“I’m spending a week with iPhone X as my primary device. So far, it’s the most fun I’ve had with any gadget since the original iPhone. I’m not being hyperbolic here,” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “There are shortcomings. There are things I’d love to see changed. But I can’t stop using it. The new display is beyond gorgeous. HDR is glorious. Fluid navigation gestures are sublime. Face ID is so fast I’m forgetting I have a passcode. Attention aware interactivity is the bomb.”
“If you want a familiar iPhone experience, iPhone 8 is ready and waiting for you,” Ritchie writes. “If you want a radical new design, with as close to an edge-to-edge OLED display as possible, a TrueDepth camera and Face ID on the front and an even-better-than-iPhone-8 dual camera system on the back, and you have the cash for it, then get iPhone X and enjoy not only tomorrow’s iPhone today, but the best damn product Apple’s ever made. And that’s saying a lot.”
“iPhone X’s design is completely dominated by an expansive OLED display that measures 5.8-inch corner-to-corner. At least it would if iPhone X had corners. Apple has rounded them off, aggressively. Still, it allows Apple to fit an iPhone Plus-sized display into a regular iPhone-sized chassis,” Ritchie writes. “The display still manages to run completely across the glass and into the stainless steel band around the sides. That is, except for the big bite Apple took out of it at the top. The look has been popularly referred to as a ‘notch’ or, internally and casually, as ‘forehead’ and ‘ears.’ For some, it was and will forever be the ‘”horns’ (as in🤘).”
“In a perfect world, I’m sure Apple would have loved to have been able to create a truly edge-to-edge display, top and bottom. Since the TrueDepth camera system can’t currently be hidden beneath the panel, the company was left with two choices: Give up on edge-to-edge altogether and run the TrueDepth camera module all the way across the top, or keep edge-to-edge at the rounded corners and let the TrueDepth camera system bite into the top. Apple chose the latter,” Ritchie writes. “It’s easy to disagree with that choice. At first glance the horns look awkward and distracting. At second and third glance as well. Like a spot in the corner of your eye or a splinter in your mind.”
“After having spent some time with the horns, I’m already beginning to forget about them. I can instantly see them if I look for them, of course. And on a white screen like web pages, they stick out more than on more color-filled and darker screens. in landscape it looks even odder at first, but I end up putting my thumb over the camera module anyway, so it’s always at least partially obscured,” Ritchie writes. “I’d still rather the horns disappear but only when and if Apple can go truly edge to edge. And I’m not sure how long that will take.
MacDailyNews Take: Rene, you’re putting your thumb over it because you subconsciously want to hide the notch from view. If it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be purposely placing your thumb atop your display, obscuring it. With the notch, Apple has placed their immoveable “thumb” permanently over one edge of your iPhone X’s display. That’s why it’s bad design.
Tons more in the very comprehensive full review – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you can read only one iPhone X review out there currently, this is the one to read.
SEE ALSO:
Ars Technica reviews iPhone X: Easy to recommend if you want a glimpse at the future – November 3, 2017
TechCrunch reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘Like using the future of smartphones, today’ – November 1, 2017
Tim Bajarin’s first impression of Apple’s iPhone X: Face ID worked flawlessly – November 1, 2017
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
The Independent reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘This feels like the future’ – October 31, 2017
David Pogue reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best thing is its size’ – October 31, 2017
Forbes reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Opulent, gorgeous, classy; the best iPhone yet – October 31, 2017
CNBC reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – October 31, 2017
…if you squint and pretend.
…what she said.
… to botty.
lol
If iPhone X is the best Apple product ever it doesn’t speak well for Apple.
MDN crusade against the iPhone X look will not age well. Relax, it’s a beautiful phone.
There is no MDN crusade against the iPhone X. What you claim is erroneous.
MDN have stated multiple times how much they want their iPhone X units!
MDN’s crusade is against the iPhone X’s notch (bad design) and it will age very well.
The idea that the reviewer was holding the phone with a thumb over the notch to hide its ugliness is a bit over the top. That’s the only way to hold it that won’t block part of the picture.
uh, the notch already blocks part of the picture.
Exactly. So the notch is only blocking the part of the picture that your thumb would block in any case. No net loss.
uh, what happens if you move your thumb, Professor?
What happens? I’ll tell you what happens, I drop my damn phone, that’s what happens!
As I said before, the Notchgate will die down within a few weeks. Same as Antennagate (iPhone 4), or Bendgate (iPhone 6+).
We can discuss the merits (or shortcomings) of the notch design ’till the cows come home, but what we are seeing, from various professional reviewers who aren’t scared of blasting a less-than-perfect product, is the ravest of rave reviews. The ones that have come out are positively glowing.
Ironically enough, a site dedicated to, and populated largely by, Apple’s most vocal fans seems to be producing the most vitriolic comments about the device (and most of it without ever having seen the actual device in person).
Folks, you don’t have go bend over backwards and twist yourselves into a pretzel in order to demonstrate to haters that you aren’t fanboi sheeple; you are allowed to say you like an Apple device. When all the tech magazines seemingly turn into such fanboi sheeple, it is perfectly OK to agree with them.
Literally, djcerla did not complain of MDN’s crusade “against the iPhone X,” but “against the iPhone X look,” i.e. UI design choices.
MDN – time to let it go…
loosing cred!
There are many posters that say, “I like the notch, it’s a design element, it distinguishes the iPh X from other on the market, Apple wouldn’t have released something that wasn’t intentional.” I’m not one of those and will never be and it’s now time for me and my ilk to lay down the notch. It’s also time for the people that love the Distraction to admit to their naive, ill-informed, luddite expressions of art/design knowledge. One cannot think Area 51 is distinctive in a QUALITATIVE sense and have any material connection to art/design, except if that means Hobby Lobby is your source for ideas, or good art.
From now on, I’m going to be a good community member and let the notch live it’s life. Christmas is coming and I want Santa to visit me with good notions. Here’s to good earnings today, boosted by the best phone on the planet. I see 1T on the horizon!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I’ll reserve judgement until mine arrives in two weeks. Apple could always “hide” the horns by making the only the space below the notch visible and active, keeping the horn parts black to match the notch. People would of course then complain that the screen is no longer “edge to edge” , but at least it would be uniform.
Maybe Apple’s best option in some future software update would be to give the user the ability to control the scree appearance – notch or no notch. Then nobody would have anything to complain about until the universe makes up some new nonsense.
It’s not edge-to-edge now.
this is an edge-to-edge screen:
The phone you linked to has a forehead and chin, it isn’t edge to edge either. The iPhone X looks more edge to edge, but neither phone is truly edge to edge.
See if Apple had it’s headquarters elsewhere the media could boast that the iPhoneX is the best blessed product Apple has ever made.
Still, I’m sure it’s a pretty good phone.
I would not believe a word from Ritchie on an Apple review. Here’s a guy that complains about off center placement of connectors, but the notch doesn’t bother him.
Oh, then there was this whole “how does Apple expect us to stay on message…” thing.
You’d be foolish to trust any single reviewer, but every review I’ve read is saying the iPhone X is pretty damn great and Face ID works great. I’m sure there are outliers and no product is 100 percent perfect but the consensus is very positive. Is it possible Apple built a great phone?
The notch is a necessary compromise, for now. Your brain will forget about it after a few days you won’t even notice it. It also doesn’t look bad, people are just whiny. It has to be there if we want Face ID. When components advance enough the notch won’t need to be there. Who knows how long that will take, couple years? Five years? But the Face ID tech is going to enable a lot of interesting stuff.
My brain already forgot about it. It won’t need to condition either. But I was digging more at the reviewer, than the product.
You follow an Apple writer closely enough that you have an opinion about them? Jesus that’s creepy.
No their bullshit was just that intense.
And it’s not just any writer. Ritchie is a prominent writes and editor in chief of a central Apple based publication. I like computers, so I read their stuff too.
I follow tech and I couldn’t tell you any single writer’s name, and I don’t know their back story as you seem to. You don’t just “read their stuff too”, you’re a little obsessed.
Ask just about anyone on here about Dan Lyons, Leo Laporte, John Dvorak, etc. and you will see they have knowledge and opinions, judgmental opinions. And that’s well and good.
No, it’s pathetic and kind of sad. You’re rooting for your favorite team and dissing the other team’s players. So sad.
You see me rooting for anyone? That’s pathetic!
Cynics don’t root!
Yes you are rooting, against the other team, and it is pathetic.
Oh, I thought you meant rooting for…
I only root for the user, no company, not one. If that disturbs you, you need to spend some time at the Ashram.
The “notch” will be a forgotten issue within a couple weeks. I would have hated to see it look like every other cheap android phone out there and wasting that top space with just a black background.
Apple iPhone X come pre-loaded with hyperbole.
Kolache comes pre-loaded with incessant empty whining.
Cocoa Boy, please re-read your post and apologize for your gross hypocrisy right this minute.
It’s not whining, Sean, it’s called laughing. Whining is what your parents do whenever your name is mentioned.
The fact that you mimicked me shows your absolute lack of intelligence and wit. I reckon that you never had an original thought in your head, Sean.
No doubt MacDailyNews app will look crap on the X. Time for a big upgrade boys.
I can understand that the notch isn’t a “clean design” however I fail to understand what the big deal is under these conditions:
1) when time and network information can be helpful- leave the time and network icons alone- maybe change the background.
2) when other information could be useful- change the display.
3) when watching movies or viewing pictures- black it out.
No big deal.
As for me, I like the home button. And, I’m thinking, a phone that is entirely a screen your fingers would get in the way. I don’t particularly like the curved edge of the 6s, I like the square edge of previous models- to me they are easier to hold. Give me the notch with square edged on the iPhone X +1. Yes, I want a faster horse until you show me a car is better. 🙂
Huh. I was not aware that MDN doesn’t like the notch. Have they mentioned it before?
If Reviewers and the Media had a clue what it takes to design and engineer any of these smartphones, or to write a few lines of code for an operating system, they might choose to keep their mouths shut and appear dumb, than to open it a remove all doubt. Yes it’s their job but like movie critics they can come off as talentless know-it-alls at times.
I meant “And remove all doubt.” (can’t edit comments?)
I meant “And remove all doubt.” (can’t edit comments?)
No, you can’t edit comments at this website, and that largely accounts for their incomprehensibility. Learn to love the churn.