22 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017
ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME or has
read my articles and tweets knows that
I’m not exactly an Apple fan. I’ve been
vocal about my preference for Android’s
endless customization over iOS’ control-
ling, restricting ways; I was very, very
critical of the iPhone 8; I poked fun at
the iPhone 7’s bezels every time I re-
viewed a sleek Android device.
So not only am I not an Apple fan; ac-
tual Apple fans would probably consider
me a hater. But I believe I’m a fair dude.
I’m critical of iOS being limiting because it is. Take a look at the home
screen of a few Android phones—each one will look unique. I’m talking
about different app icon styles, layouts, widgets, etc. With the help of
third-party launchers and icon packs I can spin my Galaxy Note 8 home-
screen into thousands of styles.
Now look at a dozen iPhones—they all look mostly the same, other
than the wallpaper. Why can’t I arrange apps on the home
screen the way I want, Apple? This isn’t a completely su-
perficial, aesthetic-driven complaint. Living in a crowded,
on-the-go city like Hong Kong, I frequently have to use my
phone one-handed while standing in trains or walking up
and down stairs, and on Android I place my key apps at the
bottom of the screen, where they’re easily accessible. I also
like minimalism, so I keep the rest of the homescreen app
free. On iPhones, I can’t do that.
But having said all that, after testing the iPhone X for a
week and half, I’ve decided to make it my daily driver. This
means the X is currently home to my main sim card, and is
the phone I take out and about every day. So just what about
the iPhone X impressed me enough to abandon Android?:
That notch above the screen, home to the “TrueDepth Camera System,”
which includes, among other things, an infrared camera and a “dot
projector.” Those two combine to shoot 30,000 invisible dots into my
face, creating a 3-D map of my mug that Apple uses for identification
purposes. I thought using facial recognition (Apple calls it Face ID) to
unlock the phone was going to be a pain, but after using the iPhone X for
well over a week I’m completely sold. It works almost all the time, in any
lighting condition—even dark rooms or out in the sun.
Let’s talk about the iPhone X’s hardware: It’s a very nicely construct-
ed handset with glass front and back, held together by a stainless steel
frame that feels sturdier than the aluminum frames of other phones. The
5.8-inch OLED panel is beautiful and well-balanced, and its corners are
rounded at the same angle as the phone’s corners. It’s a delightful designtouch that looks and feels elegant. The iPhone
X also has a higher-than-usual touch input
refresh rate of 120Hz, and it makes scrolling
on the X a tiny, tiny bit more “natural” than
on most Android devices. Apple gets the little
things right.
Overall the handset feels very polished, like
all the iPhones before it. The lack of a home
button, contrary to the mainstream media
brouhaha, is something I got used to within
two minutes. Maybe it’s because I’m used to
Android phones, which abandoned physical
home buttons long ago.
Under the hood is Apple’s A11 chipset, and
performance is excellent as expected. Because
Apple designs its hardware, software and chip-
set in unison, there’s a level of performance ef-
ficiency that Android phones just can’t match.
Now, the photos: Apple ap-
proaches photography the same
way it approaches its OLED display
calibration—it’s all about balance.
While I was testing the iPhone X, I
snapped hundreds of photos, and it
was hard to find a single bad shot.
With that said, the X’s “great” shots
don’t wow me the way the great
shots taken by Galaxy Note 8 and
Huawei Mate 10 Pro sometimes do.
That’s because those cameras pro-
duce punchy, saturated images that
can look amazing but sometimes
make a scene look unrealistic. The X has no
such problems—every shot is going to be clear,
and the colors will be accurate and down-to-
earth. But sometimes real life is boring and I
don’t want my shot to look “realistic.”
Shooting videos on the iPhone X is mostly a
great experience. It is one of the most impres-
sive mobile video shooters out there, but the
camera app lacks some crucial features like a
“pause” button when recording.
The iPhone X is such a polished product,
with so many little things done right, that I’ve
been won over—for now.A NEW CONVERT
BEN SIN IS A HONG KONG-BASED CONTRIBUTOR TO FORBES.COM WHO WRITES ABOUT CONSUMER TECH. THOMAS KUHLENBECK FOR FORBES (TOP)
TECHNOLOGY BEN SIN // GADGETMAN
F