AT $1,149 FOR ITS LARGER-STORAGE iPHONE X MODEL, HAS APPLE FINALLY LOST ITS PRICE-MIND?

BY EVAN MONROE

The iPhone X’s eye-opening sticker price ($999 for the 64-gig model, $1,149 for the 256-gig) is, for
the moment at least, competing for media space with the new model’s remarkable capabilities, and that’s
perhaps the way Apple wanted it. After all, in such a competitive market, review coverage of this dimension— even negative—has its advantages. That said, we do seem to be on an inexorable path towards smartphones that rival and often exceed the price of desktops and laptops, and one might be able to argue that’s appropriate, given their extraordinary processing power.

Amortized out over 24 months, Verizon, Sprint, TMobile, and AT&T will all ding you $56.16 for the larger of the two iPhone X models (about ten bucks more than the top-shelf iPhone 7), which means you don’t have to lay out all that dough at once, but do need to part with an extra $200 over time for the privilege. (If that still hurts, consider that newness comes at a premium for international buyers, who, in the European Union as a whole, will part with an extra $375 for the base model X.)

As with so many things in life, the X’s allure is not so much in its function as form. It’s arguably prettier than the simultaneously released iPhone 8 (bezel-to-bezel Samsung supplied OLED display and all—the principal reason for its considerable price), packs a fractionally better punch (though its processor, the A11 Bionic, is identical), has the same cameras front and rear, and is actually heavier than the 8 Plus, and unless you require that processor to help crunch video editing tasks, the differences are vanishingly thin among models 7 through X, we’d argue.

Still, new is wonderful…new is damn near everything, and this is simply a gorgeous thing, even if we still find ourselves constantly thumbing for the now-gone home button.

iPhone X
starts at $999, apple.com