So, I had an hour to kill and went to the local Apple Store to test out the X, 7 Plus, 7, and SE, all side by side.
First off, I confirmed that Zoom Display mode just doesn’t exist for the X. The salesperson beside me was quite surprised to learn that, and was going through all the settings for several minutes before confirming that too. Second, my local Apple Store had significant stock left over of the X. The price was CAD$140 or something like that off, meaning about a US$100 discount. Also, as expected, I was told the XR will not be available for display until October's official launch.
For text quality at about ~12” distance, if I just used the 7 alone, it seemed fine with both Standard and Zoomed Display modes. However, when I placed the 7 next to the 7 Plus and X and looked for it I could see a mild softening of edges of some small text on the 7. I've mentioned this before that it can be hard to see at normal viewing distances, but nonetheless it is there and of course it becomes easier to see when you're specifically looking for it or you view it from up close. I’m pretty sure the XR will look like the 7 in this regard.
Then my attention turned to the X vs 7 Plus. For text clarity they were the same, but there was no proper Zoomed Display mode on the X which may make it a non-starter for some with presbyopia. (Everyone, if you don't have it now, there is a good chance you might get a bit of it by age 45 or so. It's just a normal change as your eyes age.) Also, it would appear that the colour calibration between the two models in that store was different, and yes I turned TruTone off. I preferred the tonal balance of the 7 Plus.
In that super bright store, it was impossible to assess true blacks properly. Blacks on both with the Wonder Woman trailer’s end credits simply looked great. I was very pleased with the blacks of the 7 Plus despite the fact I knew it should look way worse. (I have an OLED TV.) I’m sure if we had a dark room it’d be easy to differentiate the two but that environment was not available in an Apple Store. I'd probably have to swipe the phones and go hide in a closet to do proper testing of the black levels. I didn't.
For the camera, I really only tested Portrait Mode. To my disappointment, the X suffered the exact same problems as the iPhone 7 Plus in Portrait Mode. For the fake bokeh, the phones determine the edge of the foreground subject and then blur everything else around it. Unfortunately, quite frequently the 7 Plus "misses" and either blurs a thin rim of the subject, or even worse, very occasionally in a few cases on my 7 Plus it focally would keep a thin rim of background adjacent to the subject in focus, as if the subject had a super thin personal shield around it. You often won't notice this on a phone screen unless you're specifically looking for it, or if you zoom in on the picture, but it becomes obvious in some cases if you make prints, like a 4x6 or 5x7 photo print. If you take enough shots or use different conditions, you will get pictures that minimize this error, but it's really trial and error. And my trial of the iPhone X gave me the exact same issues. No discernible improvement in Portrait Mode over the 7 Plus, although I'll admit my testing was pretty limited. However, even so, I figured that if I'm seeing the exact same problem on even the very first shot I took, the Portrait Mode algorithm probably just hasn't been improved that much on the X. The Neural Engine has been vastly improved in the XS, and it is used for photos, so we'll see if the XS, Max, and XR improve this. I'm thinking for the bokeh, the slider is cool, but in the end I probably won't use it all that much. I have purchased several camera control apps for my various iPhones, and they are almost never used.
These are some of my main points and some additional comments:
1) If you're coming from a 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, SE, 6, 6s, 7, or 8 and think these phones look good for text, you'll be totally fine with the XR. As been reiterated again and again, screen size is irrelevant here. It's the pixel density that matters.
2) If you're coming from a 6 Plus, 7 Plus, 8 Plus, or X, you might be fine with the XR too but if you're a stickler for perfection in text display and have very good eyesight, or if you like to look at your phone up close, you may want to go with a Plus, XS, or XS Max.
3) Despite all the hooplah about new cameras each year, features like Portrait Mode that debuted years ago still have not been perfected in the X. The jury is out on the XS, Max, and XR, but my guess is they will still have problems. But I hold out hope the new Neural Engine maybe does improve things. Another reason to wait though.
4) In bright light I saw no advantage at all for the OLED screen. The Plus screen looked at least as good. This would likely not be true in the dark though.
IOW, my 2 year-old iPhone 7 Plus did very, very well against the X overall. I'd say the main problem with the 7 Plus are the forehead and thus lots of wasted space on the 7 Plus. However, I still liked having TouchID. What this means I've lost excitement in the Max, and given that I already have top notch text quality, I'm not really in need of an XR either. In the end, I'm still not really sure what I'll do, except wait. I may just hang onto my 7 Plus again, maybe. My wife really wants a new phone though to replace her 6s which has had a few issues, and she's perfectly happy with the text quality on that phone, so maybe I'll just get the XR for her, although in truth, a 7 Plus would be fine for her too.
Pricing in Canada of the various 414 point wide phones with more than 64 GB is as follows:
CAD$929: 7 Plus 128 GB
CAD$1159: 8 Plus 256 GB (There is no 128 GB model.) <--- This is more than the XR.
CAD$1099: XR 128 GB
CAD$1729: XS Max 256 GB (There is no 128 GB model.) <--- Seriously, WTF?!?
It seems the best bang for buck here for my wife is the XR 128 GB.
