OLED displays have been around for several years, but they still suffer from a few minor issues. Google had a lot of customers hitting its official forums with complaints about the Pixel 2 XL’s screen burn-in problems. Apple seems to have learned a thing or two from Google’s experience. Moments after the iPhone X went on sale, Apple warned customers about the iPhone X burn-in issues. The company didn’t want to give early buyers a chance to start complaining on the Internet.
iPhone X burn-in is an ‘expected behavior’
The iPhone X is Apple’s first smartphone to feature an OLED display. It suffers from many of the same problems such as “burn-in” and other “visual changes” that affect other smartphones with OLED panels. Remember that OLED is far better than LCD when it comes to vibrant colors, brightness, and energy efficiency, but these shiny new screens have their own imperfections.
The Cupertino company has quietly updated the support page to explain that people shelling out $1,000 might experience the iPhone X burn-in problems in the future. Apple’s support page says you might see “slight shifts in color and hue” when viewing off-angle. The iPhone X burn-in would likely appear after long-term use. When a high-contrast element such as an app icon appears on the screen for long periods of time, you might see remnants even after the element is removed.
The Google Pixel 2 XL owners had started experiencing burn-in only a few days after use. The Pixel 2 XL features P-OLED screens made by LG Display, while the iPhone X comes with Samsung-made OLED panels. Apple told users that the iPhone X burn-in is an “expected behavior” and they shouldn’t panic. However, the burn-in problems should not affect the new iPhone as soon as they affected the Pixel 2 XL.
The tech giant has assured customers that it had engineered the iPhone X’s Super Retina display to be “the best in the industry in reducing the effects of OLED ‘burn-in’.” Apple claims the anniversary iPhone has the best OLED display ever in a smartphone. And rightly so. But don’t forget that at the end of the day, it’s still OLED. The fact that Apple has warned the iPhone X owners about the issues indicates that it could be a widespread concern.
iPhone X logic board 70% smaller than the one in iPhone 8 Plus
Folks at iFixit have taken apart the iPhone X to reveal its innards. The teardown sheds light on the internal things that make the iPhone X different from other iPhones. First, it has an L-shaped, two-cell battery rated at 2716mAh. The battery size isn’t as big as the Galaxy Note 8, but it’s enough to deliver a day battery life with normal usage. Second, Apple has dramatically reduced the logic board. To be precise, the iPhone X logic board is 70% smaller than the one on the iPhone 8 Plus.
The anniversary iPhone has a sideway-opening structure. Apple gives the device a compact appearance by covering all the logic board connectors in a single bracket. Experts at iFixit noted that Apple had folded the logic board in half to make it about 70% smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X has a repairability score of six out of 10. The Super Retina display could easily be replaced without removing the TrueDepth camera system. But replacing the rear glass panel will be a real challenge because it holds all the pieces together.
The iFixit teardown revealed that the iPhone X comes with an A11 Bionic chipset. It packs 3GB LPDDR4X RAM made by SK Hynix, 64GB flash storage from Toshiba, a wireless charging coil, and a Qualcomm modem. The TrueDepth camera that supports Face ID has an infrared illuminator, a front camera sensor, another IR camera sensor, and an IR dot projector.
The iPhone X is a major departure from the previous generations of iPhones. Apple described the device as “the biggest leap forward since the original.” It has replaced the Touch ID fingerprint sensor with a new Face ID sensor. The Face ID works flawlessly even if you wear glasses, put on a hat, grow a beard, or even change your hairstyle.
The phone has glass panels both on the front and back with a stainless steel band around the sides. It comes in Silver and Space Gray colors. The iPhone X has an IP67 rating for water- and dust-resistance. There is no physical home button, which means users have to rely on a wide variety of gestures to navigate the user interface. According to Apple, there is only one in a million chance that someone could access your device using Face ID.
The iPhone X comes with dual 12MP camera sensors on the back with dual OIS and quad-LED TrueTone flash. Besides Portrait Mode, Apple has added a new feature called Portrait Lighting. The phone comes with 64GB and 256GB storage options, with price tags of $999 and $1,149, respectively.
