This is iPhone 7 Plus,
and this is iPhone 8 Plus.
It is claimed that this one is better than this.
Is it true? Let's find out!
As we have seen together, design-wise, iPhone 8 Plus does not offer anything new.
The shape is twinning with iPhone 7 Plus.
The one thing that differs most is the material.
Since the days of iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 7,
Apple always uses aluminum material.
But on iPhone 8 Plus, Apple re-uses glass material, just like iPhone 4.
Yes honestly, metal frame and glass rear body are proven to bring more powerful impression.
So do not be surprised if Samsung also uses the same material on Galaxy S8 and Note 8.
If you are previously an iPhone 7 Plus user,
you will feel the weight of iPhone 8 Plus is just ordinary.
But if you are not an iPhone 7 Plus user, and you try out iPhone 8 Plus,
you will probably feel like it is a heavy smartphone.
It’s reasonable because the weight goes beyond 200 grams,
or 202 grams to be exact.
Back to the glass material on iPhone 8 Plus,
Apple claims that this is one of the strongest glasses ever used in a smartphone.
This glass may be scratch resistant,
but I think it will still break when falling from a height above one meter.
In addition, the use of this glass material also impacts iPhone 8 Plus’ color choices.
On iPhone 7 Plus, Apple offers five color choices;
however, iPhone 8 Plus only offers three basic colors,
which are silver, gold, and space grey.
Twinning with iPhone 7 Plus,
iPhone 8 Plus of course also carries IP67 certificate of water and dust-proof,
just in case.
Apple will not bear the damage caused by water.
At first glance, there is nothing really special about the software that iPhone 8 Plus brings.
This is because of iOS 11 that is not exclusive.
If you are users of iPhone 5s and over, you can also install it if you want.
But the benefits that you will feel on iPhone 8 Plus
is a smoother user experience.
In iOS 11, the most noticeable difference in everyday use seems to be only the appearance,
especially in the Control Center, which now has already fully supported 3D Touch.
Therefore, accessing the menus will be simpler and easier.
In addition to the Control Center,
what also looks different is its App Store.
Now, the design is fresher and more informative.
It is made more or less like a magazine layout.
Another convenience that it offers is that we can now see the widgets
or notifications even though the smartphone is locked.
To view the live widgets, slide to the right
and to see notifications, you just need to swipe up.
Yes, on this IOS 11, we will see that there is an application called Files
that seems to be useful to look at the files that exist in the smartphone storage.
But to be honest, this application only gives us a false hope.
Not like Android,
Files on iOS 11 is not able to display files that are in the internal smartphone.
So, we can only access the files in the cloud storage.
Thus, to me, this app is somewhat useless.
Instead, the feature that I use often is the default Screen Recorder on iOS 11.
We can access it from the Control Center,
and the results can be directly saved or shared via email or social media.
Thanks to the use of Apple A11 Bionic,
iPhone 8 Plus manage to be the fastest smartphone in the universe.
Both on AnTuTu and Geekbench,
the score it earns is unbeatable.
Compared to A10 Fusion on iPhone 7 Plus,
A11 Bionic offers 25 percent faster performance for computing
and 30 percent better for graphics.
Yes, its performance feels as cool as its name, A11 Bionic.
But do you know if Apple used the name Bionic
just to sound cool and easy to remember. There is no specific technical reason.
Well, this A11 chipset is pinned with 3 GB RAM
that feels really fast for gaming
although iPhone 7 Plus feels as smooth.
Most super heavy games to AR can run well.
The temperature of the smartphone while used to play games is still reasonable;
not more than 40 degrees.
But since A11 is a new chipset,
so there are some games that have not run optimally.
In addition to gaming, 3 GB RAM will be useful for multitasking
although it is actually quite mediocre.
If we look at AIDA, the remaining RAM is only around 100 MB.
But yes, RAM is there to be used.
In line with its spec,
Apple also increases the ability of the screen and dual speakers of iPhone 8 Plus.
The speaker is almost as detailed as the speakers on iPhone 7 Plus,
but the difference is that iPhone 8 Plus speakers are a bit louder.
Meanwhile, the screen resolutions are both Full HD,
yet it has supported True Tone.
It is said that this feature is to keep the screen tone as accurate despite the vary light conditions.
However, I feel that this feature only yellows the screen.
It is not very useful, to me personally.
In fact, I even deactivate this feature.
Regarding battery, it is said that the capacity is 2,691 mAh,
yet some say it is 2,800 mAh.
What’s obvious is that iPhone 7 Plus battery is better, having up to 2,900 mAh.
Do not be pessimistic because it is very durable
and can even last for one whole day for active use.
Besides, iPhone 8 Plus battery has already supported wireless and fast charging.
It may charge 50 percent battery in 30 minutes.
But sadly, we have to buy another charger that support fast charging.
If we charge the phone using the charger provided in the package,
charging process will still take some time.
The shape and resolution of its front and rear camera is still the same as iPhone 7 Plus.
To find the difference, I use iPhone 8 Plus as my primary device
and iPhone 7 Plus as my secondary phone for a week.
Yes, on paper, iPhone 8 Plus camera feels just like iPhone 7 Plus.
But if you really pay attention,
iPhone 8 Plus camera is better for taking pictures in low light situation.
For you who like to capture bokeh,
iPhone 8 Plus offers portrait lighting mode which has five choices;
namely natural light, studio light, contour light, stage light, and stage light mono.
These modes work to produce studio-style lighting effects.
Since this mode is still BETA, the results are often not perfect,
especially for stage light and stage light mono modes.
To produce a neat photo using these modes,
we must also be able to see the condition.
If you nail it, the picture will look as amazing as this.
In addition to portrait lighting mode,
iPhone 8 Plus main camera is also more sophisticated for video recording.
Now, you can be a pro videographer, if you use iPhone 8 Plus,
because this smartphone can record 4K 60 fps videos.
The video will turn very smooth and stable due to OIS.
The camera can record slomo Full HD 240 fps videos as well.
Meanwhile, the front camera has 7 MP resolutions with standard features.
This camera serves to photograph a natural selfie.
If you are a loyal user of beautify features,
then most likely you will not be satisfied with the front camera of iPhone 8 Plus.
After using iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus altogether for over a week,
I did not feel any significant difference between the two.
It was like using the same smartphone.
Therefore, if you are iPhone 7 Plus users and have idle funds,
you’d better save your money rather than buying iPhone 8 Plus.
However, if you are using iPhone 6
or you are a pro videographer,
iPhone 8 Plus is a tempting option to buy.
