iPhone X: Apple Unveils Its High-End Smartphone With No Physical Home Button
Apple has unveiled iPhone X with an “edge-to-edge” screen that has no physical home button.
Details of the high-end smartphone and other forthcoming Apple devices have been revealed via an apparent leak two days ago.
Two news sites were given access to an as-yet-unreleased version of the iOS operating system.
The iPhone X – which is referred to as “ten” – uses FaceID – a facial recognition system – to recognize its owner rather than a fingerprint-based one.
Apple said FaceID could work in the dark by using 30,000 infra-red dots to check an identity, and was harder to fool than its old TouchID system.
iPhone X – which is smaller than iPhone 8 Plus, but with a larger screen – is Apple’s most expensive phone yet.
A 64 GB capacity model will cost $999 when it goes on sale on November 3. A 256GB version will be priced at $1,149.
By contrast, Samsung is charging $930 for its new Note 8 phone, which has 64GB of storage.
Image source Apple
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Apple acknowledged that users might have concerns about using facial recognition to verify purchases via Apple Pay or to access their device.
However, the company claimed that while there was a one-in-50,000 chance that TouchID could be unlocked by a random stranger, the odds rose to one-in-one-million with FaceID.
Nevertheless, one expert said users might still be concerned the handset had no fingerprint sensor as an alternative.
Other features announced about iPhone X included:
- its 5.8in screen has 458 pixels per inch, making it Apple’s most detailed phone display to date. To mark this it has been branded “super retina”
- the lack of a home button is dealt with by requiring users to swipe up to access its apps, and to press a side button to summon its virtual assistant Siri
- portrait mode – in which the camera blurs a photo’s background – and a relighting tool can be used on pictures taken by both the front and rear cameras
- two hours more battery life than the iPhone 7.