Apple iPhone 8 Plus review

Introduction

In another place and another time, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus would have been one of the hottest things around. Swathed in hype, causing a stir, bringing the free ride of the competition's flagships to an abrupt and painful halt.
This turbo-powered, glass-clad, sharp-shooting and fast-charging piece of a smartphone classic seems to have everything. Except... time. No, it's not going anywhere. It's just that its days as one of the hottest things around are numbered. Now, we're sure you know what we mean, so let's slow down and start over. Time isn't always a luxury - just don't tell this to an iPhone 8 Plus.
The 8 series is about to leave generations of iPhones behind. It's been ten years of refining the visionary iPhone. We saw it grow bigger, better, more durable, more powerful. Apple kept adding more screen real estate, more processing power and advanced camera features. In spite of all novelties, the iPhone essence was always there, underneath the fancy add-ons. Now, that's about to change.
Apple isn't just on the verge of breaking clean from the past. The future has already begun with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. But it doesn't belong to them.
Back to the here and now, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus comes across as the usual incremental upgrade. The 8 Plus gets to keep its overall styling but swaps aluminum for glass and finally gets wireless charging. The new A11 Bionic chipset boasts an extra two power-efficient cores and, for the first time ever, an in-house GPU. Then the base iPhone storage has been doubled and now starts at 64GB.
Browsing the camera specs leave the wrong impression of copy and paste from the iPhone 7 Plus, when in fact both of the dual 12MP sensors have bigger pixels, backed by a superior flash and an exclusive new Portrait Lightning mode, which hopes to make the portrait shots look even better.
Finally, the screen size and resolution might be the same, but Apple has added HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, as well as iPad's True Tone color adjustment for life-like color presentation.

Apple iPhone 8 Plus key features

• Body: Aluminum 7000 frame, reinforced glass front and rear, IP67 certified for water and dust resistance. Gold, Space Gray, and Silver color options.
• Screen: 5.5" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS LCD screen of 1080p resolution, 401ppi. True Tone adjustment via four-channel ambient light sensor, wide color gamut, 3D Touch
• OS: Apple iOS 11
• Chipset: Hexa-core (2 Monsoon + 4 Mistral) 2.09GHz Apple CPU, tri-core Apple GPU, 3GB of RAM, Apple A11 Bionic SoC
• Camera: Dual 12MP camera: wide-angle F/1.8 + telephoto F/2.8, live bokeh effects (including Portrait mode and Portrait Lightning), optical image stabilization, 2x lossless zoom, quad-LED flash with slow sync, phase detection auto focus, wide color capture
• Video recording: 2160p@60/30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps video recording
• Selfie: 7MP F/2.2 front-facing camera with BSI sensor and HDR mode, 1080p@30fps video
• Storage: 64GB or 256GB of built-in storage
• Connectivity: 4G LTE Cat.16 (1Gbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 5.0; Lightning port; GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS; NFC (Apple Pay and for the first time for NFC tag reading too)
• Battery: 2,691mAh battery, wireless charging (Qi compatible)
• Misc: Stereo speakers, Pressure-sensitive Home key with fingerprint scanner, Taptic Engine

Main shortcomings

• Design is getting long in the tooth now being used for the fourth year in a row
• Big screen bezels (soon to look even bigger in comparison to the iPhone X)
• No 3.5mm audio jack (ships with a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter)
• No microSD slot
• iTunes is still required for manual music upload
• No fast charger provided in the box (and the optional one is expensive)
• Video camera still recording mono audio only

Indeed, the iPhone 8 Plus seems like a regular update but with the right touches in the right places. The screen bezels are here to stay but probably for the last time. The audio jack is already a goner, that's for sure, while memory expansion was never meant to be.
Some may still have gripes with the over-reliance on the iTunes software for music transfer to the phone, but in times of Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music, and Groove - we think this is another issue we mention one last time.
The iPhone 8 Plus is fresh off the assembly lines, but the iPhone X is just around the corner, while the iPhone 7 Plus is still relevant and cheaper.
Decisions... Is the upgrade worth it? Is a switch worth it? Should I wait? The choice has never been harder, but the answers start rolling right after the break.

Retail package

Apple has been consistent with the bundle for over 5 years, and the box of the iPhone 8 Plus hides no surprises. Inside you'll find a somewhat dated 5V/1A plug, a Lightning cable, a pair of EarPods and a Lighting-to-Analog jack adapter.
To take advantage of the fast charging support, you'll need to spend on a more powerful MacBook charger. However, the latter is available only with a USB Type-C plug so that a USB-C-to-Lightning adapter will be in order too. That's an extra 100 bucks or so to make use of a feature, which supposedly came built-in. Not to mention that the MacBook charger is way too big compared to a normal phone charger.

Apple iPhone 8 Plus retail package

Apple iPhone 8 Plus 360-degree spin

The iPhone 8 Plus measures 158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5mm which is a hair (0.2mm, to be precise) larger than the 7 Plus in each direction. This means most of the old cases won't be a perfect fit (mostly in depth though as our experiments confirmed).

Apple iPhone 8 Plus next to the iPhone 7 Plus

The new 8 Plus model has gained 14g of weight and is a pretty heavy set at 202g.
Compared to the bezel-less iPhone X and the Galaxy S8 boasting 5.8" screens, the iPhone 8 Plus is noticeably bigger. The iPhone X is 15mm shorter and 7mm narrower, while the Galaxy S8 shaves off 10mm in both directions.
Finally, the size gap between the regular iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is significant - 20mm in height and 10mm in width. But that's not exactly breaking news.

Design

Apple was the first maker to push the glass-sandwich design with the iconic iPhone 4. The unthinkable became possible (using glass on a phone), and it has since become mainstream. It was somewhat short-lived though, replaced in just two years by the all-metal iPhone 5.
Fast-forward five years to find Apple pretty much the last company revisiting all-glass builds to catch with the likes of Samsung and many others who adopted glass and wireless charging years ago. Better late than never we guess.
So, what's up with the iPhone 8 Plus? Not much, at least over at the front side. Everything else is as we left it on the iPhone 7 Plus: the footprint, screen size, sizeable bezels, physical Home key, sensors, and the selfie camera placement. The oleophobic coating against fingerprint smudges is a given, and that's something we wish to see on every flagship out there. Oh, and the 8 Plus is still IP67-grade water resistant.
The front glass ends on a subtle curve - a departure from the once popular 2.5D finish. This would make applying screen protectors on the iPhone 8 Plus easier and let them last longer.
The rear glass is the highlight of the refined design. It's flat for the most part but also ends on a subtle curve where it meets the aluminum frame. There are no antenna bands you can notice, as these are now well hidden beneath the glass.
Thanks to this change of heart Apple is finally bringing wireless charging - a feature rumored to be coming with quite a few iPhones already. The team over at Cupertino chose the Qi standard, so the iPhone 8 Plus is compatible with all existing Qi chargers - the most common standard for the technology. You bet Apple will be pushing some fancier units later this year. In 2018 Apple hopes to, we will likely also see a proprietary Apple wireless charger that will replenish a Watch, an iPhone, and the AirPods all at once all while showing the charging progress indicator of all three on the iPhone's screen. This won't be easy as allegedly, the Qi charging standard would have to be adjusted to accommodate that feature so that it remains universally compatible. Only time would tell if that will really happen.
The dual-camera on the iPhone 8 Plus uses new sensors though it keeps the same specs for both - 12MP with f/1.8 lens for the wide-angle and 12MP with f/2.8 lens for the telephoto cam. There are some new cool portrait effects and a slow-sync flash though. As far as the hump is concerned - it's still there, bulging over everything, but protected behind sapphire glass (which is not that hard to scratch mind you).
Apple likes to tout its new reinforced glass panels used on the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X as the toughest glass on the planet. If drop tests all over YouTube are anything to go by, the new Apple phones somehow fail to live up to the hype, though. Even worse, our own 8 Plus got its screen scratched by the smaller iPhone 8 we stacked on top of it for a quick comparison picture.
The final piece of the Apple iPhone 8 Plus is the Series 7000 aluminum frame running along the sides. This is the only place you can see the beginning and the end of the antennas. The frame has a sandblasted-like finish and improves the otherwise slippery grip.
The iPhone 8 Plus with its prominent screen bezels is one of the largest 5.5-inchers on the market. It's not huge by any means, it just feels oversized, and it is heavy. But handling the 8 Plus is as premium experience as ever, the build is solid, and the profile thin enough. The aluminum frame boosts the grip, while the glass panels are sweet on the eyes. Even though the 8 Plus is not comfortable to work with just one hand, the added one-hand-friendly gestures will surely help in improving the overall usability.

Handling the iPhone 8 Plus

Device overview

A quick look over the iPhone 8 Plus reveals no surprises. Most of the front is taken by the 5.5" IPS LCD screen and its bezels. Above the display is the earpiece, which also serves as a speaker, the FaceTime camera, and a couple of sensors.
Below the screen is the Home Key, force-press enabled just like on the iPhone 7 series. The ultra-fast fingerprint sensor, also known as Touch ID, is embedded within that key.

The iPhone 8 Plus • the earpiece and the FaceTime cam • the Home key

The left side of the iPhone 8 Plus has the silencer toggle and the volume keys. The power/lock button and the nanoSIM tray are on the right.

The left side • the volume controls • the right side • the SIM tray

The top is completely bare. The Lightning port is at the bottom flanked by two grilles - one for the mouthpiece, and the other one for the second speaker.

The top • the bottom • the Lightning port

Finally, the dual-camera is seen on the back, accompanied by a quad-LED dual-tone flash.

The back of the iPhone 8 Plus • the dual-camera setup • the camera hump

There is nothing out of the ordinary so far and no wonder. Apple is now using this design for the fourth year in a row after it was first introduced on the iPhone 6. Sure, the back is all glass now, but you would never guess you are holding the latest iPhone just by looking at the front.