pass it on to see the smartphone clean, as if it had been taken out of the box.
Like its predecessor, it does not have input P2, just the Lightning connector for charging and listening to music.
Returning to the notch, it ends up being so satisfying, that my intention is for it to be on display at all times. Whether in already optimized apps, photos or videos. He doesn't even get in the way.
Face ID: The facial recognition of the future is almost here
One iPhone X highlights is in the facial recognition sensor. It's no wonder, since Apple abandoned Touch ID in the "iPhone of the future" and implemented the Face ID. Unlike the first fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S, Face ID could not be raw, after all, it was years of familiarity with the old system and it was responsible for unlocking the cell phone, making purchases in the App Store, unlocking the bank application and even make purchases with Apple Pay (in select countries).
Face ID is made up of various sensors that make recognition accurate, fast and, in most cases, useful. “Embracing the notch” is directly linked to embracing this facial recognition technology, which is at least a year ahead of other manufacturers. Underneath the 'forehead' of the iPhone X we find the following components:
- Dot projector: over 3 invisible points are projected onto the face to create a unique facial map;
- Infrared camera: analyzes the pattern of mapped points and sends the data to the Secure Enclave on the A11 Bionic chip, which performs the confirmation;
- light emitter: Invisible infrared light helps to identify the face even in the dark.
Putting all this together, the answer 'whether Face ID works as well as Touch ID' is 'yes'. Now, just as Touch ID had its limitations, so does Face ID.
Face wet, sweaty, gloved, or dirty finger like lying in bed, trying to unlock your iPhone without looking at it, or having an object covering part of your face, like a scarf.
Face ID x Touch ID
If on the one hand Face ID solves all the problems with the Touch ID hand, others arise, such as those mentioned above. There is no perfect system, but it is accurate. When registering the face, tips such as having good lighting, doing the procedure calmly and using different looks are ways to make the sensor faster and faster.
And the issue of security is taken so seriously that, when you wake up, for example, you can't unlock your iPhone with just half an eye open, much less if you're on your side in bed. Maybe these are issues that in a second generation could be included as a function (?) The fact is that, although the feature has its limitations, it doesn't lose anything to the old Touch ID.
Face ID once again raises another very important issue which is the user privacy. By default, the screen notifications are blocked and only when the user looks do they actually appear. The interesting thing about this is that you can borrow the iPhone X for anyone to see, that they won't have access to your notifications.
Regarding the unlocking speed, it is very fast: just look at the screen while swiping up to start using the device.
You can “wake up” your phone by lifting it off the table, taking it out of your pocket, or tapping the screen. When someone else tries to “use” your Face ID, you have to lock the screen and then you have to look at it to work. If your friend tried to use Face ID and then they point their phone at you, your iPhone won't unlock.
Animoji
The good thing about analyzing the iPhone X after the initial hype is that some things become clearer and easier to understand. One of the gimmicks of the smartphone are the Animojis and of course they are really cool. With 12 emojis different, you can express feelings and emotions in iMessage in ten-second videos by assuming another persona.
Os Animojis are unique and exclusive to iMessage, although it is possible to save them as a video and then send them on WhatsApp. That means they were basically made for iPhone-iPhone interaction.
It is possible to frown, make a face of sad, surprised, happy, among other reactions. You can't stick your tongue out – which is a shame – and the TrueDepth camera doesn't recognize a wink very well. The interesting thing is the possibility of using a your reaction as a sticker. Just tap on the Animoji image and drag it into the conversation and you create a sticker.
This section serves to say that the function is very cool in the first days, but over time, it ends up not being something that is used so much, mainly because here in Spain it is more difficult to find people willing to switch from WhatsApp to iMessage – or until they have a iPhone X.
Gestures and iOS 11
even before the iPhone X be released, the iOS 11 already gave a taste of what it would be like to use Apple's new smartphone. The iPad, for example, already shares several gestures, where the home button is no longer needed to open the apps screen, enter another app or even close it.
Here in the Techlifers, we already talked about how each gesture works and I recommend you take a look to understand more about how to use iPhone X below:
Tutorial: How Gestures Work on iPhone X
In relation to iOS 11 no iPhone X, the operating system does not usually give problems, is fluid and delivers a good experience. Among the bugs that I notice more often even in iOS 11.2.2 is when unlocking the screen, in the upper left corner, it appears as if I am on a call, even though I am not. Other than that, the gestures are simple to understand and it doesn't take more than a few minutes for the user to understand how the iPhone X.
What took me the longest to get used to was the Notification Center in the upper right corner and no longer at the bottom of the device.
Read more:
New iOS 11 arrives on September 19: know the news
For apps not optimized for iPhone X, it's normal to see a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen, and even with optimized apps, you can still see some bugs that need to be fixed. If you were also one of the first to have an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, you can understand that some apps take months to get 100% running again.
This is not an issue that bothers me, although I am grateful that applications such as Google Calendar, Nubank, among others are already running optimized for the notch.
A final note is: despite the news of iOS 11, I believe that this was an operating system aimed at iPads - specifically the Pro - that is, the iPhone X's software potential can still be further exploited in a new update, such as iOS 12, which should only be presented in the WWDC 2018.
Clicked with iPhone
The new iPhone's cameras are even better than the iPhone 8 Plus's. At 12 MP each, the wide-angle lens has an aperture of ƒ/1.8, while the telephoto lens has an aperture of ƒ/2.4. In other words, That means even better photos in low-light environments.
The photographs with the iPhone X are usually very natural and it's a better and better experience with each iPhone release. As with the 8 Plus, the Highlight is in Portrait Mode and Studio Lighting mode, which promise professional clicks on a smartphone. And if you know how to use the resources, that's exactly what you get.
The only complaint, which is more of a limitation, are the photos at night with Portrait Mode, which ends up making the image much darker by the simultaneous use of both lenses. If the user chooses to take a photo with the normal camera, the result is quite impressive, even in low light.
The bokeh effect, despite being one of the best on current smartphones, still encounters difficulties with animals and objects. Blonde people or people with long hair too can confuse the software about what is the background and what is highlighted in the photo.
As said in review do iPhone 8 Plus, Studio Lighting does not always work well in “Stage Lighting” and “Stage Lighting Mono” mode, which leaves the entire background black and only the main object highlighted.
To solve these “problems”, these are some solutions: the more information in the background of the photo, the easier it is for the cameras to understand what is the main object and what is in the background, so don't try to make a portrait on a white wall .
When these rules are followed, photos often look spectacular.
In the case of “Stage Lighting”, it is necessary to get closer to the person and prevent objects between the person and the camera from being captured (a table, for example) and the person cannot have her hands on her hips either, as the hole between the arm and the bottom the software does not recognize well.
A Face ID for better photos
A iPhone X selfie camera It has ƒ/2.2 aperture and 7 MP resolution. The difference for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus cameras is precisely in the sensores do Face ID that allow, for the first time, the bokeh effect with the selfie camera on an iPhone.
Face ID sensors help the bokeh effect to be more natural on the front camera
The result is very nice and in general the photos with the front camera are very satisfactory. Despite not having a very large angle – which does not allow you to get much information from the background in general – the most important will always be highlighted: you.
Battery for almost a whole day
The iPhone X's battery is by far not its highlight. different from iPhone 8 Plus that easily withstood my daily use, X struggled most of the time I was with him. This can mean three things:
- His battery, although bigger, spends more for having a new panel and a bigger screen;
- I used the Animojis a lot in the first month with him and was elated by the news;
- The battery could simply be (even) bigger.
What I can say is: I think I got carried away with the features and used the iPhone “more than necessary”. That is, in normal use, as in recent weeks, “listening to music, accessing social networks and leaving it next to the computer to see notifications”, it is yes it is possible to stay the whole day with it away from the socket. If you need to keep the iPhone screen on for a long time, with games, videos or a lot of camera use, the battery goes faster, but it is possible to reach almost a full day of use.
A negative point of the new generation of iPhones is the recharge time of them: with Apple's standard 5W charger, wait between 3:30am and 4am to see a full charge; with the iPad's 10W, time has already fallen to just over 2h.
The new iPhones are the first to support fast charging, but they don't come with a compatible charger.
Still, as you may know, the iPhone X is the first to have fast charging (along with the 8 and 8 Plus) and using the 29W MacBook Pro charger (and a USB-C to Lightning cable, sold separately), it is possible to charge 50% in 30 minutes or all in around 1h30.
As this is not the most common choice among users (since it is necessary to buy a brand new MacBook Pro or the charger and cables separately), it is likely that most will have to go with the 10W option and stay longer than two hours to fully charge it.
However, an important thing to note is the A11 Bionic processor efficiency, which does a pretty good job of simple usage like listening to music and social networking. Because it has six cores, two of them are dedicated to activities that don't consume a lot of energy – which makes the iPhone battery last longer.
Finally, it is worth remembering that the iPhone X also has wireless charging at its disposal., or in other words, by induction, since it is not necessary to plug anything into its Lightning input, but for now Apple does not provide its own or third-party accessory here in Spain.
Conclusion
O iPhone X is the best iPhone ever released by Apple, but that sentence never made as much sense as in 2017 (ok, 2018), after all, this is the smartphone that promises to dictate the next ten years of the mobile market (even if it's just Apple). The thing is, unlike 2007 and 2017, it seems like a much bigger challenge to think about the smartphone as it is today in 2027.
One thing is right: the future is wireless, borderless and with enviable facial recognition – unless you have an identical twin brother. And, who knows, in the next ten years we won't have a more proactive Siri, an iOS increasingly integrated with Apple's various platforms and cameras ready for any day-to-day situation.
O iPhone X is already here, is already a reality and gives a taste, even if very expensive, of the path that Apple wants to follow. The device goes on sale in Spain from R$6.999,00 for the 64GB version and R$7.799 for the 256GB version, well above other competitors in the premium smartphone segment.
