Poll: ** The Official iPhone X Thread **

[Robbo]

https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-x/

Prices:

Space Grey or Silver, 5.8" screen
64GB : £999
256GB : £1149

Pre-order October 27th, ships November 3rd 2017.

Early hands on: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/12/16291244/new-iphone-x-photos-video-hands-on




Looks a lot better in the 'real life' pictures. Any takers?

 

[Robbo]

It does look good edge to edge (even if it's not strictly edgeless).

OLED will work well with the front camera/speaker surround too, app makers should keep the top of the apps black and it'll blend away nicely.

 

[Robbo]

The main problem with face ID is that it's going to have to flash your face when in the dark to unlock your phone...just no...

It isn't, it uses IR.

 

[Robbo]

This is my thoughts.

256GB is overkill, 128GB would be the sweet spot and should have been the base storage to help justify that price.

Agreed. 64GB is tight when you consider the price.

I mean when you compare it to others on paper...

https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/12/iphone-x-vs-the-competition/

It doesn't seem to be as good...

Often the case really, but the iPhone always works very well as a collective of high end hardware and software, if not bleeding edge.

 

[Robbo]

I am an Apple fan, MASSIVE one. I have had iPhones for 10 years, Apple TV, iPods, MBP, iMacs, iPads, the lot pretty much but there is a point where I am thinking….the competition has caught up now to a point where I can't really justify the price difference. Before the gap was quite big and the experience is what kept me in and at the moment…..I am going to dip my toes into Android to check out the competition, see how close they are and if they are really that far behind and if the iPhone really worth the extra £800….

I'm sort of stuck on it. Literally everyone I know uses iMessage extensively, I like everything backed up to iCloud (but that costs me too), Android is still fragmented and annoys me, as would Samsung's bloatware, and the iOS apps are still a class above the rest.

Hard to argue a 64GB iPhone X at probably over £70 a month on a standard contract is more than twice as good as an S8 at £30 a month though...

 

[Robbo]

Android is way ahead of Apple, I've had wireless charging since 2015 when the s6 was out, storage is also way ahead, I have a 128gb sd card in my s7 edge which cost me £16, now I'd have to spend £1000 to only get 64GB.. also they said the iPhone is only water resistant not waterproof like my s7 edge is.

Wireless charging for example doesn't solve the problems Android has had for years. I wish it was better in my view as I like the S8 and would have one if I was purely looking at hardware etc.

 

[Robbo]

Pah 2015? I used it on my first proper tablet, the glorious HP Touchpad back in 2011.

I think I bought 3 or 4 of these in that scramble when they were sold off cheaply.

 

[Robbo]

Looks pretty nice to be fair, shame it has iOS on it.

That's the best thing about it!

--

You can see why it's priced as it is. All phones over £600 (or even less) are a luxury item.

If you can afford £800~ for the likes of the 128GB iPhone 7 Plus, then you can also afford £1k - if you want it.

Remember a lot of people buy it on contract. Another £20 a month or so to have the latest and greatest phone? Doesn't sound so expensive then really...

I want to actually use one before deciding anything, knowing Apple I bet it all works really well...

 

[Robbo]

Like others I've had the day to think about it. I want to see Face ID working and I want to know if it will unlock the phone in the same situations I use Touch ID. When it's flat on a desk for example, is the front camera a wide enough angle for it to work?

In terms of the cost I have no real issue with it, £1000 cash for it sounds a lot, but the monthly plans will make it easier to swallow. What's another £10-20 a month to have the best phone out, for example - the thing you really want. Obviously if money is tight, it's not the wisest move so I can understand the horror of some people, but they should have the same issue with a £700 phone too.

It's worth remembering we're on a forum where people will drop £1000 on a graphics card without batting an eyelid, this wouldn't get the same use as most of our phones.

We can all argue whether Android has caught up to iOS - or vice versa - but iOS offers something different to Android in terms of a complete package and there are benefits such as generally superior app design in my experience.

There is no doubt the iPhone X is not the best value phone - the fact it costs probably double a Galaxy S8 on contract is a very fair one. However, the same applies to many things. A £50k BMW isn't going to ultimately do things a lot better in terms of getting you from A to B than a £15k Vauxhall, but there are many other factors people value when it comes to these things.

I think it really does look good in the real life pictures, with proper use being made of the OLED display at the top, it will look pretty special. Time to watch all the hands-on videos...

 

[Robbo]

Exactly that! Just...

No FaceID
No Force touch
No OLED
No HDR
No Wireless Charging
No quick charging
No full screen display
No dual cameras
No water resistance

But other than that, and probably lots of other things I've missed off the top of my head. Yes, exactly the same

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. I really like OLED, even if the colours aren't traditionally as accurate. I remember when I got the Galaxy S2, I thought "imagine how good this would be on a TV", and so I bought an OLED TV recently and it's just fantastic.

I don't think it will. I have an S8+ which uses iris scanning,

It’s fast and effective when indoors, and mostly good outdoors, although if the sun is behind you, it will struggle. Face ID will also struggle in direct sunlight as it uses a similar infrared flood lamp to light up your face.

Face ID/iris unlock work using the same principals and have dedicated hardware to auth and unlock without you having to wait in a queue holding people up. It’s instant, as quick as fingerprint unlock. You don’t even need to hold the phone close to your face, just glance at the screen.

Apple as a general rule make things like this significantly better. Touch ID is a good example, other fingerprint readers were good but Touch ID on the 5s was near on flawless for me, and it's only got faster as time as gone on.

I think it'll struggle really, Touch ID is more of an exact science in terms of what it does, but I'm prepared to be surprised. If it works at a good angle - for example you don't need your face over it when it's flat on a desk - I could easily get on with it, but that remains to be seen.

If as you say, it struggles in the sun, that is a huge problem and will mean unlocking the phone has taken a big step backwards from Touch ID.

 

[Robbo]

In the keynote, they had one image showing the woman's face at a wide angle, like when you look at your phone and it's sitting on a desk, it's not directly in front of your face, so I'd assume by this, it actually works at wide angles rather than directly in front.

Although the demo iPhone on stage that failed to face unlock and he had to switch to a backup didn't inspire total confidence

Yes, I remember that, near the pool. That's what made me think it can work at a decent angle.

The issue on stage wasn't down to Face ID, as far as I know, it was just the phone had been restarted/left for a while and not had the pin put in. It was quite hilarious though

 

[Robbo]

But it's also the worst feature. Small screen size. After having a + model, even the standard 6/7 feels like a toy phone. God knows how I'd find a screen that small.

It feels almost unusable when you're used to a Plus model.

 

[Robbo]

The can of worms is open now.

Android forever annoys me, and the more you customise it, the less reliable it gets. I'm not saying it's bad, far from it, but IMO iOS is better for me at least, in terms of the way apps work, there's still no comparison there either (some are very similar admittedly). The nicest Samsung phones are further crippled by Samsung themselves on the software front. I definitely find iOS generally more fluid than Android on the equivalent devices.

Even If I wanted an S8+, something I considered, the amount of hassle not having iMessage for example would be annoying.

As I've said in the past, I get my phone out of my pocket, usually to check notifications and then open an app. At both of these things iOS is as good/better, and I think most people use their phone a similar way. Scrolling along homescreens checking little widgets isn't useful, the half-baked iOS widget implementation is even less useful most of the time.

But equally I can understand why people wouldn't want something as limited as iOS and can easily prefer Android, it's still excellent and there are a great selection of phones too.

All personal preference at the end of the day.

 

[Robbo]

I initially thought iOS looked a bit too colourful etc too when they changed it from the original design, but I'm used to it now and think it's a pretty good balance...





I really like this hardware, pretty much spot on.

I wonder what the contracts will look like on the likes of EE...

 

[Robbo]

That's great but you still don't need the £1000 phone to do all of that...

You don't need a £50,000 car to drive down the road to the shops but that doesn't stop people. All depends whether you value a superior experience, which a phone like the X (or any top end phone) will provide.

 

[Robbo]

I've no issue really with people spending money on what they want but it's when they try to justify it with meaningless statements that could apply to a iPhone 7 you can pick up for half the price, just so you're buying it because you want one not because you need it

I don't think he's saying he needs it, just that he thinks it's worthwhile due to the amount of use it gets. People spend comparatively more on things they use a lot less.

 

[Robbo]

But when all of those uses listed can be done just as well on the current iPhone I don't see how it's worthwhile, it's not really offering you anything over ooooo new and shiny and this is coming from me who had no interest after the announcement and now very tempted to buy one. Why? Because it's new and we all want to have the latest and greatest regardless of the tangible benefits.

That's all the reason you need, it's up to you what you spend your money on. For me a big thing is the design of the front and the fact it's an OLED screen. I dumped a perfectly good LCD/LED TV to get an OLED one and don't regret it one bit.

I haven't decided if I'm getting one yet, the flexibility of 'Face ID' will swing it possibly. I'm on a 6s Plus at the moment which is fine and skipped the 7 for the reasons you've said, but the X is a good step up in some areas.

Some things are flat out a rip off in life, but I really don't think a high tech phone is one. Those Saint Laurent Paris handbags in Harrods for £20k on the other hand are a bit more extreme...

 

[Robbo]

A genuinely shocking admission. You could at the very least have donated it to an organisation such as the British Heart Foundation who would have been glad to receive it and sell it on

Steady on, I didn't bin it, it's in the bedroom now. The point being I chose to upgrade rather than it being necessary... and I could have got a perfectly serviceable TV for a third of the price.

Galaxy can do all of these for less. The old chestnut of iOS v Android or MacOS v Windows 10 is now a long dead issue. The all do the same job with equal competence. Apple are simply fleecing their customer base, it's as simple as that. I'll hang onto my iPhone 7 until the wheels drop off.

A very simplistic view and highly debatable to say the least.

Not everything you do has to be purely about value - it's up to you what you spend your hard earned money on. For some it's a phone, for others it's expensive holidays, computers, cars, houses, the list goes on.

 

[Robbo]

Seriously - an odd millisecond here and there. Computer manufacturers have been using this old trick for the last 30 years or so and still some users are taken in by it. Whenever I have asked people to define in detail why the prefer iOS to Android I've yet to hear an assessment that stands up to scrutiny.

There are many reasons people have listed over the last few pages of the thread, if you choose to disregard them it's your choice. It doesn't make them any less valid.

 

[Robbo]

You're wasting your time. You've heard of 'beer goggles' some of these posters have got 'apple goggles'.

Same as those anti-Apple goggles then? You've made your position very clear and won't consider counter arguments, so I'm not sure what's left to say...

I expect you'll be in the Motors forum soon telling people who own cars over £100k that they're mugs, I'm sure they won't lose any sleep over it.