iPhone 8 vs iPhone X: The Only Differences That Matter

Apple announced the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X with up to a $300 difference in the price of the new iPhones. What’s the difference you ask? We’ll walk through the reasons the iPhone X is $300 more than the iPhone 8 and $200 more than the iPhone 8 Plus to help you decide if those differences are worth going for the more expensive iPhone X.

Essentially this boils down to a few key differences between these new phones. For some users the more affordable iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus is going to be a better option.

Here’s what all of new iPhones have in common. They all run iOS 11, use the new Apple A11 Bionic processor, support wireless charging, come in 64GB and 256GB storage sizes, are water, dust and splash resistant, record 4K video, work on all the major U.S. carriers, support Apple Pay, FaceTime video and FaceTime Audio, a Lightning connector and support for Siri. All of the new iPhones support HDR10, Dolby Vision and 3D Touch.

That’s a lot of things in common. Now here are the differences that matter to you. The things you’ll miss out on if you buy the iPhone 8 instead of the iPhone X.

1. 5.8-inch OLED Display in a Small Package
2. Face ID vs Touch ID
3. Buttons and Design
4. Supercharged Front Facing Camera
5. iPhone X Has Better Battery Life than the iPhone 8
6. iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X Cameras

There are a few other small difference between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, but for the most part, those are the ones that you are paying a premium for. The iPhone 8 and iPhone X are about the same size, while the iPhone 8 Plus is much bigger.

Apple offers the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in silver, gold and space gray, but only offers the iPhone X in silver and space gray. The odds are good that if you wait long enough you will be able to get a new iPhone X color sometime in 2018.

5.8-inch OLED Display in a Small Package

The screen is a major differentiator on the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

The iPhone X has a brand new design that allows Apple to but a bigger screen in a smaller package. The iPhone X comes with a 5.8-inch Super Retina HD display which is bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch display and much bigger than the 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 8.

The display features curved corners and part of the top edge is cut out to handle all the sensors in the iPhone X. This cuts out some of a movie and some apps when in full screen.

The iPhone X uses an OLED display that delivers a higher contrast ratio, comes with a much higher resolution and more pixels per inch. OLED displays are generally considered the best you can get. Apple’s iPhone 8 uses an LCD display with a lower contrast ratio and resolution.  It’s going to look the same as the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, so you can get an idea for how it performs right now.

The brightness is the same across all of these phones, and they all support wide color display, HDR and 3D Touch. The new True Tone display is available on all three models as well.

Face ID vs Touch ID

Choose Face ID or Touch ID.

There is no Touch ID on the iPhone X and there is no Face ID on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. This will change how you login to the iPhone multiple times a day. On the iPhone 8 you can still put your finger on the home button to unlock with your fingerprint.

With the iPhone X, you will need to use the front facing camera to login with Face ID. This works in the dark, handles changes in your face, hair, hats and is designed to withstand even Hollywood level masks attempting to login as you.

Face ID looked fast in the demos, but it’s a first generation product for Apple, whereas Touch ID has been around for several years and undergone at least one major overhaul.

Buttons and Gestures

With the new iPhone X design you need to learn to live without a home button. Some of the gestures are different too. To multitask on the iPhone X you need to swipe halfway up from the bottom of the screen. Swiping down from the upper right corner opens the Control Center and down from the middle your Notification Center. The power button is larger on the iPhone X and you can hold it to activate Siri.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus still feature a home button that controls multitasking, Siri and going to the home screen.

Supercharged Front Facing Camera

Another part of the iPhone X is the front facing camera system. This is a very impressive camera setup. It is what allows Face ID to work, but it also delivers other features you won’t get on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

First off, the better face tracking works with third party apps like Snapchat. This delivers better looking Snapchat Lenses because the camera can track your face using 30,000 IR dots.

You can only use Animoji on the iPhone X.

You can also use the new Animoji feature that allows you to animate one of a dozen different emoji and add audio to the emoji as well. You cannot do this on the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus.

This technology also lets you use the Portrait Mode technology found on the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X rear camera on the selfie camera. This includes the cool blurred background and the new Portrait Lighting.

iPhone X Has Better Battery Life than the iPhone 8

The iPhone X camera is better than the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus cameras.

The iPhone 8 has about the same battery life as the iPhone 7 according to Apple. The iPhone X has about 2 hours longer battery life than the iPhone 7, so basically you can expect the iPhone X to last about 2 hours longer than the iPhone 8.

Keep in mind that Apple is not making any direct comparison between iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus battery life, which likely means that the iPhone X battery life is less than the iPhone 8 Plus.

All of these models are fast charge capable, so you can get up to 50% battery life in 30 minutes with the right charger.

iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X Cameras

The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X stand apart the most when you start to look at the cameras and camera tech. The biggest difference is between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, since you have a single camera on the iPhone 8 and a dual camera sensor on the iPhone X. Apple includes a dual camera system on the iPhone 8 Plus as well, but it’s not the same setup.

All of the cameras include a 12MP sensor, but the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X both support Optical zoom because there are two cameras. The iPhone X dual camera system supports optical images stabilization with both cameras, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus only offer it on the main camera. The iPhone X camera should take better low light photos, and do so even with the telephoto lens.

Both the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus support Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting, the latter of which is currently in beta.

Incredible iPhone X Display

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The new iPhone X display is one of the biggest reasons to buy this phone. Literally. It's a 5.8-inch display that dominates the front of the new iPhone and it doesn't require a massive overall phone size to give you this much room. You do need to deal with a small cutout area where Apple packs in sensors and cameras at the top of the screen.  Apple finally switches over to OLED technology for the Super Retina display. This screen features a 2436 x 1125 resolution and a whopping 458 ppi, which means you won't be seeing pixels when you look at it, just a lot of detail in your photos and videos. The screen also supports DolbyVision and HDR 10, which should make movies look stunning and there is support for True Tone, which helps deliver a more readable display.  Apple says that this is the first OLED screen that they felt was ready for the iPhone and they promise accurate colors, true blacks and a very high brightness. This screen dominates the front of the phone and it's going to be one of the iPhone X features you'll love the most.

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