Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Whatever you do, don’t buy an iPhone X right now

Updated Aug 24th, 2018 11:48AM EDT
iPhone X Plus Release Date
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 is now just one day away from being released, and the company’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ from earlier this year are available from retailers across the country at discounted prices. The OnePlus 6 is an outstanding phone and it’s even less expensive. LG has some nice phones out right now, the HTC U12+ is a solid option with a cool see-through design, and the Huawei P20 Pro with the world’s best camera is currently on sale at its lowest price ever. Despite all the great new smartphones out there right now, if you ask us the best smartphone on the planet is still last year’s iPhone X.

Apple’s tenth-anniversary iPhone has a stunning design that almost every Android phone maker out there has copied. Of course, they haven’t come anywhere close to achieving what Apple has with the iPhone X. The phone has no “chin bezel” thanks to Apple’s brilliant internal design, and it’s made out of glass and stainless steel instead of aluminum like other phones. The display is positively stunning — combining Samsung Display’s OLED screens with Apple’s color tuning is a winning combination. As far as performance goes, no smartphone is more powerful and no smartphone is faster if you’re running Apple’s iOS 12 beta software, which fixes the performance issues in iOS 11. And let’s not forget the iOS app ecosystem, and all the great features Apple’s own iOS software provides.

Long story short, it really doesn’t get any better than the iPhone X. It’s the best smartphone out there right now. But please, whatever you do, don’t buy one.

We have made the occasional plea like this in the past around this time of year, but things are different right now. You would pretty much have to be crazy to buy an iPhone X today. Why are we so adamant that you refrain from buying the best smartphone out there? Simple: It’s because we’re now less than one month away from the release of Apple’s next-generation iPhone lineup.

Apple releases upgraded and improved iPhone models each year, but 2018 is bit different in a few different ways. The most important differences as they pertain to this post, however, all involve pricing.

If you want an iPhone with a 5.8-inch OLED screen like the one available today, Apple’s next-generation model will look exactly the same but offer upgraded performance for a lower price. That’s right, it’ll be even better and yet it’ll also be cheaper! While Apple currently sells its 64GB iPhone X for $999 and its 256GB model for $1,149, the next-gen 5.8-inch OLED iPhone models will cost $899 and $1,049, respectively.

Let’s say you don’t need all that extra oomph and you’re happy with the iPhone X’s terrific performance as it stands today. Well, you should still wait. A new upper-mid-range iPhone model with a 6.1-inch LCD display and roughly the same performance as the current iPhone X will be released next month as well, and it could start as low as $699.

Maybe money is no object and you don’t care about saving some scratch. Perhaps you also don’t care about performance improvements. Guess what: you should still wait. Less than one month from now, the same $999 and $1,149 price points will get you an even larger iPhone with a 6.5-inch OLED screen. That’s right, Apple will finally release a phablet with the iPhone X’s design identity. People have been calling it the “iPhone X Plus” since no one knows what the real name will be, but it exists and it’s going to be the hottest new phone of 2018.

As BGR has now all but confirmed, Apple will unveil its next-generation iPhone lineup on September 12th. Preorders will go live that Friday, September 14th, and the phones will be released the following Friday, September 21st. Do yourself a favor and hold off on buying a new iPhone for one more month.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.