iPhone 8 Plus Review – First Impressions
This is the iPhone 8 Plus Review, Apple’s latest dual camera phone. It’s got an all new glass back, next Gen processor, and even some improvements, its main claim to fame being the dual cameras. That all sounds good, but with the arrival of the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS & the iPhone Xs Max, the iPhone 8 Plus is no longer the top dog, but is there still enough to like here to make the iPhone 8 Plus worth considering? For a few years after its inception, the choice between iPhone and iPhone Plus was largely about size, but last year
really started bringing features into the mix with the introduction of the dual camera iPhone 7 Plus. Now, if you wanted all the high end Apple hardware you could carry around in one pocket, that meant choosing the company’s larger iPhone options. This year, the presence of extra functionality on the iPhone Plus continues and expands even as this phone launches in the shadow of an even better equipped iPhone X just over the horizon. The iPhone 8 Plus sure looks a lot like the Seven Plus, and especially if you’re only looking at online picks of the two phones, you’re going to be hard pressed to spot any major differences. The layouts the same, the design is nearly identical and while not exactly the same size, we’re talking differences that measure in on the sub millimetre range, but change is still present, maybe most prominently in the move away from a metal unibody design and towards a glass backed construction.
New Look iPhone 8 Plus, Don’t Drop It!
That new glass back looks quite nice and at least with this silver finish we picked up, even fingerprints don’t prove to be too large an issue. We’re still a little concerned though, as glass tends to be a lot less forgiving to accidental damage than metal, but for the moment we’re just trying real hard not to drop or scratch anything. In addition to this, silver, space grey and Gold options are also available, but that still represents less variety than we got last year. And just in case you were concerned that the change in materials meant the iPhone Plus losing its long overdue water resistance, worry not, as the 8 Plus is just as waterproof as its predecessor.
iPhone 8 Plus Review – Display Screen
This year’s iPhone 8 Plus Review sticks with the same screen size and resolution as we’re familiar with from past entries. A good phablet sized 5.5 inch display with 1080 by 1920 pixels. That makes for a more pixel dense, sharper looking screen than we get on the smaller iPhone 8. Colour accuracy is strong and gets the slightest bit off from where we’d like it to be. And this year the iPhone 8 Plus also picks up Apple’s True Tone tech from the iPad Pro line, which lets the phones display automatically adjust its colour temperature to match that of lights around you, helping to keep the screen natural looking in the process. If there’s one downside the display on the iPhone 8+, it’s the brightness isn’t quite as high as it was last year, or even as high as we see it now on the iPhone 8. But while that does take a hit, it’s still better than a whole lot of the other phones we test, so it may not be a deal breaker for you.
iPhone 8 Plus Memory & Processor
Apple’s latest mobile processor, the a 11 Bionic, powers the iPhone 8 Plus, resulting in some of the most impressive benchmarks we’ve ever seen on the smartphone. Really, its only competition comes from the smaller iPhone 8, which squeezes by with slightly higher frame rates, just like plenty of manufacturers. Over on the Android side of the fence, Apples finally upgrading to a 64 gigabyte based storage level for this year’s iPhones, including the Plus. That’s a great place to start, and especially with Apple’s strong cloud storage infrastructure, maybe all you ever need, but if you do want to push the limit even higher, at 256 gig, iPhone 8 Plus is available for £150.00 more than the 64 gig edition.
Connectivity & Sound – iPhone 8+
There’s not a lot new here insofar as connectivity options go, but a few upgrades are still present this year, including the arrival of Bluetooth 5.0, support for new Internet of Things devices, as well as enhanced location services now supporting GPS, like satellite networks launched by Europe and Japan. Apple told us to expect louder sound from the speakers on this year’s iPhones, and while our tests haven’t confirmed a big volume increase, we can’t deny that speaker still sound really great and love that stereo output is sticking around. Of course, love and hate often go hand in hand and we can’t say those same warm things extend to the still absent analogue headphone Jack. Apple hooks up with another pair of Lightning equipped ear pods that sound as nice as they did last year. It just sucks that we can’t use them with all our other hardware, and we like that Apple still throwing us a bone with an adapter for existing analogue headphones, even if we’re continuously worried about losing it. Though the speaker sound good, we wish we could say the same about voice calls. On both this and the iPhone 8 we tested, we found calls plagued by a distracting clicking sound. Something turning off noise cancellation did nothing to remedy. We’re hoping this might just be a software looks that can be patched because it’s really unlike Apple to drop the ball like this.
Cameras – iPhone 8 Plus Review
Even though resolution is staying at 12 megapixels for both of the iPhone 8 Plus cameras, upgrades are still present, including a bigger sensor and refined colour philtre. The effect that has an image quality can sometimes be subtle, but since we were already starting from such a high level that really shouldn’t be a negative. Pictures taken with the iPhone 8 Plus look beautiful, with natural colour reproduction and some commendable low light performance. As we knew to expect from last year, having a two time telephoto zoom lens adds a lot of flexibility to how we frame and capture bridges, and the experience here is just as easy and satisfying to use as it was in the iPhone 7 Plus. Portrait mode makes its return, and this year picks up an upgrade in the form of the still in beta portrait Lighting mode. This allows you to enhance the subject of your pic with a variety of interesting lighting effects and even black out the background for dramatic impact. Right now this is still a little shaky and sometimes the effects work a lot better than others. We’re hoping Apple keeps tweaking things and aim of making the feature even more impressive. Video recording works just as nicely as taking photos, and this year the iPhone 8 some new high end modes, including 4K at 60 frames per second, though that looks quite nice. Just be aware that while most of the less demanding video settings allow you to switch between cameras while in the middle of recording, you do lose that feature in this highest end mode.
iPhone 8 Plus Battery
Just like last year, the iPhone 8 Plus packs a bigger battery than its little brother, and not all that power is wasted on a bigger screen, meaning you can expect significantly longer operational times. With the Plus, we saw an impressive 10 1/2 hours of screen on time during our custom tests. Just keep in mind that a bigger battery also means longer recharge times, taking nearly three hours with the charger that comes with the phone. Luckily, Quick Charge support has finally hit the iPhone lineup, and the iPhone 8+ is ready to go if you’ve got the right adapter, like the one that might have come with your Apple laptop. As if that wasn’t a nice enough upgrade, the new glass back on this year’s iPhones lets US handset take advantage of wireless charging when paired with any compatible charging pad. Though Apple’s late to that party, its implementation here is pretty solid, with the phone quickly and seamlessly detecting and engaging with available chargers. And at least with the official iPhone 8 Plus silicone case we picked up from Apple, you can even use wireless charging while keeping your hardware protected. The iPhone 8 Plus is a very worthy successor to the Seven Plus, delivering improved battery life, so you will not be needing an iPhone 8 Plus Battery Replacement any time soon.
My Final Thoughts
The iPhone 8 Plus has faster performance, and even a slightly better camera. But we don’t love the glass back, but we can forgive it, as at least it enables wireless charging. If you are unfortunate enough to crack the Glass back, you really only have 3 options, one is to cover the glass back, the other is to build the entire phone in to another housing, this is usually the most expensive option or you can replace the glass back, but a laser machine is needed for that, fortunately we have one, so if you need an iPhone 8 Back Glass Replacement / Repair, you know where to come. Really, the only outright miss is that issue we have with a voice call quality, but even that doesn’t detract too much from the overall experience. But as we alluded to earlier, for as good a phone as the iPhone 8 Plus is, it no longer feels like Apple’s best. And while it out does the smaller iPhone 8 in a number of key areas, we similarly expect the 8 Plus to be eclipsed by the iPhone X or iPhone XS Max, when that handset lands in just a few more weeks. If you can’t see yourself spending £1000 on a smartphone, or maybe just prefer the more traditional look of the iPhone 8 Plus with the Home Button, you won’t go wrong picking up this model. But if you’re even the least bit curious about Apple’s challenging new vision for the future of smartphones, maybe hold off for another month just to get the full picture on the iPhone X.
