Early Adopters of iPhone 8 Impressed With Glass-Backed Design and True Tone Display

As customers around the world begin to receive their new iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus today, some early adopters have turned to the MacRumors forums to share their first impressions of Apple's latest smartphones.

Many of the reviews complimented each device's new glass-backed design, which has drawn some comparisons to the iPhone 4.

• "Picked up my iPhone 8 Plus from Summit Mall in Akron, Ohio this morning," said MacRumors reader John. "Coming from the iPhone 7 Plus, I wasn't expecting a huge surprise, but I have to say the glass back is a thing of beautiful. Love the naked feel in my hand of the iPhone 8 Plus."

• "I really appreciate the glass back, as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 were just way too slippery, which made it impossible to use them without a case," said MacRumors forum member borgeindergaard, who said he purchased a space gray iPhone 8 Plus. "I can comfortably use the 8 Plus without a case!"

• "I am impressed," said MacRumors forum member cleebrown93, who said he purchased a gold iPhone 8 Plus. "I am happy with it. Camera is for sure improved. Speakers are clearer and louder. Glass back is a welcome change back from the iPhone 4. True Tone display works great. It is more of an iPhone 7s, but I still think it was worth it for those not interested in the iPhone X."

• "Upgraded from the iPhone 7," said MacRumors forum member ApplePersonFreak. "Love the glass back, and it's so zippy. For what I use my phone for, it works for me and is a great upgrade. Can't wait to use wireless charging eventually."

A few forum members are concerned the glass on their iPhone 8 isn't properly aligned. With millions of iPhones coming off the production line, it's common for a few to have manufacturing defects, but based on the pictures shared, it's hard to see much of any problem being described.

• "Love the glass back, but my phone's glass on the back is not seamless," said MacRumors reader Christian Terra. "The bottom right side feels sharp and raised compared to the rest of the back. I will probably take it to get replaced. I don't want issues with waterproofing or just placing my finger on a sharp edge, as I tend to go caseless."

• "Just had my iPhone 8 Plus delivered and I'm happy for the most part," said MacRumors forum member Macs4u. "Only issue I have is that if you look at the phone, the left top seems to have a little more gap between the glass and the aluminium than the right top. I don't know if that would decrease its waterproofness?"

MacRumors forum member Alexander.Of.Oz shared a few beautiful photos he shot with his iPhone 8 Plus—the first with the stock Camera app and the second with third-party app PureShot—but he did note some shortcomings.

I took the first photo using the built-in Camera app with Portrait mode turned on and set to natural, then exported the image as a JPEG. I made the built-in camera expose for the highlights on the iris's pistil, where all the white and yellow is, and made it lock the exposure for that as I took the shot. As can be seen, it didn't cope very well with the highlights presented here—there's very little detail there and in other sections of the flower with whites present.

I took the second image using the app called PureShot, which allows manual control of the camera. I used spot metering on the whites, selected where I wanted the focus to be, underexposed by a stop, and exported the image as a RAW file. PureShot does not have the portrait mode background blurring—the background here is what the lens actually sees. There's a lot more detail to this one, both in the darker and lighter regions, which gives a good indication of what the camera is actually capable of.

Many early adopters were also impressed with the new True Tone display on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

With True Tone, which debuted on iPad Pro, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus displays automatically adapt their color and intensity to match the color temperature of the light in the surrounding environment.

If you are standing in a dimly lit room with incandescent light bulbs, for example, the display would appear warmer and yellower. If you are standing outside on a cloudy day, the display would appear cooler and bluer.

• "True tone works as advertised and is a welcomed feature," said MacRumors forum member gmillz22.

• "Man, did I miss this on my iPhone 7," which doesn't have a True Tone display, said MacRumors forum member gui0312. "Having the 10.5-inch iPad Pro with True Tone was awesome, and now on the iPhone, it just completes the package. At least for me, this little thing makes a nice difference among others."

• "Got my space gray iPhone 8 Plus this morning," said MacRumors reader Keenan. "Really love it over the iPhone 7 Plus. The screen with True Tone is great and I love the glass back. The extra weight feels better in the hand. The pictures from the camera also seem a lot brighter than the iPhone 7 Plus."

• "So I upgraded from an iPhone 6s Plus to an iPhone 8 Plus," said MacRumors forum member Creep89. "I love the True Tone display. The only thing missing is the higher frame rate like on my iPad Pro."

I really love my iPhone 8 Silver 64GB. Battery life is amazing. Around 8 to 10% of battery loss in an hour of browsing, watching YouTube videos and taking pictures with brightness set at 50%. It's blazing fast, loud speakers which provide quality sound, great camera also in low light and the build quality is very good too. The glass back is grippy and it seems like it's made of a solid kind of glass too. Apple did a great job with this phone!

Not everyone was impressed with every aspect, or felt it is worth upgrading to, the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus.

• "I got my iPhone 8 Plus this morning and I am moving from an iPhone 7 Plus," said MacRumors forum member earthdog. "Honestly, I am already struggling to find a good reason to keep it. The differences are so slight. I am going to use it over the weekend to see if I can justify the move. I really want to love it, but right now I just am not impressed."

Overall, however, those who aren't waiting for the iPhone X are mostly impressed with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Share your thoughts in our first impressions discussion topic on the MacRumors forums.