iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to take us through another year with Apple
Apple has announced three new smartphones today. iPhone X is a smartphone with a 5.8 inch Super Retina display, A11 Bionic chip, wireless charging and an improved rear camera with dual optical image stabilisation. It also announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, also using the A11 Bionic chip. All devices are augmented reality (AR) ready.
Premium device, iPhone X, introduces a design with an all-screen display that follows the curve of the device, clear to the rounded corners. The all-glass front and back feature the most durable glass ever in a smartphone, claimed Apple, while a highly polished, surgical-grade stainless steel band seamlessly wraps around and reinforces iPhone X. iPhone X will be available for pre-order beginning Friday 27 October in more than 55 countries and territories, and in stores beginning Friday 3 November. iPhone X will be available in 64GB and 256GB models starting at £999.
The 5.8 inch Super Retina display is OLED, with stunning colours, true blacks, a million-to-one contrast ratio and wide colour support with system-wide colour management. The HDR display supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, which together make photo and video content look better. The addition of True Tone dynamically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience.
“For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realisation of that vision,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “With the introduction of iPhone ten years ago, we revolutionised the mobile phone with Multi-Touch. iPhone X marks a new era for iPhone; one in which the device disappears into the experience.”
iOS 11 has been redesigned to take full advantage of the Super Retina display and replaces the Home button with fast and fluid gestures, allowing customers to naturally and intuitively navigate iPhone X.
A11 Bionic features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25% faster and four efficiency cores that are 70% faster than the A10 Fusion, offering performance and energy efficiency. A new, second generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70% greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while providing the same great battery life. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30% faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.
Face ID changes authentication on iPhone X, using a state of the art TrueDepth camera system made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator, and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognise a face. These advanced depth-sensing technologies work together to securely unlock iPhone, enable Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more new features.
Face ID projects more than 30,000 invisible IR dots. The IR image and dot pattern are pushed through neural networks to create a mathematical model of your face and send the data to the secure enclave to confirm a match, while adapting to physical changes in appearance over time. All saved facial information is protected by the secure enclave to keep data extremely secure, while all of the processing is done on-device and not in the cloud to protect user privacy. Face ID only unlocks iPhone X when customers look at it and is designed to prevent spoofing by photos or masks.
“iPhone X is the future of the smartphone. It is packed with incredible new technologies, like the innovative TrueDepth camera system, beautiful Super Retina display and super fast A11 Bionic chip with neural engine,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. “iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences, from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages; it is the beginning of the next ten years for iPhone.”
The new seven megapixel TrueDepth front camera that enables Face ID features wide colour capture, auto image stabilisation and precise exposure control, and brings Portrait mode to the front camera for stunning selfies with a depth-of-field effect. iPhone X also features a redesigned dual 12 megapixel rear camera system with dual optical image stabilisation. The ƒ/1.8 aperture on the wide-angle camera joins an improved ƒ/2.4 aperture on the telephoto camera for better photos and videos. A new colour filter, deeper pixels and an improved Apple-designed image signal processor delivers advanced pixel processing, wide colour capture, faster autofocus in low light and better HDR photos. A new quad LED True Tone Flash offers twice the uniformity of light and includes Slow Sync, resulting in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds.
The cameras on iPhone X are custom tuned for AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the TrueDepth camera and the rear cameras to create games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.
Meanwhile, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus feature new Retina HD displays with True Tone technology and the A11 Bionic chip, plus are designed for augmented reality. The camera includes single and dual cameras featuring Portrait Lighting on iPhone 8 Plus, and wireless charging brings a new capability to iPhone.
Both devices will be available for pre-order beginning Friday 15 September in more than 25 countries and territories, and in stores beginning Friday 22 September. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will be available in space grey, silver and an all-new gold finish in increased 64GB and 256GB capacity models starting at £699.
The cameras on iPhone 8 Plus are custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. AR benefits from A11 Bionic, which handles world tracking, scene recognition and incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers are taking advantage of the world’s largest AR platform, creating games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.
The new 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch Retina HD displays with the addition of True Tone adjust the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience plus vibrant wide colour gamut Retina HD display. Redesigned stereo speakers are up to 25% louder and deliver deeper bass, enabling richer sounding music, videos and speakerphone calls.
