So I figure why not give a review after two days with this phone. Although there’s a lot of features I’m still getting used to, I think I have the hang of it.
Let’s start with the important stuff first; the looks!
Well it looks just like any other smartphone on the market. A black square with whatever color the back casing might be. In my case, I have the silver one. I welcome the return of the glass back, and without the regulatory writing (you know all that “do not throw in the landfill”, CE and all that small print), it looks much cleaner with just the familiar bitten Apple logo that brings either happiness or extreme hate depending on who you are. With the screen on, you get a nice stock beach picture that shows off the beautiful OLED screen.
Overall feel:
The phone feels good when you hold it. It has this sturdy feel mostly because of its stainless steel frame, but at the same time it feels extremely slippery and fragile. I had to get a case right away, the phone is like 95% glass! If you’re used to smaller phones, like a non plus iPhone, then this doesn’t feel that much bigger. If you come from something like a iPhone 5 or SE, then this will probably feel like a tablet, but I bet you’ll forget about it once you get treated to the much bigger screen. I got used to the extra bulk on my hands almost right away. The buttons feel like previous iPhones sans the home button, nothing new here.
Overall phone user interface:
Ok so the biggest change here besides the nearly bezel-less OLED screen, is the lack of a home button with fingerprint scanner. It truly changes most of the experience and although it’s a bit quirky at first, (I kept trying to hit a phantom home button for most of my first day) it does become second nature. To unlock the phone, it recognizes your face, and it’s pretty neat! I could be wearing a hat and shades, and it still recognizes my face. That’s pretty cool because all you have to do is look at the phone. Since this feature replaces the fingerprint scanner, that means your face is its security measure when it comes to using Apple Pay, or just buying from the App Store. Other user interface changes is now you swipe up to open your phone, and the control center comes from swiping the top right corner down. Again tricky at first, but very seamless once you get used to it.
Camera:
The camera takes beautiful pictures, and I’m very happy that Apple fitted the dual cameras in a landscape orientation instead of a portrait orientation like the iPhone 7 and 8 plus. This camera takes very nice pictures at 12MP, and it shoots 4K video at 60fps, and all-mo at 1080p 240fps. If you use those settings, you’ll eat up 400MB of storage for each minute! I have yet to see exactly what this camera is capable of.
Battery life:
If there’s a disappointment, then it’s definitely its battery life. Apple hyped this to be the best battery life of any iPhone. They even went through the trouble of installing a two-cell battery that has more amperage than a 8 plus battery. The end result is that battery life isn’t any better than other iPhones. I guess all that extra juice was needed for the OLED screen. Again, it’s not that the battery life is bad, it’s just not exactly as advertised.
Overall, I’m very pleased with this phone, even if it set me back over $1000. The display is just beautiful, the interface is seamless, and it’s fast, very fast! A great upgrade from a 6S!
Here’s some pics: one is side by side with a 6S, and the rest some sushi, and a random rainbow from the car.
