Apple today announced the iPhone X, their most advanced iPhone yet. It features a 5.8-inch OLED edge-to-edge display, with a stainless steel frame running along the sides, and a glass back. As the first iPhone without the iconic Home button, the iPhone X (pronounced ‘ten’) represents the most radical redesign of the iPhone in its ten-year history.
The iPhone X comes in two colors, silver (pictured) and space gray.
The iPhone X in space gray. A glass back enables the iPhone X to support wireless charging, as electricity can’t pass through the aluminum unibodies of previous iPhones.
Unlike other iPhones, including the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the iPhone X’s dual cameras are arrayed vertically instead of horizontally. They’re the most advanced cameras on an iPhone, even surpassing the new 8 Plus cameras. The telephoto camera has a faster f/2.4 aperture compared to the 8 Plus’ f/2.8, and both cameras ship with optical image stabilization, whereas only the wide-angle on the 8 Plus has OIS.
There’s a lot packed into the camera notch on the front of the iPhone X. There’s a 7MP camera that now supports Portrait Mode when shooting selfies, thanks to an additional depth camera. That TrueDepth camera is also what makes Face ID, or unlocking with your face, possible on the iPhone X.
The iPhone X ships with the first OLED display on an iPhone. The 5.8” screen is the largest on any iPhone, even surpassing the 8 Plus’ 5.5” screen. It has a 2,436 x 1,125 resolution (~458ppi), which also makes it the highest resolution display on any iPhone. The screen supports HDR (Dolby Vision and HDR10), and has Apple’s True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the screen’s white balance to match the ambient light.
The familiar volume and silent buttons remain on the iPhone X. You can also spot the antenna bands running on the top and bottom of the sides.
The back of the iPhone X is surprisingly clean, and unlike previous iPhones, is free of any regulatory wording or symbols (the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus feature a similarly minimal back). Whether this is for display units only or will remain when the iPhone X ships is unknown, as different countries may have different rules of this kind of thing.
The side button is now larger, and can be held to activate Siri.
The bottom of the iPhone X. I don’t think anyone was expecting the headphone jack to make a comeback.
The clean top of the iPhone X. The shiny stainless steel frame makes me think of the original iPhone, which had a similar shiny rim. Since the name iPhone X seems to be a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, this may not be a coincidence.
The iPhone X next to an iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone X has a larger 5.8” screen, compared to the 7 Plus’ 5.5” screen, but is smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus because of its thin bezels. In fact, the iPhone X is closer in size and weight to the iPhone 8/7 than the 8 Plus/7 Plus.
Since there’s no physical Home button, the iPhone X also doesn’t have Touch ID. Instead, you unlock the iPhone X with your face using Face ID, and go to the Home screen by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. This gesture works in any screen to take you back to the Home screen.
So, do you like the silver iPhone X?
Or do you prefer the space gray iPhone X?