Updated with TechCrunch review, at the bottom.
We talked yesterday about how Apple is this year taking a different approach to pre-sale reviews of its flagship iPhone. Instead of giving all publications and sites the same embargo date, so that all the reviews hit the net at once, it’s layering them, with different people allowed to post different pieces at different times.
We saw some written pieces and several hands-on videos by YouTubers, and we’re today seeing some more first impressions pieces by writers who were apparently given their iPhone X models just one day ahead of their embargo time …
Business Insider‘s Steve Kovach opens his piece by stating that he’s been testing it for a little less than a day. That was, he says, enough to sell him on the device.
High points for him were the new design, the OLED screen and the performance of Face ID.
Kovach doesn’t mind the notch, but says that not all app developers have yet adapted to the new aspect ratio – including, bizarrely, Apple!
The best part is the screen. At 5.8 inches, it’s slightly larger than the iPhone 8 Plus screen, but on a body that’s only a little larger than the iPhone 8. For everyone avoiding the plus-sized iPhones because of their surfboard-like construction, the X will strike the perfect balance […] The X’s screen is stunning, almost as if it’s painted onto the phone […]
In my short time with the iPhone X, Face ID has worked well. It unlocks the phone quickly in low light, bright light, the dim light of Business Insider’s video studio, and even in a pitch-black closet.
Nilay Patel at The Verge says he was also given less than 24 hours, and is similarly impressed with the display.
Other apps have been refitted for the iPhone X screen, but have made a bunch of funky design choices. For example, some have large chunks of unused space at the bottom near the home bar. And I saw at least one app that showed the home bar bleeding into the menu icons at the bottom of the screen.
Apple’s not totally innocent either. There were a few cases where I saw large chunks of unused space at the bottom of the screen in some of Apple’s own in-house apps, such as the iPhone’s built-in Mail app, especially when the keyboard popped up.
He also loves the design, describing it as ‘gorgeous’ but not flawless.
He’s not a fan of the notch, and thinks the bezels are thicker than Apple’s marketing would have us believe.
He had bigger issues with non-optimized apps.
Patel also found that Face ID isn’t always reliable.
Engadget‘s Chris Velazco said he had the phone for ‘about a day’ and ‘sort of loves’ the design, also mentioning those bezels.
FaceID works great in the dark, because the IR projector is basically a flashlight, and flashlights are easy to see in the dark. But go outside in bright sunlight, which contains a lot of infrared light, or under crappy florescent lights, which interfere with IR, and FaceID starts to get a little inconsistent.
He too likes the display quality – though he thinks not everyone will.
Yes, a fine but noticeable bezel runs around the display, and yes, the notch above the screen that contains the elaborate camera cluster is a little strange.
He also echoes complaints about non-optimized apps.
Velazco does, though, think the new gestures work well.
CNET got 18 hours (I’m guessing these guys didn’t get much sleep). Like The Verge, Scott Stein found that Face ID wasn’t 100% reliable.
Interestingly, while Apple says you need to be actively looking at your iPhone X for Face ID to work, Stein says you can switch off this protection if you want to.
Double-clicking the side button brings up Apple Pay, but an additional face-glance is needed to authorize a payment. I tried it on our vending machine at the office and sometimes it worked great. Sometimes Face ID didn’t seem to recognize me.
He was less impressed by the display, however, seeing it as good but not dramatically so.
He raised the same issue of apps that haven’t been adapted for the aspect ratio, and says that he found it harder to adjust to the lack of Home button.
He also found Portrait Lighting was hit-and-miss.
Those gestures added up to some difficult maneuvers as I walked Manhattan streets in the Flatiron between my office and a local barber shop. At the end of the first day, I admit: sometimes I missed the simple home button.
CNET’s senior photographer James Martin spent 10 hours playing with the front-facing camera, and was generally impressed – though did note that it had problems in bright sunlight.
TechCrunch‘s Matthew Panzarino got several days with it, and took it to Disneyland to review it in what he described as a more real-life test. Nice work if you can get it!
His review has a major focus on Face ID, which he reports worked reliably but not perfectly.
Speed of recognition is, he says, midway between the first and second generations of Touch ID.
On the camera, optical image stabilization makes a big difference at night and for close-ups, he says.
Portrait Mode worked well with one person, but struggled with two or more.
If you’re taking macro images of flowers or details or, say, bacon, the stabilized lens will help immensely with fine detail and preventing motion blur. Similarly to a telephoto situation, any motion of your hands can be greatly amplified because of the distance and detail levels of what you’re shooting.
Screen quality is described as ‘much, much better than the iPhone 8 LCD,’ but still suffers from dimming and colour shifts when viewed at an angle.
Panzarino found that he struggled with the lack of Home button on day one, found it easier on day two and was completely used to it by day six.
