Apple has officially announced the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Which are updated versions of last year’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models featuring with faster processors, A True Tone display, And upgraded cameras.
The jump from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 8 is pretty significant, Marking the first time since the
iPhone 3GS was released back in 2009 that an iPhone model hasn’t received a spec-boosted “S” variant. Apple may be moving up numerically, but the new iPhone 8 models look to continue the same rough design the company has been using since 2014 from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
One of the biggest changes comes in the form of a glass back, in order to enable one of the biggest internal changes: Inductive wireless charging, which wouldn’t have worked through the aluminum shell of the old model. And, like the iPhone 7, there’s still no 3.5mm headphone jack.
Internally, Apple has upgraded the processor from the A10 Fusion found in the 7 to the A11 Bionic. It’s a six-core chip with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster than the A10, and four performance cores that the company says are 70 percent faster that the old model. There’s also a new Apple-designed GPU that’s 30 percent faster, with the same performance as the A10 at half the power.
On the camera front, there’s a new 12-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 8 that is larger, faster, and finally has optical image stabilization. The iPhone 8 Plus also has new sensors, and offers f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures now. The dual cameras on the 8 Plus also have a new "Portrait Lighting” feature to adjust the lighting for portrait shots.
The iPhone 8 will start at $699 for a 64GB model, while the 8 Plus will start at $799 for 64GB of storage. Both models will also have larger 256GB models, for as yet unannounced prices. Both phones will be available for preorder starting Friday, September 15th, with a release date a week later on September 22nd.