Michael Grothaus 28/02/2018 - 3:10pm

Tweak it with these hacks.

It’s probably accurate to say the iPhone X’s display is the most divisive in smartphone history. The 5.8in features a Super Renita HD AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2436×1125 pixels and a pixel-per-inch density of 458. On top of that, the display is made of dual-ion exchange-strengthened glass and is 3D Touch enabled. I know, what’s so divisive about that? It’s because that beautiful screen has the infamous notch–some people love it and some hate it.

I was in the latter group, but after using the iPhone X for a while I’ve learned to embrace the notch. It adds a level of distinction to the iPhone. And besides, notch or not, the iPhone X’s display is drop-dead gorgeous. But, did you know you can make the display even better? It’s true. Here are the hacks you can take advantage of that will help tailor the iPhone X’s display to your optimal liking.

iPhone X Display: Text Size And Bold Text

Sometimes the iPhone screen looks perfect from a color and brightness point of view–it’s just the text that could be hard to read for certain people. And by “certain people” I mean long-sighted people. But Apple has built in two settings that can make it easier to read text for such people: Text Size and Bold Text. Text Size allows you to make default system text and text in apps larger or smaller. Bold Text will make the same next bold, making it easier on the eyes. To adjust either go to Settings > Display & Brightness and then toggle the Bold Text tab to ON (green) or tap Text Size and adjust the text slider at the bottom of the next page.

iPhone X Display: True Tone

True Tone is a feature on the iPhone X that dynamically adjusts the white balance of the iPhone's display based on your current lighting conditions. This results in the color of your screen looking more natural and accurate – kind of like paper does. I love True Tone, but some people might not. You can see what your screen looks like by turning it off. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and then toggle the True Ton switch to OFF (white).

iPhone X Display: Night Shift

Night Shift is a setting that, after a certain time of night, will automatically make your iPhone’s screen look warmer. It does this by reducing the blue light the display emits. Science says blue light wires our brain to keep us up, which is why Night Shift is set to come on automatically on most phones after 10pm. If you don’t like this warming on your display each night, you can turn it off or change the time settings. Simply go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift to do so.

iPhone X Display: Reduce The White Point

People like bright displays, but really bright displays can make certain bright colors hard on the eyes. Thankfully there's a setting in iOS that allows you to keep the display brightness the same, but reduce the brightness of other colors. This is the Reduce White Point setting. You can enable it in Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations under the Reduce White Point header.

iPhone X Display: Auto-brightness

Finally, if you find your iPhone’s screen fluctuating in brightness you probably have auto-brightness enabled. This will make the screen brighter in bright outside conditions (thus making it easier to read) and darker in low light conditions (because it doesn’t need as much brightness to be visible). You can toggle Auto-brightness on or off by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations.