Apple today released iOS 11.0.2, its third iOS 11 update in as many weeks. This update is now available to download over the air, and you can grab it by going into Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone or iPad.
As for what’s included in this update, Apple says that it fixes an issue where crackling sounds were being heard during calls on a “small number” of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus units. Also included are fixes for an issue where some photos would be come hidden and for an issue where attachments in S/MIME encrypted emails wouldn’t open.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are brand new, and I’m sure that owners afflicted by the crackling issue were frustrated that their brand new phones were having problems during phone calls. The good news is that Apple now has a fix for that issue, so if you’ve got a crackly iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, go grab iOS 11.0.2 right now.
Dual camera systems on smartphones have been around for several years now. Some of the earliest examples include the weird 3D camera on the HTC EVO 3D. Then it was HTC again who introduced it in a different form on the One m8. Then LG decided to drop in with its cool wide-angle lens with the G5 and the same year, Apple decided to take in the other direction by adding a telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus. Meanwhile, Huawei had other ideas, with its Leica branded monochrome camera on the P9.
But just how many types of dual camera systems are out there and how do they differ from each other? Most importantly, are they any good or is it just a passing fad? Let’s find out.
The Depth Sensor
We will start with this as this is the most basic form of dual camera system. In this system, the primary camera is accompanied by a second camera whose only function is to 3D map the area in front of the camera. As you may know, we are able to see in 3D because we have two eyes with slightly different perspectives that help us convey depth, especially for things that are close to us.
The HTC One m8
The secondary camera in this system works similarly. With the second camera, the system can now tell roughly how far the objects in front of it are with respect to each other. This information is then used to separate the foreground subject from the background.
The most common use of this technique is to create a shallow depth of field effect. While it’s something that comes naturally to DSLR cameras with their big sensors and big lenses, the small smartphone cameras cannot achieve the same shallow depth of field. So instead, this technique is used to first figure out the borders of the foreground subject and then apply an iris blue effect on everything else. This gives the illusion of shallow depth of field.
Sample from the HTC One m8. Didn’t always work this well.
While sound in theory and occasionally in practice, this technique has its pitfalls. Unless your subject is a cardboard cutout, it will have depth to it and because this depth is not as much as the depth between the entire subject and the background, the camera occasionally ends up blurring the edges of the subject as well. Even when it does work reasonably well, it never quite looks natural, especially since most smartphone cameras that have this feature apply an even blur on everything in the background whereas with a DSLR, the intensity of the blur increases with the distance from the focus point.
Camera systems with a dedicated depth sensor is one of the rarest types of dual camera systems. The first popular use of it was seen on the HTC One m8 but these days only the most basic smartphones, such as the Honor 6X or the Lenovo K8 Plus, can be seen using a dedicated depth sensor lens.
The Monochrome Camera
A slightly more popular implementation of the secondary sensor is the monochrome camera. In this method, the primary camera is accompanied by a mostly identical secondary camera. Both cameras usually have identical sensors, apertures, lenses and focusing systems. The main and usually only difference between the two is that the second sensor lacks an RGB color filter. This means that the sensor cannot capture color information but on the upside, because there is one less thing blocking the sensor, the monochrome camera can capture more light.
Huawei P9
Every time you take a picture, the camera system combines the output of both cameras and layers them into one image. In theory, the two images when combined will have greater detail and reduced noise. Alternately, you can also just shoot from the monochrome camera and get slightly better image quality at the cost of all the color information.
One of the first examples of this system was the Huawei P9 and since then, few other devices have also shipped with this system. To us, the advantages of this system are nebulous at best. While sound in theory, we can’t really say for sure if the feature does really work as advertised. We have seen some good results with this system in the past but its hard to tell if it was the dual camera doing all the work or it was just good image processing system.
Monochrome image from P9
There is no real disadvantage to this system and we do appreciate that it’s the only one of the systems discussed here that tries to do anything about the actual image quality instead of adding additional features but still, we would rather take some zooming ability over marginally improved image quality.
The Wide-Angle Camera
Debuted first on the LG G5 early last year, the wide-angle camera is pretty much what it sounds like. To take LG’s example, the phone had a 16 megapixel, 29mm equivalent f1.8 primary camera and 8 megapixel, 12mm equivalent f2.4 secondary camera. The 12mm focal length gave the secondary camera a crazy wide field of view that allowed the user to capture a much wider area without having to move back or capture interesting perspectives afforded by such a wide-angle lens.
LG G5
We have mainly seen this on LG phones, with Motorola recently incorporating it in the X4, and we are fans of how it works. The wide-angle lens gives a very unique perspective that you simply don’t get at all on smartphone cameras and apart from having practical value (capturing a large group of people from up close) also lets you capture some really cool looking shots.
The early iterations of this system did have its disadvantages. On the G5 and V20, the ultra wide-angle lens image quality was nowhere near as good as the primary camera and also had significant barrel distortion that made it look like the footage from a GoPro with a fish-eye lens. However, LG has been steadily improving the system with every iteration and in its latest avatar on the V30, the secondary lens not only has highly respectable image quality but also significantly less distortion around the edges, making it far more useful.
Wide-angle on top and ultra wide-angle below from G5
With good implementation, this system does have the potential to be a really cool second camera system for particular scenarios and we wish more manufacturers adopted it.
The Telephoto Camera
The most common of all the dual camera systems today is the telephoto camera. In this, the primary camera is paired with a second camera that has a telephoto lens. As you can tell, this is the exact opposite of the wide-angle camera system, wherein it actually lets you zoom into your subject instead of zooming out.
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
Since the iPhone 7 Plus, manufacturers have stuck to using a 2x factor for the second telephoto lens. This means the secondary lens has twice the focal length of the primary lens, giving you an instant 2x optical zoom.
There are many advantages of this system. First is the most obvious, where you get 2x lossless optical zoom. Zooming on smartphones has largely been digital until now but with this you get to quickly move 2x closer to your subject with very little quality loss. Any further zooming is done digitally still but because the digital zoom is now being applied on top of 2x optical zoom, it gives much better results.
Wide-angle above and telephoto below from the iPhone 7 Plus
Shooting with a telephoto lens also has other advantages. Telephoto lenses are more suitable for portraits than wide angle as they have less distortion and is more flattering to the subject. Most manufacturers go one step ahead and also implement the background blur effect that we saw with the very first system we talked about today (the primary lens now acts as the depth sensor). The combination of a telephoto lens and background blur gives far superior results than just applying background blur on wide-angle images.
Of course, this system too has its disadvantages. So far none of the manufacturers have been able to get complete parity between the two cameras. When the iPhone 7 Plus launched last year, it had a much smaller aperture (f2.8) compared to the main camera (f1.8) and no OIS on the secondary sensor. The iPhone 8 Plus ships with similar arrangement (although the sensors are better this year) and even the iPhone X still has f2.4 for the second camera (although it does have OIS). The Note8 was the first phone with a telephoto camera to have OIS but even then it’s still f2.4 (compared to f1.7 on the main lens) and the second sensor is slightly worse even if it has the same resolution.
iPhone 8 Plus Portrait Mode with Studio Lighting
Due to this, there is generally a quality difference when shooting with the telephoto lens. It’s even worse in lowlight, where due to the small aperture, most manufacturers just choose to disable the telephoto camera entirely, and instead when the user taps the 2x button, the camera just does a 2x digital zoom on the primary wide-angle lens. Needless to say, any further zooming is also digitally done on the primary lens. There are ways to force the camera to use the second lens on some phones but the results are generally not worth it.
Still, most of these limitations seem to be temporary and something year after year advancements should take care of eventually. This is still by far the most practical solution of all the systems we discussed today. Not only does it give the user a much needed optical zoom ability but at a pinch also lets them take some pretty decent looking shallow depth of field images.
That’s pretty much it for the dual camera systems. Let us know in the comments which one do you prefer, and if you have any further queries or other topics you’d like us to discuss in the future.
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, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. 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)
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.
There has been a swath of frustration spreading through the community of iPhone and iPad users. All across social media, and especially on this Reddit thread, there have been complaints about apps taking tens of seconds to open all together in iOS 11.
” Ever since I upgraded, launching apps is an absolute chore. Safari, Reddit, ESPN, Yahoo, texts, etc all have a terrible time opening. They either crash back to home, freeze and require closing the app or take well over a minute to load. I never had a single issue with my 7+ before last night and now suddenly it’s like this phone is stuck in quicksand. I’ve never had to hard reset this phone before but I’ve had to do it twice in the past two days.
Is anyone else experiencing this? Or is there a fix? “— /u/leejoness
343 comments followed with many of them agreeing that there has been trouble had with the update, if not in slowness then with UI functionality for apps.
One fix? Go back to iOS 10.3.3 and let things sort themselves out for a while.
Deactivate “Find My iPhone.” It is under the iCloud section of the settings.
Connect your device to your computer and make sure the latest version of iTunes is installed.
Force Restart your device and enter into Device Firmware Update mode:
For the iPhone 7 and later, hold the Volume Down and Sleep/Wake buttons for 10 seconds, then let go of the Sleep/Wake button and continue to hold the Volume Down.
For the iPhone 6s and earlier, hold the Sleep/Wake button and Home buttons for 8 seconds, then just the Home button for another several seconds.
If iTunes pops up a prompt saying that it has detected a device in recovery mode, click OK.
Or, take it from our Editor-in-Chief, Anton D. Nagy.
As yet another evolutionary device rather than the design revolution some cash-strapped iFans may have expected, the iPhone 8 is unsurprisingly overshadowed by the much sleeker X, despite the latter’s delays and availability concerns.
We’re talking of course about media coverage and apparent consumer interest, because in terms of critical reception, the 8 and especially 8 Plus seem to be doing just fine.
While we continue to cook up our exclusive in-depth reviews, it’s definitely worth highlighting how the smaller iPhone 8 handled JerryRigEverything’s obligatory durability inspection.
In a word, pretty great. In more, let’s start off by noticing Apple’s “most durable glass ever” and sapphire camera lens claims don’t exactly hold up in real life. The iPhone 8 screen is about as resistant to scratches as any high-end Android display around, and the rear-facing shooter appears to cut a few build quality corners.
Still, there’s no denying this is a robust slab of (mostly) glass and (very little) metal, largely impervious to razor blades, coins and keys, and impossible to bend with sheer force of will. It even bravely combats flames… if you somehow feel that information is relevant to the way you typically use your mobile device.
Meanwhile, iFixit’s comprehensive teardown examination concluded in a repairability score of 6 out of a possible 10, which is much better than Samsung’s DIY Galaxy S8 nightmare, but actually one point lower than last year’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus grades.
As always, you’re advised to not try any of the above, including scratch, flame, bend tests and routine disassembly, at home unless you know precisely what you’re doing or just want to watch the world burn.
The Apple iPhone 8 Plus has a main camera system truly worthy of a flagship phone. Similar to the iPhone 7 Plus, it features two cameras — a wide-angle 12MP main camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera with a slower lens for zooming in on subjects and for special effects such as Portrait mode. Comparing the camera datasheets of the older iPhone 7 Plus and the new iPhone 8 Plus make the two look almost identical; however, under-the-hood upgrades have given the 8 Plus an image quality and camera performance boost in almost every one of our tested categories.
Key camera specifications:
12MP main (wide-angle) camera with BSI sensor, f/1.8 lens
12MP telephoto camera, f/2.8 lens
Optical zoom, with digital zoom up to 10x
Portrait mode
Portrait Lighting (beta)
Optical image stabilization (main camera only)
Quad-LED True Tone flash with Slow sync
Autofocus with focus pixels
Wide-gamut color capture
Body and face detection
AutoHDR
Test summary
The Apple iPhone 8 Plus is the best-performing mobile device camera we have ever tested. Its overall DxOMark Mobile score of 94 sets a new record, beating out the 90 points for both the Google Pixel and the HTC U11, as well as the 92 that its sibling iPhone 8 just scored. Its Photo score of 96 is also a new record, blowing past the Pixel’s 90. For Video, its score of 89 is among our highest, but tied with the HTC U11 and slightly below the Pixel’s 91. Of course, the Pixel is nearly a year old now, so it makes sense that Apple’s new flagship is breaking new ground.
Bright light
Images captured outdoors with the iPhone 8 Plus are generally stunning, with excellent detail preservation, accurate color, and impressive dynamic range. The iPhone 8 Plus builds on the excellent performance of the iPhone 7 family with even better results in bright light. In particular, it has improved exposure calculation, and excellent ability to capture HDR (High Dynamic Range) scenes.
This scene has proved challenging to many of the smartphones we have tested, but the 8 Plus handles it like a champ. If you didn’t know that the image came from a phone, it would it would be very hard to tell.
This scene has proved challenging to many of the smartphones we have tested, but the 8 Plus handles it like a champ. If you didn’t know that the image came from a phone, it would it would be very hard to tell.
iPhone 8 version.
iPhone 8 Plus version.
Google Pixel version.
iPhone 7 Plus version.
Low light and Flash
Low light: Exposures are generally accurate, although there can be some underexposure in very low light. The 8 Plus’s strong performance in low light and with flash, combined with its excellent ability to recognize and properly expose faces, make it a natural for anyone wanting to easily create memories of their indoor events.
Even in tricky mixed-lighting situations, the iPhone 8 Plus does an excellent job of providing an accurate and detailed rendering of indoor scenes.
Flash: Images look good overall, with accurate exposure and white balance; however, there can be a a loss of detail and excessive noise.
Zoom and Bokeh
While the iPhone 8 Plus camera is amazing overall, it is in our new test categories of Zoom and Bokeh where it really stands out. While the technical specifications for the second camera that help make these features possible are very similar to the specs for the second camera on the iPhone 7 Plus on paper, upgrades to the image processing software have raised the 8 Plus’s performance to a new level. Especially important for those looking to capture portraits with their phones, or to create artistic effects in macro and other closeup shots, zoom and bokeh used to require standalone cameras. But phones like the 8 Plus are changing that.
Zoom: The dedicated telephoto camera on the 8 Plus gives it a large advantage over most traditional single-camera designs when it comes to zoom. At 51, it has the highest Zoom sub-score of any mobile device we have measured — a full 5 points better than its predecessor, the iPhone 7 Plus. Here you can see that at 2x (full-frame equivalent of about 56mm), the iPhone 8 Plus does an excellent job of both framing and detail preservation (click on individual images to get a full-size version for easier comparison):
iPhone 8 version
iPhone 8 Plus version.
Google Pixel version of the image.
iPhone 7 Plus version of the image.
Bokeh: Overall, the 8 Plus is the highest-performing phone we’ve tested when it comes to bokeh. Despite the relatively small changes in the actual camera specs, additional development and processing power allow it to beat out the 7 Plus by 5 points, putting it even further ahead of the Google Pixel, with a score of 55 compared to 30.
You can see the improved depth effect on the iPhone 8 Plus compared to the older model, showing that the dual-camera system now does a better job of blurring the foreground like a true optical blur, instead of blurring only the background. The images below also show how the second camera of the 8 Plus provides a much more artistic rendering of the image than the single camera on the iPhone 8 (click on individual images to get a full-size version for easier comparison):
iPhone 8 version.
iPhone 8 Plus version.
Google Pixel version of the image.
iPhone 7 Plus version of the image.
Video
Apple continues to up its game on Video. With a score of 89, the 8 Plus has the best video quality of any Apple device, starting with the best exposure calculation. In particular, exposure is more stable while panning or walking than on previous iPhones. Its HDR capabilities are also very good, but highlights are sometimes blown out. There is still room for improvement, as the iPhone 8 Plus’s Video score of 89 still only ties the HTC U11 and is still behind the Google Pixel’s 91 points. This said, the 8 Plus camera does an excellent job of face tracking when shooting video in bright light.
Photo scores explained
Our Overall Photo Score is a composite of a number of category sub-scores. Here we detail how the 8 Plus performed in each of those categories.
Exposure and Contrast (89)
The 8 Plus does an excellent job of accurately calculating exposure, improving on the performance of the iPhone 7 family. Its ability to represent high-contrast scenes is also improved, probably at least in part due to additional processing power and improved software for combining multiple frames into a single image. Apple’s AutoHDR technology is some of the best on the market for rendering high-dynamic-range scenes. The 8 Plus also does an unusually good job at recognizing and properly exposing faces in an image.
This HDR scene tests the boundaries of what a mobile device camera can capture. The 8 Plus does an excellent job of keeping the highlights visible while still showing detail in the shaded foliage in the foreground.
Color (78)
Color is pleasing both outside and indoors. White balance is also quite good. The 8 Plus improves slightly over the iPhone 8 in its color performance by completely avoiding visible color shading, even in low-light conditions.
The iPhone 8 Plus accurately renders pleasingly colorful outdoor scenes like this one.
Color saturation in iPhone 8 Plus images remains very good, even under low-light conditions. However, in low light and in typical indoor (tungsten) light, 8 Plus images pick up a noticeable color cast that you can see in this chart of test sample patches:
Using the reference patch on the far right, notice that the light gray patch nearly turns peach under very low-light conditions (left-most “H” column, luminosity similar to candlelight).
iPhone 8 Plus version, showing a slight yellow cast
Google Pixel version
Autofocus (74)
Although the 8 Plus doesn’t always focus quickly, once it focuses, it is remarkably accurate. In both our long- and short-delay tests, the 8 Plus was able to repeatably capture an in-focus scene. The sometimes longer delay — which occurred periodically in both bright and low light — can mean that users miss the shot they intended.
Even in bright light, the 8 Plus’s autofocus sometimes hesitated, which can mean missing the shot you want.
Similarly, in our fast trigger tests, the 8 Plus didn’t always refocus right away. However, once the 8 Plus focused, it was on the money. Given a longer interval, the camera focused accurately and quickly every time.
Detail (64)
The 8 Plus does an excellent job of capturing detail under a wide variety of lighting conditions, especially when there is no motion in the scene. That makes it especially good for landscape images. There is a noticeable loss of detail when there is motion, especially in low-light — as you can see in this chart of detail preservation versus light level:
(Our Family score reflects scenes with moving objects, simulating photographing people at events, while the Landscape line is for scenes without subject motion.)
It is easy to forget how far smartphone cameras have come in just a few years. These tight crops of an area in our standard natural test scene demonstrate how much more detail the iPhone 8 Plus captures than previous generations of iPhones:
The images were all taken under very-low light (5 Lux) handheld conditions, showing the improvement in detail preservation and noise suppression in successive iPhone models.
Noise (68)
Similar to its detail score, the 8 Plus features a very low level of noise when capturing static scenes, outperforming every other phone in our database. Even the darkest areas in HDR scenes have very low levels of noise, and blue skies are almost without noise. There is some slight luminance noise indoors and in very low light, but well within acceptable limits. In this indoor test target scene, for example, the 8 Plus is a little further off in exposure than the Google Pixel, but has lower noise:
In very low light, the Pixel does a slightly better job of properly exposing the image (only a small cropped area shown here), but has visible color noise compared to the iPhone 8 Plus (iPhone 8 Plus image crops are on the top row, Google Pixel on the bottom).
This next comparison image is another that shows how quickly smartphone camera technology is advancing. This image was shot with the iPhone 7 Plus and the 8 Plus, both in Portrait mode. The newer model does a much better job of suppressing noise, especially on the model’s face:
iPhone 7 Plus version of the image.
iPhone 8 Plus version, showing better detail and lower noise; note, however, the slight bokeh artifact visible around the hair.
Artifacts (73)
The 8 Plus, like most iPhone models we’ve tested, has very few artifacts in its images, achieving an excellent artifact sub-score as a result. Interestingly, the iPhone 8 outscores the 8 Plus in this area. Slight flare in harsh light and moiré when repeating patterns are present reduced its score somewhat. Some visible ghosting can also occur.
Flash (84)
Flash-only photos with the iPhone 8 Plus feature accurate white balance and good color rendering. With both flash and flash combined with ambient light, there is low noise and good detail preservation. There can be a slight yellow cast when flash is mixed with a low level of ambient light, and exposure and white balance can vary from shot to shot in a sequence.
This portrait, lit with only flash, shows a slight yellow cast.
Zoom (51)
The iPhone 8 Plus sets a new standard for zoom performance in a smartphone, a tribute to its dual camera design, and the image processing improvements Apple has made since the introduction of the 7 Plus. There is still some room for improvement: when shooting several images in a row using zoom, some (but not all) images show artifacts.
Even with the 8 Plus’s stunning Zoom and Portrait mode performance, photographers still need to watch out for possible side effects. For example, these images show that subject motion can detract from an otherwise excellent portrait:
This Portrait mode image is sharp and also blurs the background to help make the subject pop.
However, the same scene with the subject waving his hand shows that the 8 Plus hasn’t addressed the resulting motion blur.
Bokeh (55)
The bokeh effect on the 8 Plus is remarkably reliable, as the 8 Plus is not fooled nearly as often as other smartphone cameras when it makes estimations of depth, even compared to competitors with similar dual-camera systems.
In low light, the iPhone 8 Plus does a much better job of rendering a bokeh effect than the Google Pixel, although at the cost of some noise. Further, the Pixel version of the image has strong artifacts (click on individual images to get a full-size version for easier comparison):
iPhone 8 version.
iPhone 8 Plus version.
Google Pixel version of the image.
iPhone 7 Plus version of the image.
Key to the 8 Plus’s excellent Bokeh score is very good depth estimation and facial recognition. These technologies help ensure that blurs are created naturally and effectively. There is room for improvement, though — in particular, when the subject touches the edges of the frame, the camera can mistake portions of the subject for part of the background, and ends up blurring those portions accordingly.
This type of artifact is visible in the portrait in this review, in which some of the subject’s hair is blurred — an unfortunate and sometimes unpleasant effect on an important part of the portrait.
Video scores explained
The Apple iPhone 8 Plus achieves a total Video score of 89. As with the photo scores, this is calculated from the sub-scores it achieves in a number of categories of tests that help define its overall video capabilities, specifically: Exposure and Contrast (81), Color (87), Autofocus (84), Texture (50), Noise (68), Artifacts (81), and Stabilization (91). Of particular note, stabilization is excellent, color rendering is very accurate, and exposure is greatly improved over previous models. Exceptionally good face tracking also aids in accurate subject exposure. Video suffers from some judder, and a small amount of frame-rate inaccuracy.
One thing the iPhone 8 Plus’s video lacks somewhat is good exposure in low light. As light falls off, the 8 Plus tends to underexpose, as you can see from this chart:
Ideally, the gray patch should expose to about 50. The 8 Plus comes close in bright light, but at low-light levels, it chooses a very dark exposure.
Conclusion: The best smartphone camera we’ve ever tested
Overall, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus is an excellent choice for the needs of nearly every smartphone photographer. It features outstanding image quality, zoom for those needing to get closer to their subjects, and an industry-leading Portrait mode for artistic efforts. It is at the top of our scoring charts in nearly every category — and in particular, its advanced software allows it to do an amazing job of capturing high-dynamic range scenes and images in which it can recognize faces.
We look forward to testing the iPhone X and comparing it against the iPhone 8 Plus, as the X’s wider aperture and its OIS on both cameras should place it on the cutting edge of zoom and portrait performance — enhancing the iPhone shooting experience for memory makers and image lovers even more.
A note about image formats for this review: The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus record photographs in the DCI-P3 colorspace, which their displays also use. DCI-P3 is newer and larger than the sRGB color space that most devices use and most web browsers assume. So to ensure that the images we used in the review display properly on a wide variety of browsers and devices, we converted the originals from DCI-P3 to sRGB using Photoshop (which is why the published test photos show Photoshop as the creator). This can slightly reduce the richness of color in some cases from what you would see when viewing the original images on a DCI-P3-calibrated display with appropriate software. We also captured the original images using the new HEIF (High-Efficiency Image Format), but then converted them to very high-quality JPEGs for viewing in standard browsers and image editing software. (HEIF is very similar to JPEG, but provides better compression for similar image quality, so the conversion makes the sample image file sizes larger than they were when shot.) Please note, however, that unlike our test images, some of the comparison photos used in this review were shot in JPEG and used as-is for illustrative purposes, and were not used to compute scores.
The latest version of iTunes removes the App Store and thus the ability to manage iOS apps on an iPhone or iPad directly through iTunes. Instead, Apple wants users to manage and sync their iOS apps directly on the iOS device itself through the built-in App Store.
The removal of App Store and an Apps section from iTunes has confused some users, and annoyed others. But don’t distress, even if this change can take some adapting, because you can still easily manage apps, sync apps, and redownload apps and access apps through the App Store directly on an iPhone or iPad.
It’ll be helpful to think of the concept of app ‘syncing’ as now more like app re-downloading from the App Store, since syncing apps to and from iTunes is largely gone and instead replaced with redownloading apps if need be over the internet. (I say largely gone because you can still sort of work with .ipa files, more on that below.)
How to Redownload Apps to iPhone or iPad from iOS App Store, Without iTunes
You can download existing and old apps, as well as manage apps directly on the iPhone and iPad by using the App Store Purchased section. The Purchased section of the App Store includes all apps you have ever downloaded or bought before at any time with the Apple ID in use, as long as those apps are still on the App Store. This redownloading iOS app ability has been around for a long time in iOS, but now it is perhaps more important than ever before.
Here is how you can access Purchased and use it to download apps back to your iOS device, note the precise actions are slightly different on iPhone compared to iPad but the general behavior is the same:
Open the App Store app in iOS
Go to the Purchased section of the App Store
For iPhone and iPod touch: Go to “Updates” and then “Purchased”
For iPad: Tap your Apple ID account icon in the corner of the open App Store
On iPad App Store, then tap “Purchased”
Choose the “Not on this device” section
Tap the download icons alongside app names you wish to download to the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
This allows you to download and access apps that you have previously downloaded, owned, or purchased at some point, but that are not contained on the current iOS device.
These purchase listings will be different per iOS device, changing from “Not on this iPhone” or “Not on this iPad” depending on what device you are using with the same Apple ID, and depending on what apps are on the active iOS device.
Arranging iOS App Home Screen and Icon Layouts on iPhone and iPad
You can still arrange your iOS home screen as you like it to a custom icon layout, but now it must be done on the iPhone or iPad.
Simply tap and hold on an app icon until all screen icons start to jiggle. Once the icons are jiggling on the iOS screen they can be moved around at will. Use this to arrange the Home Screen of an iPhone or iPad to suit your preferences.
If you drag a jiggling icon to the edge of the screen, continue holding and you can move the app icon to a different Home Screen page.
Removing Unwanted Apps from the iPhone or iPad
Removing apps from an iPhone or iPad is a matter of uninstalling the apps from iOS, the easiest way is by the tap-and-hold and then delete method detailed here.
You can also delete apps from an iOS device through the Settings > General section to manage storage.
Manually Syncing / Copying Apps via IPA Files to iPhone or iPad with iTunes
Interestingly, you can still drag and drop ringtones in .m4r format and iOS apps in .ipa file format into iTunes and to the target iOS device, and they should transfer over to the target iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
If you happen to have a .ipa file of an iOS app, you can still manually copy it over to the iPhone or iPad via iTunes by using this drag and drop method. This is sort of like syncing, but it’s really just copying a file over from the local computer to the target iOS device by using iTunes.
Apps stored as .ipa files, if you have any stored on a local computer, can be found within the iTunes Library locations on the Mac and Windows PC and a subfolder for Mobile Applications, typically the path would be as follows for Mac and Windows PC respectively:
IPA file path in Mac OS:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Mobile Applications/
IPA file path in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10:
\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\
With an iPhone or iPad connected to the computer via USB, simply drag and drop the IPA file into iTunes onto the iOS device in question through the sidebar.
It’s alway possible this particular IPA file feature will disappear from iTunes in the future with another software update, or that the IPA files stored on a computer will vanish if you don’t copy them elsewhere for backup purposes, so it’s probably wise to not depend on this particular ability too much.
Some users may determine that iTunes 12.7 along with the removal of the App Store and other changes are incompatible with their particular workflow. With a little effort, you can downgrade iTunes 12.7 back to iTunes 12.6 on either a Mac OS computer or Windows PC.
Most people should not downgrade iTunes nor attempt to downgrade, this is really only appropriate for advanced users who must use an earlier version for some particular reason. Before downgrading iTunes 12.7 you should know that you can manage and download apps on iPhone or iPad without iTunes, directly in iOS as detailed here, including manually copying apps to the iPhone or iPad via IPA files.
You should backup your computer before beginning this process. Failure to backup could result in permanent data loss or data removal. Do not skip backing up your computer before beginning.
This process is basically three parts: deleting iTunes, restoring the old iTunes Library file, and then downloading the older version of iTunes and installing it.
How to Downgrade iTunes 12.7 to 12.6 on Mac
Back up your Mac before beginning the iTunes downgrade process. Do not skip backing up your Mac or else you may lose data, apps, music, media, or general functionality.
Back up the Mac if you haven’t done so already
Quit out of iTunes
Now open the Terminal application in Mac OS, found in /Applications/Utilities/ and type the following exactly, then hit return:
cd /Applications/
Now you’ll be in the Applications folder via command line, the next command syntax must be precisely entered to remove iTunes, make sure the syntax is exact:
sudo rm -rf iTunes.app/
Be absolutely certain your syntax reads the same, rm is unforgiving and will delete any file permanently it is pointed at. When certain you are pointing at iTunes.app/ only, hit return and authenticate with an admin password to completely delete iTunes
Now go to the Finder of Mac OS and visit your user ~/Music/iTunes/ folder and locate the file named “iTunes Library.itl” and move it to the Desktop, or another easily found location
Still in ~/Music/iTunes/, now open the folder titled “Previous iTunes Libraries” and find the most recent dated iTunes Library file (these are labeled as whatever date you installed the latest iTunes, for example “iTunes Library 2017-09-12.itl” or similar) and make a copy of that file
Drag the copy of “iTunes Library 2017-09-12.itl” to the ~/Music/iTunes/ folder and rename it to “iTunes Library.itl”
Now go to Apple iTunes Downloads page hereand locate “iTunes 12.6.2” and choose to download that to the Mac
Install iTunes 12.6.2 on the Mac as usual, then launch iTunes once complete
That’s it, you’re now back to the prior version of iTunes.
To avoid downloading iTunes 12.7 again you may want to hide it from the Mac App Store or turn off automatic updates.
How to Downgrade iTunes 12.7 in Windows
Downgrading iTunes 12.7 can be done in Windows as well by uninstalling iTunes and then reinstalling the old version. You’ll still want to restore the old iTunes Library .itl file however.
In Windows, navigate to where your iTunes Media folder is and open “Previous iTunes Libraries” and make a copy of the most recently dated iTunes Library.itl file in that directory
In Windows, open Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features and go to “Uninstall or change a program”
Choose “iTunes” and choose to Uninstall iTunes 12.7 from the Windows PC
Download and install iTunes 12.6 from Apple using the following links (direct download links to exe files via Apple CDN), get the 32 or 64 bit version appropriate to your Windows installation :
It’s important to not skip the ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file process because if you do not restore the previous iTunes Library file you will get an error message stating “iTunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes”. Typically you can override those error messages by rebuilding an iTunes library, but if you can avoid that you may as well.
iPhone or iPad not charging? Here’s how to fix it!
Force a restart. If your iPhone or iPad won’t charge, one of the first and easiest things to try is a forced restart. … Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button on the right side (iPhone 6 or later) or top (all other iPhones, iPods, and iPads) of your device
Why my phone is not charging?
iPhone Won’t Charge? Here’s Why iPhone Isn’t Charging & How to Fix It
: Change the Wall Outlet or USB Port Plugged Into. The next most common reason an iPhone won’t charge is because of where it’s actually plugged into. Sometimes the wall outlet itself isn’t working or the light switch is turned off, so if you’re using a wall charger then change the outlet.
How do you know if your iPhone is charging?
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won’t charge – Apple Support
Plug into one of these three power sources:
Wall power outlet. Plug your charging cable into a USB wall adapter, then plug the adapter into the wall.
Computer. …
Power accessory. …
As your device charges, you’ll see a lightning bolt beside the battery icon in the status bar, or a large battery icon on your lock screen.
What do you do when your iPhone won t charge?
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won’t charge – Apple Support
If an alert says that your accessory isn’t supported or certified
Remove any debris from the charging port on the bottom of your device.
Restart your iOS device.
Try a different USB cable or charger.
Make sure that you have the latest version of iOS.
Contact Apple Support to set up service.
Why is my Iphone charging so slow?
A Simple Way To Fix A Slowly Charging iPhone | HuffPost
A Simple Way To Fix A Slowly Charging iPhone. If your iPhone or iPad seems like it’s taking an eternity to charge, it may not be a problem with the device or the charging cable. Rather, as CNET’s Dan Graziano explains, it may be a simple buildup of dust or debris in the device’s lightning port.
Packed with Innovative Features Including a Super Retina Display, TrueDepth Camera System, Face ID and A11 Bionic Chip with Neural Engine
iPhone X is the future of the smartphone in a gorgeous all-glass design with a beautiful 5.8-inch Super Retina display.
Cupertino, California — Apple today announced iPhone X, the future of the smartphone, in a gorgeous all-glass design with a beautiful 5.8-inch Super Retina display, A11 Bionic chip, wireless charging and an improved rear camera with dual optical image stabilization. iPhone X delivers an innovative and secure new way for customers to unlock, authenticate and pay using Face ID, enabled by the new TrueDepth camera. iPhone X will be available for pre-order beginning Friday, October 27 in more than 55 countries and territories, and in stores beginning Friday, November 3.
The device is the display on iPhone X, featuring the first OLED screen that rises to the standards of iPhone.
“For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realization of that vision,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “With the introduction of iPhone ten years ago, we revolutionized the mobile phone with Multi-Touch. iPhone X marks a new era for iPhone— one in which the device disappears into the experience.”
The all-glass front and back on iPhone X feature the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in two beautiful colors, silver and space gray.
“iPhone X is the future of the smartphone. It is packed with incredible new technologies, like the innovative TrueDepth camera system, beautiful Super Retina display and super fast A11 Bionic chip with neural engine,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences — from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages — it is the beginning of the next ten years for iPhone.”
Gorgeous All-Screen Design
The Super Retina display employs new techniques and technology to precisely follow the curves of the design, all the way to the elegantly rounded corners.
iPhone X introduces a revolutionary design with a stunning all-screen display that precisely follows the curve of the device, clear to the elegantly rounded corners. The all-glass front and back feature the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in silver or space gray, while a highly polished, surgical-grade stainless steel band seamlessly wraps around and reinforces iPhone X. A seven-layer color process allows for precise color hues and opacity on the glass finish, and a reflective optical layer enhances the rich colors, making the design as elegant as it is durable, while maintaining water and dust resistance.
iPhone X is as elegant as it is durable while maintaining water and dust resistance.
Remarkable Super Retina Display
The beautiful 5.8-inch Super Retina display2 is the first OLED panel that rises to the standards of iPhone, with stunning colors, true blacks, a million-to-one contrast ratio and wide color support with the best system-wide color management in a smartphone. The HDR display supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, which together make photo and video content look even more amazing. The addition of True Tone dynamically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience.
Familiar gestures allow customers to naturally and intuitively navigate iPhone X.
iOS 11 is redesigned to take full advantage of the Super Retina display and replaces the Home button with fast and fluid gestures, allowing customers to naturally and intuitively navigate iPhone X. Simply swipe up from the bottom to go home from anywhere.
Face ID, a Powerful and Secure Authentication System
Face ID on iPhone X introduces a revolutionary new way to securely unlock, authenticate and pay.
Face ID revolutionizes authentication on iPhone X, using a state-of-the-art TrueDepth camera system made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator, and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognize a face. These advanced depth-sensing technologies work together to securely unlock iPhone, enable Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more new features.
Face ID projects more than 30,000 invisible IR dots. The IR image and dot pattern are pushed through neural networks to create a mathematical model of your face and send the data to the secure enclave to confirm a match, while adapting to physical changes in appearance over time. All saved facial information is protected by the secure enclave to keep data extremely secure, while all of the processing is done on-device and not in the cloud to protect user privacy. Face ID only unlocks iPhone X when customers look at it and is designed to prevent spoofing by photos or masks.
Reinvented Front and Back Cameras Featuring Portrait Lighting
iPhone X features the 7MP TrueDepth camera and a redesigned 12MP rear camera with dual OIS.
The new 7-megapixel TrueDepth camera that enables Face ID features wide color capture, auto image stabilization and precise exposure control, and brings Portrait mode to the front camera for stunning selfies with a depth-of-field effect.
iPhone X also features a redesigned dual 12-megapixel rear camera system with dual optical image stabilization. The ƒ/1.8 aperture on the wide-angle camera joins an improved ƒ/2.4 aperture on the telephoto camera for better photos and videos. A new color filter, deeper pixels and an improved Apple-designed image signal processor delivers advanced pixel processing, wide color capture, faster autofocus in low light and better HDR photos. A new quad LED True Tone Flash offers twice the uniformity of light and includes Slow Sync, resulting in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds.
The new camera in iPhone X features a larger and faster sensor, new color filter, deeper pixels and OIS for capturing vibrant photos and videos with more detail.
The cameras on iPhone X are custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the TrueDepth camera and the rear cameras to create games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.
The new camera also delivers the highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone, with better video stabilization, 4K video up to 60fps and 1080p slo-mo up to 240fps. The Apple-designed video encoder provides real-time image and motion analysis for optimal quality video.
Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting on both the front and rear cameras brings dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone and allows customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles.
With iOS 11, iPhone X supports HEIF and HEVC for up to two times compression and storage for twice the photos and videos.
Animoji Brings Emoji to Life
iPhone X users can record and send Animoji messages that mirror their facial expressions.
The TrueDepth camera brings emoji to life in a fun new way with Animoji. Working with A11 Bionic, the TrueDepth camera captures and analyzes over 50 different facial muscle movements, then animates those expressions in a dozen different Animoji, including a panda, unicorn and robot. Available as an iMessage app pre-installed on iPhone X, customers can record and send Animoji messages with their voice that can smile, frown and more.
Using the TrueDepth camera, iPhone X brings emoji to life in a fun new way with Animoji
Introducing A11 Bionic
A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone, features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while lasting two hours longer than iPhone 7. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.
The neural engine in A11 Bionic is purpose-built for machine learning, augmented reality apps and immersive 3D games.
The new A11 Bionic neural engine is a dual-core design and performs up to 600 billion operations per second for real-time processing. A11 Bionic neural engine is designed for specific machine learning algorithms and enables Face ID, Animoji and other features.
Designed for a Wireless Future
The new Apple-designed AirPower mat, coming in 2018, can charge iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously.
The glass back design enables a world-class wireless charging solution. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie, available from apple.com and Apple Stores.
The glass back design on iPhone X enables a world-class wireless charging solution.
Apple gave a sneak peek of AirPower, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018, which offers a generous active charging area that will allow iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X customers to simultaneously charge up to three devices, including Apple Watch Series 3 and a new optional wireless charging case for AirPods.
Pricing and Availability
iPhone X will be available in silver and space gray in 64GB and 256GB models starting at $999 (US) from apple.com and Apple Stores and is also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and carriers (prices may vary).
Through Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, customers in the US can get iPhone X, with the protection of AppleCare+, choose their carrier (no multiyear service contract required) and have the opportunity to upgrade to a new iPhone every year. The iPhone Upgrade Program is available for iPhone X at apple.com and Apple Stores in the US with monthly payments starting at $49.91.4
Customers will be able to order iPhone X beginning Friday, October 27, with availability beginning Friday, November 3, in Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands.
Apple-designed accessories including leather and silicone cases in a range of colors will be available starting at $35 (US), while a new iPhone X Leather Folio will be available for $99 (US). Lightning Docks in color-matching metallic finishes will also be available for $49 (US), prices may vary.
Every customer who buys iPhone X from Apple will be offered free Personal Setup in-store or online to help them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more.5
Anyone who wants to start with the basics or go further with iPhone X or iOS 11 can sign up for free Today at Apple sessions at apple.com/today.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple’s four software platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
1 iPhone X is splash, water and dust resistant, and was tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP67 under IEC standard 60529. Splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions, and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage not covered under warranty. 2 The iPhone X display has rounded corners that follow a beautiful curved design, and these corners are within a standard rectangle. When measured as a standard rectangular shape, the screen is 5.85 inches diagonally (actual viewable area is less). 3 Portrait Lighting launches in beta. 4 Based on a 24-month installment loan; full terms and conditions apply. 5 In most countries.
iPhone X has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
