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I understand why everyone is up in arms over the way videos are handled but it should be clarified that the default playback is not zoomed in, so the video doesn't get cut off by the notch on top. That only happens if you double tap the video to zoom in, which results in a zoomed in aspect ratio. The default view keeps the video in its original aspect ratio and puts black bars on the left and right. This might sound terrible but I think it will be fine because we have to remember that this new iPhone has a 5.8" screen, which is bigger than the Plus models. At the worst it will look just like watching a video on a Plus model. I don't see anything wrong with that. I am more excited to have a large screen in a smaller form factor.
 
yeah, but it's likely the devs of those games will update them to allow for the notch.
I would expect so. But how does this affect games on other models of iphones, will they now too have games with no menus or buttons on that side of the phone? Does this change end up negatively impacting everyone?
 
I don’t really get having an edge to edge screen and then having to crop videos .. kind of defeats the purpose of the screen
There is no one screen aspect ratio to satisfy all movies. A 16:9 movie will fit iPhone 8 screen perfectly but if you are watching some ultra-wide 2.35:9 movie, you will have horizontal black bars at top and bottom of the screen. With iPhone X those horizontal black bars will be smaller, but if you are watching 16:9 movie you get vertical back bars on each side. You can't win.
 
this is what happens when you are Tim Cook, doing nothing but pandering your stupid political views while your competition swiftly axes your market position and you are forced to develop a half assed, prototype and sell it as a consumer product for $1000.

Also, when you are Tim Cook, you claim you have been developing said prototype for "years", when in fact you didn't even start developing it until the Galaxy S8 was announced and then you had to push back your launch date almost 2 months because the product isn't nearly finished which will allow people 2 months to get off the hype train and come to their senses. This will in turn kill your holiday profits, cause a weak Q1 earnings report that will lead to your stock sliding off a cliff.
 
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That would be equally unaesthetic and un-proportional.

Before this it was equal size bezels on top and bottom. that was ok because it has symmetry.

If it only had a slab on top it would lose its balance

Where's the corresponding notch at the bottom for symmetry?
 
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I mean, making the phone taller to accommodate for the notch makes the whole "edge to edge" concept useless. If having a black physical strip disrupting your edge to edge experience is your solution, you might as well just tap and have the rectangle lol.
 
It doesn't look as bad as the pic posted earlier.

sGuhCdC.jpg
it doesn't look as bad but it dose make it look like bezels.
 
Where's the corresponding notch at the bottom for symmetry?

ooooooooh..... got em...

I got a feeling that the notch might by weirdly likable and ok after some getting used to.

Like I could see myself zooming in anyway jut to use the whole screen and not really hating the notch.

Its crazy but it might work. Maybe it does feel aesthetic. In contrast with the rounded corners and the subtle compliment to the balanced shape of the notch and its own degree of roundness.

Could be unexpectedly quaint and likable...
 
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Call me a troll, roll eyes, flame me, rationalize your purchase, say I'm cheap / can't afford, whatever, lol. There is NO WAY Steve would've allowed something like this to launch (cheesy as it is to say, it's 1000% true here). This is the anniversary iPhone for crying out loud. The asymmetry caused by the top notch is asinine as are the "ears." The video posted above makes it look a tad better but it is still a fail in my opinion. Rationalize it all you want. It's hideous.

It's funny, looking back over the last 3-4 years of Apple designs we've all said very similar things prior to/at release.

Coming from the amazing looking/feeling 4 and 5 series iPhones, when the leaks of 6 series came out everyone here was posting, rightfully so at the time, "what the hell? No way will Apple release a phone with those antenna bands!", "protruding camera?! You guys don't know Apple!" - then disbelief when it was all confirmed at the keynote. "No way would Steve had allowed this".

We were right of course. This time around people said the same thing about the notch, and are saying the same things after the keynote. But it's really not surprising.

If we ignore Apple devices releases prior to 2013, the iPhone X is right in line with the quality of design of the iPhone 6/7. It's right in line with iOS7. OSX Yosemite. With the AirPods. That ugly as sin Battery Case. The pastel coloured wallpapers. The AppleTV 4 Remote. The Apple Watch. You can tell it's all the same team of designers working on this stuff.

The user experience, which used to the central point of all of Apples hardware and software, has taken a backseat to marketable gimmicks and has done for some time now. More and more people are starting to realise this, and I think with the iPhone X, it's now more apparent to the masses than ever before. Everything about the iPhone X looks cumbersome as hell, from the notch, to the aspect ratio, to FaceID, to the reworking of a whole bunch of frequently used iOS gestures, to the reworking of iOS to have a weird wasted space at the top and bottom of the screen. I can just picture it now, a poor iPhone X user fumbling around, with headphone dongles hanging from their phone, trying to unlock their phone with FaceID and get to the Control Centre in the upper right corner with one hand, while an AirPod drops out of an ear onto the pavement.

All these posts don't feel like your typical "Apple is doomed" posts we've all grown accustomed to over the years, but more so the fact that Apple, with the iPhone X, have managed to break the spell people were under. Instead of the flagship iPhone being an object of envy of those that don't have it, people who buy it are going to be looked at as fools for having paid so much for a device that seems so awkward and poorly designed.

I think this is going to a turning point for the iPhone one way or another. I also think Apple have taken the iPhone market for granted, like they did the iPads for a while. This can only be a good thing for us, I mean look at what they did with the latest range of iPad Pro's - they're incredible. The iPad market was dying a slow death a year ago. Apple are still capable of making great products, they just need a fire to be lit under them to make them hungry for it again instead of complacent. Hopefully the reaction to iPhone X is that fire.
 
I got a feeling that the notch might by weirdly likable and ok after some getting used to.
Yeah... it's like now people getting used to the lack of headphone jack on iPhone 7.

Another analogy is your husband/wife has an ugly scar on his/her face or an amputated leg, after some time you will get used to it and growing to love him/her as a person and your life-partner. Sacrifice and compromise must be made in life ;)
 
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It's funny, looking back over the last 3-4 years of Apple designs we've all said very similar things prior to/at release.

Coming from the amazing looking/feeling 4 and 5 series iPhones, when the leaks of 6 series came out everyone here was posting, rightfully so at the time, "what the hell? No way will Apple release a phone with those antenna bands!", "protruding camera?! You guys don't know Apple!" - then disbelief when it was all confirmed at the keynote. "No way would Steve had allowed this".

We were right of course. This time around people said the same thing about the notch, and are saying the same things after the keynote. But it's really not surprising.

If we ignore Apple devices releases prior to 2013, the iPhone X is right in line with the quality of design of the iPhone 6/7. It's right in line with iOS7. OSX Yosemite. With the AirPods. That ugly as sin Battery Case. The pastel coloured wallpapers. The AppleTV 4 Remote. The Apple Watch. You can tell it's all the same team of designers working on this stuff.

The user experience, which used to the central point of all of Apples hardware and software, has taken a backseat to marketable gimmicks and has done for some time now. More and more people are starting to realise this, and I think with the iPhone X, it's now more apparent to the masses than ever before. Everything about the iPhone X looks cumbersome as hell, from the notch, to the aspect ratio, to FaceID, to the reworking of a whole bunch of frequently used iOS gestures, to the reworking of iOS to have a weird wasted space at the top and bottom of the screen. I can just picture it now, a poor iPhone X user fumbling around, with headphone dongles hanging from their phone, trying to unlock their phone with FaceID and get to the Control Centre in the upper right corner with one hand, while an AirPod drops out of an ear onto the pavement.

All these posts don't feel like your typical "Apple is doomed" posts we've all grown accustomed to over the years, but more so the fact that Apple, with the iPhone X, have managed to break the spell people were under. Instead of the flagship iPhone being an object of envy of those that don't have it, people who buy it are going to be looked at as fools for having paid so much for a device that seems so awkward and poorly designed.

I think this is going to a turning point for the iPhone one way or another. I also think Apple have taken the iPhone market for granted, like they did the iPads for a while. This can only be a good thing for us, I mean look at what they did with the latest range of iPad Pro's - they're incredible. The iPad market was dying a slow death a year ago. Apple are still capable of making great products, they just need a fire to be lit under them to make them hungry for it again instead of complacent. Hopefully the reaction to iPhone X is that fire.

Agree 100% . Problem is the X will sell out day one . I'm hoping it doesn't though

Apple need a kick up the backside
 
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It's not a deal breaker at all for me, but it is further evidence to my mind that their sense of gloriously simple, highly refined design is going astray with some amateurish (admittedly very amateurish) design choices. Then again, I'm not going to be buying one either because I just upgraded to a 7+ ;)

That status bar could have run the entire length without affecting the overall appearance of the phone. Now its like the Gaza Strip of functionality: competing for space but has to continually try and convince others it has a right to be there.

Apple Designer 1: Hmmmm.....zero-bezel or a nice, clean, refined, smooth, even, high-quality look and feel...hmm.....zero-bezel or a nice refined look....hmmmm.....
Apple Designer 2: Hmmmm.....zero bezel....or clean design....hmmm
Apple Designer 3: Hmm....hmmmmmmmm....
Apple Designer 4: Hmmmmm.....
Jony Ive: *british accent* Hmmmmmmm......

In the older days Steve Jobs would walk though and call the shots, but this isn't happening anymore. The guy who makes the final choice is involved from the beginning, and when this happens in graphic design you end up with a sort of "creative fatigue" and don't see the problem anymore. The more they looked at the mockups of what ended up being the final, the less it bothered them and the more they liked it.

Like a bad song on the radio: The more you hear it the less it bothers you. Pretty soon you don't notice altogether or even get to like it.
 
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I started watching the keynote with this mindset:
"If the notch is not black at all times, I'm going with the 8 Plus". Now I'm going with the 8 Plus. If Apple does not get rid of the notch in 2 years in at least one of the future-latest devices, I'll switch to a competitor phone.
 
I started watching the keynote with this mindset:
"If the notch is not black at all times, I'm going with the 8 Plus". Now I'm going with the 8 Plus. If Apple does not get rid of the notch in 2 years in at least one of the future-latest devices, I'll switch to a competitor phone.

Boy do you sell out cheap...
 
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I started watching the keynote with this mindset:
"If the notch is not black at all times, I'm going with the 8 Plus". Now I'm going with the 8 Plus. If Apple does not get rid of the notch in 2 years in at least one of the future-latest devices, I'll switch to a competitor phone.
I am in full support of your reasoning. I'm disgusted by Apple honestly.
 
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this is what happens when you are Tim Cook, doing nothing but pandering your stupid political views while your competition swiftly axes your market position and you are forced to develop a half assed, prototype and sell it as a consumer product for $1000.

Also, when you are Tim Cook, you claim you have been developing said prototype for "years", when in fact you didn't even start developing it until the Galaxy S8 was announced and then you had to push back your launch date almost 2 months because the product isn't nearly finished which will allow people 2 months to get off the hype train and come to their senses. This will in turn kill your holiday profits, cause a weak Q1 earnings report that will lead to your stock sliding off a cliff.

I agree with everything here up until this point "This will in turn kill your holiday profits, cause a weak Q1 earnings report that will lead to your stock sliding off a cliff"

unfortunately people will still buy the phone in droves, faster than they can make it and thus Tim will get away with this BS as they have in the past.

*full disclosure I am probably going to be one of those people, I'm weak when it comes to new tech, plus I've been waiting for an OLED display on an iOS device for so long... :(
 
Boy do you sell out cheap...

I witnessed a game demo on the other day (on an Apple Keynote!) with the controllers cut out by the notch. That was a game they chose to feature on their keynote, with such a jarring UI problem right in front of millions of viewers.
And I am the one whose selling out cheap?

I've recently made a similar decision when buying the MacBook Pro non-touch bar. I don't mind the lack of speed and lack of extra ports. I just do not want to be distracted from my work with little buttons moving around on the keyboard. So far, I've got no complaints about my choice.
 
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