It is no wonder that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are underwhelming at best. The iPhone X is Apple’s first revolution in design for a very long time now, marking a new era for the company moving forward. The phone is definitely a league above Apple’s current iPhones and a step up from the iPhone 8 series as well.
Apple definitely took things up a notch with the iPhone X, beginning with its design. The phone sports a all glass design with an edge to edge display on the front. The display is known as the Super Retina display, which measures at 5.8-inches with a resolution of 2436 x 1125. One other thing to note is that the display the first ever OLED screen on an iPhone. The handset is IP67 water and dust resistant like the iPhone 8 series and the iPhone 7 series. Underneath the hood sits the same A11 Bionic processor as the iPhone 8 series, 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion chip and a new Apple designed GPU which has 30 percent faster graphics performance.
One other significant change is that Apple has forgone the home button which doubles as a fingerprint sensor on the iPhone X. Instead of Touch ID, the iPhone X will rely solely on Apple’s new facial recognition technology known as Face ID. Face ID is made possible with the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera system. The system consists of a dot projector, infrared camera and a flood illuminator, which in combination produces an extremely secure facial recognition technology for authentication. Face ID will even work even if the user changes his or her appearance, for example wearing a hat, glasses or a change in hairstyle. Face ID has also been designed to reject spoofs such as 3D masks or pictures of people.
Speaking of the TrueDepth camera, it is also capable of producing more impressive selfie images. The 7MP front facing shooter now enables capturing in Portrait mode for more high quality selfies with bokeh and blurred background effects. The dual rear camera setup of the iPhone X is similar to that of the iPhone 8 Plus, but in vertical orientation instead of horizontal. The setup is made up of a f/1.8 wide angle sensor and an f/2.4 telephoto sensor. The dual optical image stabilization on the camera setup is definitely a welcome upgrade. Coupled with Apple’s more advanced and improved image signal processor, the cameras will feature faster autofocus, wider color capture and better lowlight shots. Like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus 8, these cameras will also feature 4K videos at 60 fps and 1080p slow mo videos at 240 fps.
The TrueDepth camera will also change the way emojis work. Apple has brought emojis to life with Animoji, which detects and analyzes more than 50 facial muscle movements of the user and animates them through Animoji. The usage of Animoji will be available on Apple’s iMessage app. Users will be able to record Animoji messages with facial expressions to be sent to their friends.
The iPhone X will of course support Qi standard wireless charging as well. Apple also gave us a glimpse of AirPower, a wireless charging pad which can charge three devices at the same time. The AirPower will be made available in 2018.
The iPhone X is priced starting at $999 and will be made available to order on October 27. The phone is available in both Silver and Space Gray colors with 64GB or 256GB storage variants.