Apple has confirmed rumours that it is releasing the iPhone X, which the tech company claims is “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone”.
As expected, the iPhone X includes facial recognition technology for unlocking the phone and protecting data, and a corner-to-corner display.
“This is the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” said CEO Tim Cook, who unveiled the product during today’s Apple Event, when the company also revealed the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
The iPhone X incorporates Apple’s new Face ID feature. This technology is enabled through the “True-depth” camera system along the top of the front display.
The small bar incorporates a flood illuminator, which detects the face, and a dot projector that puts out 30,000 dots and creates a mathematical model of the face.
Software then compares the image to the one stored, and unlocks the phone if they match. Apple assures that it won’t be fooled by photographs or masks.
“Your iPhone now recognises you, even in the dark, and even adapts to physical changes,” said chief design officer Jonathan Ive during a demonstration video.
“Face ID is the future of how we unlock our smartphones,” added Philip W Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing – although the technology faltered during the keynote event.
The true-depth camera also allows users to customise and animate emoji. The new Animoji mirror the expressions captured by the camera and recognised by software, based on over 50 pre-mapped muscle movements.
The iPhone X’s steel case is wrapped almost entirely in glass to create a continuous surface, “making the boundary between the phone and screen harder to discern” according to Ive. It is designed to be water and dust resistant at a microscopic level.
The smartphone’s corner-to-corner front OLED display measures 5.8 inches diagonally, and includes 2.7 million pixels.
As the device does away this the home button, functions will be accessed via a variety of touch gestures. Swiping up from the bottom will bring the device to life, and Face ID will unlock it.
Siri will be activated by voice command, or by pressing the enlarged side button.
Priced from $999, the iPhone X will be available to preorder from 27 October 2017 and will begin shipping 3 November 2017. Versions with 64GB and 254GB will launch initially, in either space grey and silver.
Reports of an Apple device with Face ID and all-screen display features first emergedin July 2017, when developers unpicked released code. A leak predicting the iPhone Xalso occurred this week.
The September 2017 Apple Event took place for the first time at the Steve Jobs Theater, situated on the company’s vast new campus by Foster + Partners.
Located in Cupertino, California, Apple Park has still not officially opened, although thousands of the tech giant’s employees have already moved in. Reports suggest that some of them are unhappy about working the main building’s open-plan offices.
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