You love your iPhone 8 Plus, right?

I mean, it's a beautiful piece of tech, and it'd be a shame if some silly, stupid case was shadowing it's impeccable beauty. What's worse than a bulky case hiding your iPhone? Not having a case on your iPhone 8 Plus at all.

The middle ground? A stunning, shiny, simple, sleek, see-through clear case that'll both protect your iPhone 8 Plus and show off its true all-glass beauty (cue Homer drooling sounds).

Here are 10 great clear cases to show off your iPhone 8 Plus' true beauty!

1. Trianium iPhone 8 Clear Case

TPU Bumper Cushion + Scratch Resistant clear design = YAAAAAAS. This case will cost you around $6 to $9.

2. RANVOO Ultra Slip iPhone 8 Plus Case

It's like a second, invisible skin — but for your iPhone 8 Plus! And only for around $10-$12!

3. Matone iPhone 8 Plus Crystal Clear soft Case

Add a li'l extra protection to your iPhone 8 Plus while still keeping it's glam on display with the Matone iPhone 8 Plus Crystal Clear soft Case! This case will cost you around $8.

(Check out those thousands of positive Amazon reviews, tho…)

4. JETech iPhone 8 Plus HD Clear case

Full protection? CHECK. Slim design? CHECK. Access to all controls? CHECK. Affordable $5 price tag? CHECK. Clear AF CHECK CHECK CHECK.

5. Spigen Ultra Hybrid iPhone 8 Case (with clear protection)

How clear is this case? Well once it's on your iPhone 8 Plus, you're going to be like "WOAH WHERE DID IT GO".

You can pick up this case for $12-$15.

6. Spigen Liquid Crystal iPhone 8 Plus

What's clearer than crystal? Liquid crystal.

Duh. (Plus it will only cost you around $9 - $11).

7. GeekZone iPhone 8 Plus Crystal Clear Case

Show off your iPhone 8 Plus' beautiful glass back while protecting it with a hard back panel TPU bumper for around $6-$8!

8. i-Blason iPhone 8 Plus clear case

While this case is clear as clear can be, the bumper surrounding it comes in clear, black, gold, blue, and rose gold colors for around $10.

9. ESR Slim Fit Clear Case

Ultra thin structure + Shock absorbtion + Clear design = YAS YAS YAAAAAS.

This case will cost you around $6-$11.

What are your top clear case picks?

Is there a clear case that we missed on our list that you're obsessed with? Let us know what your top picks are in the comments below!

Updated August 2018: We have removed the Humixx iPhone Clear case from the list because it is no longer available.

What you need to know

• Filmmaker Jennifer Zhang was stuck in lockdown with no work to do, so she created a movie using nothing other than an iPhone 8.
• The movie had zero budget but still turned out to be a compelling feature film.

Filmmaker Jenniger Zhang has already been nominated for awards left and right and she might be onto another winner with her new movie — Charon. Filmed singlehandedly using nothing more than an iPhone 8 Plus, Charon is a wild ride through lockdown for all of us, not just Zhang.

Just the synopsis is enough to whet the appetite.

That already sounds like my jam, but the trailer drives the potential home.

Zhang says that the whole project came about because she was in lockdown herself and wasn't sure what state her other projects would be in after COVID-19. She set herself a challenge to create a movie using only what she had — an iPhone — and set inside her apartment. I'd say the results speak for themselves.

Now I just need to find a way to watch this thing.

As great as this turned out, the iPhone 8 Plus camera is starting to show its age. Maybe Zhang should check out the best iPhone deals we could find and snag herself a nice iPhone 12 Pro instead.

If you were intrigued by the new iPhone SE taking on the iPhone 8 form factor but left ultimately disappointed that there was no Plus-sized version, Back Market has a deal that may be just what you're looking for.

It's offering refubished Apple iPhone 8 Plus models for just $369 right now. Considering the phone goes for $550 these days new and around $400 in refurbished conditon, this is a great deal. The models are offered in mint condition with a 1-year warranty so you'll have a like-new experience.

Apple's iPhone 8 Plus has been officially discontinued with the release of the new iPhone SE, so deals on it in brand new condition are likely to become even rarer. It features a 5.5-inch Retina HD display with a pixel resolution of 1080 x 1920 at 401 ppi. It also supports True Tone so colors will look natural in any lighting conditions. You'll get Touch ID and a home button instead of Face ID on the all-screen iPhones. That will be a pro or a con base on your perspective.

Inside, it's powered by the A11 Bionic chip, the same as in the iPhone X, with 64GB of storage. It features a 7MP front-facing camera and dual 12MP rear cameras that can take some fancy Portrait photos. The glass back also allows for convenient Qi wireless charging.

Once you've got yourself a new phone, check out our list of the Best iPhone 8 Plus cases and get yourself some protection to keep it in mint condition.

The phones sold by Back Market are also unlocked so you can use your new iPhone 8 Plus with any GSM or CDMA carrier of your choosing. We reviewed Back Market to get a better look at the quality of devices supplied and had a very positive experience.

If you were intrigued by the new iPhone SE taking on the iPhone 8 form factor but left ultimately disappointed that there was no Plus-sized version, Visible has a deal that may be just what you're looking for.

It's offering Apple's iPhone 8 Plus for just $360 right now. Considering the phone goes for $550 these days and we've seen refurb prices around $400, this is a stellar deal. Even better, if you pre-pay for two months of service, you'll score a $100 Mastercard gift card in the process making this an even better value.

Apple's iPhone 8 Plus has been officially discontinued with the release of the new iPhone SE, so deals on it in brand new condition are likely to become even rarer. It features a 5.5-inch Retina HD display with a pixel resolution of 1080 x 1920 at 401 ppi. It also supports True Tone so colors will look natural in any lighting conditions. You'll get Touch ID and a home button instead of Face ID on the all-screen iPhones. That will be a pro or a con base on your perspective.

Inside, it's powered by the A11 Bionic chip, the same as in the iPhone X, with 64GB of storage. It features a 7MP front-facing camera and dual 12MP rear cameras that can take some fancy Portrait photos. The glass back also allows for convenient Qi wireless charging.

Phones sold by Visible are unlocked so you can use your new iPhone 8 Plus with Visible or any other carrier. Visible itself runs on Verizon's network and we rated it highly in our review thanks to its unlimited data and not requiring a long-term commitment.

The iPhone 8 Plus is just a better version of the iPhone 7 Plus. The processor is upgraded, the cameras got a slight upgrade, the water-resistance rating got a bump, and it has a glass back, meaning it can charge wirelessly. The good news? The iPhone 8 Plus still has Touch ID and the old iPhone form factor, so if you're not a fan of the notch or don't want Face ID, you don't have to get it.

Although its older, the snappy responsiveness that the A11 Bionic chip gives you on the iPhone 8 Plus still performs well today. Plus, it really is a mammoth of a phone. It's big in your pocket, big in your hand, but the big screen makes it a great device to game and watch movies.

The iPhone XR features quite a few upgrades over the iPhone 8 Plus, including the new design, a bigger display, Face ID, and dual-SIM support, but still has some of the same features like wireless charging and an LCD display.

While the iPhone XR won't feel as big or bulky in your hand as the iPhone 8 Plus, it does have a larger screen, clocking in at 6.1-inches compared to the 5.5-inches of the iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone XR does only have a single rear-facing 12 MP camera, but thanks to the software are can still take portrait mode photos and use Smart HDR — you won't even miss that second lens.

The iPhone XR is a great option for those who don't mind spending a little more to get a more updated and modern looking device.

If money isn't your main concern and you want a massive phone, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is for you. It's just about the same dimensions as the iPhone 8 Plus, but because of the near-bezeless design, the screen is a gigantic 6.5-inches.

If you thought the two camera array on the iPhone 8 Plus was good, the iPhone 11 Pro Max has three cameras, giving you more options when you go shooting. It has the same 12MP wide-angle and telephoto lens you're used to, but with the addition of an ultra-wide-angle, meaning you can get some truly impressive landscape photos.

A bonus of getting Apple's newest phone is you know that it will be supported with updated for years to come, so you won't have to worry about maybe needed an upgrade in two years if you don't want to.

At just over two-and-a-half years old, the iPhone 8 Plus is hardly a flagship anymore. But it's still a very capable phone for most people. It's rocking Apple's A11 Bionic system-on-a-chip, the same processor that was on the iPhone X, and thus this phone has many of the same capabilities as that one, just with a Home button and Touch ID instead of Face ID.

In fact, the inclusion of Touch ID might just be a selling point of the phone. While plenty of people have moved to phones with Touch ID and, consequently, without a Home button, there are still a lot of people out there who want both. The Home button is a nice, reliable physical place that you use to get back to your Home screen, while some are still wary of Face ID while trusting Touch ID.

The iPhone 8 Plus is also less expensive than the iPhone 11, but still has two cameras on the back (albeit, there's no ultra-wide). It's still capable of shooting photos in Portrait Mode and using Portrait Lighting effects to edit them.

You also get a fairly large display. The screen is an inch smaller than the one the similarly-sized iPhone 11 Pro Max, but the iPhone 8 Plus is also half the price. At 5.5 inches, the iPhone 8 Plus display will be big enough for your on-the-go content viewing.

Apple has recently released a new, low-cost iPhone, an updated iPhone SE. Recent reports indicate that it might also be set to unveil an iPhone SE Plus at some point soon-ish (they were reportedly due for a simultaneous announcement, but recent events have led to a delay for the large phone).

Where the new iPhone SE uses the same chassis as the iPhone 8, the iPhone SE Plus will reportedly will do the same for the iPhone 8 Plus. You can expect similar internals on both phones, primarily the same A13 processor found in the iPhone 11, and it's likely we'll see a dual camera system similar to the one on the iPhone 8 Plus, but with better image signal processing for more advanced computational photography.

The new iPhone SE is rumored to cost the same as the old one, $399. Given that Apple tends to charge a $100 premium to go up a size class, it wouldn't be surprising to see an iPhone SE Plus come in at $499, down $50 from the current price of the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone 8, the end of the original design era, at the end of 2019. If you'd bought one when it launched two years ago and were asking me if you were still good to keep going with it today, and for another year or two, I'd say sure.

With Apple's typical build quality, the headroom designed into its A11 Bionic chipset, and the constant software updates it's both gotten and will keep getting for some time to come, I'd say absolutely.

But buying an iPhone 8 new, now, and in the age of iPhone 11? But starting at $449?

iPhone 8 in 2019 review: Design

The iPhone 8 still comes in two sizes, regular and Plus, with a 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch LCD Retina display. And it still looks every bit like an iPhone, of course. Apple has this habit of making new phones look like old phones. Even when they rebuild the phones at the atomic level, developing whole new formulations of existing materials, like they did from iPhone 6 to iPhone 6s, or when the switch those materials completely, like going from aluminum to glass for the iPhone 8. They don't just keep pouring new batter into old molds, they make all new molds as well.

Apple just really, really believes that their designs are the best possible designs that they're currently capable of for that type of device meant to do those types of jobs. And they're not going to change for whim or whimsey or for simple changes sake. They're only going to change when they can make it meaningfully better.

Which is what they did the exact same year with the iPhone X.

But here's the thing. We're humans, and as much as we hate boredom we also hate change. Because human. So, for everyone who may have thought the iPhone X was just too much change, Apple also made the iPhone 8, which was more and better of the same.

More properly, the ultimate version of the same: The last iPhone in the lineup to include the original, iconic, forehead and chin design, with the Home button square — circle! — in the middle of chin.

No, you don't navigate this one with those new-fangled iPhone X-style gestures. You click the Home button to go home. You double click it to multitask. You hold it to summon Siri. And you rest your finger on it to unlock with Touch ID. No face needed.

The enhanced ion-exchange glass, same as on the iPhone X, was state-of-the-art at its time. Part of the ongoing close collaboration between Apple and Corning that allows iPhones early and custom access to whatever eventually becomes the next generic version of Gorilla Glass.

It's not as strong as the glass in the current iPhones 11, and it's slippery, like the 11 and unlike the textured 11 Pro. Regardless, glass is still glass, so all it can ever do is give you better odds of surviving an unintentional scratch or drop.

If you share my — and the original Star Wars movie's — love for the look of used technology, that's one thing. If you want to keep it mint, you'll need to case and screen protector it out.

The glass also has a seven-layer coloring process for both opacity and depth, in silver, space gray, and the 2017 version of coppery gold. Sadly, my favorite, the product RED version, is no longer available new.

The two layers of glass, front and back, and bound along the sides by color-matched 7000 series and "aerospace" grade. To prevent attenuation between the different antenna systems, there are still breaks in the bands. Those are color-matched as well.

They're also microscopically sealed to protect against liquid and particle ingress. It's IP67, and rated for up to 1m of water for up to 30 minutes, same as the iPhone 7. Not 2m like the iPhone 11 or 4 meters like the iPhone 11 Pro.

The speakers are 25% louder than the iPhone 7, though nowhere nearly as capable as the wide stereo of iPhone XS or spatial audio of the iPhone 11. Still, they're good enough for listening to podcasts or making speakerphone calls. Not too Mikey, not too Vader.

The display is Apple's Retina. Not Super Retina like the OLED iPhone X and later, or even Liquid Retina, like the edge-to-edge iPhone XR and later. Just good old Retina.

The iPhone 8 has a 1334-by-750-pixel resolution IPS LCD display at 326 ppi, and the iPhone 8 Plus has a 1792-by-828-pixel resolution at 326 ppi.

Both are DCI-P3 wide color gamut, which means richer reds, deeper magentas, and more vibrant greens. And they still look great, almost as good as the Liquid Retina… just bracketed by bezels.

It's got the same True Tone ambient color temperature matching as every modern iPhone, so whites look paper white, not yellowish or blueish white, and the same 1400:1 contrast ration and 625 nit max brightness of the iPhone 11, just nowhere near the 2,000,000:1 and 800 nit sustained, 1200 nit peak of the iPhone 11 Pro.

So, while even the iPhone 8 Plus can't match the iPhone XR or iPhone 11's 6.1 inch Super Retina display in physical size or screen to bezel ration, they still go blow for blow when it comes to quality, and the iPhone 8 Plus even beats them on total pixel density — 401 poi vs. 326 ppi for the regular 8, XR, and 11 — if that's something that really matters to you.

iPhone 8 in 2019 review: Camera System

The iPhone 8 has a single 12mp f/1.8, optically stabilized, wide-angle rear camera system, similar to the iPhone XR, albeit without the focus-pixel and segmentation mask generated Portrait Mode, or any of the Smart HDR features that came with more recent versions of the A-series Bionic chipsets.

The iPhone 8 Plus has a dual-camera system, adding a 12mp f/2.8, telephoto lens to the mix. So, yeah, the iPhone 8 Plus has a wide-angle and telephoto, like the iPhone X and XS had, an unlike the iPhone 11 has, because Apple went with wide and ultra-wide there instead.

The dual camera does allow for portrait mode and Portrait Lighting, though. So, you can still get your bokeh and stage effects on.

It was a really good camera for its time, with deeper pixels to reduce cross-talk, and a then-new color filter, for wide dynamic range, truer tones, and less noise.

Thanks to the A11 Bionic's image signal processor, it handles all the auto-white balance, auto-focus, and auto-exposure you'd expect, and analyzes the scene for lighting, people, motion, sky, fabric, other textures, and other elements and continuously optimizes for capture.

Again, it's not as good as the current-generation A13 Bionic and Smart HDR system, and if photography really matters to you, whether it's documenting your travel or preserving the memories of the friends, family, and pets you love, design aside, this is the biggest difference you'll experience between a 2017 and 2019 iPhone, especially as we move in 2020 and beyond.

That's especially true for low light photography. Apple has just introduced Night Mode for the first time on the iPhones 11, and it's just the beginning of the next leap forward in computational photography. Whereas, the iPhone 8 is pretty much the end of the first leap.

Don't get be wrong, it's no slouch, it just doesn't compare to the latest and the greatest.

The same applies to video. The iPhone 8 can record 4K at 60 FPS. And it can maintain that capture rate for extended periods of time without breaking a sweat. It just can't do 4K at 60 FPS with extended dynamic range the way the iPhones 11 can, if that matters to you.

Likewise, it can't record in stereo audio like the iPhone XS, XR, and 11 can do.

When it comes to the front-facing camera, the differences are even more pronounced. And that's due entirely to the absence of the TrueDepth camera system that debuted on the iPhone X.

Never mind 12mp, 4K 60fps or 120fps slowfies, there's wide angle, and no portrait mode, no Animoji or Memoji, and no anything that requires depth data, because there's no depth data.

If you're the kind of person who's already shaking your fist at the very idea of augmented reality on a camera system, then what there is on the iPhone 8 — 7mp, f/2.2, wide gamut — will suit you just fine.

iPhone 8 in 2019 review: Power and performance

The A11 Bionic was Apple's first attempt at integrating neural engine functionality into their system-on-a-chip, or SoC. Built off the same but better performance.EFFICIENCY fusion design as the A7, it added the ability to support features like Face ID… which didn't matter so much for the iPhone 8.

More recent chips, like the A12 in the iPhone XS and XR, have made the neural engine right and proper with 8 cores, and the A13 in the iPhones 11 has pushed machine learning out, throughout the CPU and GPU as well.

The biggest improvement the A11 had over the A10, though, aside from just a speed increase, was that instead of four cores it has six, two high-performance and four high-efficiency. Instead of being locked in pairs, all six cores can be addressed at the same time for some impressively massive parallelism. And, it had Apple's first, custom, three core graphics processor. All of which, in typical Apple fashion, let A11 out-performed a lot of even desktop Intel silicon at the time, never mind Qualcomm's phone stuff.

It also had Apple's custom performance controller, which is part of what lets Apple provide faster performance and better efficiency. In other words, be more powerful with less power draw.

As far as that relates to battery life, Apple rates the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus as getting roughly the same amount of battery life at the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

That's about an hour and a half less on the Plus than on the iPhone XR and two and a half hours less than on the standard iPhone 11.

Up to 13 hours of video and 40 hours of audio on the iPhone 8, and 14 hours of video and 60 hours of audio on the iPhone 8 Plus, versus 16 hours and 65 hours, and 17 hours and 65 hours respectively for the XR and 11.

The 11 Pro and 11 Pro max, meanwhile, are rated for 18 and 20 hours of video and 65 and 80 hours of audio respectively.

That's still enough to get many people through the day, and in the era of inductive and fast charging, easily through the day.

The iPhone 8 has the same inductive charging capabilities as any of the newer iPhones — up to 7.5 watts on any Qi-compatible charging pad or surface.

Also, the same wired potential. Yes, it comes with the rinky-dinky 5 watt Lightning to USB-A cable and adapter in the box, like the iPhone 11 does to this day, but if pony up the extra $20 for a USB-C to Lightning cable, and $30 for an 18 watt adapter — or just use a USB-C MacBook brick if you have one – and you fast charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes.

Which, legit, still isn't as fast as some other phones, but it's a good balance between speed and not generating so much heat as to thrash the long term health of your battery.

If the longest battery life possible is important to you, and you don't mind the size, though, you should go with the iPhone 8 Plus.

iPhone 8 in 2019: iOS 13 and Ecosystem

Even though the iPhone 8 debuted in 2017, Apple just updated it to iOS 13 day and date with the brand-new iPhone 11. That's one of the biggest advantages of Apple's approach: Build massively over-powered chipsets, put them in really well-manufactured phones, and then update them with new software and services for 4-5 years.

The iPhone 6s, which debuted in 2015 with iOS 9, just got iOS 13 in 2019, so the iPhone 8, which debuted in 2017 with iOS 11, and just got iOS 13, should still get iOS 14 next year, iOS 15 the year after that, and maybe more.

And can use iMessage, FaceTime, Apple Pay, Apple Cash and Apple Card in the US, Apple Music and Apple Arcade, as well as Apple TV+ as of November 2019.

And all the bazillion iPhone apps in the App Store, with exception of any features that might require a TrueDepth camera on the front or other, newer hardware like the U1 positioning chip, eventually.

Likewise, the iPhone 8 is compatible with Apple Watch and AirPods, should you want to get your health and near-field audio on.

That's the other big advantage to Apple approach: Make an ecosystem and keep it as compatible as possible and the benefits to one product become the force-multiplied benefits to every product.

Up to and including things like Today at Apple, which offers free classes on photography, video, music, design, and development at every Apple Retail location.

If you're reviewing this stuff fairly and accurately, all of those value adds simply have to be factored into the value proposition of the device.

How much does it cost and how much does it deliver for that price?

iPhone 8 in 2019: Pricing and conclusion

Phones, tablets, watches, everything has been getting more and more expensive over the last few years as everything from manufacturing to components to new technologies like TrueDepth cameras ratchet up the costs.

But, at the same time, as Apple's been pushing price points at the top, they've started doing something interesting at the bottom as well.

It really started with the 9.7-inch iPad — now 10.2-inch — hitting $329 dollars, which I and many others called the best damn deal in tech. Now, the Apple Watch Series 3 has just been re-introduced at $199, which may just be the co-best deal?

There are rumors that Apple might do something iPad-like with a new iPhone SE next year. But, for now, there just isn't an equivalent.

The closet you can get is the iPhone 8. Everything that, while classic, was brand new in 2017, starting at $699 for the regular and $799 for the Plus, are being re-introduced for 2019, starting at $449 for the regular and $549 for the plus.

That's for 64GB. 128 GB will run you an extra $50, $499 and $599 respectively.

Now, I'm not going to say that's another of the best deals in tech. Not even close.

If you aren't in a rush, maybe wait and see what early 2020 brings. Otherwise, starting at just $599 — just $150 more — you can get an iPhone XR, which offers more colors, a more recent chipset, a better camera, Face ID, and an edge-to-edge display. If installment plans are an option for you, the difference between an iPhone 8 and an iPhone 11 can come down to a burger or latte or two a month.

You can also sometimes get good, even great deals on second-hand iPhones if you know how to avoid the potential risks.

But, if you absolutely don't want to spend even a dime more and you want to buy new, or you absolutely see the classic design as a positive and not a negative, and they can pry the Home button and Touch ID from your cold dead digits, then the iPhone 8 still offers some of the advantages of a modern iPhone and for much less than any new iPhone.

Sure, you can get current gen phones with decent to outstanding specs for the same price, maybe even a little less. But they don't run iOS, the components aren't always as consistently good or feature sets as complete, consistent, or considerate to humans, and they don't come with the Apple ecosystem, which does add significant value well above and beyond the cost. Especially if you've already invested in it.

So, If you love everything about your existing iPhone 4 or 5, 6 or 7, or if you just want to get off your last, old, free phone and get onto iOS, with a quality built, fairly feature complete iPhone that's see you through the next few years, you can get in on the iPhone or iPhone 8, and starting at $250 less than the current iPhone 11 — $449.

Since the very first iPhone launched, Apple has always made its hardware hard to get into and repair yourself, and the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are no different.

The glass back on the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus is held to the frame and the internal hardware with a strong epoxy, meaning it's essentially fused with the inside of the phone. It's not a simple matter of prying the glass back off the phone; you have to dissolve the epoxy either using extreme heat or extreme cold.

While you could potentially find a third-party repair shop willing to do fix the glass back, there's no guarantee that a repair shop will be able to do it safely, and even if they do, it will void any warranty (both standard and AppleCare+) if you have it.

Apple technicians have the proper tools, knowledge, and skills to fix your phone. Plus, you won't void any warranties.

If you have AppleCare+, repairing the back glass on the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus will cost you only $29; however, it gets significantly more expensive with AppleCare+. If you didn't (or don't) spring for the extra warranty, it would cost you $149 to replace the back glass on the iPhone 8 and $169 for the iPhone 8 Plus.

The popular YouTube channel, JerryRigEverything, makes a living tearing down phones, opening them up, and showing people how to replace parts, batteries, and other hardware. Even with his knowledge and experience, he had to go through some extreme measures to replace the glass back on his iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

As you can see — and he even mentions it in the video himself — it's not worth the risk to perform the task yourself.

There's a saying that goes, "A good carpenter doesn't blame his tools", and that can be applied to a plethora of professions, but it seems like photography marries that statement quite nicely.

Professional photographers will tell you that you need top-of-the-line equipment, leenses, gear, editing software, etc., but in reality, having a good eye, a reliable machine to shoot with (it doesn't need to cost you thousands and thousands of dollars), and a little bit of practice can yield some pretty unreal photographs.

Case in point, Toronto-based photographer Barb Simkova who captured a recent, stunning rustic wedding on October 7th, 2017 on just her iPhone 8 Plus.

Do you prefer DSLR wedding bells or iWedding bells?

Are yous someone who thinks shooting a wedding with an iPhone is a super cool, incredibly innovative idea?

Or do you think it's better to play it safe and stick to a traditional DSLR (what's that saying again? If it ain't broke, don't fix it?)

Let us know what you think in the comments below — and let us know what you think of the wedding photos!

The third iPhone in Apple's lineup this year is about to arrive. Pre-orders for the iPhone X start on October 27 at midnight PST, with the first devices shipping on November 3.

If you've been waiting for an iPhone X, congrats: The wait is almost over. But what if you're still conflicted? After all, Apple has two other perfectly good new iPhone models on sale right now in the form of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Are there reasons to go 8 instead of X, or X instead of 8? Let's take a look.

Why you should pre-order an iPhone X over an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus

Leaning toward the iPhone X over an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus? Let us help push you over the edge.

Pre-order iPhone X

OLED screens are easier to read in sunlight, crisper, and provide an even nicer reading and watching experience than LED. They do have their problems, but Apple appears to have worked out most of those kinks with its Super Retina display. The iPhone X's display supports True Tone, wide color, 3D Touch, and HDR at 458 PPI (pixels per inch) — it's the densest iPhone screen out there, and movies look incredible. You can check out our comparison chart below:

For more information on the iPhone X's screen, I recommend reading checking out PixelCut's master chart on all things iPhone resolution.

Forget how cool Face ID is for a moment: The TrueDepth camera rig behind it is much cooler. Not only will it be a huge boon to AR experiences like Animoji and Snapchat's face filters, but the potential for what third-party developers can do with the sensors is super-exciting.

The camera also creates amazing selfies thanks to TrueDepth making both Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting available; if anything, Portrait mode looks better on front-facing snaps than it does on rear ones, because the scanned depth map from the TrueDepth's sensors is better than the depth map created by the two iPhone rear camera lenses.

Face ID may feel a little too far out even for Apple's iPhone of the future, but its implementation is solid. The company has built the system to recognize you no matter how you change — hats, glasses, sunglasses, scarves, beards, burqas, caps, wet hair — or what time of day it is. (And while it wasn't outwardly stated during Apple's presentation, it's worth noting that most Face ID examples shown were for people of color; Apple is clearly aware of the failings other face recognition systems have had in the past.)

Your face data is also kept entirely locally on-device in the Secure Enclave, so you don't have to worry about Apple's iCloud servers saving copies of your facial recognition data for hackers to snatch away. And on that note, apps that use the Face ID camera system only get depth data, rather than a full facial scan, for further privacy.

There are several smart touches built into Face ID: Contextual notifications allow for privacy on your lock screen, but expand fully when you look at the display (taking a page from the Apple Watch's raise to expand notifications option). Face ID is also built with multiple accessibility settings to allow users with disabilities to properly use the feature even if they have issues with motor control or gaze tracking.

If you're worried about someone forcing you to open your iPhone, Face ID is also built to quickly fall back to passcode-unlock only. You only have to quickly squeeze the side button and volume up in the event that you're asked to hand over your phone, and your device will automatically lock.

If you like the iPad Pro's gesture-based navigation, the iPhone X's swipes and flicks will make you feel right at home. Even with limited time testing the iPhone X, using it felt eerily natural after a few minutes; double-pressing the home button to multitask instantly felt archaic after using the iPhone X's bottom swipe up gesture.

While both the iPhones 8 and iPhone X get Apple's new and improved image signal processor (ISP) and Slow Sync flash, and the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X both get Portrait Lighting on the rear-facing camera, only the iPhone X gets a better telephoto lens.

The iPhone X's lens for portraits now sports an f/2.4 aperture in comparison to the 8 Plus's f/2.8 — a significant boost in letting light hit the sensor — and it's now optically stabilized, too. (On the iPhone 8, only the wide-angle lens is optically stabilized.)

This is a huge deal when it comes to shooting nicer low-light portraits and images with the telephoto lens, especially when paired with the new software improvements Apple has made.

The iPhone X has anodized/DLC steel sidings in comparison to the iPhone 8's aluminum edges. Not only does it give the X a classic iPhone look, it also gives the smartphone an edge of security — I feel a lot less scared to drop my phone with a steel edge redirecting force.

Why you should buy an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus over an iPhone X

If you're considering one of these three devices, what makes the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus more appealing than pre-ordering an X on Friday?

If you're suffering through a lagging iPhone 5s, broken screen, or other painful day-to-day relationship with your iPhone, you may not have the patience or inclination to wait until early November — or later! — to get a new device. Though the iPhone X goes on sale November 3, rumors peg it as being extremely supply-constrained (AirPods-style — or worse). If you don't place an order at exactly midnight on the 27th, chances are you might be waiting quite a while for an iPhone X of your choice.

Shop iPhone 8

The iPhone X starts at $999 unlocked for the 64GB model; in comparison, you can pick up the iPhone 8 in the same storage configuration for just $699, or $799 for the iPhone 8 Plus.

That's a lot of money. Money you can do a lot with…

In seriousness, most users aren't going to pay for an unlocked device; they'll instead pay a monthly fee through their carrier or upgrade program, and that's likely to increase $5-$15/month depending on what phone they purchased previously. But even the price of a fancy coffee or lunch can cut into people's budgets, and if you don't need the iPhone X's features, you may not want to spend the extra clams.

The iPhone X's new biometric security system, Face ID, has gotten a lot of press over how it works, but also a lot of worry. While most of this is understandable but unnecessary anxiety, it's understandable if you'd prefer to stick with Touch ID while Apple works the kinks out of its newer system.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus take incredible photos thanks in part to Apple's new image signal processor, which uses machine learning and sensor data to pre-track potential movement and provide crisp, clear photos of motion scenes like sports, pets, and more. That same ISP also offers less noise in low-light scenarios and helps power the 8 Plus's Portrait Lighting feature.

The iPhone X has a better implementation of Portrait Lighting thanks to its improved telephoto camera, and its Face ID camera rig also offers users a superior selfie experience. But you might not need all that extra tech — you might just want great photos. And great photos is what the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will take.

The iPhone X is only coming in silver and black this year, while the iPhones 8 come in silver, gray, and a new copper-style gold. That gold is one of Apple's best anodization options yet — a pale rosy two-tone look that glows in the light. If you'd prefer the gold look to a full-size iPhone X OLED screen, you're going to want an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus.

Which iPhone are you getting?

Let us know below.

The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and upcoming iPhone X all have great camera systems, but the iPhone 8 Plus and X have a few features over their smaller cousin thanks to a secondary 56mm-equivalent "telephoto" lens system.

If you happen to find yourself in possession of an iPhone 8 Plus, you can shoot using the 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens using Photo mode, zoom up to 10x digitally, shoot with an added depth of field or lighting effects using Portrait mode, and more. Here's what you need to know!

How to use Zoom on the iPhone 8 Plus

Digital zoom is never going to be great — you're essentially just cropping and enlarging pixels from the original photo. But, more often than not, we use digital zooms when composing iPhone images — especially if we're shooting a subject from far away. Thanks to its multi-camera system, the iPhone 8 Plus offers an up-to-10x digital zoom when composing your images — and better still, that zoom is now a one-handed circular swipe. Here's how it works!

• How to use the zoom feature on the iPhone 8 Plus
• Camera tests: Zoom on the iPhone 7 vs iPhone 7 Plus

How to use Portrait mode on the iPhone 8 Plus

While people love the #plusclub for a variety of reasons, I chose a Plus model for one reason, and one reason only: Portrait mode. Exclusively available for the iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, and upcoming iPhone X, this mode uses the 56mm-equivalent "telephoto" lens on your iPhone to shoot incredible images (in portrait or landscape orientation) with "bokeh"-style blurred backgrounds and foregrounds.

• Portrait mode: The review
• How to use Portrait mode and Portrait lighting
• How to use Portrait mode in low light
• Camera tests: iPhone 7 Plus Portrait mode vs a Canon DSLR
• How to get depth effect 'Portrait Mode' photos with any iPhone

How to shoot with the telephoto lens on the iPhone 8 Plus

When you pick up an iPhone 8 Plus, you're also getting a great multi-camera system to take photographs and shoot video. By default, you shoot with the iPhone's 12-megapixel wide-angle f/1.8 lens, but you can also amp up the magnification and take photos with its 56mm-equivalent "telephoto" lens — both in the Camera app, with Portrait mode, or in a variety of great third-party apps.

• How to shoot with the iPhone 8 Plus's telephoto lens
• Best manual camera apps for iPhone
• Best RAW camera apps for shooting with the iPhone

More great camera content

Want to learn more about shooting photos with your iPhone? Check our full Camera Ultimate Guide!

• How to use the Camera app: The ultimate guide
• How to use the Photos app: The ultimate guide