“I have been using Apple’s new iPhone X for several days now, and while I have not had time to do a proper review, I wanted to share my initial observations,” Tim Bajarin writes for PC Magazine. “There have been a lot of questions about the accuracy of Apple’s Face ID, but after using it over 100 times, it worked for me 100 percent of the time. I figured there might be a 3-5 percent failure rate, but I did not encounter any glitches. With my face, it worked flawlessly.”
MacDailyNews Take: The more handsome/beautiful you are, the better it works. 😉
“What surprised me about iPhone X$999.00 at Verizon Wireless was that the notch — the indent up top that holds the front cameras and sensors — was not particularly distracting,” Bajarin writes. “Some folks have criticized the notch as clunky, but once you understand why it’s there, you realize that its features outweigh any design flaws.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, we stand ready and willing to do some Kübler-Ross bargaining, too! We expect to get to acceptance eventually. That won’t transform Apple’s ill-conceived notch into good design.
“I was not expecting the incredible color saturation and overall 4K HDR image quality I saw in the pictures I took. I tested it against an iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus, and the photos from the iPhone X were markedly sharper, clearer, and with much deeper colors,” Bajarin writes. “I am very much an amateur photographer, but even I could tell how much better the iPhone X camera performed over the last two models.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Come on, Friday!
SEE ALSO:
The Verge reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Clearly the best iPhone ever made, despite being marred by its ugly notch – November 1, 2017
Above Avalon’s first impressions of Apple’s iPhone X: ‘An entirely new iPhone experience’ – October 31, 2017
Apple reminds developers to design around iPhone X’s notch – October 28, 2017
We’ll get used to iPhone X’s ugly notch, even if we don’t end up liking it – October 23, 2017
Sloppiness: Apple’s inconsistent iPhone X design guides show attention to detail is no longer a priority – October 13, 2017
It’s not all screen: Apple’s stretching the truth with iPhone X marketing – October 3, 2017
Joshua Topolsky: Apple is really bad at design – October 1, 2017
Apple’s botched ‘notch’ atop iPhone X’s display is a design abomination – September 15, 2017
Apple is turning a design quirk into the iPhone X’s defining feature: Leaning into the notch – September 14, 2017
The lessons and questions of Apple’s iPhone X and iPhone 8 – September 13, 2017
Apple embraces that ugly notched cutout in OLED ‘iPhone’s display – August 30, 2017
It’s time we embraced Apple’s notched/cutout OLED iPhone display – August 11, 2017
… provided that somebody has previously entered their passcode to enable Face ID. Right, Craig?!
Your point?
I fully understand why it’s there. It’s there in the same way the speaker and camera were before. The difference is that they put a bit of screen either side so they can say that it goes to all the edges and have symmetry on all the corners. It may not be that noticeable in use, but it’s a compromise. The notch itself doesn’t actually allow any extra functionality that couldn’t have been done with the bezel areas on previous models.
Humans can “get used to” just about anything. Just saying this prior to talking about an element (in this case the notch), implies what it is…”a consequence,” as it was named by one reviewer. The real test of it’s design quality…will it be seen as an element to carry over in following phones? I bet no.
I am old enough to remember the journalistic heart attack that followed an early interview with Microsoft and Steve Jobs. The question asked was how they innovated. Microsoft claimed they held many focus groups to determine what their customers wanted, and then gave them that. Steve Jobs shrugged and said they held no focus groups. They didn’t ask their customers what they wanted. They told their customers what they wanted. Then Microsoft’s customers told Microsoft that what they wanted was what Apple was innovating.
The moral of the story is, the notch is not a design flaw, any more than the “protruding camera lens” was. Get over it. You are doing exactly what Microsoft and the journalists were so arrogant about back then – assuming Apple has made a stupid mistake without asking you, first.
It used to be only the Apple haters that decried Apple’s dumb mistakes (and resultant doom) before anyone had even used the product, let alone themselves. Let’s stop doing the same thing, OK? Those of us that have been around awhile have seen this kind of thing many times before – as well as the result when it finally got into the hands of real users.
It is so comical and indicative of the cynicism spurred on by social media, easy to throw out negativity, hard to propose real world solutions. All design is an ongoing compromise between form and function. I believe apple achieved an elegant compromise which does not bother me in the least.
Right. Do people really think that Apple didn’t consider the alternatives? This phone is a big deal for them. The anniversary phone. We can try and figure out their decisions, but they don’t have justify their reasoning.
The version that MDN loves is not elegant in portrait mode. The battery and signal indicators would remain sideways and locked in place. It’s also very obvious and sterile. And puts the screen off center.
Someone posted earlier that the grill on the front of a car is a design decision built around functionality or shortcomings in engine cooling and I think this is what Apple has done. They had goals for this phone that were contradictory. They wanted a phone that was all screen but they needed front facing sensors that at this point couldn’t be hidden under the screen. So they created the notch which is more organic and less sterile than a solid band across the top. That’s what I think. But again. I’m not Apple. And I would be really arrogant to think I had even remotely considered the full range of possibilities they struggled with to make this very beautiful and highly demanded phone.
In 2 months after release, everybody will have forgot about the notch, the media is just hyping it, like they do with everything else. Scum sucking bottom dwellers…
Hmmm… Another person who has actually USED the new iPhone, thinks the notch isn’t a big deal.
Complaining about it is like complaining about the rear view mirror on your windshield and how it blocks part of your view and distracts you while driving.
Michael: the windshield isn’t meant to be an artful display. Safety is overwhelmingly more important than delivering a delightful visual impact. Remember other reviewers using words such as distraction, a consequence, aesthetic set back, Area 51 to describe the so-artful element. Give me a better argument, please.
The iPhone isn’t meant to only be an artful display. Function is overwhelmingly more important than delivering a delightful visual impact. Remember reviewers who have used the iPhone X are using words like ‘Face ID works flawlessly’, ‘Notifications are the best example of how Face ID is better than Touch ID’, ‘Face ID works great. In practice it’s like not even having a passcode on the phone.’ Give me a better argument, please.
You’re right, iPhone X doesn’t have to be beautiful only functional. In other words, one out of two is pretty good.
The Verge review commented on the Face ID not working in bright outdoor and indoor light. As far as the notch, it is ugly and inelegant, but perhaps the best solution at this point given the advancement of technology and cost. Something that isn’t being commented on though is that the notch limits the amount of info that can be displayed and displaces the clock to the left, all that’s left to squeeze into the right is the battery icon (without percentage), wifi symbol and bars. Your carrier no longer appears there, probably not my VPN either, and maybe not even bluetooth. Sacrificing these key pieces of information for users is a bigger issue than the notch covering part of the screen.
Ahhh! MDN reaches the next stage of notch wisdom, transitioning from denial to grudging acceptance.
Nooooo, Face ID can’t work really really really well, what will all the trolls complain about?