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Our Rating: C+

With 43 percent of smartphone owners in the United States having an iOS-powered device, it is no wonder that Apple’s selection of products keeps growing. On Sept. 12, Apple announced a new addition to their collection, the iPhone 8. However, leave it to Apple to make the iPhone 8 obsolete within thirty-minutes of showing it. Apart from the eight, they also presented the iPhone X, the true highlight of that presentation.

This new iPhone has a 5.8-inch display, making it slightly bigger from its real predecessor, the iPhone 7 plus. The phone is also equipped with three cameras, promising different specs for each: optical zoom, dual optical image stabilization, various frames per second in recordings and a 12 megapixel back-camera, to name a few. Despite this, iPhones still fall short of a long list of Android phones with much higher megapixel cameras, adjustable settings and more user-friendly interphases.

“I believe that the iPhone X is Apple’s best phone yet. It has a unique design that is different from any other phone we have seen so far. My favorite part about it is the new screen; it is all screen. I decided to get the iPhone X because I really like the new screen and the new camera. I do think that the phone was worth buying because of all the new features it has,” freshman Gaston Tomas said.

Other than those additions that do not enhance the overall experience, the iPhone has not really changed much. Apple claims, however, that the phone battery will last two hours longer than on the iPhone 7, which is a constant demand from iPhone users. Another thing that Apple promises are shorter charging times and more compatible wireless charging.

Apple has also changed the button layout, doing away with the home button. They also extended the size of the screen across the edges to amplify the display size. The cameras on the back are vertically placed, unlike the previous horizontal design. Although all these changes have been made, just like the iPhone 7, the iPhone X  does not have a headphone jack. Based on Apple’s new line up for next year, there probably will never be one again.

In their presentation, Apple’s biggest announcement was the feature of face-recognition; this was the iPhone X’s true selling point. The developers implemented it to unlock the phone and apply your face to an emoji filter, among other functions that were not emphasized in the show. The announcers stated that it will be able to read one in a billion faces, but that also leads to the question: are there seven other people in the world who are identical to me?

“The face identification is my favorite [feature] because it actually works really fast and it is secure. And I like the animoji it gives in iMessage,” sophomore Stephanie Andrade said.

When it comes to the operating system, the company website states that the new iOS 11 has “new features and capabilities that let you get more done quickly and easily… iOS 11 makes iPhone more powerful, personal, and intelligent than ever.” If you look further, it also states that the new version of iOS will help games and other apps on the devices run smoothly, update live photos, add filters to your camera, improve Siri and completely change the App store and Apple music for no reason whatsoever. However, you do not need to upgrade to the iPhone X for these updates, so it is not that big of a deal unless this is the first iPhone that you are buying.

In all, the iPhone X is simply renaming the features that were already there. It is also renaming the definition of late shipping, with pre-orders of the phone destined to arrive around Dec. 13 the earliest, unless it was ordered directly from the service provider. This iPhone is not adding anything important to the Apple experience; it just seems like Apple’s way of winning quick cash since they plan on releasing even more add-ons after the new year. The phone is simply an endeavor for easy gain with little marketing. With the developers running out of ideas for the next iPhone, we will all be wondering what will come next.