Apple iPhone X

> There are likely to be no devices running iOS 16 My iPhone X is stuck on iOS 16 with no way to upgrade. However, the phone is still working well. Despite being in daily use for 8 years it still has 81% battery capacity, has never been dropped, has a great OLED screen, can record 4K@60 video. It is far more responsive than a brand new 2025 $200 Android phone from e.g. Xiaomi. It still gets security patches from Apple. The only real shortcoming compared to a modern iPhone is the low light camera performance. That and some app developers don't support iOS 16 anymore, so e.g. I can't use the ChatGPT app and have to use it via the browser, but the Gemini app works fine.

My iPhone X worked fine for 7 years, even without a battery replacement. It still works just fine. I wanted a larger screen and better zoom lens, so I upgraded earlier this year but I absolutely didn't have to and didn't feel any pressure from Apple to do so. n=1.

My iPhone X served me faithfully for five years without issue until I replaced it with an iPhone 14 Pro. A lemon? They seem to have sold 63 million[0] of just that model alone, which was introduced the same year as the normal iPhone 8, so it made up one-third of all sales that generation. Your comment is the first I've heard of any issues with the model. I don't know what definition of "lemon" one could use to make it fit. I mean, iPhone X outsold every Android device other than the Galaxy SIII and S4, introduced five and four years prior. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_ph...

i think it's simply down to the smartphone industry maturing. for all intents and purposes, the CPU in your old S20 is more than capable of handling basically any daily mobile task. the A11 in my iPhone X (2017!) was more than enough , and didn't skip a beat, even with intense usage like playing games or streaming multimedia content over LTE. i only had to upgrade to a 12 mini the other day because the my X got so beat up over the years, and it would've cost more to repair than to just replace the thing. i love my new phone, but does it really do anything my old one couldn't? the camera, screen, design are definitely better... but other than that... and the 12 mini is already a year and a half old! i got it used, and i couldn't possibly distinguish this from a brand new flagship phone, in terms of performance. smartphone manufacturers can't rely on consumers needing to upgrade bi-annually to continue using their phone in an optimal way. so they need to change their economics to keep making a profit.

I have an iPhone X. When the battery degraded, I sent it in, the battery and the speaker is replaced, the latter free of charge. I even didn't know that my speaker was damaged to begin with. The service rep said that newer batteries last longer because they're newer tech (I laughed internally), but it's going strong for 4 (5?) years now, and it's at 83%, so I had to eat my hat about not believing her.

Adding my anecdote: I bought an iPhone X used in 2019, after being an Android user for a decade. It replaced a Pixel XL that I had for a couple of years (received new as a warranty exchange for a faulty Nexus 6P), but which was already going out of security updates. I had the battery of my iPhone X replaced at an Apple store a couple of months ago, restoring it to essentially as-new condition. And given Apple's track record of OS updates, I expect it to be supported for some time to come. That combination of first-party repair options and long OS update support gives iOS the edge over just about every Android manufacturer, IME.

I keep my old iPhone X powered on as a handheld gaming device. It still gets software patches now and then. Funnily, even though the device is in its forsaken era, most of the applications I used to use daily still gets updates too. Not being able to update an app on it is a rarity.

The iPhone X also had smooth rounded edges and was small by modern standards (bigger than the 3GS, though). Still one of my favourite iPhones. Most people now days put their phones in protective cases, so the sharp edges don’t matter too much. And if anything, it makes the cases easier to design and smaller/thinner.

The iPhone X was better than the 6-8, I think the screen filling the whole thing helped it out, but it was still too large for my liking. I moved to the mini when it came out to get a smaller phone. I found it interesting that the intro of the Duo talked about how it had 90% of the screen of the iPhone 18, as a way to talk up how big it is. They didn’t do this for the iPhone mini, and I think it’s why it failed. The iPhone mini screen was only .1” smaller than the 8 Plus, in a form factor that was smaller than the normal 8. I think selling it like that, as the base level iPhone (without the mini label) would have made it a success… but I’m still bitter they killed it off.

In my experience, Apple phones are pretty good at not being obsolete. I gave my old iPhone X to my father who's still using it, 9 years later, with software updates to iOS. Compare that to the Google Pixel 2 (which came out in the same year), got it's last software update 3 years later.

I had kind of accepted maybe I had brain damage or something when it came to typing on my phone recently. I pulled out my iphone X the other day and had the most validating feeling of "I can type on my phone again".

> Fast charge doesn’t seem to hurt. For me a year is nothing though, my phone is on its 4th year, my daughter has my old iphone X.

That's been the case for several years now. Gone caseless with iPhone X, 12, and 13 Pros for years now and have gotten some scratches to the sides and a small crack on the back glass here or there, but no significant screen scratches or breaks. Some scuffing around the edges is it. Last time I broke the front screen of a phone was an HTC Evo.

Even an iPhone X was running great in 2025, until it finally gave up to age and the network module stopped working. iPhone 13s are lightning quick for me still.

I’m still working on my iPhone X with iOS 16. Works great except for one banking app which apparently needs the latest version. Apple continues to update with security updates. If you do decide to recycle, make sure to wipe the phone’s data. E-waste can be a dark/shady business with a lot of the electronics shipped to China.

Its really iPhone 11 when things got crazy with deep fusion. The iPhone X actually has the most detailed screen. When i look at the same photos, somehow the X has better color and details than up iphone 14 max (i have every iphone till 14). If you look at raw image you will be blown away how little has changed since even iphone 4! But at the end of the day its all about the photographer than the equipment. Just ask chefs. 20 students same kitchen, ingredients, recipe, 20 different tasting dish. What really drove that in was when my art teacher took a shot of me with my camera and holy shit it was one of the best pics I've seen. He just has the eye at the end of the day.