iPhone X Review: So Refined, It Converted This Android User

This article is more than 2 years old.
Ben Sin

Anyone who knows me personally 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's controlling, restricting ways; I was very, very critical of the iPhone 8; I poked fun at the iPhone 7's bezels every time I reviewed a sleek Android device. Heck, I've even drew the wrath of this columnist at MacWorld not once but twice.


Whatever. I may be very opinionated, but I believe I'm a fair dude. I'm critical of iOS being limiting because it is. Take a look at the homescreen of a few Android phones -- each one is going to 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 homescreen into thousands of styles (below are some samples I whipped together in under ten minutes). I'm talking complete aesthetic and stylistic overhaul.

Ben Sin

Now look at the homescreen of a few iPhones. In fact, look at a dozen iPhones ... they all look mostly the same other than the wallpaper, right?

Why can't I arrange apps on the homescreen the way I want, Apple? This isn't even a completely superficial, 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, so 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. Apps must go from top down, left to right. If I want just a few apps on the first home page, they must sit all the way at the top, out of reach. If I want them lower on the screen, I must fill the rest of the entire homescreen with apps.

It sounds like a trivial complaint, but it's really not if you think about it. A smartphone is our personal computer and most important daily tool to communicate, get work done, etc. We should be able to do basic customization to fit each of our lifestyle.

But even 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 bring out and about every single day.

Ben Sin

So just what about the iPhone X impressed me enough to have me abandon Android? The bezel-less display? Nah, the LG V30 offers very similar immersive experience. The X's dual rear cameras? Nope, in my testing I found the X's main shooters isn't necessarily better than the Galaxy Note 8's or Huawei Mate 10 Pro's dual-cameras. The build quality? The X feels nice in my hand, but so does my Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.

I'm using the iPhone X as my daily driver because of that notch above the screen, and a bunch of little refinements that are not big deals on their own but the combination makes for a compelling package. But first let's talk that notch, home to the "TrueDepth Camera System," which includes, among other things an infrared camera and dot projector. Those two combine to shoot 30,000 invisible dots into my face, creating a 3D map of my mug that Apple uses for identification purposes.


I thought using facial recognition to unlock the phone (which Apple calls Face ID) 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. More important, it works from various angles. I know facial recognition is nothing new -- the LG V30 offers one too -- but never has it been done better.

Face ID doesn't just help me get past my lockscreen, but also help me verify purchases in the App Store or via Apple Pay, and even help me keep prying eyes from reading my lockscreen notifications. Here's how it works: when a WhatsApp/WeChat/whatever message comes through, the lockscreen will light up with a notification stating there is a message, but it will only show the content of the message for me when I look at the phone. Any other face will just see a blank message.

The TrueDepth system also allows the iPhone X to shoot selfies in bokeh mode (which I don't really care about), create animated emojis that mirrors my facial expressions (which I want to say I don't care about but I do...), and take some very good, atmospheric selfies.

The latter is due to this new feature called Portrait Studio Lighting, which simulates the lighting effects of a studio portrait. The results are quite stunning.

In the past year I've gotten so used to Chinese and Korean phones approach selfies like a fashion magazine editor: everything is about whiter skin and a slimmer face, even if it requires unrealistic photoshop jobs. Phones from LG and Huawei and Meizu all come with pre-built beautification filters that make me look like a plastic surgery'ed out wannabe K-Pop star. Apple goes the other direction with selfies: realistic portraits with some moody studio lighting. Check out the two selfies below of my girlfriend and I.

Ben Sin

We shot the two pics in a bright room -- the spotlight look is totally iPhone X's software at work.

Before I continue talking about photography, let's back up a bit and talk the iPhone X's general hardware: it's a very nicely constructed handset with glass front and back, held together by a stainless steel frame that feels more sturdy 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 very delightful design touch 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 scrolling 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 like two minutes. Maybe it's cause I'm used to Android phones which has long abandoned physical home buttons, but even for loyal iPhone users, they'll familiarize themselves with the swipe-up gesture after 20 minutes.

Under the hood is Apple's A11 chipset, and performance is excellent as expected. Because Apple designs its hardware, software and chipset in unison, there's just a level of performance efficiency that Android phones can't match. Again, it's the little things.

With that said, I do wish Apple would implement a one-hand mode  that isn't trash. The iPhone X is small enough that its lack of one-hand friendliness isn't a huge deal, but I still have to loosen and re-adjust my grip just to hit that damn top-right button while walking down crowded streets and that's always a concern. 

Ben Sin
Ben Sin

Now, let's move onto photos...

Apple approaches photography the same way it approaches its OLED display calibration -- it's all about balance. During my time of using 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 both Android cameras I mentioned go for the punchy saturated look that can look amazing in certain scenarios, but sometimes make a scene look highly unrealistic. The X has no such problems -- every shot is going to be clear and colors will be accurate and down-to-earth. But the thing is, sometimes real life is boring and I don't want my shot to look "realistic."

The same goes for low light photos. The iPhone X captures excellent photos in low light that don't have a lot of noise or overexposure, but they often turn out darker and show less than same shots captured by the LG V30 and Note 8. Both of the latter phones, of course, resort to overexposure to get more light in. Below are samples...

Ben Sin
Ben Sin
ben Sin
Ben Sin

So now let's do some side by side shots. As mentioned, the iPhone X's photos (on the left in both pics below) are less "lush" than the same shot taken with a Huawei Mate 10 Pro, but Apple's photos are a bit more closer to real life colors than Huawei's saturated Leica-lens.

Ben Sin
Ben Sin

If you want to see more photo comparisons between the iPhone X and top Android phones, I have one here.

So one of the things many have complained about has been the notch. For the most part, it doesn't bother me. Using the phone in landscape mode I'm able to forget about it as long as apps have been optimized for the iPhone X's screen (apps that haven't been optimized yet look very, very ugly on the iPhone X though). But when using the phone in landscape mode, such as watching videos, this is when problems arise.

We're given two options on how to deal with the notch in video consumption mode. Either watch a scaled down video that cuts off right before the notch -- effectively turning the 5.8-inch display into a much smaller screen -- or fill the entire display with the video but have the notch look like someone took a bite out of the video.

Ben Sin
Ben Sin

Take a look at the two photos above. You either watch a smaller than usual video or one with Minzy's head cut off.

Shooting videos on the iPhone X is mostly a great experience. Technically speaking, the X's ability to capture 4K footage at 60 frames per second and 240 frames per second videos at 1080p make it one of the most impressive mobile video shooters out there, but the camera app is lacking some crucial features like a "pause" button when recording.

Battery life on the iPhone X ... it's an iPhone. Need I say more? Throughout my use the phone lasted me an entire day every single day but one. Apple has refined the software and hardware efficiency so much that its smaller battery size handedly outperforms Android phones with larger batteries.

Ten years ago, Apple changed the entire mobile industry with the first iPhone. And while the iPhone X isn't nearly as revolutionary a device, it is arguably just as refined as the original iPhone.

Ben Sin

There are more impressive (in my opinion) displays out there (Samsung's panels look punchier, is brighter, and curves); and Android's software customization and open platform gives me less of a headache. But still, the iPhone X is ultimately such a polished product, with so many little things done right, that I've been won over. That dude over at MacWorld probably still thinks I'm a hater, but whatever, the iPhone is my daily driver... for now. Android, I love your freeflowing homescreen and dual sim capabilities too much to stay away too long. I'll be back.

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