Here's Everything You Need To Know About What The New iPhones, Watch Series 3 & TV 4K

In an event at the newly made Steve Jobs Theater in the Apple Park campus, Apple announced upgrades to their Watch, TV and iPhone lineups along with a special-tenth anniversary release for their iPhone series - the iPhone X. Let's take a look at each one of them briefly, starting from Apple TV 4K.

Apple TV - Orders begin Sept 15, ships Sept 22 pic.twitter.com/FNDnyNoxdp

— AndroGuider (@androguider) September 12, 2017

The Apple TV got a much awaited upgrade to 4K along with support for industry standard HDR10. HDR allows for better quality images in all sorts of lighting conditions with enhanced color rendering techniques (refer the image below). The combination of 4K and HDR10 along with Apple's Dolby Vision backed display will allow for a cinematic experience from the comfort of your sofa. Streaming 4K content requires an excellent internal hardware and Apple has seen to that with the A10X Fusion chip (found in new iPad pro models) and 3GB of RAM. Apple has stated that it will be offering several 4K movies through iTunes and HD movies bought by customers earlier will be upgraded to 4K for free.

Left: 4K (without HDR), Right: 4K (with HDR)

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus look very similar to their predecessors in terms of design but they do have several improvements to their name. The first major improvement is support for wireless charging. Android flagship phones have since long now supported wireless charging and it was about time Apple joined the party. The new iPhones possess an aluminium body along with a glass back which allows support for wireless charging. Apple has also updated the display screen on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus to match the one on the most recent iPad Pro. Both the iPhones have a true tone technology retina HD display which makes colors much more vibrant as well as easy on the eyes.

The other list of changes include a new chipset and better camera. Apple calls the new chipset powering the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus as A11 Bionic. Of course, the A11 is faster and more efficient than last year's A10 but the big change this time around is support for augmented reality (AR). Just like 4K HDR is the for videos, augmented reality is the future for the way we play our games on handheld devices. Although Apple did showcase iPhone's AR capabilities, the industry is still naive and will take time to come up. Moving over to the camera, the iPhone 8 has a single 12MP snapper at the back while it's elder sibling 8 Plus has two 12MP shooters to its name. I don't even think it is necessary to mention this but I still will - the iPhone 8 has several portrait mode enhancements over the iPhone 7 Plus along with a four-LED True Tone flash. The pre-orders for iPhone 8 start on September 15 and will begin shipping on September 22. The base model of iPhone 8 with 64GB of storage will cost you $699 while the base model of the 8 Plus is priced at $799.

Improvements in the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

This being the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple was expected to do something special and it did. The iPhone X commemorates Steve Jobs who introduced the original iPhone a decade ago in 2007. At $999, the iPhone X is the priciest of the iPhone lot and is hence the spearhead when it comes to design and new features. The iPhone X sports a gorgeous edge to edge screen with display specifications (retina display etc) matching its siblings. Like the Essential Phone, Apple too has carved out a wide yet narrow cavity from the top portion of the screen to pave way for a plethora of sensors which include eight sensors. Apple is touting the display screen to be "the most durable glass ever in a smartphone" and if Apple is making a claim, we know that they have enough ground to stand on. Because of the edge to edge display, Apple had to do away with the home button which means that there is no Touch ID (which iPhone 8/8 Plus have). To access the home screen, users will have to swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen whilst the control centre can now be accessed by swiping down from the top edge. Apple's A11 Bionic chip, support for wireless charging, water and dust resistance, all are included. Since Apple ditched the Touch ID (like the headphone jack last year (:cries:), they had to come up with something to secure the iPhone contents and Apple Pay. Apple now uses your face to secure your device contents. If you are thinking that you can fool Apple with a photograph, that's not going to be the case. Apple claims that Face ID (one possible breach in a million) is a lot more secure than Touch ID (one in possible breach in fifty thousand). And those sensors which Apple has included in that top cavity, they are going to be utilized for iPhone X's Face ID. 

Another new thing Apple introduced with the iPhone X is Animoji. Simply put, Apple pulled out the letter 'e' from emoji and inserted 'ani' instead. The result - animated emojis. As the name suggests, the emojis will now have their own animations. And Apple being Apple, they didn't code in any particular set of animations. Instead you will be the one who creates those animations. Animojis will be generated based on the movements of your facial movements. If you want, you can also supplement the Animoji with an audio message and it will lip-sync it when the other person views it. The camera setup is quite similar to the one on the iPhone 8 Plus. We have 12MP dual cameras (both support OIS) here with 2x optical zoom and support for higher frame rates while recording video (240 frames per second for 1080p videos, 60 frames per second for 4K video. The high rate frame recording video capabilities are present in the iPhone 8 Plus as well. The front camera is clocked at 7MP and the plethora of sensors in the front are not just meant to aid the security but also your photos. Apple utilises the front sensors to capture selfie portrait shots. The iPhone X still remains to be certified by FCC (a regulatory body) and is slated to hit the stores on November 3.

Lastly, the Apple Watch series was updated to version number 3. Apple Watch Series 3 includes support for GPS and cellular reception. Apple boasted about the Watch Series 3's heart monitoring, faster processor and 18 hours of battery life. The Watch Series 3 is slightly thicker as compared to its predecessor. For the cellular variants of Series 3, Apple has included a new kind of SIM called the eSIM which is even smaller than nanoSIM. The eSIM is soldered to the motherboard. The eSIM removed the need of a plastic SIM card and hands over the control of your SIM over to Apple and the carrier. If you ever wish to change the carrier on your watch, you would be able to do that in just a couple of touches but if you choose to move to a carrier not supported by Apple, you may have problems. More details will emerge about this in the future. The non-cellular variant of the watch costs $329 while the cellular model costs $399. Pre-orders start on September 15 and the shipments will start on September 22.

That's all what Apple had for today's event. What are your thoughts? Did you like what you saw? Let us know in the comments section below!

[All images were sourced from Apple]

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.