Updated February 24, 2023 - The iPhone 8 has been out for more than 5 years, but is it still a good buy? With all the upgraded smartphone tech, you might prefer to buy a more recent iPhone model, but the iPhone 8 is still a perfectly good smartphone in 2023.
Display: The iPhone 8 is missing out, or is it?
The iPhone 8 has a 4.7" Retina HD LCD screen, which is ultimately a much smaller screen witholder technology than the 6.1" Super Retina XDR OLED display screenthat you will find on theiPhone 12.
But what does this actually mean: is the iPhone 8 still a good phone despite its older display technology? What will a newer OLED display really give you?
If you ever compare an OLED vs LCD screen side-by-side, you might notice that colors seem more vibrant on the OLED, and that dark colors look, well, darker. And it’s true, OLED screens have a higher dynamic range, which means that these types of screens do, in fact, appear more vibrant, thanks to their ability to display a wider spectrum of colors. You'll also find higher resolutions on later models than the iPhone 8, which simply means that the screen will capture more detail the bigger the picture or the more you zoom in.
But if you’re not especially picky, you may not even notice this difference. Or, you may actually prefer the more neutral colors that LCD screens have. In our opinion, the more neutral colors of LCD screens feel slightly easier on the eyes. And even though LCD may be a slightly older technology, it still results in a really sharp display, especially one that's more than a full 1" smaller measured diagonally.
So yes, the screen on the iPhone 8 still looks great and while we think it's still a worthy piece of technology, those who have become more accustomed to the 5K, high res, larger screens found on recent smartphone models, may not like the minimal display of the iPhone 8.
