The iPhone 8 has officially launched.
In front of us is the iPhone 8 in Gold embossed in front of the box. If you’ve ever purchased an iPhone before, you should feel right at home with the packaging of the iPhone 8. This is the base 64GB model that starts at $699 and you can opt in for a 256GB variant for $849.
In the box, we’ll find the gold iPhone 8 itself. We’ll find earpods with a lightning connector, lightning to headphone jack adapter, lightning to USB cable, and a USB power adapter.
The major design change with the iPhone 8 can be found on the back of the phone. You’ll see that instead of an aluminum unibody design, Apple has opted in for a glass rear that allows for wireless charging. The glass has a slight copper and pink hue to it with this model and it contrasts the bolder gold-colored aluminum frame that stretches around to all four sides of the smartphone.
The display still measures in at 4.7 inches and has a 720p resolution but it now features True Tone technology that will adjust the display’s color tone based on your lighting conditions to ultimately improve the experience.
The iPhone 8 ships with iOS 11 running out of the box. It’s an incremental update that brings a new Files app and improvements to Siri and the Control Center, among other things. While we have yet to test this phone in detail, obviously this is just a first look, performance does look very promising as it is being powered by the new A11 Bionic chip that actually rivals select configurations of the MacBook Pro in speed based off of benchmarks.
The iPhone 8 has a similar 12-megapixel f/1.8 camera sensor as the iPhone 7 and it still does protrude from the rear of the smartphone. It is capable of capturing 4K video at up to 60fps and 1080p slow-motion video at up to 240fps, which is pretty impressive.
The speakers do get louder and they are still stereo speakers, meaning they will blast audio directly at your face. I can confirm they do get very loud.
Wireless charging is also enabled, thanks to the glass body. Fast charging is an option if you purchase a USB-C charger and lightning cable, which is sold separately. And the battery itself consists of a 1,821mAh cell that is 7% smaller than the iPhone 7’s battery.
It’s still water-resistant, still has Touch ID, and all of the other main features of the iPhone 7.
This has been a first look at the Gold 64GB iPhone 8 which starts at $699.
