Image Credits: Apple Declares the iPhone X Obsolete, Closing the Book on the Phone That Redefined the iPhone. AI-generated illustration created by Open Chronicle using ChatGPT (OpenAI). August 2026. This image is illustrative and does not depict a real-world scene.
By Open Chronicle Technology
Nearly a decade after Apple introduced the iPhone X as nothing less than “the future of the smartphone,” the landmark device has officially reached the end of its hardware support life.
Apple has classified the iPhone X as an obsolete product, meaning the company no longer provides normal hardware service or replacement parts for the device through its service network.
The designation marks a symbolic moment for one of the most consequential iPhones Apple has produced. Introduced in 2017 alongside the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X abandoned several features that had defined Apple’s smartphone for years and introduced a design philosophy that remains visible in today’s models.
Its commercial life was relatively short. Apple stopped selling the iPhone X in 2018, but the ideas introduced by the device survived far longer.
When “the future” arrived
Apple unveiled the iPhone X in September 2017 as the flagship product celebrating the tenth anniversary of the original iPhone.
The company’s message was deliberately ambitious: “The future is here.”
Philip Schiller, then Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, described the iPhone X as “the future of the smartphone” and said its technologies represented the beginning of the next ten years of iPhone development.
The description seemed dramatic at the time, but many of the decisions Apple made with the iPhone X genuinely established the template for the company’s subsequent smartphones.
The familiar physical Home button disappeared.
So did Touch ID.
In their place came an almost entirely screen-dominated front, gesture navigation, and Face ID.
The Home button disappears
Perhaps the biggest adjustment for longtime iPhone users was the removal of the Home button.
Since the original iPhone appeared in 2007, the circular button below the display had been one of the product’s most recognisable features.
Apple eliminated it with the iPhone X.
Users instead learned a new system of gestures. Swiping upward replaced pressing the Home button to return to the main screen, while other gestures handled multitasking and navigation.
What initially represented a substantial change in how people interacted with an iPhone quickly became normal.
Modern flagship iPhones still follow the basic interaction model introduced by the iPhone X.
Face ID changes authentication
Removing the Home button also meant removing the fingerprint sensor embedded within it.
Apple’s replacement was Face ID.
The iPhone X introduced the TrueDepth camera system, which used multiple components to analyse the user’s face and authenticate access to the device.
Face ID could unlock the iPhone and authenticate payments and applications without requiring a fingerprint.
The technology also produced one of the iPhone X’s most controversial design features: the notch.
Apple needed space for the front camera and TrueDepth hardware, resulting in a distinctive cutout extending into the top of the display.
The notch quickly became one of the most recognisable smartphone design elements of its era.
Super Retina changes the display
The iPhone X was also Apple’s first iPhone equipped with an OLED display.
Its 5.8-inch Super Retina screen offered deeper blacks, improved contrast and a very different visual experience from the LCD panels traditionally used by Apple.
The move toward OLED would eventually spread throughout Apple’s premium smartphone range.
The combination of an edge-to-edge display and the removal of the Home button also allowed Apple to fit a relatively large screen into a body that remained manageable compared with traditional large-screen smartphones.
That approach has subsequently become standard across the industry.
The A11 Bionic and Apple’s growing AI ambitions
Inside the iPhone X was Apple’s A11 Bionic processor.
The chip included what Apple called its Neural Engine, hardware specifically designed to accelerate machine learning workloads.
At the time, the Neural Engine helped support functions including Face ID and other computational tasks.
Its importance became much clearer over subsequent generations.
Dedicated machine learning capabilities have become increasingly central to smartphone photography, image processing, voice features and artificial intelligence applications.
Apple’s current processors are vastly more capable than the A11, but the iPhone X represented an important stage in the development of that architecture.
Even Animoji represented something new
Not every innovation introduced with the iPhone X was as fundamental as Face ID.
The TrueDepth system also enabled Animoji, animated characters that could reproduce a user’s facial expressions.
The feature initially appeared somewhat playful compared with the phone’s more significant technological changes.
But it demonstrated something important about Apple’s strategy.
The front-facing camera was no longer simply taking photographs. It was becoming a sophisticated sensor capable of interpreting faces and physical movement.
That concept eventually expanded into Memoji and other camera-based experiences.
A controversial $999 smartphone
The iPhone X was also significant because of its price.
Apple launched the device in the United States at $999, pushing the mainstream flagship iPhone into territory that had previously seemed unusually expensive for a smartphone.
The four-figure psychological barrier attracted considerable attention.
Yet the industry followed.
Premium smartphones costing around $1,000 or considerably more are now common, particularly at the top of product ranges from Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers.
In that respect, the iPhone X helped redefine not only what a flagship smartphone looked like, but also what consumers might be expected to pay for one.
What does “obsolete” mean at Apple?
Apple uses specific definitions for ageing products.
A device generally enters Apple’s vintage category after the company has stopped distributing it for sale for more than five years but less than seven.
Hardware service may still be available for vintage products, depending on the availability of parts.
The obsolete designation comes later.
Products generally become obsolete once Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than seven years ago.
At that point, Apple discontinues hardware service for the product, and service providers cannot normally order replacement parts through Apple.
Because Apple discontinued sales of the iPhone X in 2018, the device has now crossed that threshold.
For owners still using one, the phone does not suddenly stop functioning. The change primarily concerns Apple’s official hardware support and servicing infrastructure.
Software support had already ended
The iPhone X had already reached another important end-of-life milestone several years earlier.
Apple stopped providing it with major iOS upgrades after iOS 16.
The phone was therefore excluded from the newer generations of Apple’s mobile operating system.
That limitation increasingly affects application compatibility and access to newer platform features as developers target more recent versions of iOS.
The obsolete hardware designation completes another stage in the gradual retirement of the device.
The iPhone X never really disappeared
There is an irony in declaring the iPhone X obsolete.
The physical device may now belong to Apple’s technological past, but its fundamental design philosophy remains remarkably current.
Take a modern iPhone, and many of the concepts introduced in 2017 are immediately recognisable.
There is no Home button on Apple’s flagship models.
Gesture navigation remains fundamental.
Face ID remains Apple’s principal biometric authentication technology on premium iPhones.
OLED displays are widespread.
Machine learning hardware has become dramatically more important.
And the smartphone’s front surface continues to be dominated by the display.
Even the notch evolved rather than simply disappearing, eventually giving way on newer models to Apple’s Dynamic Island approach.
One of the most important iPhones after the original
Not every iPhone generation represents a major change.
Many improve cameras, processors, displays and battery life without fundamentally changing the concept of the device.
The iPhone X was different.
It represented one of Apple’s clearest attempts to break with the established design of its own most important product.
The transition was significant enough that Apple skipped the expected “iPhone 9” branding and used the Roman numeral X to emphasise the tenth anniversary.
It was simultaneously a celebration of the first decade of the iPhone and Apple’s attempt to establish the design language of the second.
In retrospect, that ambition was largely realised.
From revolutionary product to technological history
Technology ages quickly.
The A11 Bionic that seemed extraordinarily powerful in 2017 is now generations behind Apple’s current silicon. Cameras have improved dramatically. Displays have become brighter and more sophisticated. Mobile networks have moved into the 5G era, and artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how smartphone companies define their products.
Yet technological importance is not measured simply by whether a device remains competitive.
Some products matter because they establish the direction that subsequent generations follow.
The iPhone X belongs in that category.
Apple may now officially consider the hardware obsolete, but the smartphone future it previewed in 2017 is still visible every time a modern iPhone owner unlocks the device with a glance and swipes upward to go home.
The iPhone X is obsolete.
Its influence is not.