Apple Unveil iPhone X

As exciting as Apple’s Watch Series 3, TV 4K, and iPhone 8 and 8 Plus announcements were, there's no denying that those who tuned in to yesterday's Keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater were pretty much exclusively interested in the not-so-surprising 'surprise' iPhone X announcement.

Leaving us hanging until the last moment, Apple concluded the event by officially taking the wraps off of the hugely speculated anniversary rendition of the world's most successful smartphone. Not known for their half-measures or small promises, Apple CEO Tim Cook dubbed the iPhone X “the future of smartphone” and asserted that the model will set the industry standard for smartphone development over the next decade.

Regardless of your orientation in the ongoing iOS/Android smartphone arms race, the iPhone X unquestionably shares some similarities with the upcoming iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and has borrowed features seen on Android supported models for some time now - most obviously the immersive edge-to-edge display. That said iPhone X does offer some significant improvements over its predecessors and competitors, worthy at least of respect if not the unyielding sense of requirement Apple had surely hoped for. Most notable is the new 5.8″ OLED edge-to-edge Super Retina display with TrueTone and HDR technologies. In perhaps the most disruptive design switch-up, the immersive display sees the loss of our ubiquitous home button. As swipe replaces click as the pervasive interface feature of the decade, users will now access their home screen simply by swiping up from the bottom while multitasking between apps is as intuitive as swiping from side to side.

From a technology perspective, the most significant development is indisputably the roll-out of Apple's new Face ID as a method of unlocking iPhone X in lieu of the now-outdated (as of yesterday) Touch ID technology developed for the home button. Making use of the TrueDepth camera system along the top of the display to unlock through advanced facial recognition, this incredible technology comes with inbuilt learning technology which updates to the subtleties of your face as it changes over time. An important set of caveats for corporation cynics were included to safeguard personal information. Notably, that the system is substantially more secure than Touch ID with a 1/1 million chance that another user's face could unlock your phone, and that the image-map of your face is stored exclusively on your iPhone and is not sent to be stored in a central cloud location for international security services to warrant at will.

Other additions include dual optical image stabilization for both the wide-angle and telephoto lenses on the rear of the camera, a forward-facing camera that now supports Portrait Mode, and better battery life than the iPhone 7.

The Apple iPhone X will be available to pre-order come October 27 at 12:01 PDT and launches on November 3 in both Silver and Space Grey options. Prices start at $999 USD for the 64GB models and $1,149 USD for the 256GB versions. As of the time of the announcement, GBP prices were matched to USD, starting at £999.