Apple today unveiled the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus at the Steve Jobs Theater. The new devices feature glass sandwich design reinforced by a stainless steel band. The phones use the most durable glass ever in a smartphone, have True Tone Retina HD displays (LCD-based), 25 louder stereo speakers and deeper bass than iPhone 7.
The phones are powered by a new Apple-desgined 64-bit A11 Bionic chip with six cores offering 25 faster compute performance than the A10 Fusion chip (with the two high-performance cores) while the four energy-efficient cores deliver 70 percent faster compute performance.
The new chip integrates an Apple-desgined GPU providing three cores GPU delivering thirty percent faster GPU performance. The phones, in 4.7 and 5.5-inch flavors, use the Retina HD display. They have improved 12-meagpixel dual cameras and come in Silver, Space Gray and a beautiful new gold finish.
A new image signal processor powers new Portrait lighting features that work in real time. In terms of video capture, the new devices uses Apple-designed video encoder doing real-time image analysis. While you’re shooting 4K video at 60 frames per second (another improvement) , the phone analyzes two million tiles per second to constantly optimize your video.
Slow-mo video is now available in 1080p at 240 frames per second, double the frame rate of the previous devices. Each camera is individually calibrated while sensors have been improved to deliver accurate augmented reality graphics with ARKit.
While existing phones that use either Apple’s A9 or A10 chip are able to run ARKit-powered apps, Apple says that the new sensors and the fact that the cameras are individually calibrated at factory makes for even better augmented reality experiences.
In terms of wireless, the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus support LTE Advanced, Bluetooth 5.0 and, yes, wireless charging (cue the “Android had it five years ago” comments) via the widely available Qi open wireless charging standard.
This means that Qi-certified wireless chargers will work with the new phones (Apple highlighted third-party chargers from Mophie and Belkin) and you’ll be able to charge your iPhone 8/Plus using charging maps at airports, in restaurants and more.
iPhone 8 starts at $699 and comes in 64GB and 256GB versions. As for the bigger iPhone 8 Plus, it starts at $799 and is also available in 64GB and 256GB flavors.
The phones will be available for pre-order on September 15 and are scheduled tossup on September 12. Finally, Apple says iOS 11 will release for public consumption on September 19.