When dropping this much on a new phone, it should be without compromise. Yet, before you’ve even finished swiping your card at the Apple Store, you’ve already started making compromises.
To help understand the level of compromise and corner cutting, let’s go through it point by point
The Cost
The iPhone starts at $1000, but this a massively dishonest marketing ploy. It gets you in the door and to the checkout counter. Once you’ve got the phone in hand, you won’t want to let it go. That’s why car salesmen try to get you to test drive the car before they talk price. It’s the same method airline companies can sell you a cheap tickets. After you’ve picked your flight and time, they then upsell you for basic things like bringing a carry-on or choosing your seat in advance. It’s sad to see Apple employ that same shady technique.
The costs start climbing when you realized that quick charging, the feature touted in the keynote, doesn’t actually work until you buy the special adapter and USBC to Lightning charging cable. This will cost you $80.
You’ve had an iPhone for the better part of a decade and have been taking selfies, cat photos, and immortalizing each meal, so there’s no way the 64 GB base model is enough. You really need the 256 GB and $1149 version.
The phone does come with headphones, but you can’t charge the phone and listen to music at the same time. You also want to be part of the wireless future that Apple promised. Since your regular headphones no longer work, the only logical thing to do is drop the extra $159 for the new AirPods that are predominantly displayed on the table next to the checkout.
Since you just paid, what could have been used for a down payment on a car, for a phone you will replace in a year, you would be a lunatic not to protect it! Don’t worry, AppleCare is only $199.
If you’re counting, you arrived at $1,587. Then throw in the average sales tax rate of around 7% and the total is now $1,698.
That’s right, the new iPhone X Costs $1700!
PS: you’ll need to buy a wireless charger too.
The Display
I know everyone says, “You don’t really notice it” or “You get used to it.” when it comes to the gaudy notch at the top of the phone. I hear, “After weeks of use, it just blends in.” But if I just deferred the next couple months’ worth of rent to buy this new phone, I shouldn’t have to get used to anything. Apple should have done the right thing the first time. The notch is ugly. It’s bad. Apple should feel bad.
The display is a beautiful Samsung made display. There’s not a lot more to say. Samsung knows how to make displays and Apple was smart to put it in. But rather than leave it alone, they messed with it. Shame on them.
FaceID
It’s fast, convenient, but a massive risk. Relatives that look enough like the owner can quickly and easily fool FaceID. Sibling will use it to blackmail each other (My brothers would have), kids will unlock their parents phones and read conversations not meant for them. Friends can unlock it easily without permission too, just by pointing it at you. Gone are the day of wrestling your brother to the floor to pin his thumb against the sensor.
In a real world case, when the phone is on the table, you can’t unlock it by just touching the phone. You actually have to pick it up, or hover your face above it. It works great for cold weather when wearing gloves and helps you keep from having to leave your phone completely unprotected, but it’s not the end all of security.
The Battery
A lot of fans and critics alike have made a very consistent request: Smooth out the phone by increasing its width to hide the camera bump and give us a bigger battery. Yet it’s 2017 and Apple newest flagship can’t even compete with phones that are half the price and years older. Motorola can make a $300 phone last for days, why can’t Apple?
No flagship in 2017 seem to have great battery life, but the issue is that the iPhone is hours behind the competition. In battery tests, we’ve seen on average 20% shortly life span than equivalent competition. This isn’t meant as a praise of the competition, since most Android flagships are also pretty terrible in this regard. This instead reveals just how bad Apple’s battery problem is. When Apple controls the OS, the software optimization, and the hardware, and charges this much for the phone, this kind of battery performance is inexcusable. Apple should walk away with an easy win here, but instead they fall desperately behind.
The Camera
The bump means that the iPhone will never lay on a table flat. Sure, the 2 grand you paid means it’s never outside of its shock/water/dust/bullet proof lockbox, but that doesn’t mean the design is egregious. Come on Apple.
The Glass back
The glass back looks and feel really nice. It’s a step in the right direction to give us wireless charging. But this isn’t Apple’s first time with glass backs. In fact, they stopped making phones that way because it made the phone so fragile. Even in 2017, with all of the advances in glass technology, we know that the glass back is still a terrible mistake. Especially since Apple will charge $550 to repair the back if damaged. For those counting, that’s the price of a OnePlus 5T, 8GB/128GB model. Yes, the iPhone X back costs as much as a smart phone that’s arguable superior. See our OnePlus 5T review. Expect to see a lot of family and friends carrying around shattered iPhones.
Since the competition can replace their glass backs for $20 and still maintain their waterproof rating, this is inexcusable for Apple. There’s absolutely no reason for it.
The Headphone jack.
It’s not here. Again. That’s the one thing we asked for. You had one job!
The Fingerprint Sensor
Seriously? Why do we have to ask to not get rid of things and make other things worse? Why is this even a thing?
The OS
This is where it gets pretty subjective, since a lot of people really like the OS and any problem with it can be fixed by software updates.
The Lightning Port
Apple went all USB-C and Headphone jack on their new Macbooks. Even the quick charge adapter for the iPhone has a USB-C port on it. Yet for some reason it’s not on this phone. I can’t figure out if we’re being punked or if Apple hardward development teams aren’t allowed to have any contact with either other.
No SD Card
Apple has never had an SD card slot, but that doesn’t mean it’s not desired. So, we’re still waiting Apple. Any phone without expandable storage has compromised to do it.
The good
There’s a lot to like about the iPhone. Apple still blow the socks off of all manufactures in the vibration motor that they use. It feels like a real button press, even though it’s virtual. Well done apple. They refined it again this year and I can’t praise them enough.
The Verdict
The problem is simple: $1700 phones should be perfect. But Apple has compromised so much with the iPhone X, that it can’t even compete with phones a tenth the price. Part of the allure of an iPhone is the price. Something that expensive is desirable because it feels unattainable or exclusive. But take away the dollar sign and see it for what it truly is and you’re left with a half-baked first gen product. The truth hurts.
Highest score possible based on specifications: 46/100 – F
Real Score: Below 46 out of 100 – F
Pros:
- Big screen
- Great camera
- FaceID
- Stock OS
Cons:
- No SD Card
- No Fingerprint Sensor
- Quick Charge not included (additions $80 to buy the adapters necessary)
- No headphone jack
- Massive camera bump
- No USB-C
- Fragile Glass back
- Expensive to repair
- Battery life still
- Expensive to buy
- No file system access
- iOS still doesn’t allow changing the default applications (looking at you Safari and Apple Maps).
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