Apple today held its annual September iPhone-centric event, and this year's keynote saw the debut of some of the most impressive devices we've seen from the company in years.
It took Apple two hours to introduce the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3 and 4K Apple TV, but we've recapped the entire event in just over five minutes for those of you who would like to get a quick overview of all the announcements.
The $999 iPhone X was the main event at today's keynote, with the device featuring the most advanced technology ever available in an iPhone. It has an entirely revamped design with an edge-to-edge display and a glass body, plus it features new facial recognition capabilities that replace Touch ID, an A11 Bionic chip, inductive wireless charging, and dozens of other improvements.
Its companion devices, the iPhone 8 ($699) and the iPhone 8 Plus ($799) are also impressive. Though these two iPhones are similar in design to the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus and lack facial recognition, they too feature glass bodies that enable wireless charging and an A11 Bionic chip, among other improvements.
The Apple Watch Series 3 looks like the Apple Watch Series 2, but it features a faster processor and new LTE functionality, allowing it to operate independently of the iPhone for the first time. Pricing on the LTE Apple Watch Series 3 starts at $399, while a non-LTE version is available at prices that start at $329. A selection of new bands have also been introduced alongside the new Apple Watch.
Last but not least, Apple introduced the new 4K Apple TV, which features support for 4K HDR streaming. There's a new A10X Fusion processor in the Apple TV, but design wise, it's identical to the fourth-generation Apple TV. Pricing on the new Apple TV starts at $179.
With the exception of the iPhone X, all of Apple's new devices will be available for pre-order on Friday, September 15 ahead of a Friday, September 22 launch date. The iPhone X will launch on November 3, with pre-orders for that device available on October 27.
For a complete recap of all of our coverage today, make sure to check out our dedicated recap post, which has links to all of our articles covering new products introduced following today's event.
Top Rated Comments
Step 1: People got high expectations.
Step 2: People are underwhelmed by the keynote and complain like crazy.
Step 3: People see the device in real life for the first time. And buy it.
well iphone x with 256GB for 1.329 euro ....... hmmm let me think about that. I wait a year or two, this price is ridiculous.
you make couple videos in 4k and 64GB is full in no time.
This is pathetic I do not play this game anymore.
Taking taxes into account the UK price is about £80 more than the US price - so it is more expensive but not by as much as it first appears.
Yes, this pattern has been going on for a while, especially with some of the self-proclaimed "power users" who frequent message forums like this one.
But there's really a sense over the last few years that the new products are more incremental improvements than "amazing".
Back in the days of OS X 10.3 to 10.4 to 10.5, the changes really were exciting. I don't recall people, on the whole, finding anything underwhelming about what was announced? Other announcements after that were a big deal too.
But the track record in recent years just isn't so great. The Mac Pro cylinder was a LONG awaited "big deal" until it came out, disappointing many people initially and further disappointing even those who bought it, as time went on! The touch-bar feature on the new Macbook Pro? Again, underwhelming, even long after the Keynote tried to talk it up. If it was so innovative, why don't we even see it on a high end machine like the new iMac Pro? It feels like an Apple R&D experiment to see what users thought about it more than a real innovation Apple knew would change how we used computers.
Apple is fortunate that it has a line of products that were so good on the whole, they can sit back and do relatively small updates to them and yes, people will keep buying them. Too many millions of people are heavily invested in the whole Apple ecosystem and don't want to start over just because the latest products don't absolutely "wow" them. But the thrill is gone, to a large extent.