iPhone X
pricing and availability
The phone will start shipping 3 November for $999 for the 64GB, and it can be pre-ordered on 27 October.
The iPhone SE also has a price cut to $349, iPhone 6S to $449, and iPhone 7 to $549.
A small update on wireless charging: it’s also supported by the Apple Watch series 3 and the new Airpods. And if you have an Apple-designed power mat, you can charge them all at the same time. Apple’s calling it AirPower, and it looks like it might become a future standard – but for now it’s unique to Apple. Not out until next year, though.
The iPhone X has good cameras. Both 12MP like on the 8 Plus, but a faster telephoto lens, which also gains optical image stabilisation.
The flash is also improved, but some things you can never really fix, and one of those is a camera flash placed right next to the lens. Just find better lighting, people.
The front-facing camera now supports a bunch of the twin-camera features, like portrait mode, that were previously only possible on the 7 plus, and it’s going to mean you can shoot some really attractive selfies.
MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: The iPhone X has a quoted two hours extra battery life than the iPhone 7.
iPhone X
It looks like we knew it would look like: a huge screen taking up the whole front with a, er, 5.8 inch OLED “super retina display”; a glass back; a dual camera; and a small bump cutting in to the top of the screen.
With no home button, the display is enabled simply by tapping on the screen, you get back to the home screen by swiping up from the bottom, and you get to multi-tasking by swiping up and pausing. The side-button is now dedicated to Siri.
What about TouchID? It’s been replaced with “Face ID”. It’s “the future of how we unlock our smartphones”, Schiller says – and it’s based on the front cameras, which are more than just a camera. Seven separate sensors are packed into that little band at the top, and it’s how the company hopes to overcome flaws with previous face unlock systems. It also works at night.
Schiller also reveals what the “bionic” label is on the A11: it’s the neural engine, a subset of the chip dedicated to neural network processing, and that’s how Face ID works. The company even trained its system on professionally made masks, to make sure that it only works on real faces.
More importantly, Schiller says it “requires user attention”, such as looking at the camera, to unlock – so hopefully a pickpocket won’t be able to wave your phone in front of your face then dash off.
“The chance that a random person in the population could unlock your iPhone Xand unlock it with their face is one in a million”, Schiller says, comparing it to one in 50,000 for TouchID. But unlike TouchID, it can get confused more easily if someone looks similar to you. If you have an evil twin, “set a passcode”, he says. It works with everything else TouchID does, including Apple Pay.
The neural engine has one other use: terrifying animated emoji.
pricing and availability
The phone will start shipping 3 November for $999 for the 64GB, and it can be pre-ordered on 27 October.
The iPhone SE also has a price cut to $349, iPhone 6S to $449, and iPhone 7 to $549.
A small update on wireless charging: it’s also supported by the Apple Watch series 3 and the new Airpods. And if you have an Apple-designed power mat, you can charge them all at the same time. Apple’s calling it AirPower, and it looks like it might become a future standard – but for now it’s unique to Apple. Not out until next year, though.
The iPhone X has good cameras. Both 12MP like on the 8 Plus, but a faster telephoto lens, which also gains optical image stabilisation.
The flash is also improved, but some things you can never really fix, and one of those is a camera flash placed right next to the lens. Just find better lighting, people.
The front-facing camera now supports a bunch of the twin-camera features, like portrait mode, that were previously only possible on the 7 plus, and it’s going to mean you can shoot some really attractive selfies.
MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: The iPhone X has a quoted two hours extra battery life than the iPhone 7.
iPhone X
It looks like we knew it would look like: a huge screen taking up the whole front with a, er, 5.8 inch OLED “super retina display”; a glass back; a dual camera; and a small bump cutting in to the top of the screen.
With no home button, the display is enabled simply by tapping on the screen, you get back to the home screen by swiping up from the bottom, and you get to multi-tasking by swiping up and pausing. The side-button is now dedicated to Siri.
What about TouchID? It’s been replaced with “Face ID”. It’s “the future of how we unlock our smartphones”, Schiller says – and it’s based on the front cameras, which are more than just a camera. Seven separate sensors are packed into that little band at the top, and it’s how the company hopes to overcome flaws with previous face unlock systems. It also works at night.
Schiller also reveals what the “bionic” label is on the A11: it’s the neural engine, a subset of the chip dedicated to neural network processing, and that’s how Face ID works. The company even trained its system on professionally made masks, to make sure that it only works on real faces.
More importantly, Schiller says it “requires user attention”, such as looking at the camera, to unlock – so hopefully a pickpocket won’t be able to wave your phone in front of your face then dash off.
“The chance that a random person in the population could unlock your iPhone Xand unlock it with their face is one in a million”, Schiller says, comparing it to one in 50,000 for TouchID. But unlike TouchID, it can get confused more easily if someone looks similar to you. If you have an evil twin, “set a passcode”, he says. It works with everything else TouchID does, including Apple Pay.
The neural engine has one other use: terrifying animated emoji.
