iPhone7, iPhone8 size
Looking face on at the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 shows two smartphones which are almost indistinguishable. The large top and bottom bezels remain, the display appears unchanged and the iPhone 7 even has more colour options (silver, gray, gold, rose gold and jet black Vs silver, gray and gold).
But look closer and you’ll see one change which is not for the better:
iPhone 8 - 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm (5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 in) and 148g (5.22 oz)
iPhone 7 - 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 in) and 138g (4.87 oz)
Yes, the iPhone 8 is fractionally larger than the iPhone 7 and over 7% heavier. Why? Because of its most controversial change: the back of the iPhone 8 is glass not aluminium.
Apple has done this to add wireless charging (more in the Battery Life section) but the cost is a heavier phone (glass needs to be thicker for the same protection as aluminium) and a back which can crack. Whether that is worth the trade off, will matter on how much you want wireless charging.
Displays - Old Dog, New Tricks
While there’s debatably no tangible improvement to the iPhone 8’s design over the iPhone 7, Apple has made advances with its display - despite it looking identical on paper:
iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 - 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD, 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi), 65.6% screen-to-body ratio
Yes there’s no sign of the scene stealing OLED panel of the iPhone X, but Apple has given the iPhone 8 ‘True Tone’ technology from the iPad Pro range which reacts to environmental light and ensures a correct colour balance at all times. There’s also support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 for higher dynamic range (HDR) - something fast being added to Netflix, Amazon Video and iTunes.
