It’s iPhone 8 day! Today, Apple‘s brand new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus goes on sale in Malaysia. Thinking of picking one up? This is all you need to know to get your hands on one of Apple’s brand new smartphones today.
Pricing and colour options
There are currently two variants on sale today: The smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 8 and the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 8 Plus. These phones come in two storage variants, 64GB and 256GB. Here’s how much they cost:
Both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus come in three colour variants: Silver, Space Gray and, their new hero colour, Gold. Gold is a little different this time because the back is sort of a vintage-y cream colour that actually looks pretty good.
While Apple Malaysia has revealed the official price for the iPhone X, there’s still no word on the availability. The rest of the iPhone lineup also received updated price tags and you can learn more about them here.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus specs
Apple’s fundamental principles for iPhones haven’t changed since the iPhone 6. This means you get a small 4.7-inch iPhone 8 and a big 5.5-inch iPhone 8 Plus. The smaller iPhone 8 features a Retina IPS LCD display that pushes a resolution of 1334×750 pixels (just over 720p) while the larger Plus variant has the same screen only pushing a higher Full HD 1920×1080 pixel resolution.
What’s new with these displays, though, is that they come with True Tone — a feature that debuted on the iPad Pro — which automatically adjusts the colour temperature of the display to better match its surroundings. Think of it like paper, where it doesn’t stay the same colour when you move into a different room. It’s supposed to be easier on your eyes, though you should turn it off if you need to do stuff that requires accurate colour renditions (eg. photo editing).
Inside, these devices pack a whole lot of firepower. They’ve both got Apple’s brand new hexa-core A11 Bionic processor. This chip has four efficiency cores and two high-powered cores that the phone can intelligently switch between to give you a good balance of battery life and performance. What’s more, the cores themselves are also more powerful, where the low-power cores are 70% more powerful than the previous generation iPhone while the high power cores are 25% more powerful.
In the camera department, you get an upgraded 12MP camera that has deeper pixels and optical image stabilisation with an f/1.8 aperture lens. In front, you get a 7-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with an f/2.2 aperture lens. On the iPhone 8 Plus, you get an additional short telephoto camera with an f/2.8 aperture lens that unlocks features like optical zoom and Portrait Mode.
Speaking of Portrait Mode, Apple’s improved it further by adding a feature called Portrait Lighting. This takes the depth information obtained by Portrait Mode and uses it to simulate studio lighting conditions. This means you can tweak the lighting to mimic contour lighting, studio lighting or stage lighting. This can be done both before and after you take a photo.
Smartphone videographers will be happy to know that the iPhone 8 can now shoot 4K video footage at a staggering 60fps as well as slow-motion 1080p video at 240fps.
Other new features include wireless charging (Qi standard) thanks to the new glass back and a 25% louder speaker setup (earpiece + speaker stereo). Besides that, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are still IP67 dust and water resistant (up to 1m in depth for 30 minutes).
Availability
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are available for purchase in all authorised Apple resellers nationwide. You can also purchase this device from Apple Malaysia’s online store and that will ship in 1-3 business days.
Alternatively, you can also pick this device up from one of your major telcos on contract:
Celcom
Online Store
Digi
Online Store
Maxis
Online Store
U Mobile
Online Store
But telco plans are often pretty complicated and that makes it difficult to determine which is the best plan for you. Fret not, though, because we’ve got you covered with our exhaustive iPhone 8 telco plan comparison. Check that out to find the best plan for your iPhone.