Verge iPhone X review out.

[D.T.]

iPhone X destroyed.

Just to clarify: you made this assessment from something other than The Verge article, correct?

That is the beauty of new hardware elements! If someone can come up with brilliant applications using the notch hardware, Apple will stand vindicated!
For now, we can only hope

Since the display area to the side of the notch are OLED, and you get a "free" blackout, and it's addressable via the SDK, all it means is there's a notch *or* a straight horizontal cutoff, via the app design. Since there _had_ to be an area of non-display space to accommodate to the cameras/sensors, it's not like there wasn't going to be some top bezel. Apple just opted to use that space for indicators, provide a little more corner-to-corner symmetry, and create a bit of a brand silhouette.

 

[03sho]

Doesn't every iPhone come with the paper clip sim tool?

 

[Puddled]

Verge are always the most critical when it comes to apple products.

My original reply not withstanding, ill answer with more words.

Dont be ridiculous. The Verge is/has/was long been mocked for being a thinly veiled shill for apple. If the X is not product of the Millennium according to the verge then it has some real issues.

Dont try to censor negative opinion by rubbishing it.

 

[Hoosier317]

My original reply not withstanding, ill answer with more words.

Dont be ridiculous. The Verge is/has/was long been mocked for being a thinly veiled shill for apple. If the X is not product of the Millennium according to the verge then it has some real issues.

Dont try to censor negative opinion by rubbishing it.

They called it, “The best iPhone ever made” later in the review.

 

[The Game 161]

My original reply not withstanding, ill answer with more words.

Dont be ridiculous. The Verge is/has/was long been mocked for being a thinly veiled shill for apple. If the X is not product of the Millennium according to the verge then it has some real issues.

Dont try to censor negative opinion by rubbishing it.

It's been proven on most reviews that they are far more harsh than other people who review their devices. Choose to believe that or not. Doesn't really matter.

end of the day the reviews that matter are your own. Reviews are fun to watch and read but other people's views don't have any factor in your own.

 

[Cool Pup]

Pretty concerning and this pre-review highlights many of the concerns I had regarding Face ID and the screen. These two drastic changes will take a lot to get used to and it will take assuredly quite some time for developers to fully embrace those features and use them in a functional way that actually works better than Touch ID works now.

Looking back at these reviews in a month or two, non-updated apps won’t be a problem for how much emphasis they’re given in these reviews.

That's relatively optimistic I'd say. It took years for many developers to get on board with the larger screen size of the 6. Not to mention to accommodate Plus-sized phones and many apps are still having problems now still being 32-bit and practically abandoned at this point in time.

I think it will take much longer than a month to accommodate the notch and the screen of the X when we aren't talking about the typical must-downloaded apps, but there are many apps and games that still are not fully utilizing the tech of the current phones. Sure if you just use Apple or Google apps, it will be fine in a few months time, but it will be at least a year or more before we will see pretty much every app have a guaranteed way to handle the notch.

This phone is definitely more or less a beta test for the future. There is practically no way that the technology regarding a camera will be able to pick up facial features more reliably and quicker than a quick dab of the fingerprint sensor can do at this point in time. With the camera you rely too much on lights and the environment around you, and Nilay Patel's experience at the deli shop with florescent lighting is very much going to be a common experience when unlocking the device.

 

[Phil A.]

Going by the video, he’s really trying to make it fail by using it from pocket level.

To be fair to the reviewer, I think he was trying replicate how he currently uses TouchID (i.e. pull phone out of pocket, unlock and glance at it, put it back) - if it doesn't work in a situation that did work before then there's going to be a pinch point for those people who have to adjust the way they use their phone.

In that regard it's a valid test IMO

 

[potentmf]

interesting, I think this is the first review (that I've seen) that someone was able to take the phone out of Apple's controlled environment.

FaceID was the bone of contention (for me) right after the keynote. People hold their phones all kinds of different ways, especially when walking or trying to take a quick glance. People will have to resort to PIN codes if FaceID doesn't have a good success rate.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Going by the video, he’s really trying to make it fail by using it from pocket level.

That's a good observation, but I actually think the way he uses FaceID is how we all hoped FaceID would work, and how we will be using it in day-to-day life. Holding the phone up like you are going to take a selfie every time you want to unlock your phone is annoying.

And IIRC, maybe Apple, or some reviewer, said that you could use FaceID from around waist level at angles such as in the video. Which is what gave me high hopes for it.

Now, maybe that is what is causing his FaceID failures. And if that is the case, that is good news, because he says that it works all the time for him in ideal lighting conditions indoors, and if he is just using it around hip level at those weird angles like he isn't trying to take a selfie, then FaceID should work great most of the time. For those times in bright sunlight or weird lighting, if all we have to do is hold it at selfie level, then it's not so bad.

The Wall Street Journal review said it works 9/10, indoors and out, and with sunglasses on. No mention or testing of bright sunlight or fluorescent lighting. But he was holding it up like a selfie all the time.

I am guessing we are probably dealing with the situation where it works well most of the time, even at hip level at weird angles, but in bad lighting, you must hold the phone up for a selfie.

 

[Ries]

Kinda sounds like faceid is blind around strong IR. A.k.a sun in the background or fluoresent light.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1959819-fluorescent-light-and-ir-interference

 

[balaplus]

May be a rear touch ID sensor for outdoors and face id for indoors would have been nice? 🙂

 

[Creep89]

Guess I made the right choice by getting an iPhone 8 Plus. Next year with a iPhone 10S Plus whatsoever things may look different.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Kinda sounds like faceid is blind around strong IR. A.k.a sun in the background or fluoresent light.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1959819-fluorescent-light-and-ir-interference

So The Verge reviewer is right. Fluorescent lighting can cause IR interference. However, that is caused by failing fluorescent lights since they are designed NOT to interfere at those frequencies (which explains why the Deli was giving him problems, as they may not be maintaining those lights).

So it is a well known problem: fluorescent lighting can interfere with IR.

Thus, there may be SOME conditions in which FaceID gets screwed up by interference by background lighting/interference.

 

[GDF]

Without Walt Mossberg, I don’t trust the Verge reviews anymore. Walt was the best and sad he retired.

 

[borgqueenx]

always said that it will work badly in sunlight. confirmed now.

 

[Hoosier317]

always said that it will work badly in sunlight. confirmed now.

...based on that? You have a very, very low bar when it comes to confirmation of things.

 

[The Game 161]

...based on that? You have a very, very low bar when it comes to confirmation of things.

Ronaldo is better than messi= CONFIRMED LOL

 

[maflynn]

always said that it will work badly in sunlight. confirmed now.

I think we need more evidence that its an issue before jumping to conclusions. I'm not saying its problem free, but one reviewer trying the phone for only 24 hours is not sufficient to confirm any suspensions.

 

[facemeat]

App compatibility and Face ID troubles, but I'm sure it's a great phone!
Interested in hearing how the battery life is, if its closer to the 6-8 or the 6-8 plus models.

I theorize that this version of Face ID will be a little like the first gen Touch ID, the X(S or 2?) will probably have a much faster version. App compatibility for the iPhone X will probably be a bit like when the 6 and 6 plus were released, some apps will be updated asap, others will take a year or so to update.

Overall it looks like a nice phone and I was tempted to buy it, but I'm not interested in paying $1600 for a first gen product yet, hopefully the software kinks will have been worked out in a few months!

 

[borgqueenx]

...based on that? You have a very, very low bar when it comes to confirmation of things.

Based on his reports that it works badly in sunlight. IR is just light...invisible to the human eyes. However every light wavelength can overthrow others if powerful enough. A bright sun will interfere with face ID. Even more when summer arrives again. My hobby has been about lasers/lighting, so i know a thing or two about it.

EDIT: Let me clarify that it will still work, when turning away from the sun or perhaps getting closer with your face to the device. But still, these things will cause frustration.

EDIT 2: And as verge or a other review said, its a flashlight basicly. You wont ever have problems unlocking this in dark envoirements. Bright sun envoirements will cause problems.

 

[tx2005]

I think we need to wait and see how these reviews look by the end of the week. Apparently all the big tech sites look like they will be updating their reviews as they spend more time with the X. It’s been said Face ID accuracy improves with more uses, so let’s see how things look once reviewers have more time.

Also, keep in mind Buzzfeed’s reviewer has had the X for a week and pretty much posted glowing praise for Face ID for a different perspective.

 

[Hoosier317]

Based on his reports that it works badly in sunlight. IR is just light...invisible to the human eyes. However every light wavelength can overthrow others if powerful enough. A bright sun will interfere with face ID. Even more when summer arrives again. My hobby has been about lasers/lighting, so i know a thing or two about it.

He didn’t say that. What he said was far more nuanced than you are portraying it to be. Perhaps you should go back and read it again.

 

[Smartass]

So it is a well known problem: fluorescent lighting can interfere with IR.

"You're holding it under wrong lightning"

 

[borgqueenx]

He didn’t say that. What he said was far more nuanced than you are portraying it to be. Perhaps you should go back and read it again.

And i didn't say it wouldnt work at all, i said it will work badly. It will be problematic/causing frustration. But it will work, somewhat. I hope better then I expect it to be, but we'l see.

 

[D.T.]

"Confirmed"

I hope some of you don't work in any kind of mission/life critical STEM professions ...