When Apple dropped the iPhone X, it wasn't just a new phone. It was a statement. Honestly, looking back at the iPhone X specs today feels like opening a time capsule from the moment the smartphone industry shifted on its axis. We moved from home buttons to gestures, from bezels to "notches," and from fingerprint scanners to a laser-based facial recognition system that felt like science fiction.
But what's actually under that glass and stainless steel? If you’re thinking about picking one up as a secondary device, or if you're just curious about the hardware that started the modern "all-screen" era, the numbers might surprise you. Some parts of it still hold up incredibly well. Others? Kinda show their age.
The Screen That Killed the Home Button
The display was the star of the show. Apple called it the Super Retina HD display, and for the first time in iPhone history, they ditched LCD for OLED technology. This meant true blacks. It meant a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. If you watch a movie with dark scenes, the pixels actually turn off.
It’s a 5.8-inch screen. That might sound small compared to today’s "Max" models, but because the bezels are so thin, it actually felt huge at the time. You've got a resolution of 2436-by-1125 pixels. That works out to 458 pixels per inch (ppi), which is still incredibly sharp by 2026 standards.
Brightness is where you see the gap between then and now. The iPhone X maxes out at 625 nits of typical brightness. Modern phones frequently hit 2,000 nits. If you're standing in direct sunlight, the iPhone X can be a bit of a struggle to read compared to a newer iPhone 15 or 16.
Display Details at a Glance
The panel supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so HDR content still looks vibrant. It also featured 3D Touch, a pressure-sensitive tech that Apple later abandoned in favor of Haptic Touch. Many purists still miss the physical "click" feeling of 3D Touch. The screen also uses True Tone, which adjusts the white balance based on the light around you. It makes the screen look more like paper and less like a glowing blue rectangle.
Processing Power: The A11 Bionic
The heart of the machine is the A11 Bionic chip. This was a massive leap for Apple because it introduced the first Neural Engine. It was a dual-core design dedicated specifically to machine learning. That’s why Face ID works. It’s why you can have Animojis that mimic your facial expressions in real-time.
🔗 Read more: The 120 Watt Solar Panel: Why This Specific Size is the Sweet Spot for Mobile Power
The CPU itself is a 6-core beast.
- Two performance cores (25% faster than the previous A10).
- Four high-efficiency cores (70% faster than the A10).
One cool thing about the A11 is that it can use all six cores at once. Earlier chips were more of an "either-or" situation between performance and efficiency. For gaming or heavy multitasking, this was a game-changer. Even now, for basic apps and social media, the A11 doesn't feel like a total dinosaur. It’s snappy enough for daily tasks, though you’ll notice it starts to heat up during heavy photo editing or high-end gaming.
The RAM is capped at 3GB. By modern standards, that’s low. If you have twenty tabs open in Safari and try to switch between a heavy game and Instagram, the phone will likely reload the apps. It’s the biggest bottleneck for the device today.
iPhone X Specs: The Camera System
People often forget that the iPhone X was the first to give us a vertical camera stack. It’s a dual 12MP system. You get a wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture and a telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture.
The big win here was Dual Optical Image Stabilization (OIS).
Both lenses are stabilized. Most phones back then only stabilized the main lens. This makes a huge difference when you’re zoomed in; the video doesn’t look like it was filmed during an earthquake.
For video, it was a trailblazer. It could shoot 4K at 60 fps and 1080p slow-motion at 240 fps. That was unheard of for a smartphone in 2017. Even today, the 4K footage looks surprisingly professional if you have good lighting.
The front-facing TrueDepth camera is 7MP. It’s the magic behind Face ID. It uses an infrared camera, a flood illuminator, and a dot projector to map 30,000 invisible dots on your face. It's why it works in the dark. It’s arguably more secure than the fingerprint scanners on older models, though it does struggle if you're wearing a heavy scarf or lying at a weird angle on a pillow.
Battery Life and Connectivity
The battery capacity is 2716 mAh. That sounds tiny. But because the OLED screen is efficient and the A11 manages power well, Apple claimed it lasted two hours longer than the iPhone 7.
In reality? It's a "one-day" phone. If you're a heavy user, you’re looking for a charger by 6 PM.
The good news is it supports Fast Charging. You can get a 50% charge in about 30 minutes, but—and this is a classic Apple move—you had to buy a separate USB-C to Lightning cable and a higher-wattage power brick to actually use it. Out of the box, it came with the slow 5W "cube" charger.
It also introduced Qi Wireless Charging. It was the first time we could just set an iPhone on a pad and walk away. It’s capped at 7.5W for wireless, so it’s not exactly "fast," but it's convenient for overnight charging on a nightstand.
Storage and Build
You basically had two choices: 64GB or 256GB. There was no 128GB middle ground. The frame is surgical-grade stainless steel, which feels significantly denser and more premium than the aluminum used on the iPhone 8 or the standard models today. It's heavy. It feels like a piece of jewelry.
The water resistance is rated at IP67. This means it can handle being submerged in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Don’t take it deep-sea diving, but a drop in the sink isn't a death sentence.
Does it still matter?
The iPhone X is essentially the blueprint for every iPhone that followed. It’s why we don't have home buttons. It’s why we have gestures. While the iPhone X specs aren't topping any charts in 2026, the device remains a surprisingly usable piece of tech history.
💡 You might also like: BBC iPlayer App Download: How to Actually Get It Working Anywhere
If you're using one today, you've probably noticed the battery health is the first thing to go. Lithium-ion batteries age chemically. If your "Maximum Capacity" in Settings is below 80%, the phone will throttle the CPU to prevent it from shutting down. A simple battery replacement can actually make the phone feel brand new because it allows the A11 chip to run at its full clock speed again.
Actionable Tips for iPhone X Owners
- Check Battery Health: Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health. if you're below 80%, consider a replacement to restore peak performance.
- Manage Storage: Since 64GB fills up fast, use HEIF/HEVC formats for photos and video to save space without losing quality.
- Optimize Display: Use Dark Mode. Since it’s an OLED screen, black pixels are literally turned off, which saves a measurable amount of battery life.
- Protection: The back glass is notoriously expensive to fix because the entire phone has to be disassembled. Always use a case, even if the stainless steel looks too good to hide.