I never unlock my phone by picking it up, holding it in front of my face, looking at it, and then putting my thumb on the sensor.

I pick it up off my desk with my thumb on the home button and it's unlocked long before I start using the phone.

I also frequently use my phone laying flat on the desk, reaching over and just pressing the home button.

I can't tell if you're being passive aggressive or not.

Many, many people have pointed out that looking directly at the phone (as needed by Face ID), is NOT the only way to use a phone. Sometimes one just wants to glance down at the screen to see a notification. Watch Nilay's review and you'll see what I mean.

You look at the phone to unlock it; notifications still display when the phone is locked. I believe waking up the phone just involves raising it a bit (like in the Watch), along with some light-sensor heuristic (like in the AirPods.) Or, y’know, pressing the sleep button.

You can also wake the phone up now by tapping the display(similar to the watch). Also it might be configurable in settings but the notification content is hidden on the X when the phone is locked, after FaceID they become visible.

>You look at the phone to unlock it; notifications still display when the phone is locked.

Actually, by default they don't display the content of notifications until it recognises your face. But you may be able to turn this off.

I've been critical of Apple's choices in the past, mainly the headphone jack removal, as an Android/Windows/linux guy. The iPhone X looks stunning, and I think the design decisions they've made (aside from not bringing back the headphone jack) are actually very future-looking and cool. My vision of the future is one in which we use the screen a lot less, and use our voices and AR more. Once the gestures are learned by the user base, using the phone should actually become a less frustrating and time-intensive experience. That said, I've not experienced notifications on the X, but again, as an Android user, I do sometimes just hit the power or main button to see what's on the screen. To do so, I typically do have to move the phone anyway, so as long as the X gives you some notification previews when you tap the phone or something, that's a compromise I could happily make.