I just wanted to give my 2 cents here for people who may still consider switching from an iPhone Plus size to iPhone X. Maybe other people have a similar usage style like I do and this may help their decision.
One of the initial reasons for me to go iPhone 7 Plus was the Battery life, Landscape mode, and the Dual Camera. Now after one year of usage I have noticed that I only use the iPhone 7 plus in landscape for 2 things: Videos and Games.
So I now got my iPhone X in my hands and in terms of Portrait mode I definitely feel like I have more screen than before. The gestures make the whole user experience even better. The smaller size makes the use of the phone far more comfortable. I do have larger hands, but the one-hand usage of the 7 Plus sometimes still almost gave me cramps. Lastly, I hated the positioning of the language selection button. I so often accidentally changed the language. Having it now beneath the keyboard is really nice. Although it feels odd to have this kind of empty space beneath the keyboard, the reason appears to be to make the keyboard more reachable, as it is placed at around the same height as where the bezels of the previous iPhones start.
What I did notice though with the narrower screen width is that I need to get used to the narrower keyboard.
Now, what about landscape games and videos? In terms of videos, if you are like me who is just using youtube or watching trailers on his phone, you may not care about the notch. I already forgot it is there, but when watching a trailer which has a lot of bright screens then yes, it does feel a bit intrusive. But I expect that I will simply get used to it. Now games are a different story. You can not just "zoom out" to have simply get bezels on the sides. It is reducing immersion and for example, when I am playing Iron Soldiers, it is cutting a bit into some HUD elements. This is now up to the developers to try to keep the immersion while somehow embracing this notch.
So overall I can say:
- In everyday usage (98% of the time in my case), I won't notice the notch, I won't care about it, it actually may even make me feel the device is more futuristic
- I like going to a smaller hardware, more comfortable one-handed usage while keeping the camera/battery life and having more screen
- In terms of videos, yes, it is intrusive, but I don't really care since it is just a small screen on a small phone. Some videos are fine to be played zoomed out, but 21:9 movies or 16:9 movies might be a bit of a problem, as the video would get smaller than what you would see on an iPhone 6/7/8
- In terms of games, here all that can be done is putting trust into the developers to find ways to keep immersion because otherwise, the notch can distract you a bit.
- Dragging down the notification center or control center is a bit clumsy, I would recommend (as other YouTubers already did) to activate reachability. It is really easy to use reachability at least for me and then dragging down the notification center or control center is become far simpler. I will have to get used to doing this if I am holding my phone a bit awkward. But generally I have no problems reaching the control center, but I do have problems reaching the notification center ( I am a right-hand user). This is I guess the only other thing that is not so great. I am not using the notification center often though. I usually get notifications on my Apple Watch and then I often just get right into it. Or I go directly from the lock screen notifications into the app. But in those few moments I do use it, it might be a bit of a hassle.
Hope that helps some guys having fewer fears. I am highly enjoying my iPhone X and will look forward to what developers now do with it.
One of the initial reasons for me to go iPhone 7 Plus was the Battery life, Landscape mode, and the Dual Camera. Now after one year of usage I have noticed that I only use the iPhone 7 plus in landscape for 2 things: Videos and Games.
So I now got my iPhone X in my hands and in terms of Portrait mode I definitely feel like I have more screen than before. The gestures make the whole user experience even better. The smaller size makes the use of the phone far more comfortable. I do have larger hands, but the one-hand usage of the 7 Plus sometimes still almost gave me cramps. Lastly, I hated the positioning of the language selection button. I so often accidentally changed the language. Having it now beneath the keyboard is really nice. Although it feels odd to have this kind of empty space beneath the keyboard, the reason appears to be to make the keyboard more reachable, as it is placed at around the same height as where the bezels of the previous iPhones start.
What I did notice though with the narrower screen width is that I need to get used to the narrower keyboard.
Now, what about landscape games and videos? In terms of videos, if you are like me who is just using youtube or watching trailers on his phone, you may not care about the notch. I already forgot it is there, but when watching a trailer which has a lot of bright screens then yes, it does feel a bit intrusive. But I expect that I will simply get used to it. Now games are a different story. You can not just "zoom out" to have simply get bezels on the sides. It is reducing immersion and for example, when I am playing Iron Soldiers, it is cutting a bit into some HUD elements. This is now up to the developers to try to keep the immersion while somehow embracing this notch.
So overall I can say:
- In everyday usage (98% of the time in my case), I won't notice the notch, I won't care about it, it actually may even make me feel the device is more futuristic
- I like going to a smaller hardware, more comfortable one-handed usage while keeping the camera/battery life and having more screen
- In terms of videos, yes, it is intrusive, but I don't really care since it is just a small screen on a small phone. Some videos are fine to be played zoomed out, but 21:9 movies or 16:9 movies might be a bit of a problem, as the video would get smaller than what you would see on an iPhone 6/7/8
- In terms of games, here all that can be done is putting trust into the developers to find ways to keep immersion because otherwise, the notch can distract you a bit.
- Dragging down the notification center or control center is a bit clumsy, I would recommend (as other YouTubers already did) to activate reachability. It is really easy to use reachability at least for me and then dragging down the notification center or control center is become far simpler. I will have to get used to doing this if I am holding my phone a bit awkward. But generally I have no problems reaching the control center, but I do have problems reaching the notification center ( I am a right-hand user). This is I guess the only other thing that is not so great. I am not using the notification center often though. I usually get notifications on my Apple Watch and then I often just get right into it. Or I go directly from the lock screen notifications into the app. But in those few moments I do use it, it might be a bit of a hassle.
Hope that helps some guys having fewer fears. I am highly enjoying my iPhone X and will look forward to what developers now do with it.
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