Tuesday, 31 October 2017

iPhone X release date, price and features

Update: We've had the iPhone X on test for over a day now, and we've got a video with our early thoughts thus far in our iPhone X 24 hour diary. Early findings show a strong Face ID performance and an impressive screen - does it do enough for iPhone fans though?

Apple's long-awaited iPhone X pre-orders are now live, which means the official release date is next week: Friday November 3. But there's a big complication.

You may not be able to buy Apple's highly anticipated smartphone right away. Finding it in stock on launch day is going to be extremely difficult, though we are tracking iPhone X pre-orders in the US, and the best iPhone X deals in the UK.

That's the only bad news, though. Apple claims that the iPhone X, which is pronounced 'iPhone 10', is worth your money and any extra wait time due to its revolutionary new features.

The iPhone X wasn't the only smartphone announced by CEO Tim Cook at Apple's recent September 12 launch event. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were unveiled too, and are already available in stores today.

That said, the iPhone X is the flagship phone Apple fans will be looking at longingly. It takes Apple's 10-year-old smartphone design in a bold new direction. It also leaves behind the familiar physical home button and tried-and-tested fingerprint sensor.

Is it worth the high iPhone X price and wait? What are the big features you need to know about? Slide down to unlock the biggest new iPhone answers.

iPhone X release date

  • Pre-orders are now live
  • Ships next week, starting, Friday, November 3
  • Supply will be extremely limited

The iPhone X release date is Friday, November 3, which is next week, and pre-orders began on Friday, October 27, seven days in advance. The pre-order time is 12am midnight PST in California and 3am EST on the East Coast.

All of this is later than the usual September launch date for new iPhones. Can't wait for the iPhone X or can't find it because there will only be two to three million available? The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are already available.

The release date could be later than normal due to the Samsung-made OLED screens being in short supply. However, recent reports suggest that Face ID components may be causing even further delays and stock shortages. Apple denies this.

We expect iPhone X to be instantly out of stock on launch day, and it may even be hard to find going into 2018. Expect retailers to lure you to their stores with a chance of getting an iPhone X on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

For those living in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait or Qatar, iPhone X pre-orders also start on October 27, but the handset will arrive in stores a day later, on November 4.

Tips for finding the iPhone X in stock

  • Know the exact iPhone X pre-order time. In the US, ordering begins at 12pm midnight PT, which is 3am ET on Friday. Staying up on Thursday (or setting an alarm) is a must.
  • Critical: Download the iPad Apple Store app. Little known fact: the Apple Store website and the app goes down for maintenance at night, hours before pre-orders begin. The iPad (or iPhone) app usually comes back online FIRST, so download that and skip the website (or keep both open and keep refreshing non-stop).
  • Fake buy an iPhone 8 – seriously. Do you have your credit card details in Apple's system? How about up-to-date shipping information? Do you know your Verizon account password (this always trips people up, as it's a Verizon-only thing and no one ever remembers this). Go as far as possible to buy an iPhone 8 (you can always cancel if you accidentally order it) so that you're fully prepped with your information when the iPhone X pre-orders begin.
  • Don't think you can pre-order it tomorrow or the next day. Too many people have told us, "I probably won't order it on day one," acting like they'll wait to see iPhone X reviews before getting in the next week. Have fun with your iPhone X in March 2018. Stock will be very limited.
  • Black or Silver? Those are the two color options. Know which carrier you'll get the phone with and the internal storage size, too. You'll want to get through these menus as quickly as possible.

iPhone X price

  • More expensive than any other iPhone
  • 64GB iPhone X: $999, £999, and AU$1,579
  • 256GB iPhone X: $1,149, £1,149, AU$1,829
  • US carriers are charging $42 a month

The iPhone X price starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,579, which makes it the most expensive iPhone ever made. And that's for the iPhone X with 64GB of storage.

You also have to take into account the various models, storage sizes, and, in the US, the sales tax. Buying an iPhone 8 Plus with 256GB of storage will cost over $1,000 in the end. The 64GB iPhone 8 is more prominently advertised as $699. The iPhone X is going to be another jump in price.

The 256GB iPhone X will cost $1,149, £1,149, AU$1,829. Sadly, there's no option in between, if you were hoping for a 128GB iPhone X. There just isn't one.

It's also available in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, with the 64GB iPhone X costing AED/SAR 4099 while the 256GB model is AED/SAR 4729

US carriers like Verizon and AT&T are charging $42 a month for one year and allow you to upgrade to a new iPhone next year if you trade in your device. The Apple's iPhone Upgrade program starts at $49.91, but includes AppleCare+.

Regardless of how you're paying for it, the iPhone X is expensive.

Below you can watch our guide to teach you the key differences between the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

iPhone X design

  • New glass design that enables wireless charging
  • Bigger display, but smaller than Plus phones
  • Easier to hold than an iPhone Plus phone, too
  • Remains water-resistant and comes in only two colors

Apple managed to make the iPhone X bigger, yet smaller at the same time. It'll have a more expansive 5.8-inch edge-to-edge screen (that's the bigger part), but the size is actually smaller than a Plus-sized iPhone. It also feels lighter.

How? The iPhone X dimensions give you a shorter height of 5.65 inches (143.6 mm) and, importantly, a smaller width of 2.79 inches (70.9 mm) vs a Plus phone. It weights a lighter 6.14 ounces (174 grams), too.

The iPhone X will be easier to hold in one hand. Even if you were turned off by the size of the Plus models but are enamored by the screen size, you'll still be able to upgrade to iPhone X without a problem. 

That's good news because the front and back of the phone are now made of glass, eschewing the usual aluminum casing. (but you'll definitely want an iPhone X case). 

Like last year's iPhone, the iPhone X is waterproof, or water-resistant. It has an IP 67 rating, which means the phone can be 1m (about 3.3 feet) under water for 30 minutes, according to Apple's tests.

What iPhone X colors will you be able to get on day one? Space Gray and Silver will be the only two options available. No red, gold, rose gold or that rumored blush gold colors this time around, which is disappointing.

iPhone X screen

  • Vibrant 5.8-inch edge-to-edge AMOLED screen
  • Apple's 'Super Retina Display' makes its debut
  • Quad HD+ display with a 2436 x 1125 resolution

Apple's new iPhone X screen is considered an all-screen display, or what it calls a 'Super Retina Display.' It's not elegantly named, but it comes with perks.

It uses a 5.8-inch OLED display, a first for an iPhone compared to the LCD displays used before. Apple says it's the first OLED that's 'great' enough to be on an iPhone.

This is also Apple's first edge-to-edge display, which means it lacks bezel at the top and is missing the home button at the bottom, replacing them with more screen. It doesn't have curved screen sides like Samsung's phones, however.

It goes well beyond the 1080p screen ceiling Apple gave us on past phones and it'll crank the resolution of 2436 x 1125 pixels, delivering a Quad HD+ picture.

The iPhone X display is built for HDR and its superior contrast video playback. It can deliver a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio on Dolby Vision and HDR10 content, and we can now confirm that Netflix in HDR will happen on day one.

3D Touch returns for more granular pressure-sensitive touchscreen controls, which usually amount to hidden shortcut menus within apps and on the home screen. If you're upgrading from an iPhone 6, this will be hugely new to you.

iOS 11 will be retooled to fit the iPhone X display a little better, with more features (that you can read about below).

And we'll be getting dynamic wallpapers as well, little videos that play in the background of things like the lockscreen, according to a video recently posted on Reddit.

Will that kill the battery? Will such a feature even make it to the final version of the iPhone X? Either way, it's clear Apple is looking at really making the X the next chapter in the iPhone's evolution.

No more home button

  • Bezel-less iPhone X screen eliminates the home button
  • Flick an open app upward to return to the home screen
  • Control Center is now a swipe-down-from-the-top gesture

You won't find a physical home button on the iPhone X, or any home button at all. Apple's all-screen design doesn't have room for it or the fingerprint sensor.

Having no home button and Touch ID sensor is going to be the biggest change that long-time Apple users will have to get used to the new iPhone controls.

How do you return to the home screen without a home button? Simply flick an open app upward from the bottom, like you're throwing it away. This, oddly enough, is your new home button. You bypass the lock screen the same way (once you're authenticated with Face ID or a password).

The fanned-out multitasking menu can be accessed by dragging an app upward, but pausing for a second (don't let go) and it'll appear with other open apps. You can also swipe along the very bottom edge of the screen to switch between apps more quickly. This shortcut is akin to the browsing the watch faces gallery on an Apple Watch.

Since the swipe-up-from-the-bottom gesture is now occupied by the return to home mechanic, Control Center has been moved to a swipe down gesture. Just slide your finger down from the top-right-aligned battery icon and you can see the new iOS 11 Control Center dash. Swiping from the top on the left side of the screen reveals the notifications screen.

The Sleep/Wake button has been renamed the side button (also matching the Apple Watch). Holding it in for a second summons Siri, and double pressing it brings up Apple Pay, which can now be authenticated with Face ID.

Apple likens all of these swipes to slide to unlock, which everyone misses. We'll have to test out the new gesture mechanics see if this has the same natural feeling. This could become second nature, though some people will undoubtedly complain at first (they always do).

Face ID replaces Touch ID

  • Unlock your phone simply by looking at it
  • More secure than the fingerprint sensor
  • Also used in conjunction with Apple Pay

Without Touch ID, how do you unlock your iPhone X? Apple claims to have made this easy with the debut of Face ID.

"It's the future of we how unlock our smartphones," said Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller at the company's launch event.

To pull this off, the iPhone X uses its front-facing 7MP TrueDepth camera and its multiple sensors, including a sophisticated dot projector to map your face. It even works in the dark thanks to an infrared camera, according to Apple.

Apple claims that Face ID won't be spoofed by photos, which Samsung had an issue with on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8. The company went so far as to work with Hollywood mask makers to prevent even the most advanced hackers from breaking into your new iPhone X.

And don't worry, it'll work with sunglasses and can be disable in times of crisis, according to senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi. You can disable Face ID by holding in the side button for a few seconds, say if a robber demands that you hand over your smartphone.

Touch ID letting someone else into your phone 1 in 50,000 chance of happening. The chance a thief (or the FBI) can look at your iPhone and unlock it with Face ID? It's now a 1 in 1,000,000 chance, claims Apple. 

Face ID's debut did have what seemed like failed moment at the Apple event, but the company explained that it was due to a number of failed attempts by the stage crew. The iPhone X tried to authenticate their faces, unbeknownst to them, while they handled the new phone. It then reverted to asking Federighi for his passcode during the live demo. Oops. 

The science behind Face ID is extremely complex and interesting. It's almost ripped from the headlines from a newspaper – one that's printed in the future. What has us most intrigued is the fact that it gets better at recognizing your 3D mug over time and even adapt to the evolution on your face. Apple promises that Face ID won't mind when you get a haircut, grow a beard or start looking fabulously younger. It'll still 'just work.'

iPhone X dual-lens camera

  • Redesigned 12MP dual-lens camera
  • Telephoto lens OIS and a wider aperture
  • Portrait Mode enhanced by Portrait Lighting

Apple says it has redesigned its cameras, though it sticks with much of the same specs as last year: You get 12MP cameras with every new 2017 iPhone.

Of course, if you want a dual-lens camera you have to go with the iPhone X or iPhone 8 Plus, and if you want optical image stabilization on both the wide-angle and telephoto lenses, you'll have to buy the iPhone X.

OIS helps make up for hand shakiness when taking photos. The camera lens actually moves with your unsteady hands. Now it's on the telephoto lens, too, so you photos with 2x optical zoom can be blur-free as well.

The iPhone X camera sensors are also larger and faster, capturing what Apple calls "deep pixels" with either an f/1.8 aperture (wide-angle) or improved f/2.4 aperture (telephoto) lens. It also uses its new A11 Bionic chip and machine learning to optimize for scenes even before an image is taken.

Last year's Portrait Mode gave us bokeh-rich (background-blur-added) portrait photos. This year, Apple is introducing Portrait Lighting. It can transform the light in a scene, going as far as changing a background, or apply lightning to a persons face, as if they were being hit by lights in a studio. It reminds us of a live version of Instagram, but done on the phone's default camera app and smartly focused on a person's face, not the entire photo.

iPhone X video recording in 4K hasn't changed, but capturing a slow-motion has. It can now record 240 frames per second in 1080p, up from doing it in 720p. The compromise of capturing slow-motion video at a lower resolution is gone. 

Apple's ridiculously tricked out TrueDepth camera

  • 7MP front-facing camera takes Portait Mode selfies
  • TrueDepth is full of face-mapping sensors

Apple's iPhone X TrueDepth camera is no ordinary selfie camera. Its 7MP again, but packs more technology than we've ever seen in a front-facing camera array.

It adds Portrait Mode to your selfies, giving us the first iPhone that doesn't have a single fixed-focus camera. This means your selfies can exhibit that stylish background blur, too.

Depth of field is way better than the Beauty Mode that's popular on Android phones. The blur effect deserves to be on the background, not your skin.

What else is packed into the screen cut-out at the top besides the 7MP camera? An infrared camera, flood illuminator, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, speaker, microphone and sophisticated face-mapping dot projector.

The TrueDepth camera is a beast, between Portrait Selfies, Portrait Lighting Selfies (nope, it's not just on the back camera), Face ID, and Animoji.

Animoji

  • Combines animations with emoji, of course
  • Mirrors your facial expressions quite accurately
  • Like a more advanced versions of a Snapchat mask

Animoji has Apple taking emoji to the next level, utilizing its TrueDepth camera to mirror your facial expressions on a animals or... other creations, yes, like the poo emoji.

A dozen of these animated emojis will be available in Apple's Messages app, and the camera will be able to bring them to life by tracking 50 of your facial muscle movements. 

It's more than just intrigued eyebrow looks.

The iMessages app is already exploding with fun stickers and special effects and we didn't think we'd be using a year ago. The same is being said of Animoji. If they seems a bit meaningless and silly now, check back with us in a year.

It's no surprise that Apple is working with Snapchat on using the front-facing camera to bring new, more realistically contoured masks to its photo-sharing app. There's a lot of potential behind this expression-driven creation.

iPhone X specs

  • A11 Bionic has six cores and is 25% faster than iPhone 7 CPU
  • Doubles the number of efficiency cores to be 70% faster
  • Translates into more power for 3D games and AR

Apple has debuted its new 'A11 Bionic' chipset with the iPhone X, and it'll have a six-core processor to power all of the latest 3D games and AR technology.

What does that mean? The six-core iPhone X chip has four efficiency cores, double the two efficiency cores on the four-core iPhone 7 Plus. That translates into a 70% faster CPU efficiency cores. 

What are the other two cores? They're the high-performance cores, and while the new iPhone X and last year's iPhone have two cores each, Apple says they're 25% faster and the iPhone X can even use all six at the same time for a turbo boost. It's smartly designed.

We won’t know the RAM for certain until someone pries open an iPhone X, as Apple doesn’t reveal its RAM specs. But a Chinese regulatory agency has listed it as having 3GB, while one earlier report also suggested the iPhone X will come with 3GB of RAM, the same amount we saw Apple pack into the iPhone 7 Plus.

iPhone X battery life and fast charging

  • Lasts two hours longer than last year's iPhone 7
  • First fast-charging iPhone: 50% recharge in 30 minutes

Apple gave us a big headline at the iPhone X launch: it will last two hours longer than the standard-sized iPhone 7.

It'll amount to all-day battery life, depending on usage. You can easily pare down battery consumption with low-power mode in iOS 11 to have it last even longer.

Apple hasn't said the actual size of the battery, but according to TENAA (a Chinese regulatory agency) it has a 2,716mAh one - that's bigger than the 2,691mAh iPhone 8 Plus, but not by much.

What's interesting is that the iPhone X will be the first Apple phone (along with the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus) with fast-charging capabilities. This can give you a 50% charge in just 30 minutes. Previously fast charging was limited to newer iPad Pro tablets and the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

You will have to spring for the separately sold Lightning-to-USB-C cable and adapter. The iPhone X comes with a normal lightning cable and underpowered 5W charging adapter – smaller than even the iPad charger.

Wireless charging with AirPower

  • Apple's AirPower pad can charge multiple devices
  • iPhone X also charges with existing Qi chargers

Plugging in your iPhone X could be as easy as dropping it on a wireless pad, and that's the idea behind the new iPhone X wireless charging feature.

Sure, wireless charging isn't new (yes, it's been on Android phones for years), but Apple will debut a new AirPower charging pad in 2018. It can charge every new Apple product: an Apple Watch, AirPods and the iPhone X. The pad itself uses a USB-C cable for power, just like Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro.

This wide-shaped charging pad makes it easy to recharge everything at once compared to plugging each gadget in with a Lightning cable or fetching that inductive Apple Watch charger. However, Apple didn't lay out how much the hassle-free AirPower pad will cost, and we know it won't launch until next year.

AirPower also requires a new AirPods case, one that has wireless charging built into it. Just when you thought iPhone X was expensive enough, it makes you want to buy all sorts of accessories (that's how they get you, right?).

Convenience often has a high price and a long wait. In the meantime, Mophie and Belkin are making wireless chargers, and standard Qi chargers should work, though most will simply charge a single device.

Augmented Reality features

  • Apple just created the world's largest AR ecosystem
  • New demos are launching with iOS 11 
  • It even works on older devices (A9 chip and higher)

Apple is very bullish on augmented reality, favoring AR over VR. CEO Tim Cook mentions AR during every one of Apple's quarterly earnings calls these days.

iOS 11  is already transforming the world into a virtual playground, with games that create digital objects on empty tables when you look through an iPhone or iPad. Home furnishing giant IKEA, meanwhile, is creating practical furniture measuring tools. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

That's why AR is going to play a big part on the iPhone X, although any exclusive features it gets may be minimal, as older iPhones has AR capabilities, too.

You can find out more about the iOS 11 AR experience on the iPhone and iPad, which is coming to all Apple devices with an A9 chip or newer.



from TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/news/iphone-x
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