Why the iPhone 8 is so boring

Should you get the iPhone 8? Depends: Are you easily bored? Because the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are definitely the ho-hum iPhones this year.

Although Apple would never say it, the iPhone 8's improvements over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are mostly incremental, with wireless charging and some new camera tricks (including Portrait Lighting) being the highlights. The real star is the iPhone X, which isn't coming for another month.

That's the consensus from most reviewers, too. It's not that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are bad phones — far from it, they're some of the best-performing smartphones you can buy — it's just that Apple spoiled its own launch party by also announcing the iPhone X, which has demonstrably major upgrades, like an edge-to-edge screen and an advanced front-facing camera module.

On this week's MashTalk, Time's Lisa Eadicicco joins us to compare notes with MashableChief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff and Senior Tech Correspondent Ray Wong, all of whom have tried out the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus before they went on sale. Not only does the panel dive deep into the (few) new features of the two iPhones making their debut, it also answers the question: If the iPhone X is the true upgrade, why do these phones even exist?

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