iPhone X joins the almost bezel-less phone battle

(Photo/CGTN)

‍Apple just stroke the gong in the battle of full-display phones, a trend Chinese tech giant Xiaomi created a year ago with its Mix phone sold exclusively in China.

Pre-orders for the iPhone X started on Friday and sold out in minutes. The new device features Face ID, Animoji, Portrait Mode selfies and other features that Tim Cook claimed could "set the path for technology for the next decade."

Although the combination of all these features in one device is still fresh, CGTN broke down the technology used in the iPhone X, most of which has been around for years on other smart devices and game consoles.

Among the features, the bezel-less display with a cutout has received mixed comments.

Apple's plan to give users as much screen space as possible saw the removal of the home button from the screen but left an "awkward" short black bar on top and had some Chinese Weibo users mocking it as "bangs." Many have complained that the cutout on top breaks the design aesthetics and wished Apple could have given the phone an edge-to-edge black bar like what Xiaomi did to its Mix 2 or Samsung to the Galaxy Note 8.

Mix 2 features an edge-to-edge display with a black bar at bottom. /Xiaomi

Apple, on the other hand, had its reasons for it. The particular "hairstyle" houses iPhone's newest TrueDepth Camera system designed for users to use Face ID, a "faceprint" to unlock the device.

With the combination of the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, flood illuminator, dot projector and infrared camera, the system is able to project a certain amount of illumination onto a user's face, create an invisible dotted face map, and analyze the map to unlock the phone.

The same process is utilized to animate the formerly motionless emojis to make them act and talk like the user.

Jokes aside, there are still heated discussions about whether or not the new iPhone X is worth it on Chinese social media sites WeChat and Weibo.

But when it comes to choosing between the displays, Xiaomi's Lei Jun said at Mix 2's launch event that he had "confidence in Xiaomi's product" to beat iPhone's newest handset.