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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here, and in front of me are two phones, the Apple iPhone 8 and
00:08the 8 Plus. And if these were the only two phones that Apple put out this year, this
00:12video would be a lot easier because I could just give you my honest opinions on these
00:15phones and we'd be done, but that's just not the case. The iPhone X is a couple weeks out
00:20and it makes it difficult to give you an honest opinion on these things because there's just
00:25a bigger and better phone a few weeks away. So, okay, I'm going to talk about these phones
00:31about the things I like and dislike about it, and then we'll kind of get into a more
00:34meta discussion at the end. The things I like the most about these phones, there's three
00:38big ones. The first is wireless charging. Now, wireless charging is one of those things
00:42you only start to appreciate when you've used it a lot, and I'm surprised Apple took so
00:46long to stick it into their phones, but it's finally here. See, the thing is, with cables,
00:50like finding the cable, sticking it into the slot, and just charging your phone that way,
00:55there's something about that extra step of like plugging your phone in that is enough
00:59to dissuade everybody around the world to leave their phones half charged very often.
01:03It's just because we're a lazy species or something. Having wireless charging pads is
01:07really convenient. The thing is, wireless charging isn't cheap. Apple doesn't include
01:11one in the box, you have to buy them, and they're like $20, $30 at like the mid-tier,
01:15and they can go up to like $50, $60, maybe even more if you want to get some really premium
01:19ones. So, yeah, it's expensive to equip everything in your life to have wireless charging capabilities,
01:25but it is convenient. The other thing I really like about the iPhone 8 is the processor,
01:30and they talked about it a lot during the presentation, the whole A11 Bionic chip, to
01:33the point where I thought they were overhyping it, but it's very impressive. I think it's
01:36the most impressive thing about the phone to me. It benchmarks incredibly fast on multi-core
01:41stuff. Now, whether or not it really matters, I mean, if you look at any of the other phones
01:45that this thing beats on that chart, those phones are still super fast, like the actual
01:49UI feels really smooth on any of these phones, but where this thing will start to make a
01:52difference is with augmented reality stuff. So that is a very processor-heavy application,
01:57any kind of AR thing, but right now, in like mid-2017, we're not seeing that much AR stuff
02:03being used. Like, there's a lot of tech demos and impressive apps, but most of that stuff
02:07isn't everyday useful. But give it 8, maybe 12 months, and I think we'll start to see
02:12that AR tech kind of trickle down into more everyday stuff, and that's when really powerful
02:16multi-core chips will start to shine. But right now, it's cool, but it's not super useful.
02:21The last feature I want to talk about on the iPhone 8 is the camera, and this was way
02:25better than I expected it to be. So, Apple's cameras are always pretty good, but last year,
02:30the iPhone 7, I felt like that camera, to me, wasn't as impressive as the Pixel camera
02:35or the cameras on the Samsung phones, either the Galaxy or the Note. This camera impressed
02:40me, particularly in low light. I feel like the images are a good blend between what you
02:44see in real life and a bit of software optimization to make it look a little bit better. The portrait
02:49mode on the iPhone 8 Plus is still something I'm not into. The tech is good, and they actually
02:53do a good job at it, it's just I never take photos like that. The studio effects on the
02:578 Plus are pretty cool, and again, the tech is impressive. The images look very convincing
03:02to me, but I feel like I'm not the target user for this feature. Like, I don't take
03:05photos of myself or my family and friends and kind of wish they were professionally
03:10lit, but the technology is super impressive. So, those are the three main features about
03:14the iPhone 8 that are important to me. The camera, the wireless charging, and the new
03:18processor. There's some other stuff, like the True Tone display, but I want to talk
03:21about things that I dislike about the iPhone 8. And the first one is the design. This is
03:26a very long-running design. This is year four of this shape, and I think it's the longest-running
03:32design that Apple has had on an iPhone. And at this point, it's a very iconic look, like
03:37you recognize it right away because of the bigger bezels and just the shape of the phone,
03:41but it's super stale. And when a brand new phone from 2017 looks pretty much the same
03:45as a phone from 2014, that's no good. The glass material on the back is nice. It's definitely
03:51less slippery than the full aluminum on the iPhone 7. It's a nicer material to hold, at
03:55least. It's still slippery. I don't know if I'd put a skin on it. I mean, it looks like
03:59it would crack pretty easily, but I do like the color of it. The white back is cool, but
04:04the dark gray one looks really nice to me. Another thing I dislike is the cost of all
04:08the accessories. So, this is Apple. They love selling accessories, but this time around,
04:12I feel like it's an extra bitter pill to swallow because this phone supports fast
04:16charging, but they only include a regular wall brick. You have to buy a different adapter
04:21and a separate cable to take advantage of fast charging. And I feel like in 2017, every
04:25flagship phone out there, if it supports fast charging, includes the fast charging cable
04:30and wall adapter, but not here. They include this thing. Okay, none of that matters because
04:37the thing that bugs me the most about the iPhone 8 is the fact that the iPhone X is
04:42just around the corner, and every conversation that anyone has about the iPhone 8 right now
04:46is shaded by the incoming iPhone X. And it's not that the iPhone X is a significantly better
04:52phone and it just crushes everything. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that
04:56right now, if you're buying a phone, or if you're interested in buying a phone, you're
04:59buying a phone that will instantly become quote-unquote obsolete the moment the iPhone
05:04X comes out, just because it has a home button and it's not Apple's flagship phone anymore.
05:08I mean, this is still a good phone despite how aged it looks, but it's weird that the
05:13iPhone X is going to be the phone that everyone wants. That's the phone that matters. That's
05:16the phone of Apple's future. So it's weird to invest any kind of money into this thing,
05:21something that we already know is on its way out. The home button is gone. We're not going
05:26to be using that in the future. So it feels like a bad investment if you're going to spend
05:30money on a phone. Now, not to say that this is a bad phone. These are good phones, but
05:34because of the iPhone X, it makes these things significantly less attractive for someone
05:39who's enthusiastic about tech. Okay. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you
05:43liked it. Subs if you loved it. See you guys next time.