One of the early reviews of the iPhone X that I read a week ago was by Jason Snell of Six Colors titled "Tomorrow's iPhone Today." I've been using the iPhone X for just over two days as I type this, and it really does feel like somebody used a time machine to show me what the iPhone of the future would look like. Yes, it has many elements of the iPhone that we have known and loved for the past 10 years, but it is so much more advanced that it feels futuristic. I've loved every iPhone that I have owned since my original iPhone 3G back in 2008, but this iPhone X is really something special. It is more expensive than other models of the iPhone, but if you use an iPhone in your law practice and your personal life as much as I do, then it is worth it.
I discussed the major features of the iPhone X two months ago in this post. Take a look at that post again if you want the list of what is new, including the new screen, Face ID, better battery, speed increase, wireless charging, true tone display, better camera, Bluetooth 5.0, etc. Today, I want to just focus on my major impressions of the iPhone X — what makes the device feel so special.
Where everybody knows your name
I'm sure that everyone has private information of some type on their iPhone, but of course attorneys will have tons of documents and other information that is confidential and subject to privileges such as attorney-client, work product, joint defense, etc. Thus, attorneys need to use some sort of authentication on an iPhone. For every iPhone that I have used before the iPhone X, I would pick up my iPhone and then, before using it, I had to pause for authentication. Sometimes that meant typing a passcode. Sometimes it meant putting my finger on the Touch ID button.
As you know, the iPhone X uses cameras and other technology that Apple calls Face ID for authentication. What this means in practice is that it feels like you often don't have to worry about security at all. It's like Norm entering the Cheers bar; just walk right in and everybody already knows your name (and they're always glad you came). When I pick up the iPhone X to use it, the screen wakes as I lift the device, and then during the time that I am swiping my finger up to access the home screen, the iPhone X recognizes me and unlocks the device. Or sometimes, all I want to do is look at my notifications, such as new emails or text messages. I have my notification settings configured so that they show up on my lock screen, but do so in a way that if someone else picks up my iPhone, they don't see any of the content of the message (just the sender name). On the other hand, if I pick up my iPhone, the iPhone X recognizes me and automatically expands each notification to also show me the subject line and the beginning of the email or message.
(To configure this, go to the Settings App and in Notifications make the top option Show Previews When Unlocked, and in the individual app, such as Messages, turn on Allow Notifications and Show on Lock Screen.)
I love that my iPhone X is smart enough that when I pick it up, it immediately says "oh, that's just Jeff, he can go ahead an do whatever he wants" without me having to take any action at all — no entering a code, no authenticating a fingerprint, nothing. And it is smart enough to do so even when there are slight variations in my appearance; I usually wear glasses, but the iPhone X recognizes me even if I have sunglasses on or even if I am not wearing glasses at all.
Touch ID isn't perfect, especially if your fingers are wet. Similarly, Face ID isn't perfect, and sometimes would fail to recognize me. I noticed that the infrared camera would sometimes have difficulty when I was outside in a lot of sun, such as when I was at my daughter's soccer game on Saturday morning. It also had some difficulties when I first woke up on Sunday and wanted to use my phone — perhaps my iPhone X was trying to tell me that I don't look my best when I first wake up. When that happens, I just have to enter my passcode. I understand that when you do this, the iPhone X will make slight adjustments to its sense of what you look like, so that Face ID improves over time. Maybe next Sunday my iPhone X will be more forgiving of my looks.
But even though the first 48+ hours of Face ID may not be quite as accurate as Touch ID, I would never want to go back to using Touch ID after using Face ID. When Face ID does work — which is the vast majority of the time — it really feels like you are just skipping the security step altogether. Whether I am unlocking the phone, or using an app that checks for security such as my 1Password app (my password manager), it is magical and incredibly convenient for my iPhone X to see who I am and let me right in, without carding me first. And considering that I probably use Face ID well over a hundred times every day, this is a major advantage of the iPhone X.
Screen
The iPhone X screen is breathtakingly amazing. The edge-to-edge screen, with no bezel, lets you see so much more. It's almost like getting the larger screen of one of the Plus-size iPhones in a device that feels the same in your hand as a non-Plus iPhone. It's a taller phone, which means that you get a few more lines for apps that display info in a list form top-to-bottom. This includes some of the apps that I use the most on my iPhone, such as Mail, Safari, Notes, Twitter, 1Password, Music, Facebook, etc. Videos and photos look fine when the iPhone X is turned on its size in landscape mode, but other apps do seem unusually wide. But other than videos and photos, I virtually never have my iPhone turned to landscape mode anyway. In portrait mode, the extra space is much appreciated.
And it's not just quantity, it's quality too. The OLED screen is unlike anything I've ever seen on a phone before, including prior Android phones with an OLED screen. Apple has done an amazing job with this thing. The black are perfectly black, and colors are vivid (but not over-saturated). Whether you are looking at photos or videos, or simply using the iPhone to get work done, everything just looks amazing.
The iPhone X also uses a True Tone display, which adjusts colors based upon the surrounding light. I love that display on my iPad Pro, and it is nice to have it on my iPhone too. White backgrounds always look like nice white backgrounds.
I cannot really post a picture that will give you a sense of how good the iPhone X screen looks because you'll be limited by the screen of whatever you are using to read this post. Either go to an Apple Store to see it yourself, or just trust me — it is amazing.
Productivity
I celebrated my birthday yesterday, so I'll admit that billable hours were not high on my list of priorities this weekend. But I did do some work, and I can already tell that the iPhone X will help me to be more productive.
First, as noted above, the taller screen lets you see more at one time, which is a nice productivity boost. For example, when looking at a list of emails, I can see two additional emails. When reading the text of an email, I can see even more of the message.
Second, multitasking works MUCH better on the iPhone X. There is a short line across the bottom of most screens. That mostly serves as a reminder that you can swipe up to access the home screen or do other functions that in the past would be accomplished by pressing a Home Button. But if you swipe your finger from left to right across that line (i.e., across the bottom of the screen) you switch to prior apps that you have used. Yes, I know that on earlier versions of the iPhone you can 3D Touch on the left side of the screen to invoke the app switcher, but I've always found that gesture awkward and a little slow on a naked iPhone and sometimes almost impossible to do on an iPhone in a case. Swiping along the bottom of the iPhone X is vastly superior.
And then of course, as with every new iPhone, everything works even faster, so you spend less time waiting to do work. Combine that with Face ID, and this means that you can get in, get your work done, and get out much more efficiently.
Fun with the TrueDepth camera
App developers cannot access everything that Apple can access in Face ID, but they do have access to the TrueDepth camera and the speedy A11 processor, which means that apps can analyze your facial expressions. In a very creative demonstration of what that means, Apple included Animoji with the Messages app, allowing you to make an animated character mimic your facial expression. You can either create a single image, or for even more fun create a short 10 second video in which the character speaks your words and uses your expressions. Creative folks on Twitter soon realized that this means that you can create Animoji Karaoke (Harry McCracken was one of the first). Here is an example of a good one, using multiple Animoji to sing Bohemian Rhapsody:
This is just the beginning. When David Pogue of Yahoo reviewed the iPhone X, he had access to a pre-release version of Apple's Clips app which uses the TrueDepth camera like a virtual green screen that can put your face in other environments, such as on the Millennium Falcon. And those are just apps from folks at Apple, who have access to the iPhone X for a while now. Clever third parties are going to come up with all sorts of fun uses for this technology.
No, the TrueDepth camera is unlikely to help you in your law practice, unless someone out there is being more creative than I am right now. But it sure is a lot of fun. My kids had a great time making silly faces with the Animoji characters, and I even received a birthday greeting from my three year old nephew who was very cute as an alien.
Come on and zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom
I've always been jealous of the zoom camera on the Plus versions of the iPhone, but those phones are just too darn large for me to want to ever own one. With the iPhone X, I finally have an iPhone that feels like the right size in my hand while also having two cameras, the traditional wide-angle camera and the telephoto camera, both with optical image stabilization. I love taking pictures and video with my iPhone, but it was often frustrating to me to not have a zoom lens. (Sure, you could do a digital zoom, but the picture quality decreased rapidly as you zoomed in.) You can now get full quality even with a 2x zoom, and if you need to zoom in a little bit more you can do so with much better results than ever before.
This past Saturday, when I attended my daughter's soccer game, I used the iPhone X to take a video of game highlights, including the two goals that she kicked (yeah!). I kept my iPhone X in 2x mode and got a great results with the 4K video, even when she was far across the soccer field from where I was watching.
Feels great in the hand
With a width of 2.79", the iPhone X takes up essentially the same amount of space across your hand as an iPhone 7 or similar non-Plus models of the iPhone (2.64" for the iPhone 7). The glass black feels very similar to the Jet Black version of the iPhone 7, and also feels similar to the glass black on the old iPhone 4.
I used a case with my iPhone 7, mainly to add some friction to decrease the chance that I drop it. For now, I'm using the iPhone X without a case. I may decide to add a case in the future, and of course if you use a case it will be the case that you are feeling. But if you don't use a case, the iPhone X feels great, and you can really feel and appreciate the build quality and care that went into creating it.
Other advantages
The built-in speaker is louder and better-sounding. Most of the time I use AirPods, but sometimes if I'm listening to a podcast or song when nobody else is around, I'll just set down my iPhone and turn up the volume. That works better with the iPhone X.
I haven't used the iPhone X long enough to do battery tests, but I'm encouraged by Apple saying that the iPhone X lasts two more hours than the iPhone X. I suspect that the battery is larger, but that's not the full story. I noticed that when I'm not looking at my iPhone X for a while, it pays attention to that and turns of the screen. My iPhone 7 has no idea if I'm looking at the screen or not, so it keeps the screen on much longer when I'm not using the device, wasting battery life.
I know that this iPhone X has wireless charging. At this point, I don't see a need for that; plugging a Lightning cable into the bottom of an iPhone doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But as wireless charging becomes more of a thing, it might be something that I find useful, either at home if I purchase a charging device or in a restaurant or other public facility. For now, the jury is out on this feature, but I suppose it could be nice to have.
I also haven't yet had a chance to try Bluetooth 5.0, but this is one feature that I definitely look forward to using when compatible devices become available. While Bluetooth 4.2 has a range of up to about 30 feet, Bluetooth 5.0 has a range of up to about 260 feet. If Apple comes out with Bluetooth 5.0 AirPods with much longer range, that would be fantastic.
Conclusion
There really isn't much of the way of bad news with the iPhone X, other than the fact that you have to pay more to get these extra features. And although I have a lot of muscle memory associated with the traditional iPhone Home Button, it only took me about a day to get used to the new gestures such as swiping up instead of pressing a Home Button. Indeed, last night, as I was taking some screenshots with my iPhone 7, I found myself swiping up on the bottom of the iPhone 7 to exit an app instead of pressing the button, which is clear proof that it doesn't take long to get used to the new gestures.
The advantages of the iPhone X — especially the better screen and Face ID — are fantastic, making this a substantial upgrade over prior models. If, like me, you use your iPhone a large number of times a day, throughout the day and every day, I can highly recommend the iPhone X. What a great product.
