Apple announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, up to $300 off the price of the new iPhones. What’s the difference you ask? To help you decide if these differences are worth going for the more expensive iPhone X, we’ll examine why the iPhone X is $300 more than the iPhone 8 and $200 more than the iPhone 8 Plus.
Essentially, this is due to a few key differences between these new phones. For some users, the more affordable iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus will be a better option.
Here’s what all new iPhones have in common. They all run iOS 11, use the new Apple A11 Bionic processor, support wireless charging, come in 64GB and 256GB storage sizes, are water, dust and splash resistant, record 4K video, work on all major US carriers, support Apple Pay, FaceTime video and FaceTime Audio, a Lightning connector, and Siri support. All new iPhones support HDR10, Dolby Vision and 3D Touch.
That’s a lot of common ground. Now here are the differences that are important to you. Here’s what you’ll miss if you buy an iPhone 8 instead of an iPhone X.
- 5.8 inch OLED Display in a Small Package
- Face ID and Touch ID
- Buttons and Design
- Super Charged Front Camera
- iPhone X Has Better Battery Life Than iPhone 8
- iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X Cameras
There are a few other minor differences between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, but for the most part they’re what you pay a premium for. The iPhone 8 and iPhone X are roughly the same size, while the iPhone 8 Plus is much larger.
Apple offers the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in silver, gold, and space gray colors, while the iPhone X is only available in silver and space gray. There’s a good chance you’ll have a new iPhone X color in 2018 if you wait long enough.
5.8 inch OLED Display in a Small Package
The screen is a key differentiator on the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.
The iPhone X has a brand new design that allows Apple to pack a bigger screen in a smaller package. The iPhone X features a 5.8-inch Super Retina HD display, which is larger than the 5.5-inch screen of the iPhone 8 Plus and much larger than the 4.7-inch screen of the iPhone 8.
The screen has curved corners and part of the top edge has been cut off to handle all the sensors on the iPhone X. This cuts some movies and some apps while in full screen.
The iPhone X uses an OLED display with a higher contrast ratio, much higher resolution, and more pixels per inch. OLED displays are generally considered the best you can get. Apple’s iPhone 8 uses an LCD display with a lower contrast ratio and resolution. It will look the same as the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus so you can get an idea of how it currently performs.
The brightness is the same on all of these phones, and they all support the large color display, HDR and 3D Touch. The new True Tone display is available in all three models.
Face ID and Touch ID
Choose Face ID or Touch ID.
The iPhone X does not have Touch ID, and the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus do not have Face ID. This will change the way you sign in to iPhone multiple times a day. On iPhone 8, you can put your finger on the home button to unlock with your fingerprint.
With the iPhone X, you will need to use the front camera to log in with Face ID. It works in the dark, manages changes in your face, hair, hat, and is designed to withstand even Hollywood-level masks trying to log in on your behalf.
Face ID looked fast in demos, but while it’s a first-generation product for Apple, Touch ID has been around for a few years now and has undergone at least one major overhaul.
Buttons and Gestures
With the new iPhone X design, you have to learn to live without the home button. Some gestures are also different. To multitask on iPhone X, you have to swipe halfway from the bottom of the screen. Swiping down from the top-right corner opens Control Center, and down the middle, Notification Center. The power button is larger on the iPhone X and you can hold it to activate Siri.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus still have a home button that controls multitasking, Siri, and going to the home screen.
Super Charged Front Camera
Another part of the iPhone X is the front-facing camera system. This is a very impressive camera setup. This is what allows Face ID to work, but it also offers other features you won’t find on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
First off, better face tracking works with third-party apps like Snapchat. This provides better looking Snapchat Lenses because the camera can track your face using 30,000 IR points.
You can only use Animoji on iPhone X.
You can also use the new Animoji feature, which lets you animate one of a dozen different emojis and add sound to the emoji. You cannot do this on iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus.
This technology also allows you to use the Portrait Mode technology found in the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X rear camera on the selfie camera. This includes awesome blurred background and new Portrait Lighting.
iPhone X Has Better Battery Life Than iPhone 8
The iPhone X camera is better than the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus cameras.
According to Apple, the iPhone 8 has almost the same battery life as the iPhone 7. The iPhone X has about 2 hours longer battery life than the iPhone 7, so basically you can expect the iPhone X to last about 2 hours longer than the iPhone 8.
Note that Apple does not make a direct comparison between iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus battery life; This probably means that the iPhone X battery life is shorter than the iPhone 8 Plus.
All of these models feature fast charging, so with the right charger you can get up to 50% battery life in 30 minutes.
iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X Cameras
The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X stand out the most when you start looking at cameras and camera technology. The biggest difference is between iPhone 8 and iPhone X, because iPhone 8 has single camera and iPhone X has dual camera sensor. Apple includes a dual camera system on the iPhone 8 Plus as well, but it’s not the same setup.
All cameras have 12 MP sensors, but the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X support Optical zoom as there are two cameras. The iPhone X dual-camera system supports optical image stabilization with both cameras, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus only offer it on the main camera. The iPhone X camera should take better low-light photos, even with a telephoto lens.
Both iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus support Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting, which are currently in beta.
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