The First iPhone X Reviews Arrive Ahead of Official Launch Date

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Levy’s review has to do with Face ID, which has replaced Touch ID on the iPhone X for authentication.

He explains:

Does it work? Pretty much. It seems reliable at fending off intruders. I have thrust my phone into several people’s faces—though considerably fewer than the million punims that Apple says I’d have to try before a false positive—and it has not fallen for any of them. I even offered up my own head shot to the camera: no go. How it has dealt with my own real-life face is another matter. There have been times when, despite a clear view of my face, the iPhone X has ghosted me. (Apple tells me that perhaps I wasn’t making what the iPhone X considers eye contact. I wouldn’t want it to turn on every time my face was within camera range, would I?)

Levy gives the iPhone X mostly good marks. However, he does suggest the handset is potentially a “halfway point to a future beyond smartphones:

A decade hence, when it’s time for the iPhone 20 (XX?), we’ll already be on the road to what comes after the smartphone; the X might be a halfway point to that future. And that’s why, despite the fact that the iPhone X at present is no more than a great upgrade to the flagship device of the digital age, I can’t easily dismiss Tim Cook’s effusions that this is more than just another iteration.

Looking for more? YouTube channel Booredatwork has posted the first iPhone X video review. There’s also a video highlighting Face ID setup on the new phone.

The 5.8-inch iPhone X launches this Friday, on Nov. 3. If you haven’t pre-ordered the phone, finding one this week could prove difficult. New orders for the handset show a delivery date of “5-6 weeks.”