My First Impressions of iPhone X

I have been using Apple's new iPhone X for several days now, and while I have not had time to do a proper review, I wanted to share my initial observations.

There have been a lot of questions about the accuracy of Apple's Face ID, but after using it over 100 times, it worked for me 100 percent of the time. I figured there might be a 3-5 percent failure rate, but I did not encounter any glitches. With my face, it worked flawlessly.

What surprised me about iPhone X ($999.00 at Verizon) was that the notch—the indent up top that holds the front cameras and sensors—was not particularly distracting. Some folks have criticized the notch as clunky, but once you understand why it's there, you realize that its features outweigh any design flaws.

Apple made strong statements about the quality of the iPhone X's three cameras. I was not expecting the incredible color saturation and overall 4K HDR image quality I saw in the pictures I took. I tested it against an iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus, and the photos from the iPhone X were markedly sharper, clearer, and with much deeper colors. I am very much an amateur photographer, but even I could tell how much better the iPhone X camera performed over the last two models. If you love Portrait mode on earlier iPhones, the iPhone X includes more options and is even easier to use.

Videos in 4K HDR are vivid and lifelike; iPhone X's OLED screen is the sharpest and clearest screen Apple has ever used on an iPhone. When the screen is in landscape mode, the entire glass surface is filled with the video or movie you are watching, making that experience much more enjoyable, even though it is delivered on a relatively small screen.

Since I have used the iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus over the last 18 months, I did have to get used to a slimmer phone. Though the X sports a 5.8-inch diagonal Super Retina HD display versus the 5.5-inch Retina HD display on the 7 Plus and 8 Plus, the actual handset is 5.65 by 2.79 by 0.30 (HWD) inches versus 6.24 by 3.07 by 0.30 inches on the 8 Plus; the 7 Plus has similar dimensions. Because it's slimmer, the iPhone X fits in my hands better than the other iPhones.

Apple claims at least two more hours of battery on the iPhone X over the iPhone 7; for me that is correct. My iPhone 7 Plus usually runs out of juice around 9 p.m. each night, but at 11 p.m., I still had over 25 percent battery left on my iPhone X most nights.

I will update this column next week when I have spent more time testing iPhone X, so stay tuned for that and PCMag.com's full review.

All 12 iPhone X Animoji from PCMag com!