Apple iPhone X first look: Get ready for your close-up, the phone's all about cameras

People unlock their phones hundreds of times a day, so this selfie ritual will turn iPhone X owners into the most-photographed population ever.

Today's Paper : When you pick up Apple Inc.’s new iPhone X, instead of unlocking with your thumb, you stop and grin at the phone’s front unibrow as a bank of cameras and sensors check to see if it is really you. At a demo after Tuesday’s launch event, I timed the process at about a second.

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Special cameras, special effects
The reward for changing your muscle memory is, beyond the face-unlocking trick, a new way to think about what you can do with a camera. Apple is now putting a lot of energy (and money) into opening up the world of augmented reality, which I agree has huge potential—even if its current applications are more goofy than serious.

The front-facing cameras, buried in the screen’s funny notch, get the biggest boost. They include infrared sensors to map your face. You can take selfies with artfully blurred-out backgrounds. A new effect that Apple calls Portrait Lighting lets you create dramatic lighting on and around your subjects. One of the most compelling demos I saw placed my head, live, in fun contexts, including the Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars.”

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New… and Improved?
I won’t have all the answers until I review the phone, but here’s my initial takeaway: With the iPhone X, Apple’s best no longer looks like a three-year-old phone. (Apple’s other new phone, the iPhone 8, still does.) Readmore...