I recently watched a video from Unbox Therapy where the guy explains why you should not buy the iPhone X.
His main reasons are:
Consider his first point. He references the video where, in the unveiling of the phone, Craig Federighi failed to unlock the phone. This issue was clearly the result of multiple failed unlock attempts as per their PR response, as well as the obvious error message shown on stage. It cannot be held against Face ID as the exact same error happens with Touch ID if it fails more than 5 times. So it is an emotional argument, not a logical one.
He mentions that in bed his glasses and hat are off, and it will miss. That may be true, but I found that it works perfectly well with my sunglasses on or off, and several other people have demonstrated that it does not care about a hat. It does care if your eyes are closed, as per design. He mentions that with the finger print scanner that does not happen. That may be true, but if your fingers are just slightly moist Touch ID does not work at all. Face ID still works. You cannot use Touch ID with gloves. Face ID still works. The list goes on - neither of those two solutions are perfect, but in my opinion, having used both Face ID and Touch ID, I far prefer Face ID. It is more natural to use, less finicky and my success ratio is at least twice as good as with Touch ID. And yes, I had Touch ID version 2 on my iPhone SE.
Using Apple Pay, or flicking up to go to the desktop after unlocking with Face ID is just a much more natural way I want to use my device. He had complaints about the fact that you needed a two step approach to unlocking the phone - first unlock with your face, then swipe up. For me that is exactly how I want it, I do not want my phone to go to the desktop unless I ask it to. This way I can read my notifications without doing anything other than looking at the phone. Point is - if picking up your phone, looking at it for 500ms then swiping up is too much work - there is something wrong with you. Perhaps you need to hire a butler than can hold the phone for you.
He also compares the speed of Face ID to the OnePlus 5T which is faster. What he neglected to consider, is that the OnePlus 5T does not make use of a dot projector or IR etc., so it is by definition not nearly as secure. So if you want convenience over security, disable the PIN/access prompt altogether!
His second point is about cost. I am not going to belabour his comment as he is indeed correct. But that said, never in the history of modern capitalism has any product adhered to the norm that if it is twice as good, it costs twice as much. Look at high end audio - to get marginal improvement you pay extraordinary more. Look at cars - a Ferarri LaFerarri costs more than $1mil, however it is not 14 times as good as the $70k Tesla P100d, which accelerates faster from 0-60 than the Ferarri (or any other production car ever made for that matter). The LaFerarri is better than the Tesla , just not 14 times.
There is a logarithmic increase in cost as the boundary of technology is being approached.The iPhone X does several novel things which no other phone does, so it is expected to be costly. If it is too expensive for you, don't buy it. Just like I would never buy a Ferarri LaFerarri as I would never justify the cost, but someone else might - it is up to you to decide whether the value proposition makes sense to you. It is a personal decision.
To make a general recommendation about a product based on these two major points seems folly to me. I have no problem with him mentioning his experiences, but I cannot see how his recommendation is scientific or meaningful in any way. If there was another phone that matched all features and performance of the iPhone X at half the cost, then I would have been much more willing to accept his verdict. However, he is comparing apples to oranges.
In my opinion the iPhone X is the best phone Apple has ever made. It is a joy to use and I only have two complaints so far: