If you do buy an 8, it’ll be for one of two very important, very noticeable upgrades. The first is wireless charging, a decade-old tech that’s finally made its way into the iPhone. Apple doesn’t make a wireless charger yet—the AirPower mat comes next year—but the iPhone 8 works with any pad using the popular Qi standard. The phone charges quite a bit slower on the pad than plugged into the wall, but it’s worth it for the freedom. Wireless charging makes the iPhone feel less like a Tamagotchi needing constant feeding, and more like a digital sidekick that’s always ready to go. Pick it up when you need it, put it down when you don’t; whenever you’re not using your phone, it’s charging. Android users have known this feeling for years, but a lot of iPhone users are going to love it now.
The other difference you’ll definitely notice? The camera. More specifically, the combination of a new 12-megapixel sensor, the laptop-grade A11 Bionic processor, and a reworking of the iPhone 8’s internals to make everything faster and more efficient. The iPhone 8 has a single camera on the back with an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization. The Plus adds a second f/2.8 telephoto lens, which lets it take beautiful soft-background photos in Portrait mode. Both models have 7-megapixel selfie cameras, which make even my goofy mug look good.
Apple made a conscious decision to tweak the way it processes photos, grabbing more pop and vibrancy from colors than before. Some people will quibble about the pure color accuracy, especially after Apple’s longstanding devotion to faithfully reproducing even the most drab red and yellow, but I suspect most people will love the more dramatic look. Every shot is now HDR by default. It still struggles in low light, like any smartphone camera—I took 100 or so shots of the father-daughter dance at the wedding and every single one is blurry. But with few exceptions, photos I take on the iPhone 8 look fantastic.
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