Powerhouse Duo

Superior performance and camera are the two striking features of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

While the all-screen iPhone X with FaceID is eagerly awaited, we got our hands on the iPhone 8 (4.7-inch display) and 8 Plus (5.5-inch display). Here’s our first impression:

The designs of the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8 are not very different from the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 7, respectively. The only difference being that the iPhone 8 series is made of glass – durable glass with a 50 per cent deeper strengthening layer. Apple has used aerospace-grade 7000 Series aluminum for the side bands. The glass rear supports wireless charging using the Qi standard and can be wirelessly charged using Belkin and Mophie accessories as well.

The innards have received significant updates. The new iPhones come preinstalled with iOS 11 out of the box. While setting up, I was able to transfer all the data from my existing iPhone (running iOS 11) in less than 10 minutes. It not only fetched all the photos, messages and data, but also installed the apps and placed them in the exact same folders and locations as on the source. The new phones come equipped with Apple’s True Tone technology that measures ambient light using sensors, and adjusts the colour temperature, making the display look vibrant.

Inside the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is Apple’s new A11 Bionic chipset, which also powers iPhone X, with two performance cores and four highefficiency cores. The chip divides the tasks between performance and efficiency cores. Although there is no visible difference while browsing the web or streaming videos, my experience while gaming and using AR apps such as Insight Heart and Sky Guide was remarkable. The chip also includes a new image signal processor for improvised camera performance. It can detect elements in the scene and capture better HDR photos.

The single 12 MP rear camera on the iPhone 8 now supports optical image stabilisation which reduces motion blur and captures better images in low light. The iPhone 8 Plus features the same 12 MP wide-angle camera along with a telephoto camera for capturing images with a bokeh effect. The iPhone 8 Plus’s Portrait mode has settings such as portrait lighting with natural light, contour light, studio light and stage light that use machine learning to capture stunning images with enhanced bokeh effect. One can also switch between the modes by editing the depth image in the Photos app.

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are available in space gray, silver and gold colours, and in 64 GB and 256 GB capacities, with the latter costing `13,000 more. iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users may skip this new upgrade – and, perhaps, wait for the iPhone X till November – but those still using the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus or older iPhones could definitely consider these. ~