Hands on comparison iPhone X / 8+ and Razer

[dk001]

Wonderful comparison, @Rhonindk !!!

I’ve always wanted to write up the phones I’ve used but I just had no clue how to organize a presentation.

In the month that I owned the X, the Face ID actually went from impressive to abominable. In the last two weeks it degraded badly to the point I re registered my face, which of course necessitated starting over in the “training” process. To be fair, I’ve had this happen with finger print sensors on every iPhone I’ve owned so far and all Samsung phones excluding, for now, my S9+

I’m not sure what happens with either the hardware or software to cause this.

For TouchID, I have resorted to recording a fingertip 2x. This seems to help for those devices that are a bit finicky.
As to FaceID, I cannot tell if it is degrading but can say that it has not improved much if at all for me.

Ive never had to retrain Touch ID unless it was after an iOS update! No idea what you’ve been doing to it lol!

For TouchID, most of my issues in the past occurred after an upgrade / update.

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Thanks for your write up. Really interesting. Are you finding any benefit from that sweet 120hz refresh screen? Does it make media / video (other than games) smoother? I have a 165hz monitor for my PC, I will never go back to a 60hz monitor.

I own a 2017 Razer Blade laptop. Razer is a trash company with shady CEO, imho, but the Blade w/ 7700hq and gtx 1060 is still my favorite laptop of all time. I know that makes no sense. I rolled the dice and so far so good. Worst customer support in the industry, by a landslide. Their laptop construction is lazy, shoddy, and very prone to failure. But that’s on the PC side of things. Maybe phone is better. I could never rely on a daily driver device like a phone made by Razer. It does look fantastic though, I’ll give it that.

Yes! The 120hz does make a difference, and an especially noticeable difference if the game has been tweaked for the Razer. I did find that in most cases, I can let the Razer determine what refresh rate to utilize.

For the quality of construction, it has been solid for me. My son liked mine and bought one (via Amazon) and really likes it. He is a gamer and came from the Note 4. Really likes the Razer and has had no issue to date.

Android 8.1 made a difference - smoother and quicker.

 

[dk001]

I thought it was a good useful comparison using more scientific method. If Apple are reading this forum maybe they'll increase DRAM in the next gen to alleviate app reloads. If it doesn't benefit you don't read it and move on. No need to add noise.

Only suggestion is the scoring switches back and forth between higher number being good vs higher number being bad. Maybe make it more consistent and noting it like the last section.

As you suggested, I took the last table in the original post and swapped it to reflect a higher score is the better score.
Thanks for the catch.

 

[dk001]

Update 04 May 2018 (also posted in OP)

iPhone X

• Continued use of FaceID has demonstrated no improvement or the ability for FaceID to learn and improve over time. In low light it continues to perform poorly with frequent failures.
• A new issue has come to light – Without the phone being unlocked, as long as the lockscreen is lit, touching any call displayed in lockscreen notifications dials that number. Butt dial is back baby.
  • Update – with help from @C DM , the issue was a setting in FaceID & Passcode. Even though I had “Return Missed Calls” off, it was behaving as if it was on. Cycled the setting and rebooted. That fixed the issue.

iPhone 8 Plus

• Nothing new

Razer

• Nothing new

 

[apolloa]

Update 04 May 2018 (also posted in OP)

iPhone X

• Continued use of FaceID has demonstrated no improvement or the ability for FaceID to learn and improve over time. In low light it continues to perform poorly with frequent failures.
• A new issue has come to light – Without the phone being unlocked, as long as the lockscreen is lit, touching any call displayed in lockscreen notifications dials that number. Butt dial is back baby.
  • Update – with help from @C DM , the issue was a setting in FaceID & Passcode. Even though I had “Return Missed Calls” off, it was behaving as if it was on. Cycled the setting and rebooted. That fixed the issue.

iPhone 8 Plus

• Nothing new

Razer

• Nothing new

Thanks for the update, keep it up

 

[dk001]

I have the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X for one more week then I have to give them back.

Will have a wrap up late next week or the following ...

 

[spinedoc77]

That Razer phone is a brick. I got to fondle and try one out at the store and didn't really like it much. If I'm going to carry a brick like that to play games I'll just get a small tablet like an ipad mini. What would really differentiate it would be incredible battery life, which from what I understand isn't the case. With that much brickiness, thickness, bezels, etc I would have expected it to have much better battery life, but it barely beats out the iPhone x https://www.phonearena.com/news/Raz...sults-a-bit-short-of-the-2-day-dream_id100481.

I'm still on hold for a "gaming" phone until we have truly foldable screens.

 

[dk001]

That Razer phone is a brick. I got to fondle and try one out at the store and didn't really like it much. If I'm going to carry a brick like that to play games I'll just get a small tablet like an ipad mini. What would really differentiate it would be incredible battery life, which from what I understand isn't the case. With that much brickiness, thickness, bezels, etc I would have expected it to have much better battery life, but it barely beats out the iPhone x https://www.phonearena.com/news/Raz...sults-a-bit-short-of-the-2-day-dream_id100481.

I'm still on hold for a "gaming" phone until we have truly foldable screens.

It is actually the same size as the iPhone 8+ but thicker. I understand that is due mainly to allow the heat to escape.
Yep - it is a brick. I have an in depth review in my signature if you are interested.
Battery life for me has been as good as or better than the iPhone.... If you leave the display on 120hz, it kills the battery. I found it was better to let the OS decide what to use.
The bezels are the stereo speakers - decent sound.

It is a trade off. I personally am looking forward to Gen 2 of this device.

 

[kazmac]

Excellent write-up @Rhonindk sounds like it's a toss up between the 8+ and Razer. Appreciate your more scientific approach to reviewing.

I am fine with my 7+ though. I still have 100% battery life after 14 months (I am not really a power user and keep it on low power mode for when I need to keep the WiFi and Celluar on). I may eventually update the iOS to 11.3.1, but right now it's working rather well and I'd like to keep it that way.

 

[dk001]

Update 08 May 2018

Been doing some playing around with Face ID trying to improve the response I get. Came across an interesting commonality: Most failures for me occur in low light and while laying down (bed, recliner, couch, etc..). I get more effective results if I am upright and the iPhone X is in a normal portrait position relative to my face. That can be in hand, on the charging stand, or laying flat on a surface.

Does Face ID have an issue with landscape or other non-normal portrait positions? My experience with it this weekend would say it does.

 

[Michael Goff]

Update 08 May 2018

Been doing some playing around with Face ID trying to improve the response I get. Came across an interesting commonality: Most failures for me occur in low light and while laying down (bed, recliner, couch, etc..). I get more effective results if I am upright and the iPhone X is in a normal portrait position relative to my face. That can be in hand, on the charging stand, or laying flat on a surface.

Does Face ID have an issue with landscape or other non-normal portrait positions? My experience with it this weekend would say it does.

FaceID doesn’t work in landscape at this point in time.

 

[dk001]

FaceID doesn’t work in landscape at this point in time.

Thanks!
Playing around I am finding at around 30 degrees from vertical (standard portrait) Face ID starts failing frequently. By 45 degrees from vertical I am see basically 100% fails. This quite likely accounts for the majority of my failures.

 

[Michael Goff]

Thanks!
Playing around I am finding at around 30 degrees from vertical (standard portrait) Face ID starts failing frequently. By 45 degrees from vertical I am see basically 100% fails. This quite likely accounts for the majority of my failures.

https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/07/iphone-x-plus-size-iphone-x-2-more/

It might be changing with iOS 12, though.

 

[dk001]

(I have added this post to the end of the OP)

Final Wrap Up

iPhone X
Overall I was pretty much satisfied with this device. It did not meet my expectations based on advertising and what I had read, seen, and listened to in reviews. It is a solid device and performs fairly well. I had no hardware failures and iOS 11.3.x worked well in most cases. Yes, the OS needs some help. Apple has a winner here if they up their game.

• Over time, I did not find that Face ID improved very little if at all. The inability to accurately use Face ID beyond about 30 degrees from vertical and the frequent failure in low light tells me this has some serious improvement room.
• Many concerns exist about the notch and I found it to affect predominately my use with the status bar information. More of an annoyance than a hindrance.
• The OLED screen was good but not great. Saw many other OEM screens (LG, Samsung, etc) where they looked better.
• The camera was good and is the best of all three I tested.
• Call quality was great including speakerphone however there were times when I had difficulty connecting in low signal areas. The X was the worst of the three.
• iOS 11 continues to be my biggest issue with this device.

iPhone 8 Plus
This was my favorite device from a hardware perspective. It was the best ergonomically. I expected a step up from the iPhone 7 Plus and was not disappointed. It met the expectations and while advertised as a step down from the iPhone X, I did not find that to be the case.

• I found Touch ID to be both faster and more accurate that Face ID. The only issue I ran into with Touch ID, were the occasions when Siri would launch when I was in the process of unlocking my phone.
• I did add a leather back to the device (used the one from my iPhone 7+ from Vaja) as I found the glass to be a bit slippery in hand.
• The LCD screen was touted as being inferior to the OLED on the X however the difference was not striking. Yes, the OLED was better yet not substantially to my eye.
• The camera was minimally improved over the iPhone 7 Plus and quite close to the iPhone X. Works great for everyday use.
• Call quality was great including speakerphone however there were times when I had difficulty connecting in low signal areas. While better than the X, I wonder what Apple did to cause this issue.
• iOS 11 continues to be my biggest issue with this device.

Razer
When I first bought this device (it is my current main driver) I was hopeful yet fearful. When Razer rolled out Android 8.1, I not had an Android phone that met my needs and performed as I expected. Dual front stereo speakers, a high quality LCD screen massive amounts of RAM, and a 120hz screen made for a device that was smooth, fast, accurate, and looked good. While many out there speak to the quality of Samsung Galaxy, LG, and other brands, this shows that there are a lot of good choices in the Android world.

• Touch ID (Razer’s version) on this device worked real close in quality and speed to Touch ID on the iPhone 8 Plus. Located on the side took a bit of getting used to but it worked well.
• A square brick of a device very close in size to the iPhone 8 Plus. It could use some softening of the hard edges and corners from an ergonomic perspective.
• Had the best battery life of the tested devices although the iPhone X and 8 Plus were not far off.
• The LCD display was the best of the 3 devices. Not only in color, but in smoothness and speed.
• The camera needs some work. As Razer continues to push out software updates it does improve but is not close to the iPhone. It is usable.
• Call and connection quality was the best of the devices. It could use a better microphone and I found that it trailed the iPhones.
• It does lack water resistance / proofing which is becoming the norm. In general use I had no issues in this area.
• Android 8.1 married to this device with the default NOVA launcher resulted in the smoothest and least bug issues of the test devices.

Overall I came away liking the Razer best and it will continue to be my daily driver. The iPhone 8 Plus was next. As I review this, it isn’t so much the hardware, rather the software that really sets these devices apart. iOS 11 (up to 11.3.1) continues to have issues that detract from the smooth daily use we have come to expect from our devices. They all have their quirks and standouts. It is the OS that currently sets them apart for me.

It has been fun, and annoying using them.