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However, worries that the iPhone X
will be always ‘watching’ and passively
gathering data receded a little with the
reveal that a ‘proximity sensor’ appears
to be a key part of this mechanism.”
Russ Ernst,
mobile diagnostics expert,
Blancco Technology Group
“Apple puts a lot of thought into
designing their products and decisions
like removing the headset jack are
made from a long-term view. As more
and more people go towards wireless
headsets, there will not be any need
for wired ones. The cost of wireless
headsets will continue to drop as
technology becomes mainstream.We
can view this tech shift as being like
the move from floppy disks to CDs to
USB/memory cards. The older is always
sacrificed for a better, new technology.”
Dave Millett, Equinox
“I, personally, would not spend £1,000
on a mobile, especially when the gains
over previous models are not that great.
Facial recognition sounds good but I
have it on my Surface and it doesn’t
always work, notably in bright sunlight.
Also, what about users whose religion
requires their face to be covered? The
Samsung 8 seems to offer much the
same functionality for a much lower
price. I think Apple is charging a massive
premium for the brand.
“If I was a business owner and had
£1,000 to spend on telecoms would I
spend it on a new device when good
quality phones are available for several
hundred? I could get 3 years of VOIP
service or 2 years of fibre broadband for
the same amount.”
We asked smartphone experts to give the
iPhone X a rating from 1 to 10 and then
worked out the average score
In September, Apple announced the iPhone X,
which the company describes as ‘the future of the
smartphone’.
Launched to mark the tenth anniversary of the first
iPhone, the £1,000 phone features an all-glass front and
back, with stainless steel band; a 5.8 inch Super Retina
display; an improved rear camera with dual optical image
stabilisation; and wireless charging. The home button has
been replaced – users now swipe up from the bottom
instead; the headphone jack has not been reinstated; and
there is a facial recognition system, Face ID, for unlocking
the phone, gaining access to secure apps and using
Apple Pay.
We asked experts to give the iPhone X an overall
rating based on its innovation, value, customer benefit,
design and market impact. The barometer above
shows the average score. Here, we publish some of the
comments we received.
Barometer:
iPhone X
Dan Bladen,
CEO of the Intel-funded
wireless charging solution
, Chargifi
“The iPhone X is a catalyst for driving
the mass deployment of wireless
charging.What WiFi did for connectivity,
wireless charging is about to do for
power. Although there are already a
number of devices integrating wireless
charging in the market, when Apple does
something the rest of the world sits up
and takes notice, and their competitors
generally follow.
“Today’s consumers crave
convenience, as well as an effortless
experience, and wireless charging is
now set to become the new standard
for charging our devices. Power remains
the basis for everything we do with our
devices, but its cumbersome, highly
inconvenient power cable does not.
Carrying around a mobile charger will
soon seem as outdated as having to
connect an ethernet cable to get onto
the internet.”
Simon Migliano,
Head of Research
,
Top10VPN.com
“Apple has clearly thought through
each privacy and security issue and
has created such a highly sophisticated
system involving seven sensors
and machine learning algorithms
that previous fears about using a
stolen Instagram selfie to fool facial
recognition are now laughable.
“The ‘secure enclave’ used to store
the detailed mathematical model
of your face is highly regarded in
cybersecurity circles. All processing is
on-device only, allaying concerns about
doing it in the cloud.
“Anyone thinking of buying an
iPhone X should always make sure they
carefully read the new privacy policy
terms for full details of how this data is
stored and used. They should also look
out for more information about the
always-on aspect required for the device
to detect when you want to unlock it.
Dan Bladen
Dave Millett
6.7
