It’s better, it’s bolder, and it has face ID?  It’s the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, and Apple has released its “best iPhone yet.”  There’s tons of new features and improvements, but is the iPhone X really all it’s cracked up to be?

Possibly the most talked about new characteristic of the iPhone X – facial recognition – is like touch ID, except all you have to do is look at your phone and it’s unlocked. Convenient, right?  Senior Cole Powell recently got the phone, and he says of this feature, “It’s cool, especially since it can work in the dark.”  Freshman Akeela Naqvi also has the phone and agrees that the way it works in the dark is a huge plus, but she also notes, “A few times it recognized my twin brother’s face for mine.”

The missing home button is another huge change that makes this phone differ from your typical iPhone.  Instead, all you have to do is swipe up.  The motion of pressing the home button becomes so engraved in our minds that some of us don’t even have to think about it, and it seems like it would take some getting used to.  Naqvi puts those rumors to rest, saying, “A lot of people make the lack of a home button a big deal, but it’s not that big of an adjustment when using the phone, in my opinion, and doesn’t take long to get used to.”  Powell expands on this and continues, “It’s a more natural motion to just swipe up instead of having to press the home button.”

There are plenty more cool and new features of the iPhone X.  Some work well; some, however, do not.  An example of this is the screen size.  It’s larger and takes up the majority of the front of the phone, and Powell says this is probably his favorite thing about it.  Though there is a disadvantage to the size.   “Some apps don’t use the entire screen, and they get kind of cut off”, Cole adds.  The battery has also been drastically changed, even including wireless charging. Naqvi loves this new and improved battery, even if there is a downside to it.  As she explains, “The battery on the phone might be both my least and most favorite [feature], because it takes so long to charge but also takes long to drain the battery”.

Overall, the iPhone X is a great choice and certainly adds a lot of convenience to the everyday uses of your phone.  However, it’s not all perfect and there are, without a doubt, things to think about before you spend the whopping $1,000 plus for Apple’s newest and most talked about innovation yet.

Maddie Mellskog