Serious questions are being raised about the new Apple iPhone 8 offering with some saying it’s more an upgrade than a brand-new phone oozing new technology.

Tim Cook Apple CEO Said “It’s truly amazing how much iPhone impacts the world each and every day. Our intention with iPhone has always been to create something so powerful, so immersive and so magical, that the hardware virtually disappears.”

So far, the changes to iPhone 8 are what you’d expect from an annual smartphone upgrade. Stronger glass. Improved speakers. An A11 “bionic” chip.

Glass on the front and back. Silver, space grey, and gold. “The design is all new” claims Cook, some said “Oh really”.

“The first iPhone forever changed how we interact with technology by introducing multitouch.” said Cook.

The show was then handed over to Tim Schiller.

He said that the new device will have custom aluminium alloy, glass and a seven-layer colour process, internal steel and copper structure.

“The glass is the most durable ever in a smartphone” The same was said at the HTC 11 launch and the Samsung Note launch.

You get “New displays, with True Tone that adapts colour and temperature to ambient light”.

There are “new stereo speakers that are 25 percent louder than iPhone 7. “Deeper bass” claims Shiller.

We have still not seen any apple breakthrough with their iPhone 8.

Tim pulls the “one more thing” card. This isn’t as much of a surprise as the iPod was, but it’s going to be quite big.

Cook says it’ll “set the path of technology for the next decade”. We’ll see. It’s called the iPhone X. And it’s pronounced iPhone Ten.

Schiller’s not done yet, and he returns to announce the biggest change coming to the iPhone 8: wireless charging something that both LG and Samsung have had for more than two years, the big winner out of this deal appears to be Belkin.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will now support the Qi wireless charging standard – that’s the one which is built into a lot of IKEA furniture. You’ll soon be able to charge your phone by just leaving it on your bedside table.

the iPhone 8 looks a lot like the iPhone 7, but it’s now all-glass, and it comes in three colours (silver, grey and rose gold).

There are some new features in this phone, including the True Tone tech carried over from the iPad.

The camera itself gets a new sensor and new colour filter on the normal 8, while the 8 Plus gets two new sensors for its two new cameras, and the telephoto lens gets better in low light.

the 8 Plus can now use the two cameras to build a depth map of a portrait photo, and artificially alter the lighting of the images.

Schiller also calls the iPhone the first phone “designed for Augmented Reality” I think someone needs to remind him about Google’s Project Tango.

Games developer Alti Mar, from Directive Games, arrives to show a multiplayer AR tower defence game. I’m bored already.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are upgrades to Apple’s current iPhone 7 and 7 Plus range, updating some of the main features found on Apple’s current products.

Initially, most pundits thought the iPhone 8 would be Apple’s main new phone – however it instead released three smartphones as part of the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are similar in appearance to the current iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

The smaller version has a 4.7-inch screen, while the larger phone has a 5.5-inch screen and a dual camera lens on the back.

The processor is the A11 Bionic, “the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone,” Apple says.

“The new iPhone will have the most durable glass ever in a smartphone,” says Schiller.

Both models will have a HD retina display and feature a 12MP camera.

The iPhone 8 will be available in silver, space grey and a new blush gold colour.

Wireless charging, a big win for Belkin

Like the iPhone X, the two-new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus phones will come with wireless charging capabilities.

This means the phone can be charged by simply placing it on a power pad. It is the first time the technology has come to the iPhone range.

“This is a simple thing. We do it every day. We use them every day and charge every night,” said Schiller.

“Words can’t describe how much nicer it is to never plug in a cable again.”

iOS 11

The new iPhones will come with Apple’s new operating system iOS 11. iOS 11 includes hundreds of new features like a redesigned control centre, better multitasking, improvements to the camera, peer-to-peer Apple Pay and new safety features.

Dual camera

The iPhone 8 Plus will have a 12MP dual-lens camera, like the one featured on the iPhone 7 Plus released last year.

It features a larger and faster sensor, a new colour filter and deeper pixels.

Video

Apple claims the new camera delivers “the highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone” with better video stabilisation and 4K video up to 60fps.

While the demise of the home button and Touch ID on the iPhone X has been in the news, the iPhone 8 will maintain the button and Touch ID. It won’t, however, have facial recognition.

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus is cheaper than the new iPhone X 10 and on sale sooner, and will be available in space grey, silver and gold. Again, there will be both 64GB and 256GB models. The 64GB models start at $1079 for iPhone 8 and $1229 for iPhone 8 Plus. Preorder begin this Friday, September 15, with the phone going on sale the following Friday, September 22.