Los Angeles, Sep 12 (EFE).- Facial recognition of the user and a screen that takes up practically the entire front surface, along with removing the home button, are the key features of the iPhone X, Apple’s newest smartphone that will hit store shelves this fall at $999.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday was the master of ceremonies at a very special event at which the tech giant celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its mega-popular iPhone and officially launched its huge new Apple Park campus in the California city of Cupertino.
Cook called the new device “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” adding that the iPhone X will blaze a trail in technology for the coming decade.
The Apple CEO made his presentation of the new product in the Steve Jobs Theater at an event at which the firm’s charismatic founder was memorialized.
The climax of the event was the presentation of the iPhone X, the latest Apple smartphone that includes facial recognition, called Face ID, which will provide a new means of secure access to the device.
The ID technology will replace the Touch ID entry system and use an infrared camera, among other things, to convert the user’s face into a personal password and recognize it, even if the person is wearing glasses, a hat, or the like.
That facial recognition technology will also take advantage of animoji, a personalized version of the emoji that will be created from the gestures of people, as well as including the Apple Pay automatic payment system.
Another of the new iPhone X’s features is the 5.8-inch screen and the OLED technology that will use virtually the entire front of the device.
The new model will also eliminate the home button, a basic interface function for earlier versions of the iPhone.
The new mobile screen, which Apple has dubbed the Super Retina, will have 2436×1125 resolution at 458 pixels per inch.
Eliminating the home button will alter the long-time functioning of the iPhone and – for instance – now to return to the main screen one will just have to swipe a finger vertically on the device, while one will activate the Siri digital assistant in a slightly different – but very easy – manner.
Apple also emphasized that the new iPhone’s batteries will last two hours longer than the earlier iPhone 7, and the firm said that it will be compatible with a system to wirelessly charge the batteries, called Air Power, which it will unveil next year.
The iPhone X will include a 12-megapixel camera with dual optical stabilization and other improvements especially designed for taking selfies.
The new iPhone will come in two versions – with 64 and 256 gigabytes of storage – and its price will start at $999, significantly more than the $649 that the basic model of the iPhone 7 cost.
Buyers may reserve their iPhone X’s starting on Oct. 27 and it will go on sale in more than 50 countries on Nov. 3, a longer wait-time than normal for a new iPhone version.