Ten years after the launch of the first iPhone, Apple has revealed the iPhone X has no home button, scans your face to log you in and costs $999.
The company unveiled the anniversary edition smartphone, alongside an iPhone 8 and its bigger sibling, the iPhone 8 Plus, at a press event at the brand new Apple Park campus in Cupertino on Tuesday. The company also announced a new Apple Watch with a cellular connection, an Apple TV that streams 4K video, and gave the public its first peek at the circular Steve Jobs Theater.
To introduce the iPhone X, Apple CEO Tim Cook uttered the classic line at the annual press conference: “One more thing.”
“We have great respect for these words and don’t use them lightly,” said Cook, adding the new phone would set the path for technology for the next decade.
The new iPhone X kills the home button to make space for a larger screen. It has an edge-to-edge display, glass on the front and back, wireless charging that requires resting the phone on a special surface, and a surgical grade stainless steel band around the edges. It’s water and dust resistant.
The 5.8-inch OLED display isn’t just bigger, it also packs 458 pixels-per-inch. Apple (AAPL, Tech30) calls it a Super Retina Display. It supports HDR, has a million-to-one contrast ratio and improved color accuracy.
The loss of the home button means no more fingerprint sensor. To unlock the phone, you can use your face with a new technology called Face ID. Front-facing cameras and sensors create a map of your face to determine if you are the phone’s proper owner. The technology learns more about your face every time you use it, and stores any face detection information on the device. It uses small flood light to work in the dark.
Apple said face detection is more secure than fingerprints. It added there was a one in 50,000 chance of a random person being able to open your phone with their fingerprint. But those chances drop to 1 in a million with face detection.
The company also introduced a Face ID-enabled feature called Animoji, which serves up animated emoji that mimic your facial expressions. For example, you’ll be able to give your friends side-eye as a unicorn.
