– Hey guys, this is Austin. Any other year and this phone
would be called the iPhone 7s. It has a new design with a
glass back, upgraded cameras, faster internals, and even a new feature in wireless charging. And yet, all of this is under
the shadow of the upcoming iPhone X, which really
does beg the question, why does the iPhone 8 exist? Of course, plenty of
companies have a wide variety of phones to choose from,
ranging from budget options all the way to the incredibly
expensive, and surprisingly, Apple is actually no exception this year. You have options ranging all
the way from the $350 iPhone SE to the $450 iPhone 6s, the $550 iPhone 7. Of course you've got the $700
iPhone 8, as well as all way up into the top of the
range, the $1,000 iPhone X.
The issue is that Samsung
has already been shipping a truly next generation-feeling
piece of hardware with the Galaxy S8. Not only is it going to cost
you about the same amount as the iPhone 8, but it's been
shipping for the better part of a year already. In a vacuum, the iPhone 8
is a nice design, however, when you put it side by
side with the Galaxy S8, that iPhone really does look
a lot less like a brand-new 2017 flagship, and a lot
more like a 2014 iPhone 6. Apple has made some small
improvements to the iPhone 8, most notably including
their True Tone tech. So this is borrowed from
the iPad, and it adjusts the white balance of the
display to better suit the environment that you're in. It's a cool feature, and
of the course the iPhone still has a solid IPS display. When you put it side by
side with the Galaxy S8, it is absolutely no contest. The AMOLED display of the S8
not only has far better color, brightness, and especially contrast, but the Infinity display means
that not only does it have curved edges, but essentially
no bezel on top and bottom of the phone, either.
This is pretty much the
approach that Apple is taking with the iPhone X, and I
would actually argue that they're taking it even farther. So yes, you do have to
deal with the notch, but in exchange, the rest
of the phone is pretty much entirely screen. There is essentially no bezels in sight. The only issue is, is that
the iPhone X costs a whopping $300 more than both the S8
as well as the iPhone 8. It's not all bad, though. The iPhone 8 shares a
lot of specs with the X, including very, very similar cameras. So paired with better
processing and new sensors, this is actually a surprisingly
big leap over the previous generation of iPhones.
It brings it a lot closer
to stuff like the Galaxy S8, as well as the Pixel, especially
when you consider just how much detail you're able
to get in a single image. (laughing) You want to be in the video? This is like actually perfect. This is the iPhone 8. – Is that the iPhone 8? – It's the iPhone 8 right now. What are you guys' names? – I'm Davey. – Nice to meet you. – I'm Dayna. – I guess there's a little
occasion going on today, or something? – We just got married. – Congratulations! – Can I take some pictures with this? – Yeah. – Alright, let's do it. – Alright, ready, and (clicks)
that looks really good. (laughing) Alright, let me try
some portrait mode here. That's pretty nice, right? – [Davey] That's awesome. – [Dayna] Oooh! – It messed up a little bit
with the veil, but that's pretty nice. – Yeah, that's pretty good. – That's super good. – Video on the 8 is really impressive. It's second to only maybe the LG V30. So the stabilization works
really well, especially when you're hand-held, and you
do have some new 4K shooting modes, including 4K 24, which
I'm actually a big fan of, but you also can shoot
at a pretty impressive 4K 60 frames per second.
We're also getting an upgraded
240 frame per second mode and a full 1080p. So the last iPhone could
do 240, but it was at 720p, and honestly, it was pretty grainy. With the iPhone 8, you're
getting surprisingly usable footage, especially when you
slow it down by 10 times, some of the results can
actually look surprisingly good. You're also getting the
Apple A11 Bionic chip. Now I'll spare you all
the technical details, but both the iPhone 8,
as well as the iPhone X, which share the same
spec, are very, very fast. Put the iPhone 8 side by
side with not only the 7, but also the Galaxy S8,
as well as the Note 8, you'll see that the iPhone
8 is hands down the fastest phone out right now in Geekbench. It's a similar story on the
graphics side with GFXBench, although here it's less of a
runaway victory, but the iPhone still does win out. It's impressive enough that
I slightly lost my mind and compared it to the PlayStation 4.
You guys can check that
video out if you want to see how they stack up, but suffice it to say the iPhone is very, very fast. It's not perfect, though. While the glass back doesn't
get as warm under extended gaming, like the iPhone 7
did, when you compare it side by side with the Galaxy
S8, as well as the Note 8, you will see that the
iPhone 8 does exhibit some thermal throttling. In actual use, though, the
iPhone 8 is incredibly snappy, and that should be
shared with the iPhone X. That is a surprisingly
common thread between the 8 and the X.
Not only do they both
support wireless charging, but they also have fast charging via a USB-C Lightning cable,
which my friend Danny Winget tested, and it actually
stacks up fairly well compared to a lot of other Android flagships. You're also getting the
same IP67 water resistance on both the 8 as well as the X. Now I don't have a X in to
test just yet, but I can say that the iPhone 8
speakers sound phenomenal. It's the same basic stereo
design from the iPhone 7. It's much louder, much
richer, it really does put not only other Android phones
to shame, but it's really the first phone in years
that's come close to matching HTC's BoomSound. So yes, the iPhone 8 does give
up the bezelless OLED display from the X, but in return,
the X gives up TouchID. Now FaceID is interesting,
and there's no doubt that Apple's put a ton of
really interesting technology into it, but it is the only option short of using a passcode.
There are tons of situations
where I would rather pull my phone out and use
TouchID on the iPhone 8, versus hold the X in front
of my face and hope that it actually unlocks. Even if it's a perfect
setup, I would still prefer to have the option of using TouchID. At first glance, the iPhone
8 seems like a weird choice in a 2017 world of super-thin
bezels, but look past the screen and everything else is there. To me, the iPhone X is
looking like a classic first-generation Apple product.
It's a beautiful design, and
there's a ton of potential, but it's also really expensive,
and if the supply rumors are true, it is going to be
quite a while before it's easy to actually get your hands on one. I can understand why someone
might want to pick up an iPhone 8 today. It might not even be crazy
to skip the X altogether and wait for the next generation,
which hopefully brings the same design, but with a lower price, and hopefully stuff like
TouchID will be readded.
But, what do you guys think? Should the iPhone 8 exist in 2017? Let me know in the
comments below, and I will catch you on the next one..
