The launch of new iPhones is always a special event. So you can imagine our surprise when Phil Schiller actually rushed through the launches of the iPhone 8 and its elder brother, the 8 Plus, as he proceeded to what in the eyes of many was the real star of the show, the iPhone X.

Great display and sound; Superb cameras; Generally smooth operation

(Still) Expensive; Slightly buggy software; Dated and slightly bulky design

The iPhone 8 Plus should really be called the iPhone 7S Plus. Its updates don't warrant a full number bump, but they're welcome improvements that make the 8 Plus another great iPhone. Yes. For iOS users, your next best bet is the upcoming iPhone X .

Stellar performance; Great camera; fun Portrait Mode features; Wireless charging works well; Great display; Daylong battery

Expensive; Boring; dated front design; No headphone jack

The first place I took the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus was a sticky, late-summer wedding just outside of Austin. It turned out to be the perfect way to stress-test the new devices. The iPhones 8 have new cameras designed to hack it even on a drunken dance floor.

The world is going camera-first, and this is a kick-ass camera; The glass design is a big improvement; Wireless charging makes everything better

There's a lot of bezel on this phone; Next to the iPhone X, it already feels outdated; The iPhone 8 lets you do so much, but iOS 11 buries too much of it

Another year, another iPhone. That's usually the case with Apple's flagship smartphone – but this year is different. During its annual September keynote Apple actually revealed three iPhones: the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X.

A11 Bionic is a beast; Best camera we've seen on a smartphone; iOS 11 improves on everything great about iOS; Best iteration of the same design

Same design might bore some users; Glass back means it is more fragile (no matter how strong they claim it to be

Apple's latest iPhone 8 is supercharged by its new A11 Bionic chip, which does the heavy lifting for a series of major new camera features as well as making everything faster. It also packs iPad Pro's True Tone display and Fast Charging, and adds Qi wireless charging through its beautifully glossy...

New design is beautiful on the back with little changing up front; Great battery life in line with last year's iPhone 7; Speedy A11 Bionic chip enhances gaming; AR apps; New camera smarts capture better photos in low light and with better HDR; 60fps 4K recording captures impressively smooth; high...

For 2017 there's a trio of new iPhones: the small-scale iPhone 8, the larger iPhone 8 Plus, and the forthcoming iPhone X (that's "iPhone 10", if you're saying it properly). The biggest and widest of the three, the iPhone 8 Plus, is far more handset than the predicted "iPhone 7S" upgrade we and many...

Power and speed that's second-to-none; wireless charging is useful; fast charging is finally here; great cameras when used properly; attractive tweaked design

Still very large (especially width); Portrait Lighting can be hit and miss; iPhone X a hard proposition to ignore; glass design likely more prone to accidents

If you are of a mind to anthropomorphise technology, you could almost feel sorry for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. They appeared for their moment in the spotlight, all gleaming and shiny with their new glass backs and wireless charging, ready to impress the fevered audience at Apple's Californian HQ...

Wireless charging; improved camera; augmented reality; the best iPhone to date..; but there's a but

Not enough to set either handset apart from the iPhone 7; the 8s feel immediately outmoded by the iPhone X

From the front, these phones look very like last year's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The same Home button with fingerprint sensor beneath the display, the...

Fast processor; Great cameras; Superb image processing; Wireless charging; Excellent operating system; Countless apps

Design might become dated; They're not the iPhone X

More of the same from Apple – just a little better in most departments and a little more expensive, too

Great cameras; Wireless charging; Incredibly fast

Same old iPhone design; Expensive; Exceedingly heavy

Judging by the to pick up the and iPhone 8 Plus, there isn't a whole lot of hype around Apple's latest plus-sized phone. This isn't because it's a bad phone, but because Apple superseded the iPhone 8 Plus around 10 minutes after it was announced by showing off the OLED-toting, bezel-free .

Excellent; versatile camera; Great screen; Super speakers; Wireless charging is nice to have

Very heavy; Boring design; No OIS on secondary camera; Would have liked the screen to be OLED