iPhone X has face ID, no home button; iPhone 8 wireless charging

Sep 13 , 2017

The Apple iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8. The new phones features include a new glass and aluminium design, a Retina HD display, A11 Bionic Chip, new single and dual cameras with support for portrait lighting and wireless charging. Photo: EPA

iPhone ‘10’ will hit in November with a US$999 price tag

Apple on Tuesday unveiled a number of new phones, including its most expensive one yet, as well as new versions of its Apple Watch and its streaming TV device. Rumours about new features leading up to the launch proved largely true.

Here’s a rundown of the announcements:

IPHONE X

Apple is releasing a super-premium iPhone with a super-premium price tag, starting at US$999. The new iPhone X — pronounced like the number 10 — will have a screen with higher resolution.

It will also lose a distinct home button to make more room for the 5.8-inch display. That’s slightly more than the Plus model’s 5.5 inches, though the phone’s size is closer to the regular iPhone model.

The features are similar to what Samsung offers.

The new design will enable new ways to interact with the phone. Instead of pressing the button to get the homepage, you swipe up instead.

Apple is also offering the ability to unlock the phone with facial recognition rather than a fingerprint or passcode. Though some Android phones offer this, Apple is adding sensors to improve performance and says it worked with mask designers during testing to improve security. An executive initially failed to unlock the phone this way in a demo Tuesday, though.

The new phone, which is coming November 3, will also permit animated emojis that mirror your facial movements and promises two more hours of battery life than what’s in the current iPhone 7.

Such an iPhone has been widely anticipated for the iPhone’s 10th anniversary and comes just weeks after Samsung unveiled its own super-premium phone, the US$930-and-up Galaxy Note 8.

Associated Press