Apple iPhone X first impressions: Five reasons to take this phone seriously

Apple iPhone X first impressions: From Face ID to new Portrait Lighting, top features to watch out in the anniversary special.

Apple iPhone X was clearly the star of the show at the Apple event on Tuesday. Even for those present, this $999-plus smartphone (Rs 89,000 in India) clearly held more appeal than the all-glass iPhone 8 series. But what sets this phone apart from the rest of the crowd? Here are five features that should make you take this phone seriously.

Edge-to-edge display: This is what sets the phone apart, especially among the phones to have come out of the Apple stables. The stunning screen blends into the camera panel on top and speaker grille at the bottom. The phone offers a 5.8-display in a smaller chassis like we are used to seeing with bezel-less phones.

Face ID: With Apple showing the home button the door in the iPhone X, the new Face ID feature has been brought in to take charge of unlocking the phone. Unlike Samsung which uses a Iris scanner, Apple maps the entire face of the user to unlock the phone. It’s one of the smoothest implementations of the technology and seems much more natural that using your fingerprints to unlock.

Front camera: This is the first Apple camera to be able to offer Portrait mode up front. That’s thanks to the front TrueDepth camera setup that powers the Face ID. The sensors give the front camera the depth that lets it create photos with diffused backgrounds. These could usher in the next big thing in selfies after the beauty mode.

Read more: Apple iPhone X is the new gold standard for smartphone industry, even Apple

Animoji: The TrueDepth camera lets Apple do something really fun in the form of emojis. In fact, Apple uses the sensor to transfer your emotion to emojis giving them life in the form of Animojis. It’s a fun new feature and really innovative as it lets you add voice too to the mix.

Apple iPhone X has a 5.8-inch OLED edge-to-edge display.

Wireless charging: Apple has adopted the Qi standard for wireless charging which has been around for many years, but never got widespread adoption. This is the best thing to have happened to wireless charging in general. For users, this means they will soon be able to buy a charging pad from an Apple partner like Belkin to drop their phone onto it for charging. With Apple coming in, there will be a long list of partners who back wireless charging across restaurants, airports, etc.

Disclaimer: The author is in San Jose, California at the invite of Apple.