I tried both the X and 8 Plus in the Apple store. Went for the more familiar 8 Plus. Have two of them sitting here. Here are my observations:
As to the 8 Plus, if I were to advise anyone on which color to get, I'm afraid I could not. They are both beautiful. Black is stealthy and will work better with waze in the car, since the frame is less distracting. Gold is just super classy. The two-tone color scheme is outstanding. Silver struck me as too monotone, kinda boring.
These phones want to be used naked, but woe is the day when they're dropped onto concrete.
And P.S.: Google Fi is the best cell phone service going, bar none. If you're an international traveler, you'll save a bundle while traveling and get high-speed service all the way. Get a Fi-compatible phone, activate the SIM, and then put it in your iPhone. Worth the hassle. Works splendidly with the 8, no weird configuration necessary.
- Apple must have fixed the screen uniformity issues of previous phones. Both phones are supremely uniform in lighting and tone, and both are pleasant to read.
- Phone call quality is fine with both. I could find only one 7 Plus out of, oh, 5 or 6 I must have tried that had decent phone quality. Reports of bad speaker phone quality w/ with 7 phones are rampant on the net. I experienced the same issue with all but one phone.
- Grippy at last, thanks to the glass backs. This will make carrying these phones caseless very tempting. Also offsets somewhat the fact that the phones are thicker and heavier than previous generations.
- Both phones run cool. The new processor must be really heat efficient.
- Speakers are really nice. I do notice the extra bass response.
- One black and one gold. Both are beautiful, although I do notice with the gold one that one can see the seam between the white front and the gold edge at the top (and to a lesser degree, bottom) if one looks closely. Glad I'm not obsessive about these things. Given the perfection of the phone otherwise, this is one of those "get over it" issues.
- Overall, excellent phones. It's clear that Apple has silently addressed the flaws I found in the 7 series.
As to the 8 Plus, if I were to advise anyone on which color to get, I'm afraid I could not. They are both beautiful. Black is stealthy and will work better with waze in the car, since the frame is less distracting. Gold is just super classy. The two-tone color scheme is outstanding. Silver struck me as too monotone, kinda boring.
These phones want to be used naked, but woe is the day when they're dropped onto concrete.
And P.S.: Google Fi is the best cell phone service going, bar none. If you're an international traveler, you'll save a bundle while traveling and get high-speed service all the way. Get a Fi-compatible phone, activate the SIM, and then put it in your iPhone. Worth the hassle. Works splendidly with the 8, no weird configuration necessary.
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