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Apple Announces iPhone X With Edge-To-Edge Display, Wireless Charging and No Home Button (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the latest-and-greatest dept.

At its event in Cupertino, California today, Apple unveiled the iPhone X to mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. It brings several new features including an edge-to-edge screen, Qi wireless charging, and Face ID. The Verge reports: Because of its edge-to-edge display, the iPhone has no place for a conventional home button, relying instead on a complex facial recognition system to unlock the phone. Called FaceID, the new system will replace TouchID, the home button sensor that's enabled fingerprint logins since 2013's iPhone 5S. Users can wake the phone by swiping up from the button instead of hitting the button. The same gesture will open the control panel once the phone is awake. The updated iPhone 8 will continue unchanged, including both the home button and TouchID. Apple also unveiled the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which are updated versions of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus released last year. These new devices feature glass backs with support for wireless charging. The Verge provides some additional specs and features in its report: Apple has improved the display on the iPhone 8 line, adding the same True Tone technology it offers on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro to automatically adjust the screen based on the ambient light in the room to offer more accurate colors. Internally, Apple has upgraded the processor from the A10 Fusion found in the 7 to the A11 Bionic. It's a six-core chip with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster than the A10, and four performance cores that the company says are 70 percent faster that the old model. There's also a new Apple-designed GPU that's 30 percent faster, with the same performance as the A10 at half the power. On the camera front, there's a new 12-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 8 that is larger, faster, and finally has optical image stabilization. The iPhone 8 Plus also has new sensors, and offers f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures now. The dual cameras on the 8 Plus also have a new "Portrait Lighting" feature to adjust the lighting for portrait shots. And Apple says that the improvements apply to video, too, with Apple executive Phil Schiller claiming that the new devices have the "highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone," with support for 4K/60fps video. Slow motion videos now support up to 1080p resolution at 240fps, doubling the the iPhone 7's 120fps option. The iPhone 8 will start at $699 for a 64GB model, while the 8 Plus will start at $799 for 64GB of storage. You can preorder these devices starting Friday, September 15th, and they will be released a week later on September 22nd.

UPDATE 9/12/17: The iPhone X will be priced starting at $999 for the 64GB variant. Pre-order will be available October 27th with shipments starting November 3rd.

10 of 570 comments (clear)

  1. Not want by XXongo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    No, I'm sorry, I don't really want a phone that starts up when it thinks it recognizes my face.

    I'd like a plain "on" button, thank you.

    1. Re:Not want by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But a phone that unlocks when it sees your face is one that the police can confiscate and unlock by simply aiming it at your face.

      Why wouldn't you want that convenience?

    2. Re:Not want by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because I'm sure they don't have the tried-and-true PIN entry available still, just like OMG WHAT IF I'M WEARING GLOVES AND IT CAN'T READ MY FINGERPRINT?!

      It's not like it takes a room full of PhDs to figure that one out...

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    3. Re:Not want by fatwilbur · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think what's far worse about it will be the battery impact from operating the camera the entire time the phone is on, or even with some logic, a good percentage of the time.

  2. It's official by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The smartphone market is officially mature, as indicated by the fact that even Apple can't come up with anything other than incremental improvements and gimmicks.

  3. Re:Dual Product Launch by wed128 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My mom would. A person who wants a reasonably new phone, doesn't want to show off, wants a couple of years worth of software updates, and doesn't want to spend $300 for the fancy display.

  4. Re:Dual Product Launch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The ONLY reason people buy iStuff is to show off. Get over it. That's the only 'value proposition' Apple has left. They have lagged in features for years now and now it's all 'OH LOOK SHINY NEW' as the lemmings flock to it.

  5. Re:So along with the new sensors by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dude, nobody cares about the headphone jack except slashdot whiners.

    Or people who actually use their phones.

  6. Re:So along with the new sensors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Those people use Airpods or other bluetooth headphones or the bundled headphone adapter.

  7. Edge by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With all these edge to edge displays, I hope they have technology that can prevent my phone from doing totally unpredictable things when I pick it up. Is that too much to ask for? This is a problem with my regular bezel edge phone, can't imagine what it will be like with an edge to edge phone.

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