Home Donate New Search Gallery Reviews How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact
iPhone X
Review & User's Guide
Sample Images Intro Performance
Compared Setup Usage
Apple iPhone X (6.101 oz./173.0g measured weight). bigger. I'd get it at Amazon or maybe at eBay (see How to Win at eBay).
This ad-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to my personally-approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
May 2018 Apple Reviews All Reviews
Sample Photos & Image Files
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
Katie and Stella enjoy summer fun at The Inn, 24 July 2018.iPhone X portrait mode, Snapseed app portrait mode, 6mm wide camera at f/2.4 at 1/120 at Auto ISO 25, as created in-camera. bigger or full resolution.
Ryan at Thai Smile, Palm Desert, 27 May 2018. iPhone X 6mm tele camera in Portrait Mode at f/2.4 at 1/60 at Auto ISO 80, as shot.) bigger or camera-orignal © file.
Wow! Look at the soft background, sharp eyes and teeth, and perfect colors indoors by window light. Bravo!
Three Red Planters, 04 May 2018. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/979 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Great colors and great exposures under difficult conditions! This is what comes out of the iPhone X camera without any adjustments:
Plant, 27 January 2018. iPhone X "Square" mode, wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/750 at ISO 20, exactly as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Ryan at Steak 'n Shake, 02 February 2018. iPhone X, 6mm tele camera, Portrait mode, f/2.4 at 1/60 at Auto ISO 16, Perfectly Clear.) bigger.
The Portrait mode does a brilliant job of blurring backgrounds!
Since the iPhone X shoots at a low ISO 20 by default with its fast f/1.8 lens (or ISO 16 with the f/2.4 telephoto), images are super-clean:
Home by the Sea, 04 November 2017. iPhone X, wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/2,288 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file. Amazon is cool; when I linked to Genesis' album above, since I have Amazon Prime I can listen to the whole album at that link — and so can you if you have Prime!
Boarder in the Waves, 04 November 2017. iPhone X, telephoto 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/5,348 at ISO 16, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
The Island of Carlsbad, 04 November 2017. iPhone X, wide 4mm camera 270º panorama at f/1.8 at 1/2,288 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or huge 64 mega pixel, 21 megabyte camera-original © JPG file.
How big and sharp are these panoramas? This one looks great printed at 4 by 16 feet (1.2 by 5 meters)! This is why I sold my Noblex years ago.
Orange House, 05 November 2017. iPhone X tele 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/1,230 at ISO 16, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Pepper Tree, 05 February 2018. iPhone X tele 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/873 at ISO 16, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or full-resolution file.
Sharp edge-to edge!
Orange Building, 11 November 2017. iPhone X tele 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/1,116 at ISO 16, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file. That's not distortion at the top; it's a wavy building. Look at these awesome colors, right out of the iPhone.
1,200 x 900 pixel crop of the little gizmos at the top left at 100%. bigger or camera-original © file. If this is 6" (15cm) on your screen, the complete image will print at 15 x 20," and if it's 12" (30cm) wide on your screen it will print at 30 x 40!"
P40 "Flying Tiger," 12 November 2017. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/30 at ISO 25, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or full-resolution file. Looks great in lower light!
Roof Tiles, 17 November 2017. You can see every speck of dirt! iPhone X tele 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/432 at ISO 16, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Class of 2009 Tile Tribute, 07 January 2018. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/1,333 at ISO 20, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger, full-resolution file or camera-original © file.
Cantina, 04 November 2017. iPhone X, wide 4mm camera Square image at f/1.8 at 1/15 at ISO 80, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or camera-original © file.
Rite Aid at dusk, 05 November 2017. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 hand-held at 1/4 at ISO 100, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or camera-original © file.
Hawaiian Home, 16 January 2018. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 hand-held at 1/1,230 at ISO 20, automatic HDR mode, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger or full-resolution file.
Home Theater, 16 January 2018. iPhone X wide 4mm camera Panorama mode, f/1.8 hand-held at 1/120 at ISO 640, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger.
Introduction
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
What's really new about the iPhone X is how fast, easy and instantaneous it is to get in. All you do is swipe up from the bottom, and you're in. Most of us do this hundreds of times a day and don't realize how important this is. In the old days we had to hit a HOME button, swipe sideways and enter a code; today, one flick and that's it. It's now trivially easy to swap among apps; just swipe along the bottom of the screen.
Face ID works flawlessly and immediately without having to think about anything. It works even if I put on glasses, am wearing a bicycle helmet, have a desk phone stuck to my head, make funny faces, have a toothbrush, flashlight or gyoza in my mouth, yawn or stick out my tongue. Bravo! You won't even know Face ID is there; we always look at our phones when we open them, and day or night, it just opens for us. Bravo!
The iPhone X makes all my iOS devices with Home buttons feel primitive. I want my iPad Pro to just open and swap among apps as magically as my iPhone X!
Brilliant is how fast you get to the camera or flashlight — just press the icon on the lock screen and you're there! The camera is now the world’s fastest waking and shooting camera. No other camera can wake up, focus and shoot faster.
The screen is bright when it needs to be; you can still read it even if the sun is shining on it.
It's water resistant; drop it in water and you probably won't hurt it at all.
Of course the Camera is amazing, and lets us shoot long time exposures in broad daylight with no filters or tripods needed.
The iPhone X even comes with an external 3.5mm headphone jack. It comes with this 3.5mm adapter that plugs in the lightning port, as well as a set of earpods with a lighting plug so you don't need the external 3.5mm jack.
If you want to charge while you listen through headphones, just get one of these adapters to do it all through the lighting port, or get a wireless charger. Easy! Of course it comes with a regular charger and Lightning sync cord.
It's easy to set it for hands-free, touch-free "Hey Siri" for making phone calls, checking the weather, composing and sending emails and texts, swapping among apps and much more — and once set, it all works with your eyes closed and no hands! I can talk to it while driving and never have to look away from the road to get directions, restaurant suggestions or send texts and email and make notes. I can add calendar events or change the screen brightness, and Siri gets smarter all the time.
The iPhone X is a class act. Not only is Apple's packaging a joy to unwrap, the iPhone X arrives fully charged so you can get going fast.
The iPhone X is magic in your hand: a solid slab of glass with a stainless steel ring around it. Long after Man has left Earth 10,000 years from now, millions of these identical glass creations found all over the Earth will perplex space aliens for ages. These flawlessly flat and smooth objects have no writing or symbols on them other than a glyph of what Man knew as an apple and one word: "iPhone" — no serial numbers, no "made-in," no model number — nothing — and I'll bet you they are made so precisely that their dimensions match to within microns. These will keep the aliens far more confused than Jeff Bezos' clock.
Performance
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
Overall
Size & Weight
The iPhone X is not a plus-sized phone; it's a little smaller in every external dimension than the iPhone 7 Plus.
This new iPhone X weighs a half ounce (15g) less than the iPhone 7 Plus (6.101 oz./173.0g versus 6.625 oz./187.7g actual measured weights).
It's a small difference, but it does feel lighter in my pocket.
Display
The new OLED display looks great. Unlike other attempts, Apple's implementation is flawlessly color-accurate, and is easy to read even in direct sunlight.
While the iPhone X is smaller than the Plus, the new display, held vertically, is taller than an iPhone Plus display — but not as wide.
The vertical size of the X' display is the same as a Plus if you only count the full-width section of the X' display, and the extra top and bottom areas are bonuses. Pretty clever fitting all this in a smaller case!
The iPhone X screen for the first time has rounded corners reminiscent of a 1960s TV - but they and the cut-out at the top for more sensors never affect the images because the OS is designed around all this.
Here's another cool part: even though the iPhone X is smaller and lighter than an iPhone Plus, the X' clever display is just as big for watching movies and video, and it's even bigger for watching 'scope (2.4:1) movies!
There's a new True Tone display option that's activated by default. It optimizes the display's white point to the ambient lighting. Used indoors you can see the display change from cool to warm as you move away from an open window facing the sky towards your warm interior lighting.
Even with the curved glass edges and a screen that goes close to the iPhone X' case edge, all of the display is visible through flat glass. The iPhone X has none of Samsung's distortion problems with their displays being partially hidden behind the curved sections of their glass.
Speed
As covered above, you can get into the iPhone X faster than any iOS device. Multiply this by the hundreds of times a day we check our phones, and this saves a lot of time and aggravation.
I can get to the Camera or Flashlight faster than on any other iOS device: just press the Camera or Flashlight icon on the Lock screen, and I'm there! This is the world's fastest-waking camera; I can draw and fire faster than with any other digital camera to catch the reportage shots my LEICA would miss. Fantastisch!
It was often a bear trying to get into the Camera fast from the lock screen on older phones, and now it's one tap — one tap from the Lock screen and you're already at the camera! No more missed photos; I love it!
It's also much faster to switch and swap among apps, with just a single flick needed. See Usage for more.
All this makes the iPhone X is much less of a brain drain to use all day than earlier phones.
The iPhone X even reboots from complete power-off much more quickly than older phones.
Face ID
Once setup, which is trivially easy, it works like magic — regardless of lighting, what you're wearing or what you're doing. Even the icon that shows it's looking at you looks great; it shows the magic that's going on for the moment it takes to open.
Better than older iPhones, this all happens fast; there's no waiting to get it. Flick up and you're in.
Even if one time in a thousand doesn't recognize you instantly and asks for your code, just look at it a moment more and it should recognize you and let you in.
It works from daylight to total darkness. Your phone does have to be held verticality; it doesn't seem to recognize me held horizontally.
The only condition under which I have any trouble is very contrasty lighting, either strong backlighting or if my face is partly direct sunlight and partly in shadow.
Think you're going to point your friend's phone at their face while they're sleeping and sneak in? No way; it won't unlock if both eyes are closed — but it will if I open one eye.
Face ID works wonders; you never have to think about looking at your phone because we all just do. Because of this the iPhone X just unlocks for us every time we use it. Brilliant!
it also magically enters passwords to unlock apps and websites that use passwords.
Camera
The camera works great. All my shots are in focus, well exposed, have great color and magically shoot in HDR instantly when needed so my highlights and shadows and everything always look perfect. The cheap Canon SL2 DSLR doesn't deliver results as consistently sharp and well exposed as my iPhone X, and the Canon 6D Mark II can't get exposures and white balance and people in focus as consistently as the iPhone X either. The iPhone's facial recognition, lacking in those DSLRs, ensures better focus more often for people pictures.
The iPhone X' super-fast f/1.8 lens lets it shoot at ISO 16 most of the time for cleaner pictures with less noise than most dedicated point-and-shoot cameras!
I shoot silently (just turn off the ringer switch on the side). When I do this, I really like the short vibration I get as tactile feedback to let me know I took my shot.
Three Cameras!
Not counting the sensors used for infra-red Face ID, the iPhone X has three cameras, all of which can make videos or still photos. There's the main (4mm/28mm eq.) wide camera, the 6mm (56mm eq.) tele camera, and the front self-portrait camera. Each camera has its own lens and its own sensor.
Perfect Aspect Ratio
All these cameras use the perfect 3:4 aspect ratio. This ratio is the best because more subjects fit into it horizontally or vertically with less cropping needed than any other shape. Bravo!
Perfect Resolution
While the innocent might think more resolution is good, 12MP resolution is perfect because it is more than enough to enlarge or print at any size, it doesn't clog storage or memory, and most importantly, it lets the iPhone X engage in all sorts of high-speed internal cleverness to do more crazy and useful things with our photos, like being able to shoot at 10 FPS or make long time exposures even in broad daylight hand held:
Long Time Exposures
The iOS 11 camera allows Long Exposures, and it's even better than a DSLR because we can make 2½ second time exposures in broad daylight with no neutral-density filters, and we don't need a tripod! (see Long Exposures with iPhone.)
Lee Vining Falls, 11 AM, 24 October 2017. 2½ second time exposure, hand-held. bigger.
HDR
HDR is much better than before. No longer are HDR shots often too dark; now they all look great.
Because they always look great automatically, gone is the HDR option inside the Camera app. Now the iPhone X camera simply shoots in HDR or not as it's needed, with no input from us, by default.
You have the option in Settings > Camera to turn off HDR (default is that it automatically works as it needs to) and you can turn on the option to save one regularly-exposed frame each time the iPhone X creates an HDR image.
Depending on the brightness range of what you're shooting, the iPhone X may shoot many of its frames as HDR, which happens instantly.
Sharpness
How sharp is it? Super-sharp edge to edge; here's the wall of shame:
Wall of Shame, 05 November 2017. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/1,066 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Wall of Shame, 05 November 2017. iPhone X tele 6mm camera at f/2.4 at 1/571 at ISO 16, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
Macro
The iPhone has always been praised for its great macro ability, and the iPhone X is superb. It gets super close and stays super sharp:
Kienzle Flieger Automat 800/2843, 06 November 2017. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 at 1/1,412 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
But wait, let's hit the 2x zoom option:
Kienzle Flieger Automat 800/2843, 06 November 2017. iPhone X wide 4mm camera at 2x digital zoom at f/1.8 at 1/2,404 at ISO 20, as shot. bigger or camera-original © file.
The tele camera can't focus as close as the wide camera, so at macro distances these are actually digitally zoomed from the wide camera — not that you'd ever notice except by looking at the EXIF data.
Low Light
Trees at Night, 04 November 2017. iPhone X, wide 4mm camera at f/1.8 hand-held at 1/4 at ISO 800, Perfectly Clear v3.5. bigger.
Night photos? No problem! This is dark: LV 3●●!
Frame Rate
Just hold the shutter button onscreen (or use either Volume button) and the iPhone runs at 10 FPS silently. Be sure to turn off the speaker/ringer switch if you want it silent.
Compared
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
Apple invented the iPhone. Everything else is just a copy.
I looked at the Samsung Galaxy 8, and it has a big screen — but its screen edges run under its curved glass, and therefore are distorted.
Worse, Samsung's operating system is rubbish and throws all sorts of distracting garbage on my screen so only about half of my screen I can use to browse the Internet and half is navigation bars! On iPhone my whole screen is usable, and any navigation options only appear when I need them — and otherwise magically disappear. Apple is brilliant.
Also Apple devices are part of a much larger ecosystem. I use Apple because all my everything all works together and all my everything is all visible from everywhere. I load music and my movies into iTunes, and it plays on all my iPhones and iPods and iPads, and also plays on all my stereos around my house. I have a movie theatre in each of my homes, and the same movies play on my big screens, and each theatre is controlled by but one Apple TV remote — not three different remotes.
I don't even need a remote to control my movie theatres or Hi-Fi systems: I can use Apple's free iTunes Remote app to control iTunes from my iPhone, and the free Apple TV Remote app to replace the Apple TV remote in my theatre. I and everyone in my family can control our theater from the iPhone in their pocket, and have access to all our movies - and that means all our home videos that normally no one ever can find.
With Apple TV, you may as well throw away the remote, since the iPhone app does even more. You can use your iPhone's volume buttons to control the sound from your theater's AV receiver!
This free Apple infrastructure moves full-bandwidth pictures and sound all over the house, all controlled anyway I find it most convenient. Other things like website bookmarks and notes and email and everything else also all appear on all my computers and mobile devices.
Because it's all in my iTunes library, I can see any of it anywhere on any device. With Apple, everyone in my family can play any of our media anywhere, any way they like it — and it was all very easy to set up.
Bravo!
Setup
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
While setup seems super easy because it prompts to hold it next to your old iPhone and it does the rest, it seems because I am a content creator rather than a content consumer like most people, the photos and movies and music I create and load into my phone with iTunes didn't all transfer over with this "restore from iCloud backup" routine.
No worries, instead I restored my new iPhone X from a backup of my old phone on my Mac that I made from inside iTunes. First, be sure you have a backup of your old phone (iTunes > select your old phone you have plugged in via USB > Summary > Manually back up and restore > Backup Now).
Now to restore everything from your old phone into your new iPhone X: iTunes > select your new iPhone X plugged in via USB > Summary > Manually back up and restore > Restore Backup > Select your old phone's backup from which to restore and then restore from that. Everything that was in your old phone should just copy over.
If you have to turn off Find My iPhone when you're doing any of these restores, be sure to turn it back on when you're done.
If all your media doesn't transfer over the first time, deselect the music or movies or photos or whatever, hit the Sync button in iTunes to unsync those things, let it finish, then select some of those items little by little and hit Sync again to bring them over piecemeal. I have a lot of media on my 256GB phone: tens of thousands of songs and over ten years of home video of my family.
Set "Rise to Wake"
I set Rise to Wake at Settings > Display & Brightness > Rise to Wake, and my iPhone X wakes just by lifting it. It's much faster than it was in the iPhone 7 Plus.
Free Alexa ("Hey Siri")
It's easy to set up Siri so it responds at any time simply by saying "Hey Siri."
Set this at Settings > Siri & Search > Listen for "Hey Siri" > ON .
That's right: just ask "Hey Siri" in the middle of the night and you can compose and send text and email, make phone calls, check your calender or whatever without ever touching your iPhone or even so much as opening your eyes.
I use Hey Siri when I'm driving to get directions or call anyplace I'd like to go all without taking my eyes off the road or hands off the wheel.
Make text legible
I find the default text too small and light. No worries, I set the text to be of a normal weight (darker and bolder) rather than the very thin and light text used by default.
I set this at Settings > Display & Brightness > Bold Text > ON .
I also make the text bigger at Settings > Display & Brightness > Text size and slide it most of the way to the right.
Set "Add Reachability"
If you'd like to be able to flick down from the bottom so you can reach the top of the screen, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reachability > ON .
Case
I love my Apple Leather Case. I prefer classic brown, but you can take your pick of colors. Even better than Apple's earlier leather cases for the iPhone 7 Plus, the leather case for the iPhone X doesn't seem to stain if it gets damp in spots; the iPhone X leather case seems to be treated so it doesn't discolor in use.
The leather case has machined color-matched aluminum buttons that feel just like those on the iPhone X.
Usage
Top Sample Images Introduction
Performance Compared Setup Usage
The iPhone X is very different because it has no HOME button.
Here are the basics to turn it on and swap among apps.
Get to the Camera or Flashlight from the Lock screen
Just press the Flashlight or Camera icon, and you're there!
Shoot Pictures Silently
Flick the ringer switch (just above the volume buttons) to off.
While wearing headphones or earbuds with the Camera app active, you should be able to press either volume control on the headphones' remote to take a picture without even looking at the phone.
How to Make Long Exposures with the iPhone
Wake up
Tap the screen anywhere, or tap the lock button (top right).
I set Rise to Wake at Settings > Display & Brightness > Rise to Wake, and it wakes just by lifting it.
Unlock
Wake it up, then just look at it.
Home Screen or Open to Home Screen
When unlocked, just swipe up from the bottom.
In other words, tap the screen, the Lock button or just lift the phone (Rise to Wake) as you're looking at it, then flick up from the bottom, and you're in. Voilà!
Flick between open apps
Swipe left or right along the bottom.
Select among many open apps at once
Swipe up from the bottom and either lift your finger straight off the screen, or hold it there for a moment. You'll see a parade of apps that can be selected or swiped among just like older iPhones.
Close apps
Get to the parade of apps as above, then hold any of the open apps for a moment until you see red circles on the top left of each open app. Now you can tap the red circles, or flick up to close any or all of the apps.
Lock (put to sleep)
Tap the lock button (on the top right).
Note to people over age 72: always do this before you put your iPhone in your pocket. It still is "on" and will receive calls, but the screen turns off and it won't accidentally phone people while inside your pocket. Tapping this "lock" button is not turning it off; it's just locking it so it doesn't call people all by itself. Trust me; it's still awake and you won't miss your calls or alarms.
Get to Control Center
Swipe down from the top right.
See your carrier's name
Swipe down from the top right. You'll see this near the top left.
Hint: These are almost invisible if you have a light screen when you swipe down; have a dark screen on your iPhone X as you swipe down and this will be much more legible.
Read Bluetooth, Syncing & Location Services statuses and exact battery percentage
Swipe down from the top right. You'll see these near the top right.
Hint: These are almost invisible if you have a light screen when you swipe down; have a dark screen on your iPhone X as you swipe down and this will be much more legible — but swipe down over a light screen to see the dark syncing symbol.
Screen shot
Hold the lock button (on the top right) and tap the volume up button (on the left side).
Turn off completely
Hold the lock button and either volume button for a few moments. Release when you see the sliders, then slide POWER OFF to the right.
Turn back on after a complete power off
Hold the lock button until you see the Apple logo.
Force Restart a.k.a. Reboot
Tap Volume Up, then tap Volume Down, then hold the side button and release when you see the Apple logo.
© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Help Me Help You
I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.
The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.
If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!
If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!
1 : $9.99 USD - monthly 2 : $4.99 USD - monthly 3 : $2.99 USD - monthly 4 : $1.99 USD - monthly 5 : $0.99 USD - monthly 6 : $19.99 USD - monthly
Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
Home Donate New Search Gallery Reviews How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact