Having a case on the iPhone X is essential, both for feeling secure and for knowing which side is which. With no bezels, no home button and glass on both sides, it\u2019s not easy to know how to orient the thing just pulling out of your pocket. Setting aside, of course, the fact that it\u2019s glass on both sides and dense and heavy and will smash into a bajillion pieces if dropped. The flip side, of course, is any case makes it even thicker and wider, and it was already too thick and too wide. As with the iPhone 6 before it, I chose Apple\u2019s own leather case, because it\u2019s not too thick and slides out of the pocket more easily than silicone.<\/p>\n
And unless you live in the Fog Belt, you don\u2019t need a jacket in the Bay Area before Nov 1. So the timing was perfect. But I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do after Valentines Day, because this is a purse or jacket device. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna work out too good in the front pocket. Just have to learn to live with it. It\u2019s also a two-handed phone; there is simply no way to use this thing one-handed in the non-dominant hand. At least some of the controls are migrating to the bottom half so that it\u2019s easier to use (although the two top swipes for notifications and controls are a royal PITA, they move down with the accessibility double tap) but there are still applications that don\u2019t work quite right with the modified screen shape (looking at you, Insta).<\/p>\n
Speaking of, I spent years clamoring for a percentage counter on the battery, but in a way I\u2019m glad it\u2019s not there just because maybe I won\u2019t obsess over it quite so much. The placement of what\u2019s in the \u201chorns\u201d of the display makes good sense for now, but something about the clock looks a little off. Once you get past that, though, there\u2019s no getting around it: the screen is gorgeous. I don\u2019t know how I\u2019ll ever go back to non-AMOLED; the sharpness and contrast are that much further beyond the Retina display of the SE as it was beyond the 3G. And the size really hits home with every app opened, esp once they are upgraded to meet the standard. There\u2019s still something almost fake about it, though: when the screen is lit up white and you can see the notch and the rounded corners, it looks more than ever like something someone else might have mocked up as a future iPhone design. That\u2019s not necessarily a compliment. It will still take some getting used to.<\/p>\n
I did go out and buy a USB-C to Lightning cable for use with my MacBook Pro charger. In a pinch, I\u2019ll be able to jet this thing from 20% to 80% battery in a little over a half hour. Allegedly. I don\u2019t know how good for the battery that sort of thing is, but then, I don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll be able to test wireless charging anytime soon (I\u2019m not buying a mat, my car apparently doesn\u2019t support quite this flavor of Qi, and I haven\u2019t heard of a single Starbucks upgraded to support Qi yet, sooooo who knows).<\/p>\n
But so far, I haven\u2019t run back to the SE, or pulled out the iPad, or taken the Kindle to bed to read. Four days in, one-thing-to-rule-them-all is broadly feasible. We\u2019ll see how it holds up once I start seriously torture-testing the battery life. Or taking it on a plane again. Or trying to get by all day in the city. Come to think of it, I really need to be getting on with my life. Of which.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having a case on the iPhone X is essential, both for feeling secure and for knowing which side is which. With no bezels, no home button and glass on both sides, it\u2019s not easy to know how to orient the thing just pulling out of your pocket. Setting aside, of course, the fact that it\u2019s … <\/p>\n