iPhone 8 vs iPhone 7: What's the Difference? (2024)

iPhone 8 is not what you think. Unlike in recent years Appel didn't follow the iPhone 7 with an 'iPhone 7S', so we did that insteadiPhone 8 to iPhone 8 Plusas well as a radically redesigned (enridiculously expensive) brand newiPhone X. So what's the difference between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 7, and is it a worthy upgrade?

This is what you need to know…

Design - same, but worse?

If you look at the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7, you see two smartphones that are almost indistinguishable from each other. The large bezels at the top and bottom remain, the screen looks unchanged, and the iPhone 7 even has more color options (silver, gray, gold, rose gold, and jet black versus silver, gray, and gold).

But if you look closer, you will see a change that is not for the better:

• iPhone 8 - 138,4 x 67,3 x 7,3 mm (5,45 x 2,65 x 0,29 tommer) in 148 g (5,22 oz)
• iPhone 7 - 138,3 x 67,1 x 7,1 mm (5,44 x 2,64 x 0,28 tommer) en 138 g (4,87 oz)

Yes, the iPhone 8 is a lot larger than the iPhone 7 and more than 7% heavier. Why? Because of the most controversial change: the back of the iPhone 8 is made of glass and not aluminum.

Apple did this to add wireless charging (more on that in the battery life section), but the price is a heavier phone (glass needs to be thicker for the same protection as aluminum) and a back that can crack. Whether it's worth the trade-in will affect how much wireless charging you want.

Less controversially, the iPhone 8 retains its Touch ID fingerprint scanner in the home button (where the iPhoneFace ID facial recognition) and – glass aside – it remains a durable phone, matching (but not exceeding) the water and dust resistance and stiffness of the iPhone 7Series 7000 aluminum frame (exposed on the side parts).

Where Apple has made improvements on the iPhone 8 is a 25% increase in volume compared to the iPhone 7's stereo speakers, although there's no return to the headphone jack, with Apple only retaining the Lightning port (some naively hoped for universal USB-C ) because the only port on the phone.

Displays - Old Dog, New Tricks

While there's arguably no tangible improvement in the design of the iPhone 8 over the iPhone 7, Apple has made progress with the display - despite it looking identical on paper:

• iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 – 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with LED backlight, 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi), 65.6% screen-to-body ratio

Yes, there's no sign of the iPhoneTrue tone' technology from the iPad Pro series, which responds to ambient light and ensures correct color balance at all times. There's also support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 for higher dynamic range (HDR) - something that's quickly being added to Netflix, Amazon Video and iTunes.

Less impressively, Apple doesn't seem to be able to get more out of the LCD screen, as the iPhone 8 doesn't improve on the contrast ratio (1400:1) or brightness (625 cd/m2 max) of the iPhone 7.

In short: you don't buy the iPhone 8 because of the design or the screen.

Performance - Faster and smarter

What you would buy the iPhone 8 for, however, is its performance. By most benchmarks, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are still the fastest smartphones in the world, but that was before the iPhone 8 came along:

• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X - Apple A11 'Bionic'-chips: Six Core CPU, Six Core GPU, M11 motion coprocessor, 3GB RAM (iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus), 2GB RAM (iPhone 8)

Yes, the iPhone 8 gets basically the same performance as the more expensive iPhone 8 Plus and40% more expensiveiPhone .

And how much faster is the iPhone 8 than the iPhone 7? Apple claims its A11 chipset is 25% faster at top speed (using high-performance cores) and up to 70% faster at idle (using high-efficiency cores). Graphics performance is also 30% faster and multitasking is up 70%, a crucial improvement as users constantly switch between apps.

As for the Bionic part, the iPhone 8 doesn't take full advantage of it. Primarily, it refers to the horsepower used for the iPhone

Kameraer - Brains, no brawn

Like many features on the iPhone 8, at first glance it doesn't seem like much has changed from the iPhone 7, especially on paper.

The iPhone 8 has a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization, plus a 7-megapixel, f/2.2 front camera – both identical to the iPhone 7. It also highlights the iPhone 8 as the only new iPhone that doesn't have dual cameras on the back.

But the A11 Bionic improves the mood. Apple promises major photo and video improvements from the iPhone 8 thanks to the integrated and Apple-designed Image Signal Processor (ISP). This promises better pixel processing, faster autofocus in low light and noise reduction. The last two were an Achilles heel of the iPhone 7.

And if this sounds too good to be true, it isn't. Last year, Google took the camera crown with the Pixel and Pixel XL, both of which have inferior camera optics to most of their rivals, but they won thanks to class-leading image processing. So if Apple can replicate the brains Google demonstrated with superior hardware, we could have a new class leader on our hands.

Battery life and charging - not longer, but faster and wirelessly

When it comes to battery life, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that even Apple admits itcomparison pageOnly the iPhone 8 "lasts about as long as the iPhone 7," which in turn was barely better than the iPhone 6S or iPhone 6. Didn't it have to lose the headphone jack to make room for a bigger battery?

The good news is that when your iPhone 8 runs out of juice, it will charge faster, as Apple has finally added wired fast charging and followed that with Qi-compatible wireless charging.

But then comes more bad news. The iPhone 8's wireless charging only runs at 7.5W, which is far less than the 15W peak Qi charging it supports and competes that the Galaxy S8 uses.

Additionally, Apple hasn't included a fast wired charger with any of its new iPhones (no, not even the $1,149 256GB iPhonefrom $49. However, these chargers use a different (Lightning to USB-C) cable that is not included with the fast charger and costs $25 (one meter) or $35 (two meters).

So you pay $75 for every location where you want to fast charge your iPhone 8.It's outrageousconsidering that every Android flagship (and most mid-range and even budget models) comes with fast charging as standard, while fast chargers cost $5-15 and use the cable that came in the box.

A little-known secret of the iPhone 7 is that it can charge faster if you use an iPad charger. No, it won't match the fast charging speeds of the iPhone 8, but if you already have an iPad and don't need super-fast charging, this will save you from what can only be described as Apple's greed.

Storage and price - higher and higher

Just like battery life, there's good and bad news about the iPhone 8 price:

• iPhone 8 - 64 GB ($ 699), 256 GB ($ 849)
• iPhone 7 - 32 GB ($549), 128 GB ($649)

Yes, the storage space has doubled, but prices have also increased and there are now only two storage options. Meanwhile, Apple reduced the iPhone 7 by $100 but kept the smaller storage capacity, creating a real dilemma between the 128GB iPhone 7 and paying $50 more for a 64GB iPhone 8.

It's also worth noting that the iPhone 8 Plus has a $100 price premium over the iPhone 8 at every capacity, while the iPhone

In short

The iPhone X will understandably make headlines for its popularitydramatic design changes, especially since the iPhone 8 will look more the same to most iPhone owners.

This is understandable because the iPhone 8 is something of a contradiction. It's not a significant upgrade over the iPhone 7 (performance and - possibly - camera aside), while Apple has taken the fun out of fast charging. If you own an iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 is definitely not worth the upgrade.

And yet the iPhone 8 is also potentially a bargain. Remove the screen and Face ID, and the iPhone 8 is essentially an iPhoneunavailable for monthsanyway) for $300 less, plus you get to keep Touch ID.

As such, iPhone 7 owners shouldn't be impressed, but for everyone else the iPhone 8 might just be the most boring phone on the market...

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