Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The iPhone 8 Plus might still be part of Apple ’s line - up at an even lower price , we do n’t cogitate it ’s the best deal available . We advocate the much good iPhone XR for a small bit more , unless you really need more storage for the same price and ca n’t let go of Touch ID .
The iPhone 8 Plus is the cheap big earpiece in Apple ’s reach , but considering it first arrive way back in 2017 is it really a good deal or just looks good compared to the latest models like the iPhone 11 ?
In our iPhone 8 Plus limited review we matter up the design , feature of speech , spec and pricing of Apple ’s new phablet to assist you adjudicate if it ’s the serious phone for you . We also put it through our rigorous barrage of benchmark examination , covering processing fastness , nontextual matter and barrage charging .
iPhone history
This iPhone has been exchange with a newer model . retrieve link below to our review of all iPhone good example , include the latest generation.iPhone 16is expected to launch in September 2024 ( seewhen is the best clock time to buy a new iPhone ) , whileiPhone SE ( quaternary generation)andiPhone 17are potential to seem in 2025 . Find out aboutApple ’s September result detailsandhow to watch the Apple September event live flow ; or for other Apple products , learn more about all thenew Apple intersection coming this yearandwhen is the next Apple event . You might also like ouriPhone buying scout , best iPhone dealsandcomparison of every iPhone that is available to corrupt today .
Price & availability
It ’s now useable for£579/$549if you ’re glad with 64 GiB . you could jump to 128 GB at£629/$599but this is the same cost as theiPhone XR , albeit with half the warehousing .
Those looking to grease one’s palms the iPhone 8 Plus on contract may wish well to tryCarphone Warehouse , EE , Vodafone , O2andThree . Find out more and compare prices in ourwhere to purchase the iPhone 8 Plusarticle .
Design & build quality
The iPhone 8 Plus is an incremental update to the 7 Plus ( as opposed to the dramatically redesigned iPhone X unveiled on the same Nox ) and therefore has largely the same figure as the 7 , Captain Hicks and 6 - generation handsets . It ’s a classic purpose but one ’s that ’s now many days former and feel very dated . If you ’re looking for extremist new figure , this is n’t the twist for you .
The curved edges remain pleasant in the hand , and the slender increase in weight since the last generation ( it ’s kick the bucket up from 188 chiliad to 202 one thousand ) adds rather than detracts from the flavor in our opinion , although your mileage may vary . It ’s also a shade longer , wider and thick , although only a fraction of a millimetre in each guinea pig .
The rear camera still stick around out , so that you ’re basically accommodate to use a sheath . An uncased 8 Plus can not lie in properly flat on a strong surface , and will coggle around annoyingly if you touch the top left corner . Most will habituate a instance , however , peculiarly consecrate that the hard touted drop resistance of the glass back remains unproven .
MobileFun , which kindly provided us with an iPhone 8 sampling , stocks a range ofiPhone 8casesandiPhone 8 Pluscases . We’ve also rounded up some of the good in our usher to thebest iPhone 8 case .
There have been some small ( and not - so - small ) tweaks to the pattern in that sentence ; like the 7 handset , for example , the 8 Plus does not have a phone port and features a buzzing , whole - State Department Home button rather of the chatter version interpret in late years . This year ’s biggest excogitation change is the above - cite glass back , which imply it supports wireless charging – which we ’ll discuss more in a bit .
Having glass across the back instead of metal gives it a shinier , smoother land up that we like . ( Apple has also made the back look cleaner and neater by drastically reducing the information printed below the iPhone branding , but this may make it harder for people to work outwhich iPhone example they ’ve get . )
On the gilded mannequin it also makes the worldwide colouring result more subtle , since the glass section reveals a pale pinkish - blank section rather than the darker pink gold seen around the edge of the equipment and surrounding the nursing home release and rear cameras . Pink gold is one of those thing that you could unquestionably have too much of .
Colour options
While we ’re on the subject area of color , the 8 Plus is available in only three standard colours : silver , Au and Space Grey . Far less than the iPhone 7 - multiplication French telephone , which at one decimal point were available in six finishes .
observe that Apple appear to have ‘ break up the difference of opinion ’ between the Au and ( no longer offered ) Rose Gold colour finishes . The gold option now has a cutaneous senses of pink about it , but it ’s subtle and really rather adorable : there are hints of copper in there too .
in April 2018 Apple also add a(PRODUCT)REDiPhone 8 Plus to the line up . It looks great , and is availablefor the same price from 10 April :
New features
The 8 Plus does n’t getFace ID , but it does get another of the iPhone X ’s upgrades – and it ’s something that , in a less exciting year , would have been heralded as a flagship feature of speech :
Wireless charging
The iPhone 8 Plus has the same Methedrine - back designing as the iPhone X , which mean it ’s compatible with wireless charging accessary : or else of receive to plug it in , you just put the phone on a pad and let it charge .
Our discernment is that any battery charger that ’s certified as ch’i - compatible will work with the new generation of iPhones . While Apple also planned to free its ownAirPowercharging launchpad range , it has disappeared into lean air .
That will have towait until 2018 , so in the meantime we screen the 8 Plus with theAircharge Executive Wireless Charger , a charging pad which is rate at a jolly distinctive 7.5W.
We noticed firstly that charging does n’t quite have the ‘ zero cm ’ compass that some literalists kvetch about ( “ it ’s not really wireless ! ” ) – unexpectedly , the charge icon appear when the phone was still hovering 5 mm above the domiciliation .
Of naturally , this makes no difference in pattern , and is only a point of stake , but jot at future developments which will one day unfold this range to a couple of feet , and rouse your phone when it ’s still in your pocket .
Wireless charging , ineluctably , is slow than using a conducting wire , albeit not egregiously so .
We gear up the telephone set to 50 % battery capacity and found that after 30 second of wireless charging ( at 5W ) it had arise to 63 % , less than half of one per centum per bit . Resetting to 50 % and plug into the lower - powered , 5W cable plug battery charger that is bundled with the earpiece , we strain 68 % after 30 minutes ; and using a 12W ballyhoo charger ( the one you ’d get with an iPad ) we went from 50 % to 77 % in half an hour .
tutelage gain ground in 30 bit :
The phone was warm after half an hr of radio charging , but nothing that we ’d worry about .
An update within iOS 11.2 will allow the iPhone to wirelessly charge at 7.5W rather than the current 5W.
Performance & testing
The 8 Plus is an imposingly specced phablet , as we ’ll see in a moment , but we wanted to see how well it would perform in practice .
Geekbench 4
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were street forward of their rivals in Geekbench ’s mainframe mental testing .
GFXBench
We tested out the 8 Plus ’s graphics capabilities in GFXBench , using both the GL version of the app ( for informality of compare with non - Apple machine ) and the Metal version , which let iPhones and iPads to decent demonstrate their might .
InGFXBench GL , passably predictably , the 8 Plus scored the capped uttermost of 60fps in the T - Rex components of the test , just as all the rivals heel above did . It had more chance to show off in the Manhattan section , where its score of 57fps was higher than any non - Apple rival . ( The most demanding Manhattan 3.1 part is n’t useable in the iOS reading of the app , unfortunately . )
InGFXBench Metal , however , the phone stretched its wings and turned in some olympian figures . It averaged 115fps in T - Rex , 62fps in Manhattan and 43fps in Manhattan 3.1 . This will be a all right game machine , easy capable of handling the most graphically demanding offerings on the App Store .
JetStream
We put the iPhone 8 Plus through the JetStream JavaScript examination suite , and only the iPhone 8 could come anywhere near to it – in fact beating its magnanimous cousin by a small-scale allowance .
Camera performance
The 8 Plus has mostly the same camera setup as the 7 Plus , with 12Mp twin lenses ( wide angle and telephoto ) on the rear and a single 7Mp lens on the front .
In our tests it performed well , beguile beneficial detail and colour , although in scurvy - light conditions we sometimes detected the same mild impressionistic smearing result celebrate with the 7 Plus – a shadowy painterly muddying of detail when zoomed in closely .
Here ’s how it coped with our standard St Pancras tryout shot :
Portrait Lighting
The undivided great change to the photographic apparatus is the addition of a fresh , theoretically beta , software feature for the dual camera that adds new lighting personal effects to Portrait Mode . delineate up a guesswork in Portrait Mode and you ’ll now see you may swipe between five upshot : the standard Natural Light , Studio Light , Contour Light , Stage Light and Stage Light Mono .
However , these effects can also be added afterwards , by rap Edit when pasture photos that have the Portrait label at the top left .
We ’ll look at each of the modes in turn , but first of all here is the original , received Portrait Mode version of the shot .
clear up the shot in a instinctive - looking way . This tends to produce the courteous portrait , although occasionally you ’ll favour …
Adds more spectre . On some citizenry / shots it looks very impudent , but can oft make it depend like you ’ve get a five o’clock shadow or even a dirty grimace .
Incidentally , on one test subject Contour Light made his byssus darker , which is flattering but manifestly in no direction naturalistic . ( On the left is the non - Portrait Mode version without any bokeh outcome at all . )
Keeps the issue of the shot light up , but puts the scope in darkness , as if you ’re on a theatre point . Seems to be the most easily trick of the modes , sometimes miss turn that should have been black out or clipping off role of people ’s faces .
Same as the above but switches to black - and - snowy manner , which is quite honest at hide out photographic sins . Can bet rather arty , albeit in an obvious and perhaps cliched elbow room . Popular among drunk people , in our experience , or rather sober hoi polloi trying to make their drunk photos bet less undignified .
Tech specs
Let ’s take a look at the tech specs inside that chassis .
Processor
RAM
Storage
Display
Rear-facing camera
Front-facing camera
Audio
Water resistance
Battery
Connectivity & other features
Dimensions
