It’s more than the price

 

A few days ago, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have officially landed at retailers around the world. However, the reception was rather lukewarm for an iPhone release: Reports around the world noted that launch lines were rather tiny, with only 30 people lining up at the Sydney release of the iPhone 8. In fact, new outlets do think that the small queues for the iPhone 8 are due to people choosing to wait for the iPhone X, which is slated to arrive in November.

“When you have a device that is already highly priced, consumers typically prefer to wait for the best one, rather than buy one that is brand new but not the latest because Apple decided to launch the iPhone X,” IDC European mobile devices research director Francisco Jeronimo said in an interview with The Guardian.

Yet, even if the iPhone X is worthy of the hype—being Apple’s most radical iPhone since 2007, I myself would not really agree with the hype. Yes, I am saying this as an Apple user since the mid-2000s, at the time when the first Intel MacBooks were launched. If you ask me, I would rather get the underhyped iPhone 8/8 Plus over the radical iPhone X. It may be an unpopular opinion to many Apple fans, but let me explain my case:

 

The absence of TouchID bothers me

I can deal with the loss of a headphone jack. I can deal with the loss of a real home button. However, I have real issues with Apple ditching TouchID on the iPhone X. Since the iPhone 5S, Apple’s TouchID is one of the most reliable fingerprint scanning tech out there—even better than the ones found in Android smartphones. It is a secure and practical method of unlocking your phone. With Apple’s new FaceID tech on the iPhone X, I really doubt about its practicality in real life.

Would you actually unlock the iPhone X using FaceID while inside a jampacked train? Would you be able to unlock the iPhone X using your face at night? Can you unlock your phone quickly in case of emergency? These are the questions that linger around me when asked about FaceID. It may be a cool method of unlocking your phone, but its practicality is still questionable even up to this day. Also, I’m not putting my heart and soul on a tech that is yet to be proven in real-life tests.

 

The iPhone X’s design is a case of oversimplification

When it comes to the overall design of the iPhone X, my sentiments is just the same with my issue on the new TouchBar MacBook Pros: Apple has focused too much on design and aesthetics that they sacrificed function already. Would you really like browsing through your phone by using only on-screen gestures? Would you be able to make full use of a bezel-less display in real life? By removing the Home Button and going for a bezel-less route (with an annoying notch on top), the iPhone X has become more of a statement phone than a functional smartphone.

The iPhone X may be one beautiful device wrapped in stainless steel and glass, but seriously Apple, you should be designing devices that are more functional in real life.

 

They almost have the same features

Here’s the clincher: Save for the iPhone X’s OLED bezel-less display, the internals are almost the same: Both iPhone 8/8 Plus and X use the A11 Bionic processor (which is said to be faster than a MacBook Pro, if benchmark tests should be believed), and have the same 7-megapixel f/2.2 front camera. Both are also rated IP67, capable of wireless charging with their glass backs, and have stereo speakers (at the cost of ditching the headphone jack like the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus).

Comparing the dual-rear cameras of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus, the only real difference is that the iPhone X has dual OIS. other than that, both have the same f/1.8 wide-angle and f/2.8 telephoto setup. The price difference for these “upgrades”? a steep $200, as the iPhone X is priced at $999 for the 64GB model ($300 if you compare it to the iPhone 8, but you only get a single rear camera setup with the smaller iPhone 8).

 

Conclusion: I don’t think the iPhone X worth the wait…yet

Given a choice, I would go save my $300 and just get the iPhone 8 instead. While I may consider myself as an Apple Fanboy, being practical is a bigger priority nowadays. I don’t see the sense of ditching the home button and TouchID in exchange for a bezel-less, all-screen display and FaceID that is not yet proven. If you consider the specs, the iPhone 8 offers a powerful set of internals like its more expensive siblings. Never mind the lukewarm reception; I’d go for a phone that is cheaper and more practical to use for daily tasks.

As for the iPhone X, another reason why I’m not biting into the hype is because being a new design, expect to see a few flaws. Remember the iPhone 4’s signal reception problem back in 2010, or the iPhone 6’s bending issue back in 2014? The same can apply with the iPhone X, and Apple will take time to address these issues before the iPhone X’s overall design is perfect.