iPhone 8 Review

iPhone 8 Review

For those of us who haven't read my iPhone 8 and 8+ unboxing post,kindly click this link to read it. Leave a nice comment!

Apple launched the iPhone 8, it's bigger sibling the iPhone 8+,and their totally bezel-less and button less eldest(and most expensive) brother,the iPhone X just a couple of days ago(they were launched on September 13th),to much press attention. These were the '10th anniversary iPhones' anyway,so they did deserve all the attention. Though,to be sincere,the iPhone X really deserves all the glamour. It takes away the shine of its brothers with the mere fact of being almost totally bezel less, but for the tiny bezels on each side of the screen,and on the top and bottom. It really is amazing. And Apple,after removing the essential parts of a phone little by little(the headphone jack,wireless charging...),they finally decided it was time to throw the iconic home button that has graced all the iPhone and iPads ever made out the window. And since Apple doesn't like to 'copy' other brands,instead of placing the TouchID™ Sensor on the back of the phone,they totally removed it from the phone,and replaced it with FaceID,which I won't go deep into in this post. FaceID uses a 3D camera to scan your face and unlock your phone,even in the dark!

But,this post isn't about the iPhone X,so let's go back to the subject matter.
The iPhone 8 doesn't really look any different from last year's iPhone 7. In fact,I couldn't tell the difference looking at them side by side. Only when I turned both phones to the back did the iPhone 8 differentiate itself through it's glass back,as opposed to the metal one found on the iPhone 7. Sure,the Aluminum on the iPhone 7 felt classy,but this glass back feels really premium,and I would pick it over the metal any day.

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The new glass back also allows for inductive charging and also for smudges and fingerprints. But given that we would all stick this pricey investment into a case when the time comes,I don't think this should be a deal breaker. The Apple logo is now also engraved,which offers a better feel than the surface ones found on older models.

As I said previously,there has been no major change in the design of the 8(and 8+) with the spotlight going to the iPhone X. You'd probably even be better off with the X. But,given individual differences,the X may look a bit too futuristic to actually carry around. I know. Some people right? Anyway,it's high time we got into the review. So,our original iPhone 8 review,published on the 23rd of September, 2017,follows.

iPhone 8 Review:Design

As I have mentioned many times in this review,the iPhone 8 design isn't anything new. In fact,it looks like an iPhone 7 with a glass back. Stick a case on it,and all differences disappear. The similarities boil down to dimensions even,where any cases that may have worked with the iPhone 7 will work here also. It almost feels like Apple recycled the iPhone 7 parts,and simply changed the back material.

Unlike it's elder brother,it still retains the iconic iPhone home button. It feels like the iPhone X is a bold experiment of the things we should probably be expecting from Apple in the months and years to come. 

The Aluminium frame runs around the phone,interrupted only by the lightning port. Yup,still no headphone jack,we're going all wireless now. 

Speaking of wireless,it does support wireless charging by Qi(pronounced 'Chee') and PCMA standards. This is a big feat for Apple,as in their ten years of making phones,this is the first one to actually have that feature.

The circular home button up front houses the Touch ID sensor. The bezels on the top and the sides and also on the bottom are laughably big,compared to the Galaxy Note 8 or even the iPhone X. If you have an iPhone 7,have used one or plainly just know what it looks like,you've already come in contact with the 8. Only change is a glass back. 

The button placement is also the same as on the iPhone 7. There's still an alert slider,which increases convenience and allows you to silence your phone when it would usually be improper to bring out,such as in a meeting,or at a wedding. Simply slide it to the right to silence the phone,and to the left to bring the volume back.

I loved the iPhone 7's design,and this fresher,glassier one does add to that feeling you get when you look at your over expensive iPhone and try to remember why you bought it over it's cheaper counterparts.

Glassier,classier rear

The rear camera module is at the top left of the phone,while an iPhone logo sits at the bottom of the phone. The Apple logo is engraved into the back with some depth to it. I completely love this design,although its like a refresh of an older design.

It's quite thin at 7.3mm and pretty light at 148g. The iPhone 7 is lighter,but since glass has a higher density,it's easily understood.

The design easily trumps most of the phones released last year and even this year,and that is by far a great deal indeed. Thumbs up,Apple!

iPhone 8 Review:Display

Apple has been known generally for creating displays from LCD panels and naming them 'Retina Displays',because of their proximity to AMOLED displays in terms of brightness,saturation and black levels. Now,there's also a Retina display here,but it's no ordinary Retina display. It's a 'Super Retina Display.'

Read also: IPS vs AMOLED:Ttje differences explained

Upon booting up the phone,I also noticed that it prompted me to activate a feature called 'True Tone Display.' For all of us who use Apple phones,the only 'true tone' usually heard of is the True Tone flash,which is meant to rejuvenate skin in the dark. It is uses by the camera. But now,it has been implemented into the display.

Upon turning it on,I really saw no difference in quality indoors,but it would probably be noticeable if you're using the phone in the sun,or in a really bright area. 

So,the screen is a 4.7 inch IPS LCD panel with a rather weird resolution of 750*1334 pixels with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch screen. This leads to unbelievably crisp photos and videos,and of course a major selling point.

It also brings back Apple's signature 3D Touch haptic engine,which gives you the feeling if depth when clicking the home button. It now has a wider color gamut,covering over 98% of the NTSC spectrum. This is a great achievement,but all in a body that looks rather too familiar.

Of course,this new iPhone comes with ion strengthened glass. Since Apple typically likes making up it's own name for everything,and it doesn't want yo use gorilla glass for it's phones,the glass here present does a pretty damn good job of protecting the phone from scratches. I took the phone to my school once,and kept it in my bag which contained pens and pencils. When I expected the glass to be beaten up,and started thinking of what to tell Big Tycoon,I noticed that it hadent scratched even a little. Apple has done a good job yet again,and they have to be given credit.

The whites this display displays are nearly pure white,and they really look good. Colors look sharp generally,saturation is deep,and the contrast levels exceed regular LCDs. This is truly Apple's best iPhone display.

iPhone 8 Review:Performance

Performance has always been a walk over for all Apple phones. Since Apple has 100% effective control over the OS and the hardware,they can reach levels of optimization that can't usually be reached from assembled phones. And with the introduction of the A11 'bionic' chip,things are really crazier now.

This phone is blazing fast,and I NEVER experienced any hiccups or lags or stutters common with other non-iPhone phones.

The chip is built on the 10 nanometer process,which increases it's functionality. The A11 bionic chip is said to be the most powerful smartphone chip in the world today. And it certainly lives up to the title. As usual,we ran our favourite benchmark,Geekbench,against the $1000 Galaxy Note 8. The results?

The iPhone 8 achieved an amazing single core score of over 3000 points,leaving the Snapdragon powered Galaxy Note 8 eating it's dust. As of that wasn't enough,the multi core score was really close to that of the Note 8 also. Optimization.

There's also 2GB of RAM,which,due to optimization here and there,is really sufficient for all dorms of multitasking.

The chipset described above is a hexacore A11 Bionic chip with 2 Monsoon and 4 Mistral cores. It's cool. Fin.

Ever since Apple ditched it's 16GB base storage model,all has been right with the world. It's now 64GB, a whooping 256GB or nothing. That explains the extremely high price,given Apple's tendency to always increase the price BG $100 for every double storage option .

Day to day usage is really great,with no lags or stoppages whatsoever.  Saying I enjoyed my time with it would be an understatement. I could do a whole lot more than usual almost at the same time.

Apple's switch to a hexacore processor is really showing their tendency to run to octacore,just like most Android phones. If that is done,all the power in the world of smartphones would become theirs.

I compared the speed to that of the Galaxy Note 8,and a video of mg comparison would soon be out on pur all new YouTube channel. Don't forget to check it out. I'd also be putting if up against the iPhone X in a speed test,camera test and other tests.

iPhone 8 Review: Software

Software on the iPhone 8 is a pretty great experience. It's iOS 11 on here,and its pretty great. The implementation here is pretty standard iPhone implementation, because you can press a button to go home. The swiping method found on the iPhone X is pretty cool,but you don't always get it right. 

The icons now have a fresh redesign, and it also comes with the addition of new wallpapers and some newer features like the True Tone display. As I have come to expect from anything bearing a half eaten apple as a logo,the software experience is very different from other Android phones. The only way you can get a software experience close to this is through copycats  like Xiaomi or Oppo or all those other unoriginal brands. They tend to force their software implementing towards the Apple side of things.

As always,there's no app drawer(and there never will be) and iOS 11 now supports swipes. Yup. A swipe down now brings the Control  center into play. 3D Touch is also present here allowing you to 'peek' and 'pop' feed on Instagram or to get contextualized options when you press hard on any application that supports it.

I love that you don't actually have to open up an app before performing any of these functions. 

The argument on whether 3D touch is a hardware or software feature has been going on for some time now. I strongly believe it's a hardware feature,due to the haptic engine and pressure sensitive screen. It could also be implemented with some Android apps(I have tried some,and they pop theirs up by double tapping the app). 

I can blodly say that I prefer this experience to any Android experience.

The software is streamlined for all ages of users,and if you get lost,Siri can help you get found again.

Yup,I said Siri. Siri has finally become as smart as the Google Assistant(It has no name). Siri can now continue with the conversation like the Google Assistant,instead of just answering your question and then going back into hibernation till you need it again. Siri now feels more natural. It's also easier to bring it up by long pressing the home button. The new Siri makes a lot more sense than the other talkative one that still sounds like Cortana to me. Anybody else? No? Okay,I'll rest my case there.

iPhone 8 Review: Camera

The camera tests haven't been finished by the BigTycoon guys,but I'll surely update this post once it's done. But,from the little tests I carried out in it,the camera is actually amazing.

The camera is a 12MP single unit shooter,whereas on the Plus version,there is another 12MP badboy used to give photos depth and produce that 'bokeh' effect. I'll be updating this post with some photos taken on the phone,so stay tuned! I'll also be doing a separate post on the camera and it's features,so don't forget to check that out when it's done.

The camera is also covered with Sapphire glass,so scratches are reduced to a minimum. So,placing the phone on a rough surface wouldnt harm the camera. Watch out for the full camera review!

iPhone 8 Review: Multimedia

The iPhone 8 still carries the DNA of the iPhone 7 in the sense that it carries those crazy good speakers. The speakers are awesome,and they really have this deep bass which I really dig. Songs like Daft Punks 'Harder Faster...' song really play out well. The sound sounds very solid and gas a lot of depth,and I have really enjoyed using this as my primary music player. I also use it to play music in my bathroom (since it's waterproof) when I take a shower. The feeling of the sound reverberating through the bathroom tiles on the all and the floor was really like I was using a VR  simulator. Compared to the equally over expensive Galaxy Note 8,this one totally beats it with enough to spare. I sincerely love the speakers. 

The wireless earpiece delivered in the box are quite swell,and they fit perfectly into my ears. I love the sound output from them,but since Apple owns the Beats By Dre brand,this should probably be expected. I still don't see the need for the vertical plastic pieces that are usually used to connect the wires to wired earpieces. I expect them to be circles you just pop into your ears and listen. Oh well...

iPhone 8 Review: Call Quality

The call quality is not bad at all,as my recipient ,as well as I the caller could hear myself clearly early and audibly. Call quality is actually quite crisp and I could actually feel the phone reverberating against my ear when the call was put on speaker phone.

Since the rear is made completely out of glass,there are no antenna lines found on the phone,since glass is a good material for call reception. The only time the call quality dwindled was when I accidentally tossed the phone into a bath tub full of warm water. For some reason,I didn't pick it out immediately, and when I finally brought it out 5 minutes later,there was enough water in the speakers to block it. I couldn't hear my friend over the speakers until I dropped the call,dried the phone and called him again. After the phone dried,it went back to producing perfect sounds. Apart from that small glitch I caused myself,the call quality on the iPhone 8 is almost perfect.

iPhone 8 Review: Battery Life

The iPhone 8 comes with a 1821 mAh battery. Most iPhone batteries have never really crossed the 3000mAh mark,but believe it or not,this iPhone lasts me well over one day with regular use. On the days I stayed at home, connected to our home Wi-Fi network,it lasted from 7am the first day to around 3am the next day before giving up. When I wasn't at home and was constantly on mobile data,it lasted from 9am to 6pm,at full brightness before dying on me.

The bundled USB 2.0 reversible charger charges the phone from 0% to 100% in just 2 hours,37 minutes. It's not the fastest charger I've seen,but it's usable.

Finally,an iPhone that supports wireless charging! Yes,the iPhone 8 supports wireless charging by Qi and PCMA standards. In other words ,dump this phone on top of any wireless charger,and it starts charging!

The phone also keeps it's charge for some time on standby. It usually drained 1% in 2 hours,which is swell. This probably means that I can leave the phone on my desk for like a week,and still have some charge left to do other things.

iPhone 8 Review: Miscallenous Features

Fingerprint Sensor

The iPhone 8 has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button. It's really fast and reliably accurate,as we have come to expect from touch ID over the years. The unlocking speed is almost instantaneous, and it's really reliable to have the fingerprint sensor in the front of the phone. It also has the shape of a typical finger as it is round,so you can fill the sensor with your finger. I would have preferred Touch ID along with FaceID,but you can't get everything at nearly a thousand dollars(or shouldn't you?)

Waterproofing

The iPhone 8 now has IP68 waterproof and dust proof capabilities. It can be fully submerged into 1 meter of water for 30 minutes with no harm done. Though the water should be fresh water and not chlorinated, salty or brackish water. This waterproofing feature has really been missed in iPhones of late,and I have lost at least 3 iPhones to my deadly upstairs toilet. My beloved iPhone 5s was the last to die on a toilet,after which I swore never to buy an over expensive iPhone ever again without that kind of insurance. Bottom line is: Feel free to dunk this into water to impress your friends,but don't overdo it.

iPhone 8 Review: Conclusion and Final thoughts

The iPhone 8 is one pretty piece of tech to ever step foot into the Tycoontech Towers. Sure it's not a big diversion from what the iPhone 7 was,and still is,it's pretty darn good. The software has had a refresh,the glass back with no antenna lines is super nice,the home button is now better,the speakers are better than ever,and the phone is just generally good. Sure,there's no big reason to spend even more money on another iPhone just yet,and even moreso one that looks exactly like it's predecessor,but it's the little changes that matter in the long run. Of course if you already bought the iPhone 7 last year,the iPhone 8 won't be a big drastic change,and you may not even notice the difference unless you're a techie. The iPhone 7 will eventually get iOS 11,and the A10 Fusion chip is still great for everyday performance. The A11 bionic chip is faster,but only slightly so.

So the bottom line is:If you've got an iPhone 7,and money isn't a problem,you can get this,just to experience what it feels like. You can also get an iPhone X while you're at it.😎 But if money matters,and you've still got an iPhone 7,there's really no need to jump on the 8's bandwagon. I'd advice you to wait for the iPhone X later in October.

There's also an iPhone 8 plus,which is more or less like a jumbo sized version of the 8. I'll be posting it's review later in the week. Stay tuned!

Well,that's it for my iPhone 8 review. Please leave a comment,as it helps us function better. Thanks for stopping by.

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