iPhone 8 Plus
Apple’s flagship phone… for now!
From $799 From Apple, apple.com
Features 5.5-inch Retina HD display with True Tone and P3 color gamut, A11 Bionic chip, 12MP camera, wireless charging (charging pad not included)
WAPPLE HAS DOUBLED THE AMOUNT OF STORAGE IN THE ENTRY-LEVEL MODEL
e’ll start with the elephant in the room: the new iPhone 8 Plus looks a bit dated compared to its Android rivals, which is a shame. The large bezels look old-fashioned next to the Galaxy Note 8, say, but you have to consider the whole experience.
The iPhone 8 Plus has a brand new chip, the A11 Bionic processor, moving from the four-core configuration of the iPhone 7 Plus’s A10 Fusion (two for high performance and two that are energy efficient) to six here, four of them being energy efficient this time. And that makes it easily the fastest phone you can buy today.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are actually quite a departure for Apple in terms of graphics, because they’re the first handsets that use Apple’s own graphics processor instead of Imagination’s PowerVR, which Apple has used over the last decade.
These performance improvements show in general use, and everything is noticeably punchy, even when adding effects to photos or editing them. Anecdotally, it certainly feels faster than an iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 11.
As on the iPhone 8, the 8 Plus’s new glass back means you can say hello to Qi-compatible wireless charging. Apple certainly isn’t first with this tech, but it will make it mainstream, and that’s great for wireless charging in general.
Battery life is an interesting aspect, because the iPhone 8 Plus’s battery is actually lower capacity than the 7 Plus’s (2,691 instead of 2,900mAh). However, Apple says that thanks to improvements in efficiency, it should clock up the same battery life. That’s about right, too. While intensive use will drain the battery, you can easily get through the day and into the first part of the next. You should be able to get it to last for 24 hours, like the iPhone 7 Plus. An hour’s intensive use – streaming media or constant emails, social networking, and chat – will drain it by 8 to 10 percent.
There are also many incremental updates, such as the True Tone display tech from the iPad Pro, Bluetooth 5.0, and fast charging (if you have a USB-C charger and USB-C to Lightning cable). There’s also a new “neural engine.” Inside the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus it’s used for augmented reality apps, while in the iPhone X it enables Face ID as well.
True Tone is really welcome, and you can see the slight difference between
the screens when compared with the iPhone 7 Plus. While it will play back Dolby Vision and HDR10 content, just like Apple TV 4K, the iPhone 8 Plus doesn’t have an HDR display, unlike many rival handsets (and iPhone X), so you won’t see the video in all its glory. While the display is very usable and most people won’t care, the fact is the iPhone 8 Plus’s 1920x1080-pixel display now lags far behind its rivals.
Apple has also doubled the amount of storage available in the entry-level Plus model, with the iPhone 8 Plus starting at 64GB compared to half that in its predecessor. A 256GB version remains the other capacity option. The iPhone 7 Plus, meanwhile, now comes in just 32GB and 128GB varieties. (The iPhone X shares the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus’s storage options, with no 128GB model between them.)
A BETTER CAMERA
The camera has also received some attention with a bunch of upgrades, including the ability to record gorgeous 4K video at 60fps. The results are stunning thanks to a new larger sensor, while the core camera specs are the same as last year’s model.
White balance has been significantly improved, though. You can easily see it in more accurate skin tones. Portrait mode has been taken a stage further with Portrait Lighting, enabling you to apply different effects, such as Studio Light or Contour Light.
Optical image stabilization is confined to the wide-angle lens, just like on the iPhone 7 Plus; if you want its benefit on the telephoto lens too, you’ll need to step up to the iPhone X.
A lot of these changes won’t convince iPhone 7 Plus owners to upgrade, but anyone with an older model will be keen to make the leap. It’s a tiny bit of a shame, therefore, that the design of the iPhone 8 Plus is quite so similar to its forerunner. Note that the dimensions are ever so slightly different from the iPhone 7 Plus, with a tiny bit of extra thickness and weight.
the bottom line. It’s a shame the iPhone 8 Plus looks outdated, because otherwise it’s great. DAN GRABHAM, GRAHAM BARLOW