Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone X iPhone X: The five worst features in Apple's best phone
- Thread starter maflynn
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Possibly (I'm a woman), I don't wear makeup all the time but I do change my hairstyle a lot. But funny thing is, it works during the day with maybe a 10% fail rate. But first thing in the morning, NO GO. I don't even bother taking it off the cradle until its time to put it in my purse. TouchID wasn't failproof either, but I only had failures once a blue moon not every day.
LOL...Totally Agree.
This. So this
I am a fan of FaceID. It's great when it works, and for me that's about 80 percent of the time. FaceID will only get better, just as TouchID did.
The marketing video literally shows some girl at the pool with the phone flat and the dots on her face.
I don’t have. I tried an iPhone X multiple times though and it is not as intuitive as it would be with a home button. Of course this is my idea only.
Yes, aesthetic over functionality. I get it.
Yes, current Face ID is still first gen, and Touch ID first gen didn’t work out well either. Let me see if second gen works better. If not, then *cough*.
Or play full screen landscape game. Notch will be there, obstructing view and sometimes game control.
My top 5....
1. Have to lift the phone to unlock off a table. Hovering my face over the screen is awkward.
2. No battery percentage in status bar.
3. Watching videos on YouTube in landscape. Either use full screen & cut off top of video or have black bars on the sides.
4. Face ID sucks when trying to unlock your phone while driving.
5. The most important one - It's far too expensive.
Edit - Forgot one more. Accessing control center in the top right corner sucks.
1. Have to lift the phone to unlock off a table. Hovering my face over the screen is awkward.
2. No battery percentage in status bar.
3. Watching videos on YouTube in landscape. Either use full screen & cut off top of video or have black bars on the sides.
4. Face ID sucks when trying to unlock your phone while driving.
5. The most important one - It's far too expensive.
Edit - Forgot one more. Accessing control center in the top right corner sucks.
Last edited:
If I were to have the iPhone X, my main complaints would be:
- no persistent indicator on lock/home screen of DND mode
- having to initiate control center from the top right
- reachability doesn't seem to work reliably
- portrait/studio lighting mode are picky (background is too far? I got this from many demo units I tried, many times).
Apple better keep the UI smooth for X owners moving forward. The many gestures relies on smooth UI transitions for it to feel great. Once the UI lags, it will really suck big time.
- no persistent indicator on lock/home screen of DND mode
- having to initiate control center from the top right
- reachability doesn't seem to work reliably
- portrait/studio lighting mode are picky (background is too far? I got this from many demo units I tried, many times).
Apple better keep the UI smooth for X owners moving forward. The many gestures relies on smooth UI transitions for it to feel great. Once the UI lags, it will really suck big time.
I disagree with 4 of their 5:
1. Face ID - works brilliantly for me, far less failures than Touch ID and so convenient within apps like my banking app, my password app, etc. I suspect that people didn't set it up right at the beginning (two passes, each at a different angle) or after a fail (important to put in your passcode and not re-try facial recognition after a failed attempt).Ba
2. Battery Life - I have no idea what they are talking about in the article, I am up at 7AM, home at 7PM, and have 81% battery left at the end of the day. On my iPhone 6, I used to get home with 30% if I was lucky. Battery life is the X's best feature.
3. Map Button - no idea what the fuss is about, you slide your thumb up half way and that's that. Sounds like the author needs a refresher on how the app switcher works on the X.
4. Need Training Before Using - welcome to progress, it's just the way it is, and it takes all of 20 minutes to understand the new gestures.
The only thing they are right about in the article is:
5. Lack Of Homescreen Indicators - I agree Apple needs to figure out a way to put the Alarm and DND icons back on the top bar as there is no way to know if your Alarm or DND mode are on/off without swiping down into Control Center. It's annoying.
If these are the only nitpicks about the iPhone X, go iPhone X. Great job with such a revolutionary new device.
1. Face ID - works brilliantly for me, far less failures than Touch ID and so convenient within apps like my banking app, my password app, etc. I suspect that people didn't set it up right at the beginning (two passes, each at a different angle) or after a fail (important to put in your passcode and not re-try facial recognition after a failed attempt).Ba
2. Battery Life - I have no idea what they are talking about in the article, I am up at 7AM, home at 7PM, and have 81% battery left at the end of the day. On my iPhone 6, I used to get home with 30% if I was lucky. Battery life is the X's best feature.
3. Map Button - no idea what the fuss is about, you slide your thumb up half way and that's that. Sounds like the author needs a refresher on how the app switcher works on the X.
4. Need Training Before Using - welcome to progress, it's just the way it is, and it takes all of 20 minutes to understand the new gestures.
The only thing they are right about in the article is:
5. Lack Of Homescreen Indicators - I agree Apple needs to figure out a way to put the Alarm and DND icons back on the top bar as there is no way to know if your Alarm or DND mode are on/off without swiping down into Control Center. It's annoying.
If these are the only nitpicks about the iPhone X, go iPhone X. Great job with such a revolutionary new device.
Face ID retry - hold it horizontal and then bring it back vertical. Works for me every time should I get a miss the first time.
Everything else in the article appears to be a person who hasn't bothered to learn how to use their device (maps back to app for example - simple, swipe right along the bottom to go back - simple), and is just whining about it.
Unfortunately, all too often (I am in I.T.), the issue is people not bothering how to use their device.
Everything else in the article appears to be a person who hasn't bothered to learn how to use their device (maps back to app for example - simple, swipe right along the bottom to go back - simple), and is just whining about it.
Unfortunately, all too often (I am in I.T.), the issue is people not bothering how to use their device.
I wrote to hold the phone horizontally and then bring it back vertically. It redoes the Face ID authentication, so vertical - fails, go horizontal, then back vertical, it retries.
I'm askign regardless if it failed or not. I'm asking if I hold the X horizontally, will FaceID work?
Sorry, my mistake. Horizontal works if you are looking down at the phone. If my phone is on my desk, I look at it and it opens. It has learned and I do not need to be right over it any more.
*off-topic*
Dude, are you on some posting marathon? 11 replies in 11 mins. I thought the forums were being spammed for a moment.
The gestures aren't difficult at all. Swipe up? We can't manage that? Swipe and hold? Seems pretty simple. Swipe down? I think we are good. It only takes a few minutes and how else do you expect them to add features without adding some degree of complexity to the phone? What are your better suggestions for the gestures?
[doublepost=1517331332][/doublepost]
The examples you mention are situations where we already know Face ID won't work. We aren't sitting here over and over trying to get it to work in landscape and then claiming this is a failure on Apple's part. That's ridiculous. Now is Face ID perfect? No, but it has been working for me in the majority of situations, aside from when I know it won't (too close to the face, landscape, etc.). Those situations will likely be remedied in the next version.
Phone started running hot on a regular basis doing even small tasks, battery life was good in the beginning but started to be a problem and Face ID was very hit or miss. It's the first iPhone I've ever owned that got progressively worse over time.
For the most part, I disagree with the author:
1. Face ID - For me, it works the majority of the time. If it's not working, it's because my face is too close to the camera.
2. Battery life - Two months in, battery life has been pretty great for me.
3. Maps navigation shortcut - non-issue for me
4. Alarm - Yes, it would be nice to know that my alarm is on, but very rarely do I turn it off anyway. So again, another non-issue for me.
Just my own opinion. I'm sure it doesn't apply to everyone.
1. Face ID - For me, it works the majority of the time. If it's not working, it's because my face is too close to the camera.
2. Battery life - Two months in, battery life has been pretty great for me.
3. Maps navigation shortcut - non-issue for me
4. Alarm - Yes, it would be nice to know that my alarm is on, but very rarely do I turn it off anyway. So again, another non-issue for me.
Just my own opinion. I'm sure it doesn't apply to everyone.
One of the interesting things about using the iPhone X vs reading about it is that some things I worried about ended up being non-issues for me, and some features I didn't think I cared much about ended up being nicer than expected.
- I never thought about the DND mode, but I wear an Apple Watch and control that from there. I also tend to run DND on a schedule anyway, but sometimes I invoke it during the day. The Apple Watch displays a little moon at the top when you have it enabled. You'd think the iPhone X would do the same. The left side of the notch on my lock screen just displays AT&T. Why do I need a reminder about which network I'm on? It's not the same as the signal bar indicator (which is on the other side of the notch along with battery and Wifi signal indicator). Even with the big AT&T logo, there is room fora moon in that space.
- Accessing control center from upper right hasn't bothered me as much as I expected, but it's not ideal if you are someone who is in and out of control center a lot. Reachability makes it easy to access one-handed, even with my left hand.
- Reachability is totally reliable on the X. It took me a few attempts on my first day with the iPhone X to learn the gesture. Now I am able to activate reachability every time. I use it a lot more than I did on my iPhone 6, because the little bit of added height makes it more useful to me.
- Portrait Studio Lightng mode: It's the same feature as what is on the 8+, except that the X offers it on the selfie camera as well. I'm a photographer, so I have played with these features a lot. Portrait mode works really well, but it's not a macro mode. In my experience the distance to subject requirement can vary by subject and background. I can get to work from less than 3 feet with some subjects, but you wouldn't want to shoot a portrait of a person from that close anyway. Putting more distance between camera and subject will result in a more flattering perspective. Real camera lenses have minimum focus distances as well. My standard f/2.8 zoom can focus quite close (14 inches I think?), while my f/2.8 telephoto zoom requires at least 5 feet of distance to focus. Prime lenses designed for portraits typically have a minimum focus distance of close to 3 feet, but at that distance you will probably fill the frame with someone's eye. Again they are designed with a more flattering working distance in mind.
- My observation is that Apple has the most consistently realistic looking portrait mode, and it is very good. It does have its limits though, and I wouldn't make it the default shooting mode. Portrait Lighting (Beta) is more hit or miss. I'd say Natural Light, Studio Light, and Contour Light work well, but Stage Lighting (color & B&W) results can vary. Stage lighting can end up looking like bad Photoshop, but when it works it can produce dramatic results. It's worth trying out, but stage lighting definitely puts the beta into the Portrait Lighting suite. I think the dot projector helps when you use stage lighting in beta mode, but it still struggles with transitions around hair.
I've had an occasional third party app go bonkers on me with previous iPhones and cause those kinds of symptoms. Removing the app (or updating it) has always resolved the issue. So far I haven't experienced any issues like that on the X (knock on wood) and FaceID has been reliable for me. I even prefer FaceID (still use TouchID every day on my iPad).
Last edited:
Having had both the X and the Pixel 2 XL, the Pixel has superior portrait mode in my experience. I have a post somewhere on the site (if I can find it) ... my cat was the subject. I could NEVER get a good portrait photo of my tabby cat with the X. The iPhone was getting confused by the fur patterns and what it should and should not blur and they just generally looked terrible. I got much much better results on the Pixel. Not that the X doesn't do a generally great job with human subjects. I just personally prefer the way the Pixel handles them.
Edit: found it. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ill-better-than-iphone.2087495/#post-25682615
Last edited:
I would agree that the Pixel 2 did a better job in those examples... mostly because it seemed to handle the high contrast back-lit situation better. The Pixel 2 had brighter and more detailed shadows without blowing the background highlights as much. That's pretty consistent with other comparisons I have seen. The PIxel 2's HDR+ mode seems to deliver the best dynamic range in the current crop of smartphone cameras. I've seen other reviews where the Pixel 2 had some weird transitions when portrait mode was used for a person against a busy background. Since I'm a photographer I spent a lot of time comparing online examples from the latest flagship phones. From the examples I saw the iPhones seemed to have more consistently realistic looking portrait "fauxkeh," but in most cases all the latest flagship phones did well and it mostly came down to subjective preferences.
That's a beautify kitty!