Apple iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus versus iPhone 7, iPhone Plus: What’s new

We compare the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with the last year’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus based on their price, specifications and features.

CUPERTINO, CA - SEPTEMBER 12: (L-R) The new iPhone 8, iPhone X and iPhone 8S are displayed during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California. Apple held their first special event at the new Apple Park campus where they announced the new iPhone 8, iPhone X and the Apple Watch Series 3. (AFP)

Even as the iPhone X hogged all the limelight at Apple's event on Tuesday, the company did unveil the routine upgrades, the iPhone 8 and iPhone Plus. Apple chose to skip the "7S" branding for the new iPhones. The company last year had launched the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

As expected, the Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with improved design, camera and performance. For design, the company has brought back the glass back, which is coupled with aerospace-grade aluminium bezel. If you are already an iPhone user or planning on buying the new iPhone, you might be wondering what are the new features in the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus and how different are they from the previous generation.

Design and display

Even though Apple may have skipped one generation, the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are incremental upgrades over the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The screen size and resolution have remained unchanged. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 come with 4.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen LCD MultiTouch display with IPS technology, and 1334x750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi.

The iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 7 Plus come with 5.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen LCD MultiTouch display with IPS technology, and 1920x1080-pixel resolution at 401 ppi.

The only difference between the two generations is the inclusion of the glass back design. While the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus came with metal back panel, the new iPhones come with glass back panels.

Performance

The last year's iPhones relied on A10 Fusion chip with 64-bit architecture and M10 motion coprocessor. The new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture, M11 motion coprocessor and an integrated neural engine for smarter machine learning. According to Apple, the new chipset is 25% faster than the A10. It is also about 30% faster in terms graphic performance.

Camera

Again, not much has changed between the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 series. Both iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 come with a 12-megapixel camera with ƒ/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilisation, and Quad-LED True Tone flash.

The iPhone 8 Plus sports 12-megapixel wide-angle and telephoto cameras on the back with optical image stabilisation, Quad-LED True Tone flash and optical zoom - same as the previous generation. The iPhone 8 Plus, however, also comes with a Portrait Lighting (beta), which delivers different light effects on photos taken in portrait mode. There's also upgrade in the video capturing capabilities.

The iPhone 7 Plus can shoot 4K video recording at 30 fps whereas the iPhone 8 Plus supports 4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps. The new iPhone can also shoot slow-motion 1080p videos at 120 fps or 240 fps as compared to last year's 1080p at 120fps and 720p at 240 fps.

Front cameras on all the four smartphones come with 7-megapixel sensor, ƒ/2.2 aperture, Retina Flash, and 1080p HD video recording.

CUPERTINO, CA - SEPTEMBER 12: The new iPhone 8 (L) and iPhone iPhone 8S are displayed during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California. (AFP)

CUPERTINO, CA - SEPTEMBER 12: The new iPhone 8 (L) and iPhone iPhone 8S are displayed during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California. (AFP)

Battery

According to Apple, the iPhone 8 delivers same battery life as the iPhone 7. The smartphone is claimed to deliver up to 12 hours back up on internet use. The iPhone 7 could deliver same amount of back up on the same parameter.

The upgrade, however, is the addition of the Qi wireless charging. The iPhone 8 also supports fast charging, which is claimed to achieve 50% charge in 30 minutes. The iPhone 8 Plus also has similar minor improvements over the predecessor with wireless charging support and fast charging capabilities.

Storage

With the iPhone 8 series, Apple has done away with lower storage variants. The iPhone 8 series comes in just two variants - 64GB and 256GB. The iPhone 7 series comes in 64GB and 128GB variants.

Price

The iPhone 8 64GB variant is priced at ₹64,000 whereas the iPhone 8 Plus 64GB model is available for ₹73,000. The 256GB variants of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are priced at ₹77,000 and ₹86,000.

The iPhone 7 32GB model is priced at ₹49,000 whereas the 128GB variant costs ₹58,000. The iPhone 7 Plus 32GB variant is priced at ₹59,000 while the 128GB version comes for ₹68,000.