Over the past few months, I’ve come across enough great iPhone alternatives to convince me to switch over from the iPhone X, which I have been holding on since my review 6 months ago. I have to admit, the iPhone X has a fair amount of problems that made me wanting to switch from it, there are still many apps that aren’t optimized well for the notch, Face ID is still not as great as Touch ID, and I almost got lost in the streets of Barcelona a few months ago when it fail to lock on to GPS satellites. But still, every time I start backing up my stuffs and switched my SIM to an Android phone, I regretted almost immediately and switched back right away, which I can assure you it’s more than just the Apple ecosystem that’s keeping me from moving away.
The Unrivaled Touch Experience
Not too long after the iPhone X was announced, it didn’t take long for some Android phones to adapt some of the iPhone X’s features, and one of the best adaptations is gesture navigation, which works so well on the iPhone X that it makes sense to swipe to go back to the homescreen or pull up the app switcher. Even though the upcoming Android P has the feature supported natively, chances are the feature might not be supported on the Android phones I own even if they managed to receive the update, 3D touch on iOS has also proven to be really useful when texting on the iPhone X too, as it allows me to select text faster than it is on Android, making the touch screen experience on the iPhone X a lot more enjoyable at times.
An All-Rounder Camera
I’ve never been sold on Apple’s Shot on iPhone X ads and consider it’s camera the best in the competition, devices like the Huawei P20 has already taken the crown in smartphone photography all thanks to the collaborative effort between Huawei and Leica, with the former utilizing AI in photography, the Huawei P20 has the best camera hardware I’ve ever tested, and based on our comparison back then, it outperformed the iPhone X’s camera in dynamic range and detail. However, the one thing that most Android phones still can’t trump is the iPhone X’s videography performance, it is probably the only smartphone camera that is able to take stabilized 4K videos at 60 FPS, and it also records with a higher bitrate than most other smartphones with the MOV file format, making it more than just a mere device for smartphone photography. Also, I have used the iPhone X in many occasions to shoot some of our hands on videos using the FiLMiC Pro app, which allows me to adjust color temperature and select which microphone I want it to pick up audio from, I highly recommend that you purchase the app if you are thinking to use the iPhone X for videography.
Games Better though not a Gaming Phone
Even though I really hate that notch getting in my way when I’m playing games, the iPhone X is still my preferred gaming smartphone of choice, though it doesn’t sport any gamer centric features like what we’ve seen on gaming smartphones, games are well optimized for the iPhone X’s hardware and you are getting the highest possible graphics quality that even some flagship Android phones aren’t able to achieve, not to forget to mention that I can have my game progress sync to iCloud and continue playing on my iPad without worrying any data loss. Furthermore, the App Store is more addictive than Google Play with rich editorial content that suggests apps and games I should try out, which I miss dearly when I switch to an Android phone.
Despite the satisfaction I have for the iPhone X, it’s retail price is one thing that’s keeping me from recommending it to friends and family, most Apple resellers are already giving discounts and some online retailers have managed to offer as much as RM1000 lesser than it’s original retail price. While not every of the points I mentioned above are exclusive to the iPhone X, you can still very much experience it on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus depending on your budget, but overall, I can’t deny that Apple has done a pretty good job on the iPhone X to keep me happy for the past 6 months, as people who know me well would know that I switch phones almost every two weeks.
