an iPhone user’s guide to the iPhone X


The most obvious thing about the X, the most obvious difference? There’s no home button. Apple decided, for whatever reason to remove this. I get that though, no worries. It just takes a bit of getting used to.  Perhaps this is the way of the future? I don’t know, honestly, but it’s definitely a learning curve.

Here’s how to access things previously available using the ‘home’ button, or swipe up:

  1. To unlock the phone, simply swipe up and look at it. Yes, it’s that damn simple. No more silly touch id (it was a great implementation, and it worked like every time, but was kind of annoying)
  2. To pull up the task manager, simply swipe up and hold for a second or two
  3. To close apps in the task manager, while in the task manager, simply press on any app lightly and the red – will appear at the top left of each app. Click that and you’re done.
  4. To use Apple Pay, simply click twice on the side button and look at your phone
  5. To take a screenshot, simply click on the side (action) button and the volume up button together

Some things have been taken out, or moved around a bit on the X. Here’s what I’ve found so far

Previously, you used to be able to hold the sleep (action) button to power your phone down. Now, you need to hold the side button (action) and either volume rocker for a few seconds in order to shut it down. Annoying, but hey

Where’s my battery percentage? No, seriously, I had that enabled, and have kept it enabled everywhere!!!
This is one thing that they removed deliberately. There just wasn’t enough room sadly. That is to say, you can’t configure the system to show this. However, if you swipe down on the right ‘horn’ (top of the phone), you’ll see this information in there.

Speaking of  the control center… Where’d that go? Well, you can access that by swiping down on the right ‘horn’. It’s the same old control center, just accessible differently.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more to this post as time goes on, but hey, at least this is a guide for those of us like me who’ve been used to the ‘old’ way of doing things from Apple. The learning curve is still there, but it’s very, very easy to learn.

Now, let’ talk about cost  for a moment, shall we? One of the most common complaints I hear from users is

The iPhone just costs too damn much

That’s just not true. No, really, it’s not. I walked away from Sprint with a $350 deposit (my credit is crap, tho I’m working on that), and $25/month. Had my credit been good, it would have been $150 down (for the 256 gig model) and $30/month, but it is what it is. Figure that I’ll spend a good 12 months on this, and upgrade, that’s a total of $300 . Yes, $300 for the phone over 12 months, and then the cycle begins again. I don’t consider the $350 a recurring thing (because it’s not), but a one time ‘activation’ cost. Next time, I’ll just be able to roll right on past that.

Given that I’ve got the option to upgrade the device every year now, if I so choose, a $300 total cost is not anything to worry about. Cost too much ? HARDLY. I consider the fact that I’m getting this phone for less than their cost pretty damn sweet.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the iPhone X, so far.  Keep watching for more. I may (hopefully) find my way to blogging more over the next few weeks



Tom Whiting
