iPhone X First Impressions: If it Works!

I know, I know, this is a website about cars and the new iPhone X is certainly no car: it’ll only do 0-60 if you can throw it hard enough. However, while I am not fortunate enough to be upgrading to the new handset, I am friends with someone who managed to get their hands on aa 256gb Space Grey iPhone X. Even more fortunately, he doesn’t mind me hovering over his shoulder snapping pictures, and stealing it here and there to mess with it and get an impression of it. Or, that was the plan at least. I own a 32gb iPhone 7, and I love it, and am approaching the new iPhone X with that as my benchmark.

To put it simply, he didn’t even have to fully take it out of the box for me to realize I wanted it. Based on aesthetics alone, this is a hugely desirable addition to the iPhone lineup. Removing the bezel—for the most part, as the new face-scanning camera is surrounded by a small black bezel at the top—increases the ‘specialness’ that separates iPhone’s from other competitors. The new glass black, a feature I was hesitant about, does look fantastic. Fingerprints do show themselves on the glass, yet so far disappear quickly. Whether the shininess and blemish-free nature of the back remains as such after a few weeks of the ‘in-out’ cycle of a pocket, remains to be seen. What also remains to be seen, and what many people are hesitant about, is the sturdiness of the glass back, and the cost of replacing one when it eventually breaks. Judgement will have to be reserved until cases of broken backs start appearing.

The box contained the normal headset, charging cable, and instruction book, and upon pulling the phone out and turning it on, a new startup sequence begins. Previously, setting up a new iPhone consisted of remembering passwords and waiting for downloads; however, Apple has streamlined the process for their new phone. Owners of previous iPhone’s—which will be many purchasers of the iPhone X—simply have to place their current phone next to the new unit when prompted, and the following process happens:

Assumedly, this is instigated by the NFC chip utilized by Apple Pay, perhaps a sign that Apple is starting to unlock further features of the chip. A unique image is generated on the new phone, and the old one scans it with its camera. This starts the set-up process on the new iPhone X, with the only required information being the old iPhone’s PIN and the owners Social Security Number—presumably it is different throughout the globe. Once this is done, the normal “Hello, Hola, etc.” screen appears, as shown in the earlier image above.

After this, I am not actually sure what happens. Our particular iPhone X appears to be borked, straight out of the box. Clicking on any part of the screen only has the text displayed read to you. Strangely, during this process we managed to call our emergency services, with the call connecting. After quickly exclaiming an explanation and remarkably ending the call, the process began again.

And again. And again.

In fact, that is where the setup is still stuck at. It seems that this problem may be down to the servers, which are surely overloaded from activations, as other users have reported similar issues. While I will update the story as any developments occur, I for one am not holding my breath.

Edit: He got through! Setting up FaceID was really cool. Keep on trying if you are stuck.