Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here.
And in front of me are two phones, the Apple iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus.
And...if these were the only two phones that Apple put out this year,
this video would be a lot easier because I would just give you my honest opinion on these phones,
and we'd be done...But that's just not the case.
The iPhone X is a couple weeks out. And it makes it difficult to give you an honest opinion on these things,
because there's just a bigger and better phone, a few weeks away.
So...ok. I'm going to talk about these phones about the things I like and dislike about it,
And then we'll kinda get into a more meta-discussion at the end.
The things I like the most about these phones, just three big ones,
The first is wireless charging. Now, wireless charging is one of those things where you only start to appreciate
when you've used it a lot, and I'm surprised Apple took so long to stick it into their phones.
But it's finally here. See the thing is with cables like, finding the cable, sticking it into the slot
and charging your phone that way, there's something about that extra step of like plugging your phone in
that is enough to dissuade everybody around the world to leave their phones half charged very often.
It's just, cause we're lazy species or something.
Having wireless charging pads is really convenient.
The thing is, wireless charging isn't cheap. Apple doesn't include one in the box, you have to buy them.
And they're like, 20, 30 bucks at like the mid-tier, and then go up to 50-60.
Maybe even more if you want to get some really premium ones,
So yeah, it's expensive to equip everything in your life to have wireless charging capabilities,
but, it is convenient. The other thing I really like about the iPhone 8 is the processor.
And they talked about it a lot during the presentation and the whole A11 Bionic Chip,
to the point where I thought that they were overhyping it. But it's very impressive.
I think it's the most impressive thing about the phone to me.
It benchmarks incredibly fast on multicore stuff.
Now, whether or not it really matters, I mean, if you look at any of the phones that this thing beats
on that chart, those phones are still super fast. The actual UI feels really smooth on any of these phones.
But where this thing will start to make a difference is with Augmented Reality stuff.
So that is a very processor heavy application, any kind of AR thing.
But right now, in like mid 2017, we're not seeing that much AR stuff being used.
Like there's a lot of tech demos and impressive apps...
But most of that stuff isn't everyday useful.
But give it 8 maybe 12 months, and I think we'll start to see that AR tech kind of trickle down into more everyday stuff.
And that's when really powerful multicore chips will start to shine.
But right now, it's cool, but it's not super useful.
The last feature I want to talk about on the iPhone 8 is the camera, and this was way better than I expected it to be.
So, Apple's cameras are always pretty good, but last year, the iPhone 7,
I felt like that camera, to me, wasn't as impressive as the Pixel's camera, or the cameras on the Samsung phones.
Either the Galaxy or the Note. This camera impressed me.
Particularly in low light. I feel like the images are a good blend between what you see in real life,
and a bit of software optimization to make it look, a little bit better.
The portrait mode on the iPhone 8 Plus is still something I'm not into
The tech is good, and they actually do a good job at it, it's just, I never take photos like that.
The studio effects on the 8 Plus are pretty cool, and again the tech is impressive,
the images look very convincing to me,
But I feel like I'm not the target user for this feature. Like, I don't take photos of myself, or my family and friends
And kind of wish they were professionally lit. But, the technology is super impressive.
So those are the 3 main features about the iPhone 8 that are important to me.
The camera, the wireless charging, and the new processor. There's some other stuff,
Like TrueTone display, but I want to talk about things that I dislike about the iPhone 8
And the first one, is the design. This is a very long running design,
This is year 4 of this shape. And, I think it's the longest running design that Apple has had on an iPhone.
And at this point, it's a very iconic look, you recognize it right away because of bigger bezels,
And the shape of the phone, but it's super stale.
And when a brand new phone from 2017 looks pretty much the same as a phone from 2014,
That's no good. The glass material on the back is nice,
It's definitely less slippery than the full aluminum on the iPhone 7
It's a nicer material to hold at least, it's still slippery, I don't know if I'd put a skin on it,
I mean, it looks like it would crack pretty easily but I do like the colour of it.
The white back is cool, but the dark gray one looks really nice to me
Another thing I dislike is the cost of all the accessories.
So this is Apple, they love selling accessories, but this time around, I feel like it's an extra bitter pill to swallow
Because this phone supports fast charging, but they only include a regular wall brick.
You have to buy a different adapter and a separate cable to take advantage of fast charging.
And I feel like in 2017, every flagship phone out there, if it supports fast charging,
it includes the fast charging cable and the wall adapter.
But not here. They include...this thing.
Ok. None of that matters...Because, the thing that bugs me the most about the iPhone 8
Is the fact that the iPhone X is just around the corner
And any conversation that anyone has about the iPhone 8 right now is shaded by the incoming iPhone X
And it's not that the iPhone X is a significantly better phone
and it just crushes everything, that's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is that, right now, if you're buying a phone, or if you're interested in buying a phone,
You're buying a phone that will instantly become quote-unquote, obsolete, the moment the iPhone X comes out.
Just because it has a home button and it's not Apple's flagship phone anymore.
I mean this is still a good phone, despite...how aged it looks,
But it's weird that the iPhone X is going to be the phone that everyone wants.
That 's the phone that matters, that's the phone of Apple's future.
So it's weird to invest any kind of money into this thing, something we already know is on its way out
The home button is gone, we're not going to be using that in the future,
So...it feels like a bad investment if you're going to spend money on a phone.
Now, not to say that this is a bad phone, these are good phones,
but because of the iPhone X,
it makes these things significantly less attractive for someone who's enthusiastic about tech.
Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video!
Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it!
See you guys next time!