At an event held in the Steve Jobs Theatre at the newly-built Apple Park in Cupertino, Apple launched the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, all featuring leaps in technology and innovation.
There are a few guarantees with every Apple product. It’ll be beautifully designed, the build quality will be excellent and it’ll be brilliantly functional. All of the new iPhone models tick those boxes, but here are five of our favourite innovations from the newest range of phones.
1. Wireless charging
Cutting the cord is a step that technology manufacturers have tried to do for years – whether it’s cutting telephone lines like mobile networks have, or headphone cables like Bluetooth has, cables are a tangling irritant.
And that’s why Apple have taken the step to do the same with their iPhones. Thanks to the use of Qi technology, you can now place your iPhone on a charging matt – and it’ll just charge. No need to fiddle around with cables. Just drop your device on to the charging pad and it will automatically start charging.
And if you get Apple’s AirPower charging matt, you can also charge the newest iWatch and AirPod at the same time.
2. Portrait Lighting
A feature that’s exclusive to the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X, portrait lighting is an AI feature that uses the dual-camera feature to separate the subject of your photo from the background.
You can use it to blur the backdrop out, to remove it completely, or to even change how the lighting falls on the person whose photo you’re taking. Thanks to the AI technology, it recognises the contours of the face to do this. The results are incredible.
3. FaceID
FaceID is a feature that it is exclusive to the iPhone X, removing the home button (and the TouchID fingerprint sensor) completely by scanning more than 30,000 points on your face to create a unique password.
So instead of pressing the home button or entering a passcode, you just bring the phone up to your face and the device unlocks automatically. And as your appearance changes, machine learning means that the device learns to adapt to those changes too.
Because of how secure it is, you can even use it to authorise Apple Pay.
4. An edge-to-edge screen with new gesture controls
Apple’s FaceID feature brings another great advantage to the device – it negates the need for a home button on the front of the phone.
The iPhone X has a screen that stretches to every corner of the phone – providing a vivid OLED display that provides accurate, stunning colours, deep blacks, higher brightness and a 1000000 to 1 contrast ratio. It makes the iPhone X a truly eye-catching device.
The new screen design means that you now have gestures to control how you use apps. Now rather than pressing the home button to return to the home screen, you just swipe up. Simple.
5. True Tone for All
All three new iPhones now come with True Tone, which adjusts the screen brightness, colour temperature and contrast to your surroundings.
It may seem like a less important feature, but this technology ultimately reduces the strain on your eyes – making the phone’s use a more comfortable one. Apple really do think of everything.
