iPhone X Review Roundup: ‘The Best iPhone Ever Made’ [u]

The first reviews of the iPhone X, Apple’s priciest smartphone yet, are in — and the consensus is that it’s the best iPhone Apple has ever made, despite a few quirks that take some getting used to.

Apple gave most reviewers less than 24 hours with the iPhone X, so many of the initial reviews are first-blush impressions rather than in-depth analyses.

Here’s a roundup of some of the most important iPhone X reviews from across the web.

The Verge’s Nilay Patel called the iPhone X “clearly the best iPhone ever made:”

The iPhone X is clearly the best iPhone ever made. It’s thin, it’s powerful, it has ambitious ideas about what cameras on phones can be used for, and it pushes the design language of phones into a strange new place. It is a huge step forward in terms of phone hardware, and it has the notch to show for it. If you’re one of the many people who preordered this thing, I think you’ll be happy, although you’ll be going on the journey of figuring out when and how Face ID works best with everyone else.

One of the tech sites that got a full week of early iPhone X access is TechCrunch, and Matthew Panzarino gave the iPhone X a special kind of treatment— he took the phone to Disneyland:

Overall, using the iPhone X well takes some time. It’s a big change from a physical home button to a completely swipe-based interface. But it’s fast, fluid and a lot of fun once you get used to it. Before you know it, you’ll forget you ever had to whack a home button to get things done.

There are some rough edges here and there. The notch isn’t for everyone, and the screen does have some color issues at extreme viewing angles. But overall Apple bet enormously big on a bunch of technologies all at once on the iPhone X, and it delivered almost across the board. It really is like using the future of smartphones, today.

Another review based on an actual week of iPhone X usage comes from BuzzFeed:

Ultimately, the most striking thing to me about this phone isn’t the Face ID, 3D-face scanning tech, or the new OLED display. It’s that it’s got the 8 Plus’s screen size — and two-lens camera — in a form factor that’s much better for smaller hands and pockets.

The biggest phone is no longer the best. Apple has typically reserved its best features for its big, bulky “Plus” phones. The X changes that.

For Engadget, Apple’s iPhone X future feels “surprisingly natural:”

Other than the notch, the rest of the phone sort of melts into the background. I’m told Apple wanted to build a device that made you feel like you’re holding software in the palm of your hand, and the X is a strong step in that direction. (Here’s hoping for smaller bezels next year, though.)

So far, what’s been most notable about the iPhone X isn’t how different it is from the models that came before it, but how soon all of the changes start to feel totally normal. Tim Cook has made clear that the X is the future of Apple’s smartphones, but the future doesn’t feel foreign at all — it feels surprisingly natural, surprisingly quickly.

Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff said:

I’d be lying if I said I never noticed the notch. It cuts into full-screen apps, movies, and photos, but, after a little while, I stopped fixating on it. I guarantee that some people will hate the notch and rail against it, and it’s fun to imagine how the stoic Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, might’ve lost his cool when he first saw the notch. The complaints will, I suspect, mostly be from people who do not own or use an iPhone X.

Tech journalist Steven Levy, writing for Wired, said the potential for iPhone X may ultimately be in yet-to-be-developed apps that take advantage of its AR, facial recognition and high-resolution cameras.

“Those who shell out the cash for this device will enjoy their screen and battery life today,” Levy wrote. “But the real payoff of the iPhone X might come when we figure out what it can do tomorrow.”

Other reviews:

  • Wired: iPhone X and Face ID Camera Test
  • CNET: iPhone X review: 14 important takeaways from our first 18 hours
  • Six Colors: iPhone X: Tomorrow’s iPhone today
  • CNBC: CNBC reviews the $1,150 new iPhone X — the best smartphone you can buy
  • Forbes: Apple iPhone X In-Depth Review: Is This Really The Future Of Smartphones?
  • USA Today: iPhone X first look: Face ID passes our quick tests and ‘animojis’ are addictive
  • CNN Money: iPhone X first impressions: The highs, lows and quirks
  • Washington Post: iPhone X review: Apple is asking you to break up with the home button
  • The Independent: IPHONE X REVIEW: APPLE’S NEW £1,000 PHONE ALMOST FEELS LIKE THE FUTURE
  • Axios Review: iPhone X is worth the wait, at least for some
  • Financial Post: iPhone X first impressions: A few hurdles exist, but will still extend Apple dominance
  • SlashGear: iPhone X first impressions: The 10 year itch
  • Tom’s Guide: iPhone X Review: Your Biggest Questions Answered
  • MobileSyrup: iPhone X Review-in-progress: Apple’s future
  • Killer Features: My first 24 hours with the iPhone X have been a roller coaster ride
  • Pocket-lint: Apple iPhone X initial review: The future of Apple smartphones
  • iMore: iPhone X review: The best damn product Apple has ever made
  • Business Insider: I’ve been using the iPhone X for 18 hours, and I’m already sold
  • BuzzFeed News: I Tried The iPhone X — And The Killer Feature Is Its Size
  • Resource Mag: “SOMEDAY IS HERE”: CHASE JARVIS GOT THE IPHONE X AND ALL WE GOT WAS AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
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