The highlight of the Apple Event held today is neither the iPhone 8 nor the iPhone 8 Plus, but the iPhone X. First released in June 2007, the X’s arrival marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
Touting a 5.8-inch OLED edge-to-edge display, the iPhone X does away with the trademark hardware home button. Instead, it will rely on face-scanning technology and a rear mounted touch ID sensor to authenticate the user and perform functions such as unlocking the phone or making purchases.
Like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the X is encased in a metal-reinforced glass housing enabling wireless inductive charging.
Similarly, it is powered by the next-generation A11 Bionic Chip, which comes with 6 CPU cores. Compared to its predecessor, the A10, the A11 Bionic’s two high-performance cores are 25% faster, while the four power-efficient cores are 70% faster.
It is also fitted with Apple’s in-house GPU, which is 30 percent faster than its predecessor while consuming only half the power.
Following the footsteps of the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X is fitted with dual 12-Megapixel cameras at the back. A wide-angle lens can take photos at up to f/2.5 aperture, while a zoom lens takes photos at f/1.8. Both lenses have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).
In addition to capturing photos in JPEG format, the iPhone X’s camera supports the HEIF file format, a still-image version of the HVEC or more popularly known as H.265 video format.
In addition to better compression and functioning as a container for multiple files, HEIF supports transparency and up to 16 bits of color. In comparison, JPEG supports up to 8 bits of color information. This result in better-looking photos at potentially smaller file sizes.
Software camera is the same as the iPhone 8 Plus, supporting different lighting modes via “Portrait Lighting” and artificial depth-of-field effects (bokeh) via “Portrait Mode”.
4K video recording is supported at up to 60 FPS, while slow motion videos are made possible by recording in 1080p resolution at 240 FPS.
The iPhone X is fitted with 3GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 256GB of storage. It is splash, water, and dust resistant, rated IP67 under IEC standard 60529.
Color options are limited to Space Gray and Silver, both of which feature a thin black front bezel.
iPhone X is priced at $999. Orders will be accepted starting Octoer 27, while shipping is set for November 3 in the USA. Philippine carriers Globe Telecom and Smart Communications have yet to announce the release dates of the iPhone X in the Philippines.
