Non-Geek iPhone 8 Plus Review

First off, I am not an anti-geek. In fact, if anything I am probably sort of a geek-wanna-be but years ago I fell so far behind the learning curve of all things technological that well, frankly I just will never catch up. I’ve accepted that I will forever remain locked out of the wizardry of the newest tech-magic…

A few weeks back I decided to turn in my trusty iPhone 6S for an iPhone 8 Plus. Nothing was wrong with the phone, other than it was ancient by geek standards at nearly three years of age. Not an issue really, but one of the things that I regretted when I purchased the 6S was that I did not get it in the Plus size, often referred to as a “Phablet.”  I do a fair amount of reading and picture taking on my phone and a larger screen helps. Also, the Plus size has a more capable camera and longer battery life. Its faster processor allows you to shoot in 4K.

Why Apple?

Some other smart-phones may very well be equal or even superior to an iPhone in this or that category, just understand that I will never know. Thanks to Microsoft Windows Vista I am an unapologetic Apple fan who could go into all sorts of sordid details about the OS that Microsoft pretends never happened. All I can say is that in my garage in some crate somewhere is a fairly nice laptop that I used for less than a month. I was self-employed and that horrid machine with the then brand-new 64 Bit operating system actually cost me hours and hours and hours of lost time, and that was just in the first week…

In 2009 I went into an Apple store and out of pure desperation bought an iPhone 3S and a MacBook Pro to go with it and never looked back. I joined the legions converted to Apple by Steve Jobs who must have designed Vista and snuck it into Bill Gates in-box, I mean no company could make something that bad by accident, could they?

In non-geek terms, I took it home, plugged it in and everything worked. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Even more amazing was that by running a program called “Parallels for Mac” I could run all of my Windows-based business software that the dedicated windows machine could not, and it ran it seamlessly with not a single issue.

Back to my new 8Plus.

I do four things with my iPhone, I make calls, I read the news or Kindle e-books, I take pictures, and I listen to music/podcasts etc. All the rest of whatever lovely, even exciting things that it is capable of does not interest me all that much. So why then the iPhone 8 Plus and not the 7 Plus or the iPhone X?

Well, I already mentioned the camera, which is the same on the 7 Plus, but the processing power of the 8 enhances it. The iPhone 8’s retain the Retina HD Display found in the 7’s, but the 8 has something called “True Tone technology,” allowing for automatic screen adjustments based on the surrounding ambient light. Additionally, the 8 being a newer model will have more shelf-life with the ios upgrades and better trade-in value in 3-4 years.

So why not the iPhone X?

No doubt the “X” is a great looking phone with its edge to edge display right up until the silly cut out at the top to accommodate the selfy-lense that may infringe on videos etc. unless you cast some geek magic spell to resize it. It may surprise you to find out that the iPhone X and the 8 have exactly the same processor, in essence for us non-geeks they are the same phone. Yes, the iPhone X can recognize your face and unlock itself for its master, but your finger-print even on the 6 will beat it every time.

I don’t play games, I keep my pictures and video in the cloud or on an iMac, and I don’t download movies, so I opted for the 64GB over the 128 only because I used less than 30GB on my 6S. A 4K video takes a lot of space so it may be something I will regret, but then that’s what my iMac is for if not the cloud. If you like a lot of video on your device, especially if you plan on shooting it in 4K, then go for the larger size, or you will run out of room fast.

The iPhone 8 Plus is a big phone, no doubt about that. Making it bigger still I encased mine in an “Otter Box Defender” a case with a lifetime warranty that keeps the phone in a pristine like-new condition. If you have slippery fingers, you might want to remember to accommodate wireless charging this phone is made of glass, yes glass on the back, not just the screen so for someone like me who might drop his phone occasionally the case, with the extra thickness is worth it. If you hold your phone a lot to talk or like to stick it in a back pocket, this case may not be for you, not a problem for me since I am generally a hands-free” user. My iPhone links to my cars, and I’m often using headphones, like the  Bose QC35 II,  a review for another time.  It’s important to note that since the 7 there is no headphone jack, although a lightning connector adapter comes in the box, so don’t worry you can still plug in your favorite headphones.

Overall I like my new 8Plus, it loads faster and is nice to read on, not quite like an iPad but a lot better than my 6S. The retina display is clear, sharp and easy on the eyes. The Camera is a big improvement with the more powerful zoom and a zoom function easier to use.

That’s it, I told you this was a non-geek review. I have reached the limits of my technical knowledge, at least to the point where I want to write about it to complete strangers. If you want a clean comparison of the models available from apple Forbes has a really good article you can check out here.