Apple has announced the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus smartphones at a special event today, featuring a new glass and aluminum design, support for wireless charging, Retina HD displays and a powerful A11 Bionic chip designed for the ultimate augmented reality experience. The new iPhones will be available for pre-order starting Friday, September 15 and in stores beginning Friday, September 22.
All-New Glass & Aluminum Design
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus both feature a new glass back design, which according to Apple is “the most durable glass ever in a smartphone”, in three colour options i.e. space gray, silver and gold. The glass finish is made using a seven-layer color process for precise hue and opacity, with a color-matched aerospace-grade aluminum bezel, and is water and dust resistant.
Retina HD Displays
The new Retina HD displays feature True Tone technology, which adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience. The vibrant wide color gamut Retina HD display also offers an improved color accuracy.
Redesigned Speakers
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus pack redesigned stereo speakers, which are up to 25 percent louder and deliver deeper bass, enabling richer-sounding music, videos and speakerphone calls.
New A11 Bionic Processor
Apple’s powerful new A11 Bionic 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. It integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation, enabling new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.
All-New Cameras with Ultimate AR Experience
The new iPhones feature an improved 12-megapixel camera with a larger and faster sensor, a new color filter and deeper pixels. A new 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 with Slow Sync results in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds. The new cameras also support 4K video up to 60fps and 1080p slo-mo up to 240fps.
The cameras on the iPhone 8 Plus are also custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking.
Support for Wireless Charging
Apple says that wireless charging on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie. Apple also gave a sneak peek of AirPower, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018.
Pricing & Availability
Canadians will be able to order the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus beginning Friday, September 15, with availability beginning Friday, September 22 in space gray, silver and an all-new gold finish in 64GB and 256GB capacity models starting at $929 CAD.
Stay tuned for detailed iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus pricing in Canada.
