iPhone X Third Impressions
by Jean-Louis Gassée
By incorporating visual recognition into the iPhone X, Apple took a substantial risk. Could they succeed with a technology that has stymied Microsoft and Samsung? After four weeks with an iPhone X, I’m led to some (mostly favorable) conclusions…and some questions about the direction of other Apple products.
When I read the rumors that Apple would add facial recognition as a way for users to unlock their iPhones, I assumed it was just talk, the standard titillating fare served by websites in need of clicks. Then, last September, the iPhone X came out — and the rumors proved true. But the hiccuping Face ID demo by Sr VP Craig Federighi wasn’t reassuring.
I recalled Samsung’s trouble with face recognition, and, more cogently, Microsoft’s travails with the technology. The latter’s Kinect platform, based on technology developed by the Israeli company PrimeSense, was ultimately abandoned…but the project didn’t die, exactly. Apple picked up PrimeSense in 2013 for $360M.
The iPhone X was met with grand PR fanfare, but, again, let’s recall the enthusiastic media reception when Kinect was introduced. A “crazy omigod rush” according to Dave Pogue of the New York Times. T3 declared it the 2011 Gaming Gadget of The Year. It was #2 in Popular Mechanics’ list of 10 Most Innovative Tech Products of 2011.
And now I’m thinking: Perhaps Apple should concentrate on improving its Touch ID fingerprint recognition system.
Apple’s bold move into a territory where others had stumbled made me anxious to get my mitts on an iPhone X. Serendipitously, a late night double-order by a family member provided me with an early delivery. I’ve spent four weeks with the new device, enough time to form the invaluable Third Impression.
(Regular Monday Note readers may want to skip the next two paragraphs — you’ve heard this before.)
The Third Impression of a product can only be formed after a few weeks of quotidian use. By nature, the impression is stable and thus fuels a company’s most potent marketing weapon: Word of Mouth. Recommendations — or warnings — from friends who have put their money down are much more effective than marketing campaigns (which one must always view with skepticism). As Philippe Michel, dearly departed marketing sage and friend, put it: Advertising’s mission is to legitimize, to buttress Word of Mouth.
With regard to product reviews: I don’t get “review units” set up and fine-tuned by company staff; I put my own money at risk. I don’t have to bob to their rhythm so I can be invited to next season’s dance, and I don’t have to rush for fear of being scooped by a competitor.
(You may return.)
Apple’s Face ID isn’t perfect, but, in my experience, it’s more reliable than Touch ID. With Touch ID I’ve had to register and re-register fingers when prints stopped working and wet digits are never welcome. Yes, with Face ID I have to crane my neck when the phone is on the table and I must turn away from direct sunlight when I’m outside, but otherwise it works without ifs and buts. (I might re-do the Face ID setup to deal with the phone on the table situation so it recognizes the area below my chin, but I’m lazy: It works well enough and it successfully dealt with the black eye I earned in Maui’s breaking waves.)
More important, I saw how my spouse, a normal, non-geek user took to Face ID. Set up was much easier than Touch ID’s lengthy, detailed registering of fingers. As my spouse’s tech “chauffeur”, I hear about it when things fail to obey; I have yet to hear a discouraging word about Face ID.
Transferring data from her “old” iPhone was also trivial: Set the two devices next to each other, and a cloud of “points” appears on the old device (similar to what you can see setting up a new Watch). Point the new phone’s camera at the old, and they’re now paired, data is transferred, you’re done.
There is more, of course. The OLED screen is an improvement, not as spectacular for my aging eyes as it seems to be for others, but an improvement nonetheless. Samsung got there first and is rightly praised for the display quality of its Galaxy and Note devices. Coming late to the OLED game, Apple still managed to earn praise from DisplayMate, an unforgiving critic and frequent dispeller of marketing claims. DisplayMate’s president, the stern Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, called Apple’s OLED display “the most innovative and high performance Smartphone display that we have ever tested”.
The iPhone X’s display has been mocked, notably in this Samsung commercial, for the “notch” at the top, the tiny area where all the Face ID organs (and other sensors) cut into the screen. An astute marketing person pointed to Samsung’s error in fingering the black notch: It’s a distinctive branding attribute, it tells everyone you’ve got a new iPhone X. (And let’s see what Samsung does when they deploy their own face recognition on a future device.)
Yes, the notch cuts into the screen real estate, but it’s more than made up by the removal of the physical Home button (and surrounding plastic). This is new, and, momentarily, alarming: You have to learn new sliding moves and multitasking gestures. But once learned, your fingers quickly forget their old patterns. Again, I watch how my better half took to the Home button disappearance: I see and hear nothing. It Just Works™, as Jobs liked to say.
There is much more inside the iPhone X but, for the time being, I’ll stick with these two tied innovations, Face ID and removing the Home button, and wonder what it means for future Apple products.
I pulled out my iPad Pro a few days ago and found myself trying to use the new gestures that I’ve learned on my iPhone X. The next thought is obvious: Face ID and the “loss” of the Home button will migrate to iPads…and will make the device so much nicer and second nature.
The Mac is another story. Who of us hasn’t tried to move or expand a window by touching the screen? I also wonder what Face ID would do for Apple’s traditional PCs. And, cross-populating, I often wish for a trackpad on my iPad… All of which I’ll leave to a future Monday Note titled something like Apple Apostasies.
— JLG@mondaynote.com
