iPhone X hands-on: 3 reasons to wait for Apple's $1,000 phone

Our iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus reviews are in, and -- spoiler alert -- they're exactly the high-quality updates to last year's iPhones we expected. They're also sensible and safe compared to the bold, brassy, experimental iPhone X that we've all been waiting for (that's pronounced "ten," by the way, not "ex"). Unless you're set on the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus as your affordable iPhone workhorse, put your buying ambitions on hold until Apple launches its flagship iPhone X on Nov. 3 (iPhone X preorders kick off Oct. 27).

The iPhone X is the first iPhone to have a 5.8-inch screen with ultraslim bezels. The first to use an OLED screen, a different technology than the typical LCD panels, which Apple says will make colors absolutely pop. The first iPhone to completely do away with Apple's iconic home button, a mainstay since the very first iPhone. Face ID gives it a new way to securely unlock the phone and pay with your face (Apple has no more use for your fingerprints). Finally, the iPhone X is Apple's only new device to nab a portrait mode on the front-facing camera (despite having just one lens and not two), optical image stabilization for both rear 12-megapixel camera lenses and -- more breezily -- a new feature to animate poop

Is the wildly expensive iPhone X worth it? That's the $1,000 question. And with so many high-end phones worth buying, we're facing an embarrassment of mobile riches at costs that slide in under the iPhone X's exorbitant price tag. Until the iPhone X comes in for review (possibly not until late October), we just don't know for certain how it matches up.

So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tell you how much the iPhone X is and how to buy it, highlight some hardware specs, and talk about three reasons that might make you want the iPhone X for your own... and two that might sway you otherwise.