iPhone X物有所值？

So much has already been written about the iPhone X that it can become hard to process it all. Is the camera “notch” at the top of the screen a big deal? Does Face ID let hackers steal your visage? Will you be lost without a home button?

目前已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了太多關(guān)于iPhone X的文章，以至于人們很難看得過來。屏幕頂端(攝像頭位置)的“齊劉海”要不要緊?Face ID會讓黑客竊取你的面容嗎?沒有Home鍵，你會不知所措嗎?

The answer to those questions is no — but they rather miss the point. The best thing about the iPhone X is that it fits a plus-sized screen into a casing only a little bigger than a standard-sized iPhone. It is no more and no less revolutionary than that.

這些問題的答案都是否定的——但是它們都沒問到點子上。iPhone X最棒的地方在于，它擁有大尺寸的屏幕，而機身卻只比標準(非plus版)的iPhone大一點。iPhone X的變革性僅在于此，但這確實是偉大的變革。

All the other features ultimately derive from that shift — removing the home button to shrink the overall size; replacing fingerprint authentication with facial recognition; rethinking how you use the touchscreen. And they all work just as well as you would hope for a $1,000 phone.

其他所有功能歸根到底都來自這一轉(zhuǎn)變——去掉Home鍵以縮小整體尺寸;用面部識別代替指紋認證;重新思考用戶如何使用觸摸屏。而且這些功能的表現(xiàn)全都能夠達到你對一部1000美元手機的期待。

I am unlikely to be able to persuade you that this phone, or any other, is worth a four-figure sum. I use my iPhone more than almost any other object I own: certainly more than my car or my television, probably even more than my laptop. For me, that makes it worth the extra investment, especially — as Apple chief Tim Cook quaintly put it last week — given the price is less than going to “one of these nice coffee places” every day for a year.

我不太可能說服你，iPhone X或其他任何別的手機值得四位數(shù)的價格。我使用iPhone的頻率比使用我擁有的其他任何一件物品的頻率都要高：肯定比我使用車或電視更頻繁，甚至可能比我使用筆記本還要頻繁。我覺得，這樣來看多花一點錢也值了，更何況按照蘋果公司首席執(zhí)行官蒂姆•庫克(Tim Cook)上周提出的奇葩算法，iPhone X的價格還不夠你每天一次、去“一家好一點的咖啡店”喝一年咖啡。

But just as when I change anything on which I rely every day, I did find there was a period of adjustment.

但是，在任何我每日依賴的東西上做出改變，都難免要經(jīng)歷一段適應(yīng)期，這次也不例外。

I had anticipated that losing the home button, something I have clicked hundreds of times a day for the best part of a decade, would be the biggest shock. In fact it was surprisingly easy to give up. Swiping up from the bottom of the iPhone’s screen is just as fast and, without needing to apply pressure, in many ways easier.

我原先以為，沒有了Home鍵將是最不習(xí)慣的——在過去十年大部分時間里，我每天都要按下數(shù)百次的按鍵。事實證明，放棄Home鍵竟然出乎意料地容易。從iPhone屏幕底部向上滑動和使用Home鍵一樣快速，而且在很多方面比后者更好用，比如無需真正按下。

On the other hand, moving access to iPhone’s control centre (containing shortcuts to its camera, screen brightness, volume and wireless connections) from the bottom of the screen to the top right feels awkward. Because the iPhone X’s 5.8-inch screen is longer than the normal 4.7-inch size, the top is just a little too hard to reach one-handed.

另一方面，把訪問iPhone控制中心(包含訪問相機、調(diào)整屏幕亮度和音量以及開關(guān)無線連接的快捷方式)的位置從屏幕底部移至屏幕右上，感覺很別扭。 由于iPhone X的5.8英寸屏幕比正常4.7英寸的屏幕更長，因此單手有點難夠到屏幕右上的位置。

The iPhone X’s most profound change, technologically speaking, is the switch from Touch ID to Face ID. Touch ID was a brilliant invention because it made being more secure less effort. Face ID is even easier, because all you have to do is look at the phone. It worked in the dark and with or without my glasses.

從技術(shù)上講，iPhone X最重大的變化就是將Touch ID改為Face ID。Touch ID是一項杰出的發(fā)明，因為它使得人們可以更不費力地提升安全性。Face ID甚至更方便，因為你所要做的只是看一眼手機。它在黑暗環(huán)境下也能使，而且無論我戴沒戴眼鏡它都能識別。

Given the complexity of achieving this securely and reliably from any angle, Face ID works stunningly well. It is the new touchstone for how Apple’s hardware, software and silicon can combine to create features that other smartphone makers cannot.

考慮到在任何角度都安全可靠地實現(xiàn)這一點的復(fù)雜性，F(xiàn)ace ID表現(xiàn)得非常出色。這是新的試金石，體現(xiàn)出蘋果的硬件、軟件和硅片結(jié)合起來如何能創(chuàng)造出其他智能手機制造商無法實現(xiàn)的功能。

A particularly delightful element of Face ID is the way that notifications hide their content from the home screen (the text of an email or iMessage, for instance) until the iPhone X sees that you are looking directly at it. It is an optional feature but another way in which Apple is making it easy to be more secure.

Face ID格外好的一點是，在iPhone看到你在直視它之前，主屏幕上可以只顯示通知標記，而不顯示內(nèi)容(比如電子郵件或iMessage內(nèi)文)。這是一項可選功能，但也是蘋果讓提升手機安全性變得簡便的又一個例子。

Nonetheless, Face ID does cause the occasional issue where Touch ID did not. It sometimes refuses to unlock when I pick it up from my bedside table. This is perhaps forgivable, given my face is partly obscured by pillow, but it is a situation in which I find myself most mornings. The good news is that the “neural engine” inside the iPhone X helps Face ID to learn with every unlock, so it may improve over time.

盡管如此，F(xiàn)ace ID確實會導(dǎo)致一個Touch ID不會遇到的偶發(fā)問題。當我從床頭柜上拿起手機時，它有時會拒絕解鎖。這或許是可以原諒的，因為我的臉被枕頭遮住了一部分，但這就是我大多數(shù)早上會遇到的狀況。好消息是，iPhone X內(nèi)部的“神經(jīng)引擎”可以幫助Face ID在每次解鎖時學(xué)習(xí)，所以隨著時間推移，F(xiàn)ace ID可能會表現(xiàn)得越來越好。

One thing that will not improve is Face ID’s ability to work through my sunglasses. Certain sunglasses block the infrared light that the iPhone X shines on my face, and mine seem to be among them. Its array of 30,000 infrared dots is central to making Face ID both more secure and, in most situations, more reliable.

我戴著太陽鏡時Face ID沒法識別，這一點不會改善。某些太陽鏡會阻擋iPhone X射向我臉上的紅外線，而我的太陽鏡似乎就是其中之一。它的3萬個紅外線光點是確保Face ID更安全、而且在大多數(shù)情況下更可靠的核心。

The sunglasses issue may not matter to people who live in less sunny places (should I mention that I ate dinner outside last night here in California? Probably not). The only solutions seem to be removing the sunglasses every time, typing in the numerical passcode, or buying new sunglasses (and what is the price of another few cappuccinos between phones?).

如果你生活在陽光不那么強烈的地方，太陽鏡的問題可能不要緊(我是不是應(yīng)該提一下，昨天晚上，在我們加州這兒，我是在室外吃的晚餐?還是別提了吧)。 僅有的解決方案似乎有如下幾種：每次都取下太陽鏡，輸入數(shù)字密碼，或者購買新的太陽鏡(跟手機比起來這算什么，不就是再多幾杯卡布奇諾的錢嗎?)。

What does really matter is that screen. A bigger display in a smaller package is long overdue for the iPhone, given Samsung has been at it for almost three years now.

真正重要的是那塊屏幕。鑒于三星(Samsung)的窄邊框手機已經(jīng)推出了近三年的時間，所以iPhone早就應(yīng)該推出機身更小、屏幕更大的機型了。

Apple’s first OLED screen to me just looks brilliant, in the true sense of the word, with the software somehow seeming closer to the surface of the glass than in previous iPhones.

對我來說，首次出現(xiàn)在iPhone上的OLED屏幕看起來很棒——是真正意義上的很棒。軟件不知為什么似乎比以前的iPhone更貼近玻璃表面。

While Samsung is the company supplying much of Apple’s OLED displays, the iPhone diverges from its rival’s Galaxy devices in how it uses the screen.

盡管三星為蘋果供應(yīng)了很大一部分OLED屏，但iPhone在搭載這種屏幕的方式上與其競爭對手的Galaxy手機不同。

I loved the way the Samsung Galaxy S8’s screen curves at the edges, making the whole handset seem sleeker and thinner. The iPhone X’s screen is flat and the body is slightly thicker than its predecessors. That makes it feel bulkier in the pocket but it does avoid some of the accidental touches and inputs that were sometimes an issue on the exposed edge of the S8.

我喜歡三星Galaxy S8的屏幕在邊緣處彎曲的設(shè)計，這讓整個手機看起來更時尚、更薄。iPhone X的屏幕是平的，機身也比前幾款iPhone稍厚。這使得它在口袋里更占地，但它確實避免了一些誤觸和誤輸入——S8的彎曲邊緣有時會有這些問題。

Where the iPhone X really capitalises on its new screen is in the software. The touchscreen’s responsiveness is twice as fast as previous iPhones, which makes the way iOS tracks fingers and renders animations feel much smoother than before.

iPhone X真正發(fā)揮了新屏幕優(yōu)勢的地方在于軟件。新屏幕的觸摸響應(yīng)速度是舊款iPhone的兩倍，這讓iOS追蹤手指和顯示動畫的效果比以前流程得多。

New design touches in iOS make the most of this. Instead of the solid press of the old home button, we have a fluid swipe which lends the iPhone X software a feeling of weightlessness. (The hardware, on the other hand, is noticeably heavier than an iPhone 8.) iOS中的一些新設(shè)計充分利用了這一點。只需在屏幕底部輕輕滑動，無需像過去那樣真正按下home鍵，這讓iPhone X的軟件有種輕盈感(另一方面，iPhone X明顯比iPhone 8重)。

Another way in which ditching the home button improves the user experience is switching between apps. Instead of double clicking and sliding through the windows of apps, the iPhone X lets you move instantly from one to another by sliding your finger from left to right on the bottom of the display.

此外，home鍵的取消還改善了在不同應(yīng)用間切換這一操作的用戶體驗。無需連按兩下home鍵然后在不同應(yīng)用的窗口間滑動，只需在屏幕底部從左至右滑動手指，就能立即從一個應(yīng)用切換到另一個了。

There are other reasons to admire the iPhone X than I have time to detail here, from its camera to wireless charging.

從攝像頭到無線充電，iPhone X還有許多值得稱頌的地方，篇幅所限，我就不一一細說了。

Overall, the iPhone X’s many refinements help to justify its luxury price tag. It takes a surprising amount of sophistication to deliver on the simple promise of more screen in less iPhone, but the X makes it look effortless.

總的來說，iPhone X的種種改進讓其物有所值。在較小機身上放進更大的屏幕是一項復(fù)雜得驚人的任務(wù)，但iPhone X似乎毫不費力地做到了。