Glass body iPhone X launched; keeps to online speculation over device pricing at USD 999

Keeping very close to the rumour mills and leaks of dummy phone renders online -The iPhone X or the anniversary edition iPhone ‘Ten’ was launched amongst much fanfare by Apple at their September 2017 keynote address.

The first event in the Steve Jobs auditorium at Apple’s new campus at Cupertino had everyone waiting with bated breaths and for once Apple did listen to what customers were looking forward to.

The iPhone X comes with a bezel less 5.8-inch super retina display with 2436x1125 resolution with 458 PPI and uses OLED technology, a first for Apple considering Samsung and many other manufacturers have been using the OLED screen technology for some time now.

The device is made of the same glass finish aluminium as the other two devices and has dual back and front facing cameras with dual OIS.

The dual front cameras now get both portrait selfie and lighting modes and the iPhoneX supports QI wireless charging as well.

Unlocking the new iPhone will now become a seamless task with the new FaceID function.  This feature makes use of the front camera along with an infrared camera and two sensors to unlock the phone through a person’s face and Apple says that it will be hard to spoof FaceID and unlock the phone. FaceID also adapts over time and learns how one’s face changes and will work with Apple Pay and other apps. 

As rumours had played out, the device is also priced as expected with the 64 GB at $999 and would be available for pre-order from October 27 and available by November 3 in the US.

Also, launched at the event was the Apple iPhone 8 and 8 plus. They are made of aerospace grade aluminium with a glass design reinforced by steel, new colours along with a new true tone display adapting to ambient light conditions and stereo speakers.

The iPhone 8 and its big brother both feature a new Processor — the A11 Bionic chipset is a six core 64-bit CPU with two performance cores that are 25% more powerful than the A10 and also has 4 high efficiency cores. 

It also features a better sound and image processor. The cameras are 12 megapixels with up to 83% improved low light along with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) as standard, 8 plus will have dual cameras with new features like portrait lighting which creates depth effect and reworks lighting accordingly. The iPhone 8 and its plus variant can shoot 4k at 60 fps and 1080p at 240 fps.

This is the first iPhone made for Augmented Reality (AR). The phones also support LTE advanced, Bluetooth 5.0 and a first of sorts for Apple: Wireless Charging using the QI open standard for wireless charging docks.

iPhone 8 is priced at $ 699 for the 64 GB variant, iPhone 8 plus from $ 799 and will start pre-orders from September 15, arriving on September 22. 

Apple has also announced that iOS 11 will be available to devices from September 19.

Apple has increased the base storage for the iPhone8, 8 Plus and iPhoneX to 64 GB but it is surprising considering just last year Apple increased the base storage amongst all iPhone range.

The other big launches at the Apple event were:

Apple Watch Series 3 now comes with cellular connectivity built in and new custom WIFI and Bluetooth chipset with up to 70 % performance increase from the previous range. The Apple Watch is waterproof along with an all-day battery and prices will be $ 329 for the regular Series 3 and Series 3 with LTE at $ 399 along with enhanced health and heart monitoring features.

Orders for the Apple Watch Series 3 starts on September 15, and will be available from September 22.

Apple also announced the Apple TV 4K with new Apple TV OS and A10X chipset with all existing content being upgraded to 4K HDR. The new content will be priced the same as HD content.

The regular Apple TV device is priced at $ 149, Apple TV 4K at $ 179 for the 32 GB and $ 199 for the 64GB.

Apple is keeping its wireless future dream alive and is finally letting users charge their iPhones wirelessly. They showcased their brand-new Apple AirPower charging mat for the iPhone 8, Watch Series 3 and new Air pods. The AirPower charger will be available to customers next year.