So Apple rolled the dice with the iPhone X this year. It adopted technologies that have been requested for years, but put them in a design that is . . . polarizing. To put it mildly. The iPhone has looked like "the iPhone" for years, but on the handset's tenth anniversary Apple decided to ditch the familiar and adopt a more webOS-like inspiration.
The results, as is the case with every piece of personal technology, depend on the user.
When using the iPhone X, I really like it. The gestures are now muscle memory at this point, and I don't miss the Home button at all. At least, not when it comes to pressing it and getting out of an app, or accessing the multitasking function. So in that area I think Apple did a good job.
I'm still on the fence with the notch, to be honest. I honestly don't realize it's there more often than not, which is why I don't hate it. However, when I'm watching content, I really don't like it. Even just looking at pictures is weird now. I really don't understand why Apple had to choose aesthetics over function in this one regard.
(Please don't adopt the notch design on the iPad lineup. Please.)
The other new thing is Face ID, Apple's go-to biometric security measure made possible with the TrueDepth camera system on the front of the iPhone X (which is also new). This feature ousted Touch ID, and now, more than a month after the iPhone X launched, I can honestly say that I still miss Touch ID.
That isn't to say that Face ID is bad, or that it doesn't work. Neither of those things are true. Face ID is technically great and, in my experience, it works ridiculously well. Unlocking your phone in cold weather has never been easier. But, there are some instances where I've wished I had Touch ID to access my phone.
When I'm using Face ID to authenticate an Apple Pay purchase, for example. It's quick and easy! But I've had a couple of moments where I've had to look somewhere else, either at the person selling me whatever I'm buying or something else, and it hangs up the whole process because I wasn't paying attention to my phone.
This sort of thing has happened in other instances, too. Just talking with friends, trying to make eye contact with them so I'm not being rude while they talk to me, but unlocking my phone to check on something isn't possible. (I really need to just wait, but oh well.) Giving your phone your full attention is usually fine, but there are some cases when you just need to glance somewhere else, and in that case using your fingerprint to unlock your phone would work pretty well!
I say all of that, but I honestly don't want to see Apple get rid of Face ID at all, even if it meant Touch ID could make a comeback. I really just want both biometric security measures in place. Not only would that make the device more secure, especially with layered security (one doesn't work, the other used as a backup), but it just gives the user options for how they can unlock their phone.
That's a future that probably won't happen, so I've just got to start changing some habits, and hoping I don't have to look away from my phone at the wrong time. I imagine the former will happen eventually, just as I've learned the iOS gestures tied to the iPhone X. But the latter might be a bit more difficult, considering how random it is.
In any event, if you have an iPhone X, I want to know how well you've adopted Face ID by this point. Is it one of your new favorite features for the iPhone lineup? Or do you wish you could have Touch ID back? Let me know!
