The first wave of customers who snagged either an iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3 or Apple TV on pre-order day last week are now beginning to see their orders arrive, with Apple Stores and carriers now officially stocking the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the LTE Apple Watch Series 3.
Apple Watch
One of the biggest features launched with the Apple Watch Series 3 is its cellular capabilities. This now means that you no longer have to have your iPhone with you all the time to make it work. Apple’s own Jeff Williams shared how engineers have turned the display of the Apple Watch Series 3 into an antenna system, all while keeping case the same size as the Series 2. While the case remained the case size remained the same, it was disclosed the the back crystal that was extended 0.25 millimeters- or the equivalent of two sheets of paper according to Williams. One thing that was emphasized during the debut was that you could now stream over 40 million songs on your wrist from Apple Music due to a cellular connection.
While it was probably the most highlighted feature, cellular wasn’t the only thing introduced today. Apple has also added a dual-core processor which enables Siri to speak for the first time on watchOS. The new W2 chip inside also adds 80 percent faster Wi-Fi, but at the same time remains 50 percent more power efficient. Additionally, the W2 includes an altimeter which will track flights climbed and should improve help apps that track skiing and snowboarding.
Apple TV
The Apple TV is now capable of playing movies and TV shows at 4K Ultra HD resolution. One of the best parts? Apple’s Eddy Cue mentioned during the keynote that customers who’ve already purchased eligible films in HD will automatically be upgraded to 4K HDR at no extra cost. Now that ladies and gentleman is a steal! On the hardware side of things the Apple TV now packs an A10X Fusion processor (the same chip found inside the iPad Pro) as well as 3GB of RAM. This then results in CPU performance doubling from the previous generation. Finally, while it wasn’t mentioned very much during the presentation, it appears that the Siri Remote now has capacitive menu button. Other than the remote, the design of the set-top box remains unchanged.
iPhone 8
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus closely mimic the design of the previous generation iPhone 7, with Apple introducing a new back glass design, with a polished aluminium band and new silver, space gray, and a “beautiful new gold finish”. Both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus feature a Retina HD display and improved water resistance, with True Tone displays previously only seen on the iPad Pro. As expected we did see a new processor, although Apple did change up the name scheme a little. Inside the iPhone 8 series we’ll find an A11 Bionic chip. The devices feature a new 12MP camera sensor that is expected produce less noise. While on the subject of cameras, the iPhone 8 Plus has two new sensors and a new feature called Portrait Lighting. Portrait Lighting will ship in beta and create professional lighting effects in portrait shots using depth and machine learning. Last, but certainly not least Apple has finally brought us the gift of wireless charging. Both iPhone 8 models will support the open wireless standard, Qi, allowing users to buy third-party accessories to charge their device.