The iPhone X takes incredibly sharp selfies -- and it's Freaking. People. Out.
So, the iPhone X is in people's hands now, and with it, the uber-high-resolution and incredible detail of its very good selfie camera.
So good, in fact, that some of the people using it are slightly horrified.
The iPhone X comes with Apple's brand new TrueDepth camera on the front, which shoots selfies using a 7-megapixel camera and employs an infrared camera to capture the nuanced depth features in faces. It's shockingly better than any other front-facing mobile camera available.
But not everyone's so, uh, keen on seeing their faces in such incredible detail.
As one user noted:
It's true. Even in our Instagram-obsessed world (one that allows us to layer filters and color over our actual faces), the realities of imperfection can be easily hidden or ignored. Perhaps the same can be done for high-resolution iPhone X selfies, but the TrueDepth system is still revealing a bit of dissatisfaction for how we really appear — at least, for some folks.
The TrueDepth camera system is absurdly precise -- but that's because it has to be. It's the same camera responsible for the iPhone X's face-scanning recognition system, Face ID, which allows access to a user's phone with just a glance. If that same camera system lacked precision, someone else's face could potentially unlock your phone (although, Apple notes, there's still a one-in-a-million chance someone could unlock your phone with a similar face).
Apple calls the iPhone X "the future of the iPhone," so it seems like we'll all have to get used to what we truly look like -- or get better filters -- because Apple's not about to make worse cameras just to soothe our insecurities. There is, of course, the option to use the iPhone X's other camera to take photos. But this might be even more unappealing. As Mashable's Raymond Wong notes, "For most people, [the iPhone X's] cameras are better than a 'real' camera..."
Dare one ask: Might Apple's TrueDepth camera usher in the end of the selfie? Yeah, right.
We'll just have to live with, you know, our faces. In the sharpest light possible.
Mark was the science editor at Mashable. After working as a ranger with the National Park Service, he started a reporting career after seeing the extraordinary value in educating people about the happenings on Earth, and beyond.
He's descended 2,500 feet into the ocean depths in search of the sixgill shark, ventured into the halls of top R&D laboratories, and interviewed some of the most fascinating scientists in the world.
