It feels like no-one cares about the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Last week it was reported that Apple’s latest iPhones are actually being outsold by their predecessors, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. I can’t vouch for the veracity of that analysis, but it wouldn’t really surprise me if it were true. People that buy iPhones in September are early adopters. Early adopters are likely to wait for the iPhone X. The iPhone 8 isn’t a transformative upgrade over the 7, and the 7 now costs $100 less than it did before. Simple enough. But I’m someone who buys a new iPhone every year, for my sins, and while you’d think that would put me in the category of people who’d be holding out for the X, I actually bought an iPhone 8 Plus last month instead. This isn’t because of price — I’d spend the extra on the X if I were sure I’d like it better. The thing is, much as I do enjoy new, intriguing, shiny objects, I’m pretty sure I’ll like the 8 Plus better as a phone in the end. Here’s why. Display This is the big one, quite literally. I’ve seen a lot of people assume the X will be an unambiguous slam dunk in this regard, saying the device has a bigger screen than the iPhone 8 Plus in a body close to the size of the regular iPhone 8. But this isn’t really true, and I think a lot of people used to the Plus-sized iPhones will be disappointed with the X in practice. Yes, the iPhone X has a screen compared to the iPhone 8 Plus’ display. It’s also true that the X’s is higher resolution. But the 8 Plus’ screen is actually bigger. The X uses a narrower aspect ratio, so while it’s longer on the diagonal, you still get more surface area on the Plus overall — and that’s before you account for the notch and the rounded corners. I know, comparing screen sizes isn't what it used to be. But the bottom line is that the Plus will display more useful content at once, even with its lower resolution. It’s wider as you hold it in portrait, which is why Apple introduced a new size class for app layouts when the iPhone 6 Plus first came out. Apps, websites, and so on have 414 horizontal “points” — the unit of measurement that the screen is divided into for design purposes — to fill on the Plus, while the X has 375, the same as the regular iPhone 8. The X has more vertical points, of course, because of the taller screen, but a lot of that will be occupied by the notch and home button bar. What this means is that apps on the X will use the same basic layouts as the iPhone 8, not the Plus. You'll get more vertical content in portrait mode, but in landscape mode you'll actually see less vertical screen space than even the smaller 8 because of how developers need to avoid the virtual home button bar as well as the notch. You won't get the Plus' iPad-style multi-panel views, either. And how long will it take before all your apps get updated for the X in the first place? I'm still using several that never got updated for the iPhone 6. The X’s screen may well be better quality — we’ll have to see how Apple’s first attempt at an OLED phone turns out, but I have high hopes for the panel itself. Obviously, there’s also no denying that the X makes far better use of available space; the iPhone 8 Plus’ chunky bezels are pretty anachronistic for a phone at this price in 2017. But I’m too used to the Plus layouts, and the accompanying information density, to go back to what’s often going to feel like a smaller phone in actual use. Video is also a concern with the X. When watching regular 16:9 content, the notch and aspect ratio mean that you’re either going to have a lot of wasted space, or things are going to look weird. (Granted, the X will possibly be better for viewing wider cinematic content, in case you do feel like watching Lawrence of Arabia on the bus.) This morning I caught up on the weekend’s Premier League action on my 8 Plus, for example. I wouldn’t really want to do that on anything smaller, but coupled with the much-improved speakers it’s a great experience on the Plus. As with TVs, it turns out that a big 1080p 16:9 rectangle is the best and most reliable way to show the majority of video content out there. Touch ID I expect Face ID to work very well on the X. I doubt Apple would launch it otherwise, considering the inevitable backlash that would follow — the company doesn’t want a repeat of the Apple Maps fiasco, where it removed a critical feature of the iPhone and replaced it with something much worse. But that doesn’t mean I particularly want to use Face ID. There could be some technical issues to iron out at launch, and even if there aren’t, it’s just another thing to figure out and get used to without any immediate advantages. (I’m not sure Animoji counts.) Apple itself fell foul of this when it announced Face ID, as Craig Federighi couldn’t log into his demo unit on stage after the authentication had been reset. The system was working as intended, but that's kind of the point — if it's able to trip up even Apple's tightly managed press events, it’s going to take a minute for regular users to learn what to expect. Meanwhile, Touch ID works on the iPhone 8 Plus the same way it always has. It’s fast, reliable, and you know what you’re doing when you activate it. I’m happy to continue using it while iPhone X owners work through any Face ID kinks. Design Okay, so Apple saying the iPhone 8 has a “new design” stretches the boundaries of belief as much as it did when Apple said the same thing about the iPhone 7. This is still very much a tweaked iPhone 6. But what matters is what you think of the tweaks. I really like the tweaks. The glass back feels great, and while Apple is very late to wireless charging, I’m glad it’s here now. I’m also very into the new “gold” colorway, which is more like copper on the sides and cream on the back — it feels like something a ’70s Bond villain would use. The grey and white versions, too, look appealingly minimalist in a way that the 6 never did. To be clear, the iPhone X is the more attractive and beguiling device. I even thought as much of the knockoff models I found at a tech market in Shenzhen last month. But the 8 makes a statement of its own, giant bezels and all. That statement is “I’m comfortable with what most phones are like today, and I want the ultimate one of those.” Price This isn’t a huge concern to me because I split phone costs over 24 months, so the X would be less than $10 a month extra. But that adds up, of course — $200 is $200, even if you aren’t paying upfront. And if you are, you'd have to really want the X. Availability Even if you’ve read all of the above and still want an iPhone X, good luck actually getting one. Supply chain reports suggest that Apple is only able to produce the device in alarmingly low quantities, meaning that you could be waiting for several months before you’re able to pick one up. If you use a phone for several years, that’s less of an issue. But if you buy a phone every year or two? Waiting is going to take a serious chunk out of the amount of time you’ll spend with this one. You can walk into an Apple store right now and buy a phone with the same software, processor, primary camera, and wireless charging support, along with a more useful screen, more familiar method of biometric authentication, and way hotter color scheme, for hundreds of dollars less than the X. I understand the desire to have the cool new thing — believe me, I’m usually the first to fall victim to it. But when I laid it out like this in my head, I surprised myself by finding it really hard to justify the X. Your needs and desires may differ, and that’s totally fine. If you're sure your next smartphone has to be an iPhone, I would just advise you to consider the 8 Plus as the X preorder frenzy begins this week — it’s not exciting, but it might be better for you. When you buy an iPhone X, you’re buying into Apple’s vision for the future of the smartphone. When you buy an iPhone 8, you’re buying the best version of the present. The former is more exciting, but if you need a new phone today, the latter may prove to be more pragmatic. Like Nilay said: it's an iPhone. Next year's iPhone X-2 Plus, though? Count me in.

The iPhone X was going to be the one to get excited about, and the 8 and 8 Plus would just be a minor improvement on the 7 and 7 Plus, for those that don't want to kick up the extra money for the X.

Apple's iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are now available and have key strengths and weaknesses, but the biggest question for many users is not ‘iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus?’ but whether they should wait (and save up) for the attention grabbing iPhone X? When compared to the iPhone 8 there are clear benefits to the iPhone X, but these are reduced compared to the iPhone 8 Plus. So let’s break them down… Design - Past Meets Future The obvious place to start when comparing the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus is their design. While the former provides arguably the most radical redesign the iPhone range has ever seen, the latter represents the fourth iteration of a design introduced back in 2014 with the iPhone 6 Plus and is showing its age. As such the two phones have dramatically different form factors born out by their respective sizes: iPhone X - x x mm ( x x in), 174g ( oz) iPhone 8 Plus - x x mm ( x x in), 202g ( oz) In fact the only obvious design similarity between the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus is their glass backs. Introduced so Apple could add wireless charging into the mix (more in the Battery Life section), the backs provide both phones with slightly more grip in-hand compared to the aluminium backs Apple has used since the iPhone 5 (2012). But they also add fragility and cost more to repair if dropped. Elsewhere the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus both omit the headphone jack, retain Lightning as their sole port, feature dual stereo external speakers (25% louder than the iPhone 7 Plus), a rigid Series 7000 Aluminium chassis and have IP67 dust and water resistance (they’ll survive 30 minutes submerged in up to one metre of water). But that’s where the similarities stop. What really captures the attention is the ‘all screen’ display of iPhone X with its distinctive/polarizing notch, and the fact losing its bezels means the iPhone X fits a display into a form factor only slightly taller and 17% heavier than the iPhone 8. I’ll talk more about the display in the next section, but from a design perspective the biggest consequence of the iPhone X’s changes is the full screen means no more home button. This means the iPhone X also lacks Touch ID (which the iPhone 8 Plus keeps) and puts all its eggs into the basket of Apple’s new Face ID facial recognition system (more about this in the Performance section). Time will tell whether Apple has taken an unnecessary risk in not fitting Touch ID to the back or in the power button of the iPhone X. But how wedded you are to Touch ID will be a big factor in swinging you towards the iPhone X or the iPhone 8 Plus. As for colour options, note the iPhone X only comes in Silver and Space Grey, while the iPhone 8 Plus adds Gold. I expect Apple will also offer a (Product) Red limited edition of both models at some stage. Read More - iPhone 8 Plus Vs iPhone 8 Plus Plus: What's The Difference? Displays - Move Over LCD, Hello OLED Of course the iPhone X’s design will grab your attention, but the OLED display is what will hold it: iPhone X - True Tone OLED, 2436 x 1125 pixels (458 ppi), screen-to-body ratio iPhone 8 Plus - True Tone LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels (401 ppi), screen-to-body ratio Yes, the iPhone X appears to win every major battle against the iPhone 8 Plus here, but its important to note some key caveats. Firstly the iPhone X doesn’t actually have a larger display than the iPhone 8 Plus because it has an elongated aspect ratio versus the 16:9 ratio Apple had used up to now. Factor in the pixels lost to the notch and the iPhone X actually has a fractionally lower pixel count (not to be confused with density) than the iPhone 8 Plus - but obviously this comes in a much more compact form factor. Secondly the OLED panel in the iPhone X isn’t actually any brighter than the iPhone 8 Plus with both measuring 625 nits. This is somewhat surprising given Samsung’s newly launched Galaxy Note 8 has a 1200 nits OLED panel and its six month old Galaxy S8 has 1000 nits. Furthermore Samsung makes Apple’s iPhone X OLEDs. Despite this where the iPhone X (and OLED in general) stands out is its incredible contrast ratio (1,000,000:1 vs 1,400:1) and power savings, while it matches the True Tone technology added to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus which colour balances the display against environmental light. Both displays are HDR compliant too and iTunes, Netflix and Amazon are adding HDR to their content libraries at an accelerated rate. Performance - Class Leaders The iPhone X may win the external battle, but look internally and both phones have identical class leading performance: iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus - Apple A11 ‘Bionic’ chipset: Six Core CPU, Six Core GPU, M11 motion coprocessor, 3GB RAM (iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus), 2GB RAM (iPhone 8) Benchmarks show the A11 chipset literally doubling Qualcomm’s 835 Snapdragon, which is the flagship chip in all Android rivals. Not all this horsepower is required right now but with Apple making a big push into augmented reality (AR) over the next few years it does futureproof them. As for raw specs, Apple states the A11 delivers 25% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU (graphics) performance than the A10 chipset in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The A11 is also 70% faster when multitasking, a major advantage given users primarily spend their time jumping between apps. But the iPhone X does carry another string to its bow which the iPhone 8 Plus does not because it harnesses the A11 Bionic to power Face ID. Hoping to usurp Samsung’s erratic facial recognition, the iPhone X maps a user’s face in 3D via a dot projector built into the front display’s notch and the A11 controls a Neural engine which handles up to 600 billion operations per second so it can “learn” your face. In practice this means being able to tell if you’re wearing sunglasses, a hat, even if you’ve grown a beard and Apple claims it cannot be fooled by a photograph or even masks. Note Apple does warn users Face ID could be tricked if you have a mischievous identical twin - something that won’t trouble Touch ID (fingerprints are unique). Read More - iPhone X Vs iPhone 8: What's The Difference? Cameras - The Duel Dual Apple chose not to highlight any differences between the dual cameras in the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus, but there is actually a critical one. While both share a primary 12 megapixel wide-angle lens with f/ aperture on the back, the second 12MP telephoto camera (used for 2x optical zoom) on the iPhone X is faster than the telephoto on the iPhone 8 Plus (f/ vs f/ and it includes optical image stabilisation while the iPhone 8 Plus’ telephoto does not. The key advantage this should give the iPhone X is better zoom. The lack of OIS and slow aperture in the iPhone 7 Plus meant it often defaulted to simply cropping in shots from the wide-angle camera in less than ideal shooting conditions as here the telephoto struggled. The iPhone X’s improvements should reduce this. Furthermore the iPhone X, while sporting the same 7MP, f/ aperture front facing camera, benefits in the selfie department too as Face ID’s facial mapping technology is used so it can offer the popular Portrait Mode which the iPhone 8 Plus only delivers with its rear cameras. The iPhone X also uses Face ID for ‘animojis’ - emojis which mimic your expressions before you send them to friends. More seriously Face ID should have a large part to play in the accuracy of AR as it develops as well. But don’t jump straight for the iPhone X after reading this as both it and the iPhone 8 Plus will benefit equally from Apple’s first self-designed ISP (Image Signal Processor) which improves pixel processing, low-light autofocus and noise reduction. In short: both the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus will be right up there with the best smartphone cameras on the market. Battery Life And Charging - Bigger Is Better While the iPhone 8 Plus has been struggling for wins against the iPhone X, it takes an undisputed victory when it comes to battery life. Here the iPhone X can match the talk time and audio playback of the iPhone 8 Plus, but the latter offers an hour of extra web browsing and video playback (where the iPhone X only matches the iPhone 8). I’d also expect longer standby times, though Apple declines to list those. Still the real headlines are not how long the iPhone X or iPhone 8 Plus last, but how they charge. As mentioned earlier, their glass backs bring wireless charging and there’s also fast wired charging (50% charge in just 30 minutes), but it is important to note both features come with catches. For starters Apple’s wireless charging is Qi-compatible (the most popular wireless charging standard), but it only works at 5W when Qi has and 15W fast wireless charging which is supported by the likes of LG and Samsung. Apple’s own ‘AirPower’ wireless standard will emerge in 2018 (presumably to add faster charging) but I doubt it will be 15W Qi-compatible. Meanwhile fast wired charging is not available out the box and both Apple’s optional fast charger and fast charging cable are expensive. This means Apple is the only smartphone company on the market not bundling fast wired chargers and cables with its devices, a fact made all the more incredible when you see the new iPhones’ prices… Read More - iPhone 8 Vs iPhone 7: What's The Difference? Storage And Price - Wallet Busters First the good news: Apple has doubled the entry level story of both the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus from 2016’s 32GB to 64GB. The bad news: there is no midrange 128GB option and both models are more expensive than any previous iPhone. iPhone X - 64GB ($999), 256GB ($1,149) iPhone 8 Plus - 64GB ($799), 256GB ($949) The iPhone 8 Plus has by far the milder shock being just $20 more than the iPhone 7 Plus at entry level and top tier when it launched. This makes the 64GB model potentially the ‘value’ option on show. Meanwhile the iPhone X takes Apple’s iPhone pricing to a whole new level with even the entry level model busting through the $1,000 bracket after tax. Meanwhile if you buy a 256GB iPhone X, two fast chargers (home and office), some Apple insurance (because duh!), a wireless charger and then drop the phone once breaking the glass back you’re looking at a total cost of ownership in the first year in excess of $1,700. Your bank balance will determine whether you go for the iPhone X or iPhone 8 Plus, though some of the cost will be helped by spreading it over a two year carrier contract. In fact I’m somewhat surprised three year carrier contracts are not a thing by now. Note: if you do go for the iPhone X stock will be extremely limited throughout 2017 and shortages will extend well into 2018. Bottom Line In five years time no-one will remember the iPhone 8 Plus. That’s not to write it off (it’s an incredibly capable phone), but 2017 will be all about the year Apple changed direction with the iPhone X. Whether you want to get in on the ground floor of generation one is the big decision. Ultimately what paying $200 more for the iPhone X buys you is a classy design (unless you hate the notch), superior display, incrementally better telephoto camera and Face ID. What it costs you is Touch ID and the iPhone 8 Plus’ superior battery life. But to claim this battle is simply Style Vs Substance would be reductive. The iPhone X is the future of iPhones, the question is how soon and how much are you willing to pay to be a part of it? ___ Follow Gordon on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ More On Forbes iPhone X Vs iPhone 8: What's The Difference? iPhone 8 Vs iPhone 8 Plus: What's The Difference? iPhone 8 Vs iPhone 7: What's The Difference? iPhone 8 Plus Vs iPhone 7 Plus: What's The Difference? iPhone 8 Vs iPhone 6S: What's The Difference?

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are the 11th generation of the iPhone, announced on September 12, 2017, alongside the higher-end iPhone X. Except for addition of a glass back, the designs of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are similar to iPhone 7/6s series (iPhone 7 Problems).

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