IPhone X review asks if Apple’s Face ID, Animoji and the TrueDepth camera make it the best smartphone EVER

ONCE upon a time, the smartphone seemed like the most futuristic gadget on the face of the planet.

But even though we're living in a time when more than 1.5 billion mobiles are sold globally every single year, it's fair to say that the products on offer don't seem quite as exciting and innovative as they once were.

In 2005, Apple's legendary founder Steve Jobs urged Stanford University students to "stay hungry and stay foolish". Two years later, his company unveiled the iPhone.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that no mobile released since that day has invoked the same sense of excitement.

And so we come to the iPhone X, which is being described as the most innovative phone since, well, the original iPhone.

So does the X blaze a trail that points towards the future of smartphones or is it just more of the same from a global technology company which has drifted away from the lessons of its founding father? Read on to find out.

First impressions

You can't fail to notice that the X is an Apple product, because it looks exactly like you'd expect an iPhone to look - yet somehow manages to feel futuristic and new.

I reviewed the silver model which, like the black "space grey" model, features a band of surgical steel around the side and a glass casing which covers the back.

Apple uses a seven stage process to apply the colour to the back of the iPhone X, giving mine a deep, pearl-rich tone.

White phones tend to remind me of those 20 quid wedding dresses picked up by the hapless men who appear in the wedding show Don't Tell The Bride.

But Apple's attractive off-white tone is rich and subtle, resembling vein-free marble.

It feels reassuringly heavy in the hand, yet light in the pocket, and is slightly thicker than recent iPhones, which I rather like.

The first thing you'll notice about the iPhone X is that it's beautiful. So was the iPhone 8, to be honest, but there's something almost sculptural about the X which makes it feel more expensive and luxurious than previous models.

Yes, it costs at least £999 for the basic model. But it feels significantly more high-end than Samsung's £869 Note 8, which feels a bit overpriced once you've had a fondle of the X.

There's been a bit of concern about the fragility of the X, with some experts

If you're worried, we'd advise you to buy a case tough enough to protect it or, you know, make sure you don't dash your smartphone onto the cold, hard pavement.

Apple's official ones cost about £40 and allow you to charge the device wirelessly without removing them.

The X certainly feels robust and I wasn't unduly worried about breaking it.

The screen

When I first saw the X, it struck me that it was much smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus I've been using, which is the largest Apple smartphone on offer.

Which disappointed me for a second, because I've become a bit of a size snob when it comes to iPhones.

But looks can be deceiving.

The 5.8-inch OLED "Super Retina" screen on the X is actually bigger than the 5.5-inch display on the Plus models, even though the unit is substantially smaller. This is very impressive.

The display curves around to follow the shape of the phone so that when you hold it there's nothing to get in the way of the screen, which glows like a little portal and seems to float in mid-air.

It's also a true High Dynamic Range (HDR) screen, meaning photos and films pop out of it. Colours appear intense and deep, while images are crisp and clear.

Viewed from the front, the device basically looks like a huge, glossy display with very little else apart from a notch at the top for the front-facing camera.

Achieving this look required no small amount of innovation, so once again you have to take your hat off to Apple's superb engineers.

The tech firm has warned that OLED screens are prone to a problem called burn-in, which has already plagued the Google Pixel 2. You can read its

But we haven't experienced any problems during our testing.

I found the display to be colourful, bold and striking.

Face ID

This is the big innovation of the iPhone X and uses technology that's said to be years ahead of the Android competition.

The Home Button is now gone and you need to unlock the phone using a facial recognition system fitted into the front-facing selfie camera.

When you first switch on the phone, you have to look into it and rotate your nose in a circle so the TrueDepth camera (see below) can map out the contours of your face.

This was a very quick process which takes a few seconds at most and once it's completed you just need to look at the phone and it will unlock. Then swipe up and you're on the home screen.

Face ID works by projecting 30,000 infra-red dots on your face to check it against a stored image.

I was a wee bit worried about the privacy implications of this system, which keeps an eye on your mug as age, weight gain and life in general changes the shape of it.

But the data is not actually sent back to Apple. It's stored on the phone itself and cannot be transferred to another handset.

Face ID takes a little bit of getting used to if you've been an iPhone owner for the past decade.

When I first started using the X, I kept stabbing away at the screen as if it was an older iPhone, a bit like when I take my glasses off and keep nudging the bridge of my nose to push my specs up, even though I'm not wearing any.

After a while, Face ID becomes second nature. It's easily as quick as using a fingerprint scanner and is actually more reliable because you don't need to worry if you've got wet fingers or are wearing gloves.

Face ID works in the dark and is also super secure. It won't open if your eyes are closed, so your partner can't unlock it when you're asleep and discover all your secrets.

Apple says there's a one in a million chance of someone else having a face that will open your iPhone - unless you have an identical twin or a very, very similar-looking relative.

If that's the case, you're better off using the old-fashioned method and just using a six digit password to lock and unlock the X.

I'm getting used to Face ID and I have to say I love it. This is a major innovation and feels genuinely forward-thinking.

You simply forget you're using it after a while. Tremendous stuff indeed.

Animoji

These animated emojis show off the fun side of Face ID, allowing you to control the movements of 12 icons by moving your face.

The animojis respond to the expressions you pull, raising their eyebrows, smiling or grimacing along with you.

Unlike the Face ID security mechanism, they work with anyone's face rather than just the face of the person who owns the iPhone.

You can also record spoken word messages which can be sent to people who own older models as well as the heathens who haven't joined the Church of Apple just yet.

Kids will love the animojis - as will adults.

Even the most po-faced of grown-ups will smile when they see a poo emoji mimicking their expressions or reading out a message.

Camera

Apple has really pulled out the stops to make the X a snapper's delight.

The 12-megapixel dual-lens back camera now features beefed-up sensors to record more colours and image stabilisation on both lenses using a very clever system involving seven different magnets.

You can also zoom in by up to 10 times and still get a decent photo using a combination of the telephoto, wide angle lens and digital zoom. This is very impressive because normally zoomed images are shaky, blurry and generally rubbish.

But it's the front-facing selfie camera that's the big star of the show.

The iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus introduced Portrait Mode, which artfully blurs the background using a technique called bokeh.

Until now, bokeh was haram on the front-facing camera because it required two lenses to assess depth accurately.

Apple's TrueDepth camera can now do this without requiring two lenses and is an integral part of Face ID. It's capable of sensing depth with just one lens - which is a major technological breakthrough.

A nice little perk of this system means you can take selfies and blur the background using bokeh.

There's also a new mode called stage light which blacks out the background and lights up the subject of a picture as if they were standing in a spotlight.

The X has brilliant cameras on both front and back, meaning the only thing which can ruin your photos is your own ugly mush.

Gestures

You won't be pressing the Home Button on the iPhone - because it's gone - so how on Earth do you use the X without it?

Well, Apple's boffins have been hard at work to create several new "gestures" which replace the functionality of the erstwhile button-based interface.

These really are very clever.

It's now possible to quickly switch between apps by sliding your finger along the bottom of the screen.

Once you're in an app, you can swipe upwards to go back to the home screen or swipe and hold to be shown all the apps currently open so you can choose which one you want to use.

The new phone does feel very different from other iPhones and offers a new level of interactiveness which makes switching between apps feel much more intuitive than before.

Truly brilliant design becomes second nature very quickly. Just think about flushing the toilet, pulling down a zip or honking the horn.

It's the same with Apple's new gestures. You'll learn them in seconds and they will become instinctive.

It takes real skill to build features which are so simple, yet so powerful.

Bits and bobs

I have to give a special shout-out to wireless charging - a cool new function which means you can charge up the X by leaving it on a special "plate" rather than plugging it in. This was introduced on the iPhone 8 and still feels very futuristic.

It's also worth mentioning the new speakers on the device, which blast out tunes at much higher volume than before.

This is great for kids sitting at the back of the bus blaring their favourite music - and a total nightmare for anyone around them.

It also means you can finally play or make music on your iPhone and actually enjoy listening to it.

The iPhone X is also waterproof and features a super speedy new A11 Bionic chip which Apple describes as the fastest processor to be ever fitted in a smartphone.

Conclusion

It's often rather cruelly suggested that Apple has somehow lost its creative edge, even though it continues to release brilliant product after brilliant product.

All of which puts reviewers in a slight quandary, because we like to slag things off and have a good old grumble.

Apple doesn't really put out rubbish gadgets. If the iPhone X or any other iThing wasn't great, it wouldn't exist.

I think the iPhone X should silence the naysayers for at least a little while because it puts paid to the idea that Apple's best days are behind it.

Face ID, as well as the beautiful screen and striking hardware aesthetic, feel genuinely innovative and new - a quality which is very rare in the consumer tech world right now.

This is quite simply the best smartphone Apple has ever made - and therefore the best that has ever been made.

It's expensive, sure, but that's the price of progress.

And if you can't afford it right now, rest assured the technology in the X will filter down to Apple's cheaper products.

But by then, Apple will have thought of several new ways of persuading you to upgrade.

The iPhone X is that rare thing: a forward-thinking smartphone which pushes the envelope of design and engineering, recalling the unmistakable innovative mojo from the Steve Jobs-led golden days of Apple.

You can see that Apple is still hungry because it really pulled out all the stops to make the X feel new. You might also say it's a little bit foolish because it took a huge gamble with the £999 price and the decision to totally change the Home Button-based interface that's so familiar to iPhone fans.

But the risk-taking has paid off. This is a fantastic phone.