Apple finally unveils the latest line-up from the iPhone series, the all-new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with game-changing features and a lot of improvements from the previous models. Let us look one by one.
Design-wise, an improvement is noticeable. It now stands on both glasses back and front. It is made by an aerospace-grade with 7000 series aluminum alloy. The glass has the 7-layer color process that offers more precise hue. Speaking on the screen, the iPhone 8 sports a 4.7-inch capacitive panel while the bigger iPhone 8 Plus uses a 5.5-inch panel. The display incorporates the true tone technology, similar to what we’ve found on the iPad Pro, that uses two new four-channel ambient light sensors to adjust the display according to the user’s environment and to make the colors more consistent, and perfect color temperature. Adding to the protection, the two devices are accompanied with IP67 certified for splash, water and dust resistance.
These devices are powered by all-new Apple A11 Bionic chipset, and it consists of six-cores: the four low-power cores called ‘Mistral’, which is 70% faster than the Apple A10 and is handling the smaller tasks in the phone like e-mails and browsing internet, opening social media apps. One of the cores here are confirmed to have the same performance as the Snapdragon 835, a high-end processor made by Qualcomm. The two other cores are called ‘Monsoon’, 25% faster than the previous chipset and it controls the high-end tasks that includes playing 3D intensive games. It also features the 2nd-gen Apple-designed performance controller that has 70% faster multithread workloads. The company also worked on their own GPU, a 3-core design for 3D games, that promises 30% faster than the Apple A10 . Further, the processor has now the Apple-designed ISP that focuses on the photography level and gives faster auto-focus on capturing images. There’s a new pixel processing for sharpness and texture. For the first time, the company is now implementing the hardware multiband noise reduction that helps the camera performance and helps to take better pictures.
Moving thru the camera, the iPhone 8 has an all-new 12-megapixel sensor gives 83% more light with deeper pixels that and, new color filters provides better color saturation, wider dynamic range and lower noise on taking pictures and videos. It has an optical image stabilization. Going to the iPhone 8 Plus, there’s a two 12-megapixel lens with f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures, respectively. The former is the one that has wide-angle lens and optical image stabilization, while the latter is for telephoto. Portrait Mode now takes more sharpen details on the photo. On the iPhone 8 Plus, they introduce a feature called Portrait Lighting, creating a more depth map on the photo while sensing the scene in it. The users may compose on what they want in the subject photo like changing the contour on the face of a person. At the camera UI, there’s five modes under this new feature, the Normal Mode, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light and Stage Light Mono, changing the light effect. On video recording, Apple claims that the new iPhone 8 has the highest-quality video capture ever in a smartphone. It is built by the company’s designed video encoder for faster frame rates and high quality video with real-time image and motion analysis that predicts changes on the videos content which optimize the encoding algorithms. We can now shoot slo-mo videos, recording 1080p resolution at 240 fps.
Augmented-reality now executes on using the camera of the phone that integrates on the hardware and software content. It applies the new gyro and accelerometer for accurate motion tracking. By blending it from the chipset, the CPU is intended for scenes while the GPU renders realistic graphics up to 60 fps, especially when playing games.
For connectivity, a wireless charging is now available using Qi open wireless standard. Other includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and NFC for Apple Pay. As expected, the iPhone 8 does not have a headphone jack, and it requires the user to use a lightning to 3.5 mm earphone jack adapter.
Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus key specs:
| Display | 4.7-inch HD Retina display, 1334 x 750 resolution, 326 ppi – iPhone 8 |
| 5.5-inch Full HD Retina display, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 401 ppi – iPhone 8 Plus | |
| CPU | 2.5Ghz 64-bit Apple A11 chipset |
| RAM | 2GB – iPhone 8 |
| 3GB – iPhone 8 Plus | |
| SIM | Single-SIM |
| Storage | 64GB / 256GB |
| Storage expansion | – |
| Rear camera | 12-megapixel lens, f/1.8 aperture with Quad-LED True Tone flash – iPhone 8 |
| Dual 12-megapixel lens, f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures with Quad-LED True Tone flash – iPhone 8 Plus | |
| Front camera | 7-megapixel lens, f/2.2 aperture |
| Video recording | 2160p (60 fps, 30 fps and 24 fps); 1080p (240 fps, 60 fps and 30 fps); 720p (30 fps) |
| Operating system | iOS 11 |
| Others | Fingerprint scanner |
| Qi wireless charging | |
| Stereo speakers | |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MiMO |
| Bluetooth 5.0 | |
| GPS, A-GPS. GLONASS, NFC | |
| GSM, HSPA, 4G+ LTE (Category 16) | |
| Dimension | 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm – iPhone 8
158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5 mm – iPhone 8 Plus |
| Weight | 148 grams – iPhone 8
202 grams – iPhone 8 Plus |
| Battery | Fast charging support |
| Colors | Gold, Silver and Space Gray |
Availability
The iPhone 8, is actually cheaper than the predecessor, starting at $699 for the base 64GB version (doubles the storage as the base model from the iPhone 7). The larger iPhone 8 Plus begins with 64GB base variant also, priced starts at $799. Pre-order will start on September 15, 2017 and will be available a week after, September 22 in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States, includinh U.S. Virgin Islands. Upgrading to iOS 11 will also available for download by September 19.
