Apple iPhone X: no home button, no big deal? Hands-on analysis

Apple has gone to enormous lengths to make face recognition work — is that enough to warrant the big jump in price for the premium smartphone?

The new iPhone X. Picture: AP

There’s an old computing principle that I remember from student days called KISS — “keep it simple stupid”.

It’s originally a design principle from the US Navy. The hub of it is that the best system you design and build embraces the simplest way of doing things.

Let’s now apply that to Apple’s iPhone X and iPhone 8/8 Plus launches today — in particular the decision on X to remove the home button and fingerprint recognition in favour of face recognition and gesture operation.

There is little doubt in my mind that Apple has gone to enormous lengths to make face recognition work.

The fact it scans 30,000 points to verify a face, has a “dot projector” for Face ID in low light, has a depth sensor, and other sensors, and tests your face for ‘liveness’ before unlocking your device is amazing technology. It also uses machine learning so if you grow a beard, face recognition will adjust to that.

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If you like being at the cutting edge, and are about to buy a new iPhone, or are upgrading from, say, iPhone 6s, you’ll probably be happy to wait until November 3 and get an iPhoneX. Just keep stoking the piggybank with a few extra dollars in the meantime.

If your approach is more conservative and cautious, if you are totally happy with the home button and fingerprint recognition, it’s a case of better the devil you know. You may want to buy an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus. And you’ll only be waiting till Friday next week, and pay a bit less.

Coming back to KISS. In the end, the acid test will be whether it’s easier to operate this phone using gestures or a home button.

The new iPhone 8, iPhone X and iPhone 8S. Picture: AFP

If you analyse your actions movement by movement, all you currently need is a single jab to press the home button and to be authenticated. It works whether you are holding the phone or it’s on a table in front of you.

Gesturing (sliding your finger up the phone) and showing your face to the phone’s camera seems to take more effort. And you’ll probably need to pick up your phone to test it.

Sure, if you believe Apple, the odds of your phone being hacked open is less with face recognition: 1 to 1 million versus 1 to 50,000, but I am not perturbed by the 1:50,000 stat.

I’ll be attracted to whatever is more convenient in the longer term.

Today I had some hands on time with iPhone X and was able to use the new gestures system without a problem. Once I’ve tried out the system fully, I’ll be able to say which phone does better with the KISS test.

There is of course the old adage — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The back of the new iPhone 8S. Picture: AFP

On other matters, Apple showed its class when it revealed the way it was implementing a cellular watch — and this particularly applies in Australia — that connects directly to the cellular network and can take calls without a phone being around.

Some Android phone makers have recently released watches that achieve this. You have one SIM with one number in the phone, and another regular SIM in the watch with a different phone number.

Two phone numbers can lead to confusion. Do you message the phone, the watch or both, and you have two monthly or prepay accounts to pay.

Apple gets around this by using one phone number for both. The SIM in the watch is an electronic SIM that, with authentication, copies across your iPhone phone number details to the watch. This requires authentication by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone who are coming aboard. Apple says the first two carriers will offer the feature at launch, with Vodafone providing it later this year.

So when you go running, people who know your phone number and want to text you, can get a message to your watch, even when your phone is at another location and you can call them back, all with your regular number.

This feature definitely does pass the KISS test and will be fun to try with Watch Series 3.

Chris Griffith travelled to the Apple event in Cupertino courtesy of Apple