I also have second thoughts about the X. I realized before I got it that it would be less wide but it makes a ton of difference in apps like Instagram. As an avid hobby photographer I see a lot of clarity and detail on my 7 plus screen that I just cant make out on the X. I have to hold it closer and its not a good solution. I want to see pictures with detail at a fair distance - its simply easier on my eyes.
It also makes a lot of difference when editing photos. I do a lot of photo editing on my phone after say a walk in a park. I sit down in my couch and edit directly in the phone and it´s pretty sweet. On the X this is possible as well but the home bar is then squeezed in beneath the picture - in landscape mode - meaning that you get even less of the detail and size of the image. The smaller width of the screen was bad enough, squeezing in a virtual button there in the editing view is madness.
Also the fact that landscape mode has been cut out on the X means that organizing email, calendar events etc is less convenient than on a +. Odd, right? The X has a far taller screen, it makes perfect sense to utilize it - but it isn't. I thought this would be the plus in a non-plus physical iPhone case.
TrueTone is amazing, I really like it but it is to harsch. I wish it could be set like night mode to different amounts of expression. When I hold my 7+ up next to my X I dislike how blue it can look in certain light but when just using the X and turning TrueTone off I have this "oh wow, this is much clearer" feeling. With TrueTone the screen can seem too much like Night mode on the most right setting. It almost makes me sleepy and I don't enjoy the picture very much then. It also makes it hard to edit photos for web use since most screens don't use this technology. Think of it like a sound crew editing music in perfect studio speakers - they always listen to how it sounds on a "regular sound system" and tune it for this as well.
The off angle blue tint is quite severe and I do not like this one bit. I noticed immediately the first day just when browsing emails that the screen is so tall that I actually have the tint on the screen then. Since TrueTone makes the screen a bit yellow/red/orange the screen came of as red on the top to middle and blue from middle to bottom. Not a very nice experience and this makes the screen very unreliable for me.
There is a lot of good with the new iPhone too. It has great cameras. The OIS is very noticeable on the "2x", it also works very well in low light scenarios. I notice that the camera makes something with the noice because it is very visible in preview and then it is removed artificially. Looking at low light photos you see how the noice is individually replaced with dark dots. I guess this could be added to 7+/7 as well. And the pictures are more vivid - software tuning most probably. I am not sure this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Portrait mode on the front facing camera is fun. Works somewhat good but also makes for some interesting effects. Often I come of looking like a robot. The TrueDepth feature is great and while Apple has Animoji, Sony has TrueDepth on the back camera and can scan faces and do much more fun stuff with it. It's a 3D scanner using AR and this would be awesome in an iPhone too. Possibly this can be done using the front facing camera but since it blocks the view of the screen its not optimal. I guess future iPhones WILL have TrueDepth IR blasting and detecting capabilities in the back cameras. I can imagine how it will be extremely good for AR and detecting objects. Portrait mode for one! But just imagine how easy it will be to make a 3D representation of almost anything.
The iPhone X is really elegant (I chose the space gray) and it looks like a glossy monolith. Its awesome, but also slippery and expensive to fix. The back gets really got just where the processors are. I don't notice this on 7+, probably because the aluminium spreads the heat better. I'm afraid to drop the X whereas I feel more confident with the 7+.
Another thing I do like with the X is that the screen is always responsive. You can wake it by tapping the screen. I miss this on 7+ and earlier iPhones. The slide on home bar to change app and the way you change apps. It is really convenient and fun.
The move of control center to the top is a bad one imho. It makes me stretch just like on a 7+ for other things. I use control center a lot and it is easy to access on the 7+.
Watching videos with the cropped factor makes the video wider but crops a lot of important data. Cropping from 16:9 to 4:3 is easier since videographers plan their shots after that. Cropping to this form factor is not easy and the video gets so wide. Looks weird. This also affects how I edit pictures on the X. I've noticed I zoom and crop them a lot to fit the screen. Probably to be able to see them clear on that particular screen but this makes zero sense on any other device. Conclusion = the dimensions confuse me for how to produce material for other purposes.
I want to love this phone. Its fun and has new stuff thats good. The cameras for example. But it's not good enough to justify the price. Replacing a one year old phone that has been tuned to perfection is hard and I probably wont do it. I probably will return the X and use my 7+ that is a bit to big and doesnt have the same low light and OIS capabilities - not only because it's a great phone I also feel more confident it wont break and it has never showed any signs of burn in or burn out. I use my phone a lot and require my screen to hold up. I don't want to worry about it. I worry about the X.
