Is iPhone X A Good Long-Term Option?
Apple announced its new iPhones early this fall, and only just released its new flagship device, the iPhone X. This phone comes with a $1000 price tag, which almost puts it in a whole new category compared to older phones. And at a glance, the phone’s features don’t really measure up to its incredibly hefty cost.
Make no mistake, the iPhone X is an awfully impressive device – perhaps Apple’s best phone ever, if some of the early reviews are to be believed. It’s beautiful, appears to improve upon both the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 8 in incremental but significant ways, and it has the benefit of being new. It has a different design than what we’re used to with our iPhones, and while this will be jarring for some Apple loyalists, it’s also a little bit thrilling.
That said, the actual list of features that the iPhone X has that the 8 (and 8-Plus) do not is limited. Its front-facing camera is slightly more sophisticated, and can perform facial recognition (a new mode for unlocking the phone). It does away with the home button and widens the screen considerably, though the aforementioned front camera does exist on a sort of small panel that hangs down into the top of the display. It’s a little bit faster and a little bit more powerful in a few ways. And that’s about it. So again, it’s clearly the best Apple phone out there – but is the $1000 price compared to about $700 for the iPhone 8 really worth those features?
The key in answering that question may be looking toward the future – something that, if we’re being honest, Apple has generally been better at than most of the world. And in three areas – communication, entertainment, and security – the iPhone X may actually be positioned quite well to become a significantly preferred option in the years to come.
Where communication is concerned, it comes down to Apple offering more options within preferred modes of communications. A couple years ago an American study determined that at least in the U.S., people prefer texting to talking on the phone. That’s in America, but it’s worth remembering that’s where Apple is operating – plus, it seems fairly safe to assume the same trend is growing around the world, albeit at different rates in different places. The point is that we’re moving toward “messaging” rather than calling, and the iPhone X introduces a fun (and potentially addictive) new way to do it. With the facial recognition technology comes “Animojis,” small animated creatures that can mimic our expressions and speak our words in recorded messages. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s one more way that messaging will be fun and unique, and as we trend further away from actual phone calls, people will want to use this amusing feature.
In entertainment, we need only think of where things are already heading. Streaming services are fast overtaking conventional films and television, and a larger and more beautiful screen will only make them more enjoyable. And in gaming, we’re only on the cusp of the virtual and augmented reality era. Apple now embraces AR with a specific development platform, and we can rest assured that more games are on the way. “Human beings see things in three dimensions,” states one article discussing the rise of 3D gaming in the casino slot space. And really, it’s that simple. 3D may seem new and innovative, but the truth is that it’s natural for us, and that will make these games successful. Casino games are only some of what we’ll begin to see in virtual and augmented reality through out phones, and the iPhone X screen will display it all as beautifully as any current device can.
Lastly, there’s security to consider. In the early going, there are actually some concerns that the facial recognition system might not be particularly secure. But people said the same thing about the Touch ID system based on fingerprints, and Apple made its adjustment for a reason. When you consider how much more we’re already using our phones for things like financial transactions, this is going to become even more important to people. Even if only because it seems like it has the most advanced unlocking security among major smartphones, the iPhone X could become the preferred device in this regard.
