What is the iPhone 8 Plus?
When the iPhone 8 hits shelves it didn’t garner too much hype. This wasn’t because it’s a bad phone, but because Apple superseded the iPhone 8 Plus around 10 minutes after it was announced by showing off the OLED-toting, bezel-free iPhone X.
Instead, the iPhone 8 Plus represents a steady, safe update. There are nice upgrades to the screen, camera and processor, although nothing that will really make you say ‘wow’. It’s an iPhone 7S Plus in all but name.
iPhone 8 Plus price
Prices for the iPhone 8 Plus start at £799/$799 for 64GB and £949/$949 for 256GB. That’s cheaper than the iPhone X – which will start at £999/$999 when it ships in November – but it’s a higher starting price than the iPhone 7 Plus (£719/$749, 32GB)
iPhone 8 Plus release date
Apple’s latest Plus phablet is available from various networks and the Apple Store. To get the best price, check out our iPhone 8 Plus deals page.
iPhone 8 Plus – Design
The single biggest disappointment with the iPhone 8 Plus is its design. This is now the fourth time – iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and 8 – that Apple has stuck with the same design for its handsets. Considering it was easily the least attractive iPhone three years ago, it’s certainly fallen behind the Android pack now.
To be honest, the iPhone 8 Plus is comfortably my favourite iteration of the design, but that seems like faint praise at this stage. The aluminium rear has been replaced with a surface that Apple is calling the ‘most durable glass ever on an iPhone’ – and it feels so much better for it. It’s grippier, and doesn’t feel like it will fly out of my hand every time I pick it up.
It’s also fairly weighty – almost too heavy for me to use comfortably. At 202g, it’s 7g heavier than the already hulking Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and it makes the 150g LG V30 feel like a toy. Add a case, which I’m sure most people will, and that weight will only increase.
Apple has always been masterful at fit and finish, and the way the glass slightly curves at the edges and blends into the familiar 7000-series aluminium rim is super-impressive, despite the faint lip where the glass meets the metal.
Like the iPhone 7 before it, the device is IP67-rated for water-resistance too – something that’s become even more popular in the phone market of late.
Apple remains the best in terms of the colour options it offers, and this is especially true of the new Gold hue. This could be one of the most controversial iPhone colours ever – but I’m a huge fan. It’s a blend of the lighter Rose Gold and the more harsh Gold of the iPhone 7, but the addition of the glass gives it a creamy, almost ’70s vibe that’s hard to get across in pictures. The iPhone 8 is available in the less interesting Silver option and Space Grey too.
The biggest problem with the ageing design of the iPhone 8 Plus is the sheer size of it. The 5.5-inch display used here is small compared to the 6.3-inch screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and the 6-inch panel on the LG V30, but the phone itself is far larger than both those models in every dimension. It’s cumbersome to hold, too wide and feels old-fashioned. It looks like a phone from 2014, and the huge bezel surrounding the display doesn’t help matters.
It’s clear that Apple is capable of designing a stunning phone – just look at theiPhone X – and I understand that the company will be pushing that as its future direction. But the iPhone 8 Plus isn’t cheap, it’s a £799 phone. It’s more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S8, and it needs to compete.
iPhone 8 Plus – Screen
The running theme of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus is that they take the basics from the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, but the individual components have been tweaked and fine-tuned.
Take the screen, for example. The iPhone 8 Plus has the same 1080p IPS LCD as last year’s handset, capable of displaying the wide DCI-P3 colour gamut. However, it now benefits from the True Tone tech that Apple first debuted on the iPad Pro 9.7-inch. True Tone alters the colour temperature of the display depending on the environment in which you’re in, reducing the harsh blue tones typical of an LCD when you’re in a softly lit room.
This may sound like a minor tweak, but the difference is significant, obviously so on switching back to an iPhone 7. To get a clear idea of the level at which True Tone alters the balance of the display, toggle it on and off in Settings – and shudder at just how blue the normal screen is.
As good as the True Tone implementation is, I’m annoyed that Apple didn’t opt for full OLED across the entire range. Instead, it’s only the iPhone X that gets the better saturation and near-perfect blacks that come with an OLED panel.
The iPhone X also has a much better contrast ratio (1,000,000:1 vs 1300:1) and offers ‘True HDR’. The iPhone 8 Plus can play back HDR (high dynamic range) movies from iTunes and content from Netflix, but they won’t look quite so rich and colourful. Still, watching the HDR version of Mad Max was an enjoyable experience, even on a 5.5-inch display.
I do prefer the better viewing angles and better outdoor performance afforded by LCD. I still get frustrated by the overly reflective nature of many OLED panels, but the LCD here is perfectly viewable.
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iPhone 8 Plus – Performance
Running the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus is the A11 Bionic, Apple’s fastest processor yet.
The A11 Bionic affects everything that happens inside this phone and it puts current Qualcomm high-end Snapdragon chips to shame. It’s accompanied by 3GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 256GB of storage. Remember, there’s no expandable storage on iPhones, so make your storage choice wisely at the start.
This is a six-core processor with two high-power and four low-power cores that churns through all tasks with ease. In benchmarks, it picked up a score of 10,262 in the multi-core Geekbench 4 test, which isn’t far off double the scores achieved by flagship Android phones.
For the most part, the level of power seems too much; the iPhone 7 Plus is still a fast phone. However, the boost in power here delivers far more than simply making the iPhone 8 Plus’ interface smoother to flip through. It uses it for the Portrait Lighting effects in the camera and also for playing intensive AR games that have been developed with ARKit.
Augmented reality overlays artificial elements on a view of the real world, and while it could be described as gimmicky, there’s no doubt it requires an extra hit of oomph. But these AR apps still run fine on an iPhone 6S.
I’d love to see developers push apps and games harder to really make the most of the A11 Bionic. So far, I can’t really see much general improvement in apps over those for the iPhone 7.
Apple has updated the stereo speakers here too, making the iPhone 8 Plus one of the best-sounding phones out there. Bass is heavier, volume is louder and there’s no distortion – even when you’re at full blast. This is the first iPhone with which I can happily listen to music without having to connect a Bluetooth speaker.
iPhone 8 Plus – Software
The iPhone 8 Plus arrives running iOS 11, which is one of the best versions of Apple’s operating system yet. I’ll direct you to our iOS 11 review for the full rundown on what’s new, but in short it adds a new Control Center, better Siri, AR support and plenty more.
The Control Center is no longer spread over three panes; it’s now all jammed into a mix of different-sized bubbles. You can 3D-Touch your way around it and I particularly like the way the Home and Remote apps have been shrunk down to fully functioning widgets. You can, for the first time, edit what goes into the Control Center.
Siri has a more human voice, but the functionality is still a little ropey. I’d have thought considering how integral the voice assistant is to the upcoming HomePod that Apple would have at least made it able to understand an instruction to set an alarm.
What iOS 11 doesn’t add is a new overall look for the iPhone. That same grid-like homescreen filled with icons has been the one constant since the original iPhone launched 10 years ago, and even the most die-hard of iOS loyalist would have to admit it could do with a rethink.
I’d also like to see some of the split-screen capabilities from the iPad on the iPhone. Android phones can have two apps open and usable at once, so why doesn’t Apple add something similar here? The screen is certainly big enough.
iOS 11, like any new release, has its problems. Some have reported battery issues on older hardware and app crashes; I’ve suffered neither.
iPhone 8 Plus – Camera
The iPhone 8 Plus has dual 12-megapixel cameras on the rear. Like on the iPhone 7 Plus, one of these is an optically stabilised f/1.8 wide-angle camera and the other is an f/2.8 telephoto camera that allows a 2x zoom without sacrificing quality. Apple says it has completely rebuilt the sensor, making it larger and faster, and there’s a new ISP (image signal processor) for better textures and colours.
Instantly striking is how different the iPhone 8 Plus’ pictures are to those from previous iPhones; they’re far more like images taken by the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8. Colours are more vibrant and saturated, dynamic range is better, and there’s just a pop to images that was lacking before.
Note that it’s much harder now to turn off auto-HDR, as it is on the Google Pixel. Instead of tapping an icon in the camera app, you have to go to Settings, then Camera and manually switch it off there. Apple clearly thinks auto-HDR is the way forward, and I pretty much agree.
Are the pictures better than those from the Pixel, Galaxy S8 and other top Android phones? The only answer to that is: sometimes, yes, and at other times, no. Basically, the cameras on these flagship phones are all so good now that whichever you pick you’ll see great results. On the whole, I prefer the daylight pictures from the iPhone 8. They have a more balanced look between the super-saturated S8 and more natural Pixel. But in low light, I still feel the Pixel takes a better picture.
Portrait mode was the big addition with iPhone 7 Plus, but with the 8 Plus we now have Portrait Lighting. It adds an effect that’s supposed to mimic professionally staged lighting. Apple insists this isn’t simply a filter, but instead uses facial tracking to build up a picture of the face and then add the desired lighting on top. There are numerous options to pick from, but aside from the regular portrait mode I don’t believe that any of them work that well.
The 2x zoom is good for landscapes, though lacks OIS
Low-light shots look great
The auto-HDR mode balances colours and exposure very well
Colours are bright and vivid
There’s plenty of depth to the pictures
Dark skies aren’t full of noise
Auto-HDR does a good job at preventing highlight clipping. Just look at the sky
The silky bokeh achieved by the Portrait mode is still the best out there, but the new set of effects deserve the beta tag. ‘Contour light’ is probably my favourite, since it adds some minor flecks of light around the cheekbones and eyes, but the two ‘Stage light’ options need some work. These cut out the subject, and replace the background with black. The idea is great, but the results have an amateur feel. There’s no blend between where the shadow starts and the colour finishes, and the actual cut-out isn’t often accurate. I won’t bash on too much about these modes, since they’re still in beta, but Apple could have waited until they were ready to release them.
Example of Portrait Lighting Mono
Contour Lighting
You can still use the zoomed lens to get closer to a subject, but the lack of optical image stabilisation
and the narrower aperture on this camera limit its functionality.
The 8-megapixel front-facing camera hasn’t seen any updates, but the same isn’t true of video. You can capture 240fps slo-mo at 1080p, and 4K at a ridiculously smooth 60fps – this is the first phone to support the latter, although Samsung is adding it to the Note 8 later in the year. To utilise 4K 60, you’ll have to switch to Apple’s new HEVC format; there don’t appear to be many compatibility issues that I’ve noticed.
iPhone 8 Plus – Battery life
Apple was very coy about battery life when it announced both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, probably because both of these handsets actually include smaller cells than last year’s models. That’s worrying for the iPhone 8, but I was impressed by the stamina of the Plus model last year. However, Apple did say that these new devices should last around the same time as the outgoing models, thanks to the more efficient A11 Bionic chip.
And that claim is pretty much spot on. As is usual with the Plus-model iPhones, the devices will comfortably make it through the day. Even with intensive use, I haven’t yet managed to completely drain the battery in a day. However, on the iPhone 8 this requires that I constantly alter my settings and dim the brightness to ensure that it does last. This isn’t the case with the iPhone 8 Plus. As an example, an hour of streaming Netflix on the iPhone 8 consumes 11%, while on the 8 Plus it’s more like 7-8%.
My biggest issue with iPhone battery life isn’t the initial stamina, but how it drops off a few months down the line. It will be interesting to see if this remains the case this time around.
The iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X are the first Apple phones to support wireless charging, even though it’s a feature that’s been around since the Palm Pre (RIP). It’s been a feature on Samsung’s Android flagships since the Galaxy S5.
Like Samsung, LG and a boat-load of other Android phone makers, the iPhone uses the open Qi charging standard – none of that proprietary nonsense we’re so used to seeing from Apple. That means the 8 Plus can be juiced up on a host of pads, even a Samsung unit. Apple will be releasing its own version, dubbed AirPower, next year – but until then it’s recommending a Belkin or Mophie pad.
I’ve been using the Belkin one and it’s fine, but it won’t really become that useful until a software update later in the year unlocks 7.5W fast wireless charging. Currently, the iPhone 8 Plus seems to gain a couple of per cent every 10 minutes – which is fine when leaving it overnight, but almost pointless for a quick top-up.
The company has also now finally added fast wired charging – but there’s a catch: you have to buy two accessories to get it working. Since the wall plug in the box is of the measly 5W variety that all iPhones are shipped with, you’ll need to pick up a MacBook 12-inch USB-C charger and a USB-C-to-Lightning cable to take advantage of the quicker speeds. This is ridiculous, especially when £150 Android phones such as the Moto G ship with fast charging straight from the box.
The Apple AirPower wireless charging pad
It takes just over two hours to fully charge the iPhone 8 Plus from 0%, while an hour will give 56-58% of power.
Should I buy the iPhone 8 Plus?
The iPhone 8 Plus is a 7S Plus in all but name. There are plenty of improvements, yes, but it feels like Apple’s real focus this year has been on the iPhone X. That just isn’t good enough when you consider that the iPhone 8 Plus costs £799/$799.
Nevertheless, once you look past the design, the iPhone 8 Plus remains a splendid handset that’s easy to recommend to those who simply wouldn’t want anything other than an Apple smartphone. If you want a change then the Samsung Galaxy S8 (£679, $699) and OnePlus 5 (£459, $499) are great choices – or you could hold out to see what the Pixel 2 from Google has to offer.
The A11 Bionic chip is super-fast and the camera feels like a step in the right direction. The display might only be 1080p and IPS LCD, but it’s still one of the most vibrant around.
I really like the iPhone 8 Plus, but I have a feeling I’m going to like the iPhone X more.
Verdict
The iPhone 8 Plus is familiar – but sometimes that’s a good thing.
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