Apple has unveiled a radically redesigned and re-invented iPhone X – easily the company’s most ambitious iPhone since the life-changing device was introduced 10 years ago.
Fittingly the iPhone X was revealed in the Steve Jobs Theatre at the new Apple Park campus – a venue named after the visionary Apple co-founder who stunned the world a decade ago when he introduced the product that would go on to become an indispensable part of billions of people’s lives.
Apple also announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus which carry on from the look of its predecessor but with an updated glass design.
The new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will be available to pre-order on September 15 and will go on sale on September 22.
The iPhone X will be available for pre-order on October 27 and will go on sale on November 3.
The iPhone X is dominated by a stunning 5.8-inch Super Retina Display with OLED technology that occupies most of the device’s front panel and supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
The screen goes virtually edge to edge with a super thin bezel on each side.
A small notch at the top of the screen houses the front facing camera, along with the sensor and speaker.
One thing you won’t find on the iPhone X is a home button – a feature that’s been a part of the iPhone since it was first launched in 2007.
To go to your home screen from an app, users can simply sweep up from the bottom of the screen.
And now you won’t need your finger to unlock the device – it will now unlock by just looking at your face.
The new Face ID feature is powered by a Neural Engine that recognises up to 30,000 points on the user’s face and will only give you access to the iPhone X when it recognises and matches the virtual copy of your face stored on the iPhone.
And it will still recognise you when you’re wearing a hat, when you’ve had a haircut and when you’ve grown a beard.
Face ID will also work in the light and in complete darkness.
It is also more secure than your Touch ID fingerprint with up to a million to one security compared with just 50,000 to one with your fingerprint.
But we’re curious to see how this would work with identical twins.
Face ID can also be used to create animated emojis and send them with your messages.
That’s not the only new feature of the iPhone X.
For the first Apple has introduced wireless charging to the iPhone.
Now all a customer needs to do is place the phone on the charging pad which are available today from third party manufacturers.
The iPhone uses the standard Qi charging technology that has been used by other brands like Samsung and will enable users to charge the device in cafes, airports and in cars using the Qi charging points.
Apple also gave a sneak peek as a new charging accessory which will be released next year that will be able to charge the new iPhones, Apple Watch and AirPods.
This is an alternative to connecting a cable to the Lightning port – which will still charge the device.
On the camera side, Apple has also raised the bar with a 12-megapixel dual lens camera with larger and faster sensors and dual optical image stabilisation.
The front camera can also take better selfies and will now allow users to utilise portrait mode as well.
The lens configuration has gone from lenses side by side as we saw with the iPhone 7 Plus to one lens on top of the other.
Under the hood, is Apple’s very own A11 Bionic processor which is made up six cores which can not only power the larger OLED display but also use less power.
The obvious outcome of this efficiency is a longer battery life which will now offer two more hours of use than the iPhone 7.
Of course, the iPhone X and the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will be running the new iOS 11 software, which will be available to download on September 19, that will also unlock a range of new features including the ability to run Augmented Reality apps which have been created using Apple’s very own ARKit.
This has empowered developers to create a new wave of apps that will reinvent the way we use the iPhone.
iPHONE 8 AND iPHONE 8 PLUS
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have an updated design and will be powered by a new A11 Bionic six core 64-bit processor.
They have the same size 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
The onboard camera has a new 12-megapixel sensor with deeper pixels, better results in low light and optical image stabilisation.
There is also an improved slow motion which can now capture video at 240 frames per second.
Augmented Reality will be a big part of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with the camera and processor optimised to handle the apps that superimpose virtual objects and information on top of the real world.
The iPhone X will be available in two colours black and silver and will be priced at $1,579 (64GB) and $1,829 (256GB) with pre-orders from October 27 before going on sale on November 3.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will also be available in three colours – space grey, silver and gold – and will be priced at $1079 (iPhone 8 64GB), $1,329 (iPhone 8 256GB), $1,229 (iPhone 8 Plus 64GB) and $1,479 (iPhone 8 Plus 256GB). Pre-orders start on September 15 and goes on sale on September 22.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to San Jose as a guest of Apple
