The iPhone X is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple. It is part of the 11th generation of the iPhone, alongside the lower-end iPhone 8 and 8 Plus released two months prior. Available for pre-order from October 27, 2017, the iPhone X was released on November 3, 2017. The naming of the iPhone X – skipping the iPhone 9 – marked the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
The iPhone X uses a glass and stainless-steel form factor and bezel-less design, shrinking the bezels while not having a "chin". It was the first iPhone designed without a home button, a change that became standard on all future models. It was also the first iPhone to use an OLED screen, branded as a Super Retina HD display, one of the most advanced displays for its time. The previous Touch ID authentication, incorporated into the former home button design, was replaced with a new type of authentication called Face ID, which uses sensors to scan the user's face to unlock the device. These facial recognition capabilities also enabled emojis to be animated following the user's expression (Animoji). With a bezel-less design, iPhone user interaction changed significantly, using gestures instead of the traditional home button for navigation. Its price tag of US$999 for the 64 GB version in the United States also made it the most expensive iPhone ever at its launch, with even higher prices internationally.
Along with the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE (1st generation), the iPhone X was discontinued on September 12, 2018, following the announcement of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR devices.
History The technology behind the iPhone X was in development for five years, starting as far back as 2012. Rumors of a drastic iPhone redesign began circulating around the time of the iPhone 7 announcement in the third quarter of 2016, and intensified when a HomePod firmware leak in July 2017 suggested that Apple would shortly release a phone with a nearly bezel-less design, lack of a physical home button, facial recognition, and other new features. A near-final development version of the iOS 11 operating system was also leaked in September 2017, confirming the new design and features.
On August 31, 2017, Apple invited journalists to a September 12 press event, the first public event held at the Steve Jobs Theater on the company's new Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The iPhone X was unveiled during that keynote. Its US $999 starting price was the most expensive iPhone launch price ever at the time. The price is even higher in international markets due to currency fluctuations, import fees and sales taxes. An instrumental version of the song Keep On Lovin’ by Magnus The Magnus was used in the reveal of the device, and the song "Best Friend" by Sofi Tukker was featured in the introductory film and ads.
An unlocked version of the phone was made available for purchase in the United States on December 5, 2017.
In April 2018, the Federal Communications Commission divulged images of an unreleased gold-colored iPhone X model. As opposed to the space gray and silver color options that the iPhone X ships with, it was discovered that there were initial plans to release a gold option for the device. However, it was put on hold due to production issues. The successors of the iPhone X, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, included a Gold color option, in addition to the Silver and Space Gray featured on the iPhone X.
Apple released a revised B model for the iPhone X that fixed NFC issues for users in Japan, China, and the United States.
Design
Color Name Silver Space Gray
Hardware
The iPhone X has a 5.85 inch (marketed as 5.8 inch) OLED color-accurate screen that supports DCI-P3 wide color gamut, sRGB, and high dynamic range, and has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. The idea for an all-display smartphone was famously presented by Apple's hardware design team in a meeting, where Tim Cook said "Can we do this?" He also proposed the name "Super Retina Display" instead of the previous "Retina Display".
The Super Retina display has the True Tone technology found on the iPad Pro, which uses ambient light sensors to adapt the display's white balance to the surrounding ambient light.
The iPhone X doubles the touch sampling rate of previous models, from 60 Hz to 120 Hz. However, it does not feature the variable 10–120 Hz ProMotion technology used in the displays of the second-generation iPad Pro released the same year. OLED screen technology has a known negative trend of "burn-in" effects, in which particular elements that are consistently on the screen for long periods of time leave a faint trace even after new images appear. Apple acknowledged that its OLED screens were not excluded from this issue, writing in a support document that "This is also expected behavior".
Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of product marketing, told Tom's Guide that the OLED panels Apple used in the iPhone X had been engineered to avoid the over-saturation of colors that using OLED panels typically results in, having made color adjustments and subpixel-level refinements for crisp lines and round corners. For out-of-warranty servicing for damages not relating to manufacturing defects, screen repairs of the iPhone X cost US$279, while other damage repairs cost US$549.
Color options The iPhone X has two color options: silver and space gray. The sides of the phone are composed of surgical-grade stainless steel to improve durability, and the front and back are made of glass. The design is intended to be IP67 water and dust resistant.
Chipsets The iPhone X contains Apple's A11 Bionic SoC, (system-on-chip) also used in the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, produced by TSMC, and is a six-core processor with two cores optimized for performance (25% faster than the A10 Fusion processor), along with four cores optimized for efficiency (70% faster than the previous generation). It also features the first Apple-designed graphics processing unit and a Neural Engine, which powers an artificial intelligence accelerator.
Biometric authentication Face ID replaces the Touch ID authentication system. The facial recognition sensor consists of two parts: a dot projector module that projects more than 30,000 infrared dots onto the user's face, and an infrared camera module that reads the pattern. The pattern is sent to the Secure Enclave in the A11 Bionic chip to confirm a match with the phone owner's face. By default, the system will not work with eyes closed, in an effort to prevent unauthorized access but this requirement can be disabled in settings.
Cameras The iPhone X has two cameras on the rear. One is a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera with f/1.8 aperture, with support for face detection, high dynamic range and optical image stabilization. It is capable of capturing 4K video at 24, 30 or 60 frames per second, or 1080p video at 30, 60, 120 or 240 frames per second. A secondary, telephoto lens features 2× optical zoom and 10× digital zoom with an aperture of f/2.4 and optical image stabilization. A Portrait Mode is capable of producing photos with specific depth-of-field and lighting effects. It also has a quad-LED True Tone flash with 2× better light uniformity. Still photos with 6.5 megapixels (3412×1920) can be captured during video recording. iOS 12/13 for the iPhone X did not include Smart HDR or Night Mode, which were kept exclusive to the new iPhone XS/iPhone 11. However, third-party apps brought similar features.
Front camera On the front of the phone, a 7-megapixel TrueDepth camera has an f/2.2 aperture, and features face detection and HDR. It can capture 1080p video at 30 frames per second, 720p video at 240 frames per second, and exclusively allows for the use of Animoji; animated emojis placed on top of the user's face that intelligently react to the user's facial expressions.
Mono audio Criticism has been aimed at video footage being recorded with monaural audio (only one audio channel), and at a low bit rate of 96 kbit/s, while earlier mobile phones by competing vendors have been recording with stereo audio (two audio channels for spatiality) and higher bit rates, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Sony Xperia S, both unveiled in 2012.
Others The iPhone X is the first iPhone to feature Tap to Wake.
Wireless charging The iPhone X also supports the Qi standard of wireless charging. In tests conducted by MacRumors, the iPhone X's charging speeds vary significantly depending on what types of cables, powerbanks, adapters, or wireless chargers are used.
Software
Due to its different screen layout, iOS developers are required to update their apps to make full use of the additional screen real estate. Such changes include rounded corners, the sensor "notch" at the top of the screen, and an indicator area at the bottom for accessing the home screen. Apple published a "Human Interface Guidelines" document to explain areas of focus, and discouraged developers from attempting to mask or call special attention to any of the new changes. Additionally, text within the app needs to be configured to properly reference Face ID rather than Touch ID where the authentication technology is used on the iPhone X. In anticipation of the release of the phone, most major apps were quickly updated to support the new changes brought by the iPhone X, though the required changes did cause delayed app updates for some major apps.
The traditional home button, found on all previous devices in the iPhone lineup, has been removed entirely, replaced by touch-based gestures. To wake up the device, users can tap the display or use the side button; to access the home screen, users must swipe up from the bottom of the display; and to access the multitasking window, users must swipe up similarly to the method of accessing the home screen, but stop while the finger is in the middle of the screen, causing an app carousel to appear.
The iPhone X shipped with iOS 11, and supports iOS 12, iOS 13, iOS 14, iOS 15, and iOS 16. The iPhone X does not support iOS 17 and higher, purportedly due to hardware limitations.
Reception General reviews
The iPhone X received positive reviews. Its display and build quality were strongly praised, and the camera also scored positively on tests. However, the sensor housing "notch" at the top of the screen and the introduction of an all-new authentication method were polarizing for critics and consumers. The notch was heavily mocked by users on social media, although app developers responded either neutrally or positively to the changes it brought to the user experience in their apps and games. Face ID facial recognition was praised for its simple setup, but criticized for requiring direct eyes on the screen, though that option can be disabled within the system preferences.
The iPhone X's rear camera received an overall rating of 97 from DxOMark, a camera testing company – just behind Google's Pixel 2, which received 98 and short of the highest score of 99, awarded to Samsung's Galaxy S9+ smartphone. Consumer Reports, a non-profit, independent organization aiming to write impartial reviews of consumer products, ranked the iPhone X below the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, as well as below Samsung's Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8, due to less durability and shorter battery life, although it praised the X's camera as "the highest-rated smartphone camera" it had ever tested.