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A review of the iPhone X and Face ID

I treated myself to the new iPhone X this new year after my old iPhone 6 came to an early demise (more on that later!). I have to say that so far I think it’s really awesome, so I just thought I would share some of the great features it’s got with you from my personal perspective.

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My favourite thing is Face ID, it’s actually making my life easier! Aside from not having to get my thumb in the right place, this evening I wanted to order something from Amazon so I went online on my phone, but then remembered I might have a problem. Due to a rather unfortunate incident at Christmas involving the toilet and my previous iPhone, I had lost 2 years' worth of data and wasn’t sure whether I could actually remember my Amazon password!

I had set up Face ID when I set up the X, so as I sat there looking at my phone trying to remember what my Amazon password was, the Face ID icon popped up, recognised me and put my password in, apparently from my iCloud keychain. Just wow! I didn’t even need to remember my password; now all I need to remember is my Apple ID and combined with Face ID I just have to look at my phone.

One of my other favourite features is being able to wake Siri up without pressing any buttons or touching your phone at all. You just have to say “Hey Siri” and she wakes up! This is fantastic, particularly in the car because I just have to say “Hey Siri, play my so-and-so playlist” and she does.

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The camera is fantastic too, I took some very basic shots of my son using the new portrait feature which lets you select natural, stage or studio light. I’m still playing around to see what works best but I’ve got some really nice shots so far.

This is my son Toby, admittedly pulling a rather silly face, but the lighting on the subject of the photo is lovely and really stands out sharply against the soft focus of the background - a big improvement on the iPhone 6's camera for sure.

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Here's the DesignSpark section of the RS Components' truck, Titan II, taken at the Bett Show last week:

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And, finally, a panoramic shot of Colossus at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park which I popped in to visit on a recent STEM Ambassador event:

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I have to admit, I was a bit worried about Face ID to start with; I thought what if I haven’t got make-up on, or I put my glasses on, or have my hair up. However, so far, so good, it seems to recognise me regardless of all those things. I wondered what would happen as I get older - would it still recognise me as I age? But I figure I will need a new device in a couple of years' time and will have to scan my face again so that shouldn’t be a problem - hopefully, I won’t age too drastically in the next two years!

So, a couple of weeks into using the iPhone X, I really like it. It was expensive and definitely a treat though! I justified it to myself having gone for the cheaper iPhone 6 last time I upgraded which left me disappointed and feeling out of date for the last 2 years. So, I’ll see how it goes and if I find any more new features that blow me away, like my Amazon purchasing experience tonight, I’ll report back.

DesignSpark Community Manager and all-around geek girl.
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