On Sept. 12, Apple (AAPL +0.58%) unveiled its hotly anticipated premium iPhone with a full-face OLED display, known as the iPhone X (pronounced "iPhone 10"). The device, in general, seems phenomenal. It's beautiful, it's packed to the brim with incredible new technologies, and I can't wait to get my pre-order in on Oct. 27 in the hopes of receiving my iPhone X on Nov. 3.
With that said, there were three things about the device that disappointed.
Image source: Apple.
No ProMotion technology
Earlier this year, Apple introduced new iPad Pro tablets with a display technology branded ProMotion. ProMotion technology refers to displays that update their contents at a rate of up to 120 times per second, up from just 60 times per second for virtually all other mobile devices.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported back in July that Apple was "testing" iPhone prototypes with "faster screens" that were the "same as the ProMotion displays" found in the iPad Pro tablets.
Given that Apple appears to have tested this technology -- meaning that Apple went through the grueling effort of developing this technology and even went so far as to put together prototype phones with such screens -- I'm surprised, and more than a little disappointed, that the iPhone X doesn't include the technology.
We can only speculate as to why Apple didn't go with the ProMotion displays on the iPhone X (and that's another topic worthy of its own article), but this is a feature I desperately hope to see in Apple's 2018 iPhone lineup.
Lack of gold color
Prior to Apple's announcements, generally reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned investors (via MacRumors) that the gold variant of the iPhone X would suffer from "production problems" and could "initially be available only in extremely low volume."
Kuo even put the possibility out there that the gold variant would come to market later than the space gray and silver variants.
During Apple's launch event, it said that the iPhone X would be available in just space gray and silver colors, though it's possible that Apple could add the gold color midcycle to try to further boost demand.
But if Apple is facing production problems with the new phone, then it could make sense to simply hold off on introducing a gold color until the next round of premium iPhone models.
Nevertheless, as somebody who was dead-set on getting a gold iPhone X, this is a slight disappointment. That said, I doubt the lack of a gold color will impact sales because those who would've bought the gold version will almost certainly just go with another color, as I plan to.
You won't be able to get one for a while
Although Apple held its keynote on Sept. 12 and will begin taking pre-orders for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on Sept. 15 (with phones becoming available on Sept. 22), the iPhone X will be out quite a bit later.
Per Apple, pre-orders for the iPhone X begin on Oct. 27 with availability on Nov. 3.
Ahead of the launch, there were persistent rumors of both production issues as well as production push-outs; indeed, a report from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) claims that Apple's failed attempt to integrate Touch ID into the display of the new device pushed the iPhone X production ramp-up by about a month.
The production push-out isn't too much of a cause for concern if you're an Apple investor; Apple has the surprisingly compelling iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to sell into the market while users wait for the iPhone X to become available.
And, since the iPhone X is such a nice product overall (even if it's not everything that I'd expected), I think it'll do quite well once it arrives. But it's still a bummer that it'll be a while before the general public will get its hands on the device.
