Super-8? Or hateful 8? Read on for our verdict on Apple's new smartphones.
Pros
- All the key features are better than ever iPhone 8 Plus dual camera is the best around First iPhones you can charge wirelessly
Cons Looks great. But design hasn't changed much from the iPhone 7
- Wireless chargers are sold separately Lack of headphone jack means you've got to use an adapter
What do you want to read about?
- First ImpressionsLook and feel like top-end smartphones from top to bottom.
- DesignVery similar to iPhone 7. But the glass back and rounded edges are a winning combination.
- Screen Brighter and more crisp than iPhone 7.
- Camera Dual camera on iPhone 8 is excellent in every respect. Especially portrait mode.
- Performance and battery life Expect a full day out of a full charge. Feel zippy to use.
- Value for money Not the cheapest phones. But you're getting a very, very good smartphone.
- Verdict Don't read too much into appearances. The iPhone 8 is a smartphone tour de force.
First Impressions
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it isn’t a maxim you’d readily associate with Apple. But that certainly seems to have been the approach the tech giant has taken with Iphone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
At 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches, the dimensions are identical to last year’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. And once again, both feel great in the hand.
The robust glass body, which replaces the iPhone 7’s aluminium construction, means they’re a little bit heavier and feel a bit more ‘premium’ as a result.
If you’ve already got an iPhone (and we figure that’s rather a lot of you), the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is easier to set up than ever. You just need to place your current iPhone next to your gleaming new one and it’ll detect the old phone via Bluetooth.
From there, it transfers over your initial settings. And within a matter of minutes, you can start the set-up process proper and download your back-up from iCloud.
Design
- Similar to iPhone 7. But sleek profile and rounded edges look great
- Glass construction seems robust and enables wireless charging
- Reassuringly familiar, home button is present and correct
As you’ll by now have gathered, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus cleave closely to the design blueprint and appealing rounded edges of the last few iPhones.
Whether that’s good or bad largely depends on how much you were crying out for something that looked different.
For what it’s worth, though, we really like the iPhone 8’s design. To be honest, we accepted that smartphone design was pretty much perfected a while ago. So we’re happier when the likes of Apple only tweak designs rather than introduce something new just for the sake of novelty.
The move to a glass front and rear from the iPhone 7’s aluminium construction means the phone can be charged wirelessly by placing it on a mat (glass is more conductive than metal).
The glass finish certainly looks pretty. After dropping ours a few times and stashing it in our pocket with keys and coins, it came up blemish-free too. So we’re happy to accept Apple’s claims that the glass is toughened up.
Once again, there’s no headphone slot. So if you want to listen to music with traditional wired headphones, you’ve got to use the adaptor provided. Or you can bite the bullet and buy a pair of wireless headphones.
Unlike the iPhone X but in keeping with every other iPhone before now, there’s also a physical home button. And just as reassuringly, it’s got Touch ID fingerprint security embedded within it, so you can still unlock it by placing your finger on the button.
iPhone 8 wet hero image
iPhone 8 water resistant test hero size
It remains to be seen how Apple’s bold claims for the iPhone X’s Facial ID face-scanning security stack up. But for now, when it comes to keeping personal details secure we’re only too happy to stick with the proven fingerprint technology.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are rated IP67 for water-resistance too.
So that hasn’t changed from the iPhone 7 and means they can withstand being submerged in up to one metre of static water for up to half an hour. Handy if, like us, you’re a klutz around water.
| Build | All-glass body with metal strip |
| Weight | 148g (iPhone 8), 202g (iPhone 8 Plus) |
| Dimensions | 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3mm (iPhone 8), 158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5mm (iPhone 8 Plus) |
Screen
- Superb colour reproduction
- TrueTone technology reduces eyestrain
- Large screens are great for watching video
As with the iPhone 8’s design, the Retina HD screens on Apple’s new smartphones has been tweaked rather than massively overhauled.
So instead of upgrading to an OLED technology, they’ve both got LCD screens and can display the same range of colours. So far, so familiar, then.
But the improvement for this year comes with the addition of the same TrueTone technology that you’ll find on high-end iPads.
This automatically adjusts the white balance of the screen to match your ambient lighting conditions. The upshot is that colours look notably warmer and more natural on a screen that’s impressively bright and vibrant.
TrueTone also reduces eyestrain, which is a boon if you’re as permanently glued to your phone as us.
| Size | 4.7 inches (iPhone 8), 5.5 inches (iPhone 8 Plus) |
| Resolution | 750 x 1334 pixels (iPhone 8), 1080 x 1920 pixels (iPhone 8 Plus) |
| Technology | LED |
Features
- iOS 11 software, with a lick of paint for key apps and a smarter Siri
- Customisable Control Centre is great and puts you in the driving seat
- Augmented Reality (AR) apps are fun and useful in equal measures
iPhone 8 AR dragon game hero size
iPhone 8 Ikea app AR hero size
The most attention-grabbing feature of the iOS 11 software that powers the iPhone 8 is augmented reality (AR).
Heartily recommended for nurturing types is Dragon AR, which makes a scaly pet appear on your desk and tasks you with looking after it a la Tamagotchi.
We were also very taken with The Machines, which is fresh, AR take on a table-top wargame that requires you to actually move around the room to survey the scene and check your forces aren’t being squeezed by a pincer movement.
It’s the closest we’ll get to feeling like Alexander the Great. All that pacing around the room helps with your daily step count too.
The Ikea Catalogue AR app is genuinely useful and enables you to see how furniture would really look in your room before you commit to a purchase.
Sometimes it just looks a bit like the sofa or table is a sticker that’s been pasted on to a real-world background. But it’s still pretty handy to be able to get a loose idea of whether the couch you’re eyeing would really match those curtains.
The Control Centre, which is the one-swipe way to access key features and settings, has been redesigned.
iPhone 8 new toolbar hero image
iPhone 8 new app store hero image
Taking cues from airport signs, it’s now much cleaner and more modern. And more importantly, you can customise it, so your most-used features are easier to get to.
Staple apps and services, such as the calculator and App Store, have been freshened up and given a lick of paint for iOS 11 too.
And Siri now lets you have more natural conversations and handily translates your chat into a Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German, and French on the spot.
Right now, it doesn’t support UK English, so we couldn’t try it. But our US cousins assure us it works fast too and handles lengthy chunks of speech with aplomb.
Camera
- Photos pack in plenty of detail, with rich but realistic colour reproduction
- Portrait Mode on iPhone 8 Plus is fantastic, with fun new modes this time around
- Selfie cameras really can turn base metal into gold
iPhone 8 Camera in action arcade games hero size
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus camera lens hero size
It’s in the camera department that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus’ spec sheets and capabilities really diverge. If you’re a keen Instagrammer or photography enthusiast, it’s the Plus you’ll really want.
The iPhone 8 features a single 12-megapixel camera with a large aperture that lets in 83% more light. It’s also got new colour filters and optical image stabilisation (OIS).
OIS was previously reserved for the iPhone 7 Plus and really helps keep things steady when you’re shooting snaps on the move.
iPhone 8 Plus camera sample flower pots
iPhone 8 Plus camera sample depth effect flowers
iPhone 8 Plus camera sample Tower Bridge
We were impressed with how fast the iPhone 8’s camera activated and focused too. It really handy for capturing those blink-and-you’ll-miss moments.
The 8 Plus is equipped with a dual camera that pairs a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with and 12-megapixel telephoto lens.
These team up to allow you get an amazing depth of field in your portraits, by blurring out background details and bringing the subject of your shot into super-sharp focus.
As you may recall this so-called Bokeh effect debuted as ‘Portrait Mode’ on the iPhone 7 Plus, which also featured dual cameras.
However, this time it’s been enhanced, so that the backgrounds are gauzier and less distinct than before, while your subject is now in sharper detail. It’s a very striking effect that results in slick shots with minimum of effort.
There are some new modes too. We really like the Portrait Light option, which allows you to artificially change the light in a photo.
So suppose you had a brightly lit snap, you could completely transform the lightning so it appears that your subject is in a theatrical spotlight with darkness around them. Very dramatic, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Ru studio light portrait mode black and white iPhone 8 Plus
Ru iPhone 8 Plus studio light colour portrait
You can also more subtly adjust the lighting, to bring your subject’s features to the fore much more.
We were generally very impressed with the results we got with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus’ main cameras. In low-light and good light, our snaps were reliably superb. And were packed with plenty of detail to admire, even when zooming in a fair old range.
iPhone 8 Plus portrait mode depth effect
iPhone 8 Plus camera sample coffees depth effect
iPhone 8 camera sample cat
iPhone 8 camera sample cat with the iPhone
