iPhone X release date, specs and price: Face ID will support only one face per iPhone
THE LONG AWAITED iPhone X is official, with the firm unveiling the 10th-anniversary device at its much-hyped Apple Event on Tuesday.
The iPhone X (pronounced iPhone 10) is the company’s first smartphone to feature a full-screen display, as it sets its sights on the likes of the Galaxy Note 8. There’s also an all-new ‘Super Retina’ resolution, a reinforced glass design and support for wireless charging, with the iPhone X arriving with support for the Qi charging standard.
See also: iPhone 8 release date, price and specs
We’ve rounded up everything we know about the iPhone X below, and will update this article as soon as we hear more.
Release date As expected, the iPhone X won’t be released at the same time as the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which will start shipping on 22 September.
Instead, Apple has announced that iPhone X pre-orders will begin on 27 October, with shipping to begin 3 November.
Price The iPhone X will be made available in 64GB and 256GB configurations, which will fetch £999 and £1,149 in the UK, respectively. Pricing in the US starts at $999.
Apple will also make the handset available through i ts iPhone Upgrade Program, with monthly payments starting at £56.45.
Naturally, Carphone Warehouse has been quick to announce that it’ll be stocking the three new iPhones, and pre-registration has kicked off for the iPhone X. It has also started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
EE will be selling the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and has been quick to launch a registration page for interested customers. It will also be the only UK network to offer the Apple Watch 3.
O2 will be ranging both the iPhone 8 and iPhone X when pre-orders begin on 15 September and 27 October, respectively.
UK operator Three has been quick to announced that it will offer all three new iPhones but has yet to cough on pricing details.
Vodafone has confirmed that it will offer the iPhone X, as well as both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Interested customers can register their interest here.
Virgin Mobile has confirmed that it will be selling the iPhone X, as well as Apple’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus handsets.
Specs — 5.8in Super Retina (2436×1125) OLED edge-to-edge display — New ‘all-glass’ design with IP67 certification — 143.6×70.9×7.7 mm, 179g — Wireless charging support — Apple A11 chip with Apple-designed GPU — Face ID — iOS 11 with improved Siri, P2P payments — Vertical 12MP dual cameras with OIS, 7MP front-facing camera — Support for LTE speeds up to 450Mbps — Wireless charging/fast charging support — Battery life quoted at 21 hours of talk time — 64GB/256GB storage
Latest news 15/9/17: Apple’s Face ID technology will support just one registered face per device, TechCrunch reports. This could be an issue for some that have the fingerprints of their partner, or kids, registered on their current iPhone, with devices currently supporting up to five fingerprints per device.
14/9/17: Apple has spoken out about the Face ID fail ( below) it suffered on Tuesday and has blamed the glitch on a lockout mechanism which was triggered by clumsy staff handling the device. A company spokesperson told Yahoo: «People were handling the device for [the] stage demo ahead of time and didn’t realise Face ID was trying to authenticate their face.
«After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig [Federighi], the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode.»
12/9/17: The iPhone X is official and is Apple’s first smartphone to pack an edge-to-edge screen, but unfortunately, rumours of the notch cut out at the top of the screen were also on the money.
The handset’s so-called ‘Super Retina’ OLED display measures in at 5.8 and features a 2436×1125 resolution, making it the highest resolution iPhone to date. It also features Apple’s True Tone display tech and, much like the new Apple TV, supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision content.
This screen sits inside a new ‘all-glass’ chassis, similar to that seen on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. While you’ll probably have to put it in a case to prevent shattering, Apple claims this is the most durable glass to feature on a smartphone yet.
There’s also the same A11 Bionic processor under the hood. This six-core CPU is divided into two low-performance cores and four high-performance cores, with the regular cores being 25 per cent faster than the previous A10 chip, and the high-performance cores being up to 75 per cent faster than the A10 SoC. It also comes paired with Apple’s first homegrown GPU, which offers 30 per cent more performance than the A10.
Naturally, given the phone’s all-screen front, there’s no physical home button. This means that Apple, as expected, has dumped Touch ID functionality, replacing it with ‘Face ID’ face recognition technology.
Related: The pricing of the iPhone X is a threat to the mobile industry
This is enabled by a bunch of sensors on the front of the phone, including a 7MP ‘TrueDepth’ camera, and the A11 chip’s built-in neural engine, and Apple claims that it’ll work even in dark conditions and if you change your appearance. It’s pretty secure too, according to the firm, which claims that there’s a ‘one in a million’ chance of somebody, er, spoofing your face.
Apple has also introduced a new swiping up gesture to go ‘home’ on the iPhone, which is also used for multitasking on the iPhone X. The lock button on the side of the handset can now be used to fire up Siri.
As expected, on the rear of the iPhone sits a vertically-aligned 12MP dual camera, comprising of dual telephoto and wide-angle lenses. There’s also a new Portrait Lighting mode for taking selfies, and optical image stablisation built-in.
Wireless charging is included, with the iPhone X supporting the same Qi wireless charging standard as the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which means customers will be able to use third-party charging accessories. Apple gave a sneak peak at, naturally, its own AirPower wireless charging mat coming next year, which will be coming next year.
There’s also been a boost to battery life, with Apple claiming two hours more battery life than the iPhone 7 before it.
Oh, yeah, and there’s Animoji. What a time to be alive.
The iPhone X, or 10, whatever, will be available in Space Grey and Silver.
Older news and rumours 12/8/17: KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo has ‘confirmed’, via 9to5Mac, that the so-called iPhone X, along with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, will support wireless inductive charging standards, which means that customers will be able to use third-party charges to take advantage of the feature. She also notes that Apple’s own wireless charging accessory won’t be ready at launch.
EE has added weight to this rumour, having today launched a new wireless charging bundle that allows customers to add a Qi charger to their plan.
12/8/17: Apple has added a new mail-in option to its iPhone Upgrade Program for US punters. Spotted by MacRumours, the new option will enable those upgrading to an iPhone 8 to mail their old smartphone to Apple using the firm’s Trade-in Kit, negating the need to visit a physical Apple Store.
11/9/17: In what some are calling one of the «biggest leaks of all time, Apple has leaked the Golden Master (GM) version of iOS 11. The information was made available by an Apple employee, according to blogger John Gruber.
The leak, according to 9to5Mac, reveals that the firm’s new flagship smartphone will arrive as the ‘iPhone X’ and will launch alongside the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Besides the name of Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone, the iOS 11 leak also confirms that facial recognition, dubbed ‘Face ID’, support is coming ( below), which is expected to replace the Touch ID on the so-called iPhone X.
Other new features outed in the leak include, er, animated emoji (or ‘Animoji’) support, a Portrait Lighting mode for taking better selfies, True Tone Display and a rejigged lock button that will allow users to interact with Apple Pay and Siri in the absence of a physical home button. References to new Apple AirPods and a LTE-equipped Apple Watch have also cropped up in this mammoth leak.
8/9/17: The Wall Street Journal ( paywalled) reports that «glitches» in the manufacturing of the iPhone 8 could lead to supply shortages and delays in shipping following the smartphone’s unveiling next week. The production glitches reportedly delayed the manufacturing process by about a month, sources ‘familiar with the matter’ told the newspaper.
7/9/17: German website Macerkopf claims that pre-orders iPhone 8 pre-orders will kick off on 15 September, adding weight to a previous leak courtesy of Evleaks. According to earlier rumours, the handset will arrive on shelves a week later on 22 September.
6/9/17: A shaky video, via Reddit, allegedly shows off a functional iPhone 8 just days before its official unveiling. The dark, blurry clip doesn’t give much away, but does appear to ‘confirm’ that the handset will sport a bezel-less display with an (ugly) notch cut out at the top of the screen. Some are speculating that the video is a fake, and, er, fingers crossed.
5/9/17: Prolific tipster Benjamin Geskin has tweeted alleged pricing details for the iPhone 8. He claims that the entry-level 64GB model will fetch $999 (around £775), while 256GB and 512GB variants will fetch $1,099 (£850) and $1,119 (£930), respectively.
