I returned my iPhone X 256 GB yesterday unopened. For me Reachability and Control Panel are big features that I use dozens of times a day. I might consider the iPhone SE2 when it comes out. I'm very much a use the phone with one hand as much as possible person. Reachability added extra steps when changing between who you are texting for example but worked with the trade off of a larger screen.
Like a lot of folks, I have adopted the "pinkie on the bottom" approach to maximize thumb travel. With any finger on the bottom of the phone with the iPhone X, I just didn't have any room to activate Reachability. I could of course hold it with my other hand and swipe down but that was pointless. It feels like an afterthought and doesn't work. When you combine the two, Reachability plus bringing Control Panel down from the top right, it works in theory but again if I had my pinkie under the phone there simply wasn't room to downward swipe. I just can't imagine not being able to use Reachability properly on the phone. I mean I even use it on the home screen to activate apps that are higher up on the screen and this would be even more true on the stretched iPhone X screen.
I'm hoping that by next year Apple will have figured out something different. It is clear this year that the phone wasn't really designed with Reachability as a thought and that it was added afterwards and is not enabled by default. I'd even argue that the means of activating it feels hidden. Likewise the Control Panel from the top right just feels wrong.
I'm hoping like Apple will have another go and rethink some of the decisions they made so far with iOS 11 on iPhone X and much like how they made improvements to Watch OS, they will find some means of improving the interactions on the same hardware.
I'll be happy to give it a look next year and in the meantime I am more than happy with my iPhone 7.
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