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One month with the Apple iPhone X: More powerful than a Plus in a killer form factor

I usually get bored with an iPhone after a few weeks and move along to more exciting Android smartphones, but there is something about the iPhone X that excites me every time I use it. It's not going anywhere for some time.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer

After the iPhone X announcement, I was more than satisfied with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and didn't even consider an iPhone X. However, thanks to the new T-Mobile Jump On Demand switch every 30 day program, giving the Apple iPhone X a trial was a quick and easy process.

Last month, I passed the 10 day period and my excitement for the device remained high. Now, 30 days later I continue to enjoy the daily experience with the phone and I will not be visiting T-Mobile to swap out for another phone.

There have been several reports of issues with the iPhone X, but the only thing I have seen is some occassional image retention due to the use of OLED screen technology. This image appears as a faint ghost and disappears in a second or two, but has no impact on the performance of the phone and is a result of this display technology.

As I look back over the last month of use and towards the future, here are several reasons I continue to use the Apple iPhone X:

  1. Form factor: As I mentioned in my 10 days article, even with larger bezels than many Android phones, the iPhone X appears to melt into my hand with a size smaller than just about every other phone I have tested in 2017. It feels like $1,000 phone should and gives me iPhone Plus level battery life and a big display experience in a small iPhone form factor. I cannot express enough how impressive the form factor is, especially when being preserved by a Caudabe Veil XT case.
  2. Display: Independent lab testing has awarded Samsung OLED displays the smartphone crown for a couple of years and now Apple employs a Samsung display, made even better with Apple development. Apple iPhone displays have always impressed me, even with much lower resolution than competing Android phones, but now we have a higher resolution OLED panel and I couldn't be happier.
  3. Face ID: It seems my iPhone X is not very secure because Face ID unlocks it seamlessly 99 percent of the time. The only option I would like to see is for the iPhone X to jump right to the home screen after recognizing me so one swipe up wasn't necessary. This is how the face unlock works on the OnePlus 5T and I think it would reduce many of the complaints about unlocking the new iPhone. Animojis are silly, but they are also fun and a good demonstration of the potential of Face ID.
  4. Camera performance: Android phones caught up with and even surpassed iPhone camera performance in 2017, but the iPhone X still offers a fantastic experience for those who just point and shoot most of the time. The dual rear cameras let you zoom in or capture interesting portrait shots while the front-facing camera includes some advanced software enhancements too. I think capturing great shots has more to do with the person shooting than the camera, especially when we look at 2017 smartphones. Apple makes it easy to capture good shots consistently, which is also something Google excels at on the Pixel 2.
  5. New gesture-based user interface: There has been a lot of angst about Apple removing the home button and changing the way iOS works on the iPhone X. As a guy who has been using handheld devices for more than 20 years and was never an iPhone-only user I find the updated user interface a joy to use. I don't miss the home button, the relocation of Control Center, or any of the other sweeping changes over the traditional iPhone models. It's the 10th anniversary of Apple revolutionizing the smartphone world and I'm excited to see WebOS and MeeGo type gestures finally come to the mainstream from Apple.
  6. Ecosystem: The Apple AirPods work seamlessly with the iPhone X. The Apple Watch Series 3 is clearly the best smartwatch for iPhone users and both work very well together. When you have family and friends using iPhones, iMessage and Find My Friends are superb experiences that have no equal on Android.

The Apple iPhone X, like every other smartphone, is not absolutely perfect, but it's close. As fantastic as the Apple AirPods are, I still miss having a 3.5mm headset jack to use my Bose QC20 headset on an airplane when I forget to pack my Lightning to 3.5mm dongle.

Other than the 3.5mm headphone jack, I don't find anything missing for my use of the iPhone X and that is what we should expect for a phone that is priced at $1,000.

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