Apple Fall Event - iPhone 8, iPhone 7S and Watch 3

My iPhone X arrived yesterday.

Was actually a little sooner than I expected due to the stock issues but it was delivered within the 4-5 weeks I was quoted.

My daughter Lily was in hysterics at the Animoji stuff, might post a video later.

As for the phone itself it’s great. The screen feels smaller even though it’s technically bigger (taller) than the iPhone 7 Plus. But often I was finding the Plus size models to be a little too big for my liking. Can’t say I wouldn’t like a bigger X if they release a Plus version in the future though!

Really like Face ID and I’m not missing the home button or Touch ID at this point.

Highly recommended. My only regret is that they didn’t release it sooner. There were whispers last year that a phone like this was coming and that would have saved me having to buy the iPhone 7 Plus.

Listed the 7 Plus on eBay last night and it sold within a few hours for £400! So that’s a bonus :)
 
I got £465 for my 7+ on eBay, makes the £73/mo slightly less extreme (although the 100GB of data also makes it worth it) for my 8+.

Still wish I’d waited for the X, although I do prefer a wider screen for web browsing and programme viewing - I was able to get my hands on a X at an Apple Store for a bit of playing ;)

Liam
 
Liam W said:
I got £465 for my 7+ on eBay, makes the £73/mo slightly less extreme (although the 100GB of data also makes it worth it) for my 8+.

Still wish I’d waited for the X, although I do prefer a wider screen for web browsing and programme viewing - I was able to get my hands on a X at an Apple Store for a bit of playing ;)

Liam
Click to expand...
What size iPhone 7 Plus? Mine was only 32GB. I’m not sure I saw many 32GB above £400.
 
Chris D said:
My iPhone X arrived yesterday.
Click to expand...
Yer, been playing with mine for a few days now... and I have to say, its a huge leap forward for iPhone. It feels so smooth, sleek, effortless to use. Its hard to explain... but is nothing like any iPhone prior. Everything moves so fluently compared to previous iPhones with home buttons.

Same... don't miss it the home button already. Had to lookup how to turn it off when I had to restart it for something (power + a volume button), but otherwise worked it all out pretty quickly.

Love the leap forward they've taken.
 
My impressions so far:

The Bad:
One thing that's really bothering me is the fact that they've hidden all the system status icons away in the command center now, due to the notch, so you're forced to open it to check them.

So no longer can you tap or wake the screen to check:

Your exact battery percentage
If do not disturb is on or not
If my bluetooth headphones are connected
If my VPN is active
If I have an active alarm set

This seems mad to me, considering how the screen is bigger, yet all this info is now gone.
Awful UI, just so that they can accomodate the notch and tuck what icons they deem to be the most important into the little recesses.

I also really dislike how the command center requires actioning from the top of the screen, not good for one handed use, especially if you're left handed 😔. I'd have much preferred if you could swipe up from the left or right bottom corners.

Additionally the media controls are forced to be at the top of control center now, and reachability doesn't work in the control center, at all. So my one handed easy audio and media management when using other apps on my daily commute is totally buggered.

FaceID. There's so many situations where it just doesn't work. When in the dock on my desk, when mounted in my car window for when I use my phone as a sat nav, when just lying on a table or desk that I'm sat at, when on the bench in the gym.
The range at which it can accurately detect your face, and the field of view needs increasing. Hopefully in further iterations they can improve this.

The price, it's insane. However I use my phone as much as my laptop these days and use it for content creation so I try to justify it to myself as an enthusiast. I can see more and more people having phones as their primary computing devices though. Mobile focus for any piece of software is going to get more and more important with each passing year.


The Good:
Coming from the standard 4.7" screen of the iPhone 7, this new one is glorious.

Tap to wake on the screen, this is a nice touch and I like it.

Battery is pretty great.

The new gestures generally work really well.

I love the way you can swipe through apps fulls screen by swiping the home bar left and right.

It does feel very fast and smooth.

I don't notice the notch with normal use, but I do hate the impact it's had on the status bar, as noted above.

The size is perfect, I always wanted a Plus model for the screen, but the phone was just too big for me.

Wireless charging is awesome. I love not having to plug in a cable and being able to just sit it in a dock or lay it on a pad.

The ability to use force touch for the flashlight and camera app from the lock screen with haptic feedback really does feel like clicking a button. It's very well done.

Camera etc. is all very good of course.

Animoji is hilarious and great fun. Although curiously apparently it only uses the camera, not any of the extra FaceID sensors, so it seems it's artificially constrained to the X by software.

FaceID. When not in any of the situations I listed above, ie. in your hand held in front of you, FaceID works incredibly well, with a much lower failure rate than what I used to experience with touch ID, however being in England I rarely wear sunglasses, so that helps 😎



Overall, iOS11 feels rushed to accomodate the X, the notch doesn't feel quite right, but maybe that's bias because I'm frustrated with the points above.

I think they've really messed up control center.

But over all the phone feels like a pretty good upgrade and I'm pleased with the purchase. I really hope they improve the software and UI though as there's lots of room for improvement.
 

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