The iPhone X is real. Apple launched it at a high-profile event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California last night. There were a slew of other devices as well, but, none captured headlines the way the Anniversary Edition iPhone X did. Over the next few weeks, we will have more to say about the iPhone X once we get a hold of it, but, for now here's everything you need to know about Apple's most futuristic iPhone ever. Not to forget, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus, can be quite compelling as well.
iPhone X
Apple says the iPhone X is the future of the smartphone: a future wherein all smartphones would be a long continuous sheet of glass with an edge-to-edge display and no physical buttons. While companies like Samsung and LG and Xiaomi have already embraced the future, Cupertino major Apple just joined the bandwagon of all screen and no bezel phones, with the iPhone X: a phone that also marks an important milestone in the history of the company in question. The iPhone X - pronounced as iPhone ten -- exists to commemorate ten years of the iPhone. The first iPhone, to recall, was launched by the late Steve Jobs in 2007.
"For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realisation of that vision," Jony Ive, Apple's chief design officer said in a press statement. "With the introduction of iPhone ten years ago, we revolutionised the mobile phone with Multi-Touch. iPhone X marks a new era for iPhone -- one in which the device disappears into the experience."
In line with the new industry trend, the iPhone X is all glass and almost no bezel. It is carved out of glass - although Apple does not mention a name, it says it has used the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in the iPhone X -- and surgical-grade stainless steel. The stainless steel centerpiece that joins the front and back is virtually non-existent. And it's polished in a way that it gives out the impression that the whole thing is one continuous sheet of glass.
The front, in the case of the iPhone X, is clean and without any physical buttons. Although, it's still not a one hundred per cent all-screen phone, the iPhone X. The iPhone X has a notch at the top that houses a host of camera gimmickry including sensors for biometric authentication. The iPhone X, to that effect, does not ship with a fingerprint scanner. It gets rid of Apple's hallmark Touch ID, and replaces it with facial recognition technology called Face ID.
Apple says the iPhone X is the future of the smartphone: a future wherein all smartphones would be a long continuous sheet of glass with an edge-to-edge display and no physical buttons
The iPhone X is notably Apple's first iPhone ever to ditch Touch ID in favour of Face ID. Facial recognition tech on-board the iPhone X is aided by a TrueDepth camera system that consists of depth-sensing hardware: a dot projector, an infrared camera and a flood illuminator. "Face ID projects more than 30,000 invisible IR dots. The IR image and dot pattern are pushed through neural networks to create a mathematical model of your face and send the data to the secure enclave to confirm a match, while adapting to physical changes in appearance over time. All saved facial information is protected by the secure enclave to keep data extremely secure, while all of the processing is done on-device and not in the cloud to protect user privacy. Face ID only unlocks iPhone X when customers look at it and is designed to prevent spoofing by photos or masks," according to Apple.
In essence, Apple claims that its Face ID is safer, faster and adaptable. Note that Samsung's Galaxy S8/Galaxy S8+/Galaxy Note 8 also ship with facial recognition technology for biometric authentication, but, there have been reports that it could be fooled using photos. Also, it's a little iffy in low light/dark environments. The iPhone X's Face ID, according to Apple, has a one in one million chance of being fooled by a random person's face. In contrast, there's a one in 50,000 chance that a random user could fool Touch ID, according to the company. Just to ensure added security, Apple has also worked with professional mask makers in Hollywood to ensure that Face ID couldn't be fooled by synthetic faces. Bottom-line is, Face ID is supposedly safer than Touch ID, and also it works in the dark/low light, and is also adaptable which means it learns a user's facial changes - like beard and stubble - over time and responds accordingly.
While we are on frontal camera system, the iPhone X ships with a 7-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture and Retina flash. When paired with TrueDepth sensors, the iPhone X is also able to shoot portrait selfies, like you normally would using the dual cameras on-board the iPhone 7 Plus. Apple, in addition, has rolled out a feature called Portrait Lighting - to be rolled out in beta at first - that "brings dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone and allows customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles." The feature isn't simply an added filter that you'd apply over your photos, says Apple, but a technology that makes use of machine learning and AI to entail in pro-level selfies with studio-like lighting effects.
The TrueDepth sensors on-board the iPhone X also allow for what Apple calls Animojis. Animojis are essentially custom animated emojis that users of the iPhone X will be send to and fro using the iMessage app. "Available as an iMessage app pre-installed on iPhone X, customers can record and send Animoji messages with their voice that can smile, frown and more," according to Apple.
Elsewhere, the iPhone X is also notably Apple's biggest iPhone yet. It's a 5.8-inch phone that uses an OLED panel - another first for an iPhone that have traditionally stuck with LCDs all this time - but because Apple has shaved off the bezels, the phone occupies a much smaller footprint when in the hands. The iPhone employs a 2436x1125-pixel resolution Super Retina display with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and True Tone: a technology - first employed in Apple's iPad Pro - that "dynamically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience."
The iPhone X comes with two cameras on the rear - 12MP + 12MP - wherein one is wide-angle (f/1.8) and the other is telephoto (f/2.4) that allows for photos with shallow depth of field, or bokeh as also 2X optical zoom (10X digital). The dual camera system is further assisted by a Quad-LED True Tone flash and also gets Apple's new Portrait Lighting feature.
Although Apple hasn't specified battery capacity numbers, it says the iPhone X can last up to 2 hours longer than last year's iPhone 7. It's capable of fast -- up to 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes - and wireless charging.
Price and availability: The iPhone X will cost Rs 89,000 in India for the 64GB variant. The top end version with 256GB RAM will meanwhile cost Rs 102,000. Pre-orders begin from October 27 and the iPhone X will hit the shelves from November 3. The iPhone X will be available in two colours: silver and space grey.
iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus would seem rather uninteresting if all the iPhone X hype has got a strong hold of you. That's not very surprising, now is it? The iPhone X is after all, a gorgeous iPhone. If however, you think the iPhone X is too out there or perhaps tad too expensive, Apple also has a fresh batch of 'standard' iPhones - the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus - that carries forward the legacy of last year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus may be considered as incremental upgrades of the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. Just like each year the new iPhones pack in a couple or two more tricks up their sleeves to make that all-important upgrade count.
Apple also has a fresh batch of 'standard' iPhones -- the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus -- that carries forward the legacy of last year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
-- The iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus come with all-glass and aerospace-grade aluminium body and front mounted fingerprint scanner, aka Touch ID.
-- The iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus come with 4.7 and 5.5-inch Retina HD display with True Tone.
-- Base storage now starts at 64GB and goes all the way up to 256GB.
-- While the iPhone 8 comes with a single 12-megapixel camera on the rear with f/1.8 aperture, OIS and a Quad-LED True Tone flash the iPhone 8 Plus comes with two cameras on the rear - 12MP + 12MP - wherein one is wide-angle (f/1.8) and the other is telephoto (f/2.8) that allows for photos with shallow depth of field, or bokeh as also 2X optical zoom (10X digital). The dual camera system is further assisted by a Quad-LED True Tone flash and also gets Apple's new Portrait Lighting feature. Unlike the iPhone X that comes with OIS on both the lenses, the iPhone 8 Plus has OIS only on the wide-angle lens. On the front, both the phones come with a 7-megapixel camera.
-- Although Apple doesn't specify the numbers, it says the batteries on-board the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus should give you similar results as the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. Both the phones support fast and wireless charging standards.
Price and availability: The iPhone 8 will start at Rs 64,000 for the base 64GB model, while the 64GB version of the iPhone 8 will cost buyers Rs 73,000. In India, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus will hit the shelves from September 29 in three colours: space grey, silver and gold.
And now the similarities:
The iPhone X, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus are all powered by Apple's next-generation A11 Bionic processor. The A11 Bionic is a six-core CPU with two performance cores that are said to be 25 per cent faster and four efficiency cores that are said to be 70 per cent faster than the A10 Fusion processor inside the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. The new processor comes with a custom built GPU with a three-core design that is claimed to deliver up to 30 per cent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. "All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games," according to Apple.
The A11 Bionic processor has been specifically designed for mobile AR experiences on the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. Of course, the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X would be able to make best use of Apple's new-found fascination for AR owing to their TrueDepth camera system. "The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation," adds Apple.
The iPhone X, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus run iOS 11 software and are also IP67-certified for water and dust resistance.