Apple iPhone X (hands on)
PRICE 64GB, £833 (£999 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk ON SALE November 2017
Apple unveiled the iPhone X – pronounced iPhone 10 – at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino on the same day it launched the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and I was lucky enough to to get “hands on” with an early model.
With its 5.8in edge-to-edge AMOLED display, it looks similar to the Samsung Galaxy S8, but labelling the iPhone X as any kind of rip-off would be unfair. The way it stretches from top to bottom is unique, and that’s in part because Apple has made the brave decision to ditch the Home button.
It took me no time at all to become used to opening apps and returning to the home screen by swiping up, and a small white bar at the bottom of the display is a nice visual touch to remind you to swipe. This also helps locate where you need to place your finger. That said, it didn’t work as well as pressing a physical Home button does and I sometimes ended up scrolling whatever was on the page rather than clearing it. No doubt I’d retrain my muscle memory after a week’s use. One final note on the subject of buttons: while Home is no more, there is a button on the side to activate Siri.
There are obvious similarities between Apple’s iPhone X display and the screen on Samsung’s Galaxy devices, but I prefer how the S8 showcases videos: they sweep over the edge rather than running up to it.
The iPhone X is made predominantly from glass reinforced with steel and, like the iPhone 8, has a Qi wireless charging panel built into the back. Despite the fact it picks up fingerprints ridiculously easily, this glass panelling makes a difference to how expensive the phone feels. It doesn’t feel as cold as the metal handsets of yore and there’s something reassuring about how its warmth adds to how attached you feel to it. Or maybe that’s just me.
At 174g, the iPhone X is considerably lighter than the 202g iPhone 8 Plus. I was also surprised that, despite the fact it’s made from glass, the iPhone X feels more sturdy and less likely to slip from my hands than the iPhone 7 I’m used to.
Another big change is Face ID, Apple’s latest biometric authentication system. This, a little controversially, replaces the fingerprint reader. To support the Face ID software, Apple has added what it’s calling a TrueDepth camera system to the top of the display; the dual-camera setup on the rear of the device now sits vertically rather than horizontally. Given how sophisticated this TrueDepth system seems, it’s a relief to say that it’s small enough to blend in and doesn’t distract from the edge-toedge display.
The rear camera setup makes no attempt to hide from view, but that doesn’t detract from the stylish finish. Talking of cameras, note that Apple has brought its much-hyped Portrait mode to the improved 7-megapixel, front-facing camera. Selfies will never be the same.
At first glance, and on first play, the iPhone X doesn’t feel like an iPhone at all, and that’s not a criticism. It feels luxurious, sturdy and expensive – and it’s certainly the latter. While there are enough innovations here to make an iPhone 7 owner skip the iPhone 8 range, the 256GB model is almost as expensive as an Apple MacBook. Samsung’s Galaxy S8, by comparison, is half the price.
If you’re convinced, however, you may have to wait. One analyst is saying customer demand for the iPhone X won’t be fully met until the first half of 2018 due to “supply constraints”. VICKY WOOLLASTON
KEY SPECS
5.8in 2,436 x 1,125 AMOLED display ● hexa-core A11 Bionic processor 64GB ● or 256GB storage dual 12MP rear/7MP ● front cameras iOS 11 174g ● ● resulting in more natural-looking images and less eyestrain. It works beautifully and is a feature that’s well worth leaving on. (I’d still rather be looking at a Samsung Galaxy S8, though.)
Plus ça change
There is one area where you can categorically say the iPhone 8 Plus is a huge improvement: speed. In fact, the new hexa-core A11 Bionic chip is so good that it batters not only its predecessor but also the Samsung Galaxy S8 and all of its Android flagship buddies into submission as well. As the graphs opposite show, the iPhone 8 Plus is the fastest phone we’ve ever benchmarked.
In the past, iPhones have typically outperformed their Android counterparts in the single-core Geekbench test but haven’t done so well in the multi-core part. This time around, performance is screamingly quick across the board.
Graphics performance is superb as well. Note, though, that this improved performance won’t get you higher frame rates in games or anywhere else. That’s because performance is capped at the 60Hz refresh rate of the iPhone 8 Plus’ display – and that will remain the case until Apple decides to endow its iPhones with a super-smooth 120Hz screen similar to the ones it’s given to the recent iPad Pro models.
Battery life is decent but not chart-topping. That’s perhaps because Apple has taken advantage of the extra efficiency of the A11 chip to reduce the size of the battery. Surprisingly, the battery inside the Apple iPhone 8 Plus is a 2,675mAh unit, which is smaller by 225mAh than the iPhone 7 Plus’ 2,900mAh unit.
Here, the iPhone 8 Plus’ rivals have a clear upper hand. In our videorundown battery test, in which we set screen brightness to 170cd/m2 and put the phone in Flight mode, the iPhone 8 Plus lasted 13hrs 54mins before giving up.
That’s a long way behind the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and OnePlus 5. Yes, the iPhone 8 Plus can be charged wirelessly via Qi standard
chargers – which means you can plonk it down on one of Ikea’s Selje nightstands or the base of one of its Varv lights without having to connect a wire to the base of the phone – but how much more trouble is it to connect a cable? Arguably, it’s more hassle: a cable allows you to charge while you’re still using your phone, something that’s much trickier to do with a wireless charging pad.
Super snapper?
For many users, the reason to upgrade isn’t because a phone is faster – most phones we see are more than fast enough – but for the new, fancy, pimped-up camera. But Apple isn’t giving you much to cheer about here. In 2017, the iPhone 8 Plus gets a pair of 12-megapixel shooters: one 28mm, the other a 2x telephoto 56mm lens, with apertures of f/1.8 and f/2.8 respectively, just like last year.
The only major difference in hardware terms is that the telephoto camera is now optically stabilised, so it performs slightly better in low light: you can capture sharper photographs at slower shutter speeds, ensuring lower levels of noise.
That’s the theory at least, and it’s backed up by an improvement in software and processing as well. Most significantly, HDR is now enabled permanently – you can’t disable it – and there’s an enhanced Portrait mode, which allows you to apply lighting effects to those creamy out-of-focus-ish background portrait photos.
The latter works well, giving you the option to change the look of your portraits both before and after the shot. It’s a nice feature, and Portrait mode works as well as ever, but it’s about as revolutionary as Prince William.
How about regular shots? Well, the iPhone 8 Plus has a very good pair of cameras. They take reliably strong photos in good and bad light, but in terms of reliability and quality, they’re little better than last year’s. I’d still rate the camera on last year’s Google Pixel XL as slightly better than the iPhone 8’s. It has retained fractionally more fine detail in all the outdoor and low-light comparison shots I’ve taken so far.
But then, you do have dual cameras here, giving you more overall flexibility. To get a dual-camera setup matching the iPhone 8 Plus, you’d have to pay more for a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Video quality is remarkably good. You can capture in 4K at up to 60fps and the stabilisation is just superb; once again it’s a close match for the Pixel’s smooth, Steadicam-esque footage and it works just as well on the telephoto lens as it does the regular one.
Finally, the front-facing camera is a 7-megapixel f/2.2 unit, but this is no different to last year’s. It takes detail-packed selfies and, although there’s still no front-facing flash, the screen can be used to flood your face with light.
Too much?
The Apple iPhone 8 Plus is a good phone, but is it as good as similarly priced rivals? Is it even as good as those phones costing much less money? Objectively, the answer to both these questions is no. It’s incredibly fast, has great cameras and it’s dust- and water-resistant – but it’s not the best you can buy.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 may not be as quick, but it’s almost there, it’s cheaper and it has a better screen. True, it doesn’t have dual cameras, but its single camera is at least as good as the iPhone 8’s main shooter – plus it has better battery life and microSD card expansion. And, if you care about such things, I think the Samsung Galaxy S8 looks nicer too. If the thought of spending £800 doesn’t fill you with horror, there’s the Galaxy Note 8 ( see
overleaf) as well. Then there’s the iPhone 7 Plus. This is now £669 for the 32GB model, and £769 for 128GB, it runs iOS 11 perfectly smoothly, and remains a powerful phone with a decent dual-camera and respectable battery life. If you’re moving up from an iPhone 6 Plus or even 6s Plus, it’s certainly worth considering.
The iPhone 8 Plus is one of the best phones Apple has ever produced, and for Apple diehards, it offers the most bang per buck of the trio announced in September. But if you’re going to spend big on an Apple smartphone, wouldn’t you rather wait for the iPhone X? JONATHAN BRAY SPECIFICATIONS Hexa-core Apple A11 Bionic processor ● 3GB RAM three-core Apple graphics ● ● 5.5in IPS screen, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution ● 64GB/256GB storage dual 12MP rear ● camera 7MP front camera 802.11ac Wi-Fi ● ● Bluetooth 5 NFC Lightning connector ● ● ● ● 2,691mAh battery iOS 11 78.1 x 7.5 x ● ● 158.4mm (WDH) 202g 1yr warranty ● ●
“The only major difference in hardware terms is that the telephoto camera is now optically stabilised, which helps in low light”