iPhone X

Apple's iPhone X, introduced in 2017 for the iPhone's 10th anniversary, introduced an edge-to-edge OLED display, Face ID facial recognition, and a new industrial design that set the direction for later models.

Overview

The iPhone X is a model of smartphone designed by Apple Inc., announced on September 12, 2017 at the Steve Jobs Theater alongside the iPhone 8 series. It went on sale in November 2017 and was marketed as the tenth‑anniversary edition of the iPhone, with "X" representing the Roman numeral for ten. The device marked a notable redesign away from the home‑button era and introduced several new hardware and software features that influenced subsequent iPhone models.

Key characteristics

The iPhone X combined new industrial choices and updated internal components that distinguished it from prior generations. Its most visible changes included an edge‑to‑edge OLED screen, a small cutout at the top of the display often called the "notch," and a glass back for wireless charging. Apple replaced the physical home button with gesture‑based navigation and introduced a facial authentication system as the primary biometric.

Display: edge‑to‑edge OLED panel branded as a Super Retina display.
Biometrics: Face ID facial recognition enabled by the TrueDepth front camera system.
Design: glass front and back with a polished stainless steel frame; removal of the home button.
Wireless charging and fast charging support via industry charging standards.
New software interactions and features, including animoji and refined multitasking gestures.

Technology and components

Under the hood, the iPhone X used a modern Apple system on chip and increased emphasis on machine learning tasks for photography and biometric processing. The TrueDepth camera array housed multiple sensors and a structured‑light projector to create a detailed depth map of a user’s face, enabling Face ID and animated emoji features. The combination of improved cameras and computational photography also advanced portrait mode and low‑light imaging on the device.

History and development

Apple unveiled the iPhone X at the same event that introduced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, positioning it as a more radical redesign compared with the incremental updates of the 8 series. The X's announcement and release reflected a decade of iPhone evolution and signaled design and system changes Apple planned to carry forward. For the original announcement see the simultaneous iPhone 8 release here, and the choice of the Roman numeral for the name is discussed here.

Impact and legacy

The iPhone X influenced the appearance and interaction model of later smartphones, both within Apple's lineup and across the industry. Its notch and facial recognition approach led to new design tradeoffs and software patterns. While it replaced Touch ID with Face ID on its platform, the broader transition to gesture navigation and near‑bezel displays became widely adopted. The iPhone X is often cited as a turning point in modern smartphone design for its emphasis on immersive displays and natural user interaction.