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What does one say about a new iPhone? At this point, a decade after the first one sent the earth spinning in directions both magical and ghastly, it can be difficult to summon any fresh wonder when appraising the familiar little slab of digital horror and delight.
对于一个新iPhone你要说什么呢？第一代iPhone横空出世，让地球朝着既神奇又可怕的方向旋转已经十年了，到了现在，再来评估这个眼熟的、汇聚了惊恐和喜悦的数字小设备已经很难引起任何新鲜的赞叹感了。
The problem is especially acute for the two traditional iPhones hitting the market this year, the iPhone 8 and the larger 8 Plus, which are priced at $699 and up and will begin shipping this Friday.
对于今年发布的两款传统iPhone来说，这个问题尤其明显，iPhone 8和尺寸更大的8 Plus的起价为699美元（约合人民币4600元），将于本周五开始发货。
The 8s look almost identical to the iPhones 7, 6S and 6, a model introduced back when Donald Trump was still hosting a reality TV show. To make matters worse, both are overshadowed by the $1,000 all-screen iPhone X, which Apple considers the foundation for the next iteration of the iPhone. That model ships in November, and reviewers have not yet had a chance to use it.
iPhone 8看起来与iPhone 7、6S和6几乎一模一样，想当年，6出来的时候，唐纳德·特朗普还在主持真人秀节目。更麻烦的是，这两款机型在1000美元的全面屏iPhone X的映衬下黯然无光，苹果把X当作iPhone下一轮迭代的基础。它将在11月份出货，测评人员还没有机会把玩它。
So here’s my conclusion, after nearly a week testing the 8 and 8 Plus: The 8s feel like a swan song — or, to put it another way, they represent Apple’s platonic ideal of that first iPhone, an ultimate refinement before eternal retirement.
所以我在测试了8和8 Plus近一个星期之后，得出了这样的结论：8s感觉像一首天鹅之歌。换句话说，它们代表了苹果的第一代iPhone的柏拉图式理想，是永恒隐退之前的最终精炼。
Unsurprisingly, both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are very good phones. Most of Apple’s improvements over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are minor, but if you have an older model, either of the 8s will feel like a solid upgrade. And if you are considering upgrading from an Android phone, there’s one area where the new iPhones still rank head and shoulders above their competition — the processor, the engine that runs the entire device, where Apple is so far ahead that it almost feels unfair.
没有意外，iPhone8和8 Plus都是非常好的手机。它们在iPhone7和7 Plus上做的大部分改进都很轻微，但是如果你使用的是较旧的机型，那么8系列的任何一款都会代表实实在在的升级。如果你正在考虑从Android手机改用iPhone，那么这两款新机型仍然有一个方面是竞争对手无法比拟的——那就是处理器，整个设备的引擎，苹果在这方面遥遥领先，感觉暴虐对手。
But let’s start with the basics.
但是我们还是从最基础的方面开始讲吧。
? The iPhone’s overall design is very slightly improved in the 8. The new models have a glass back, which you would think would make them more delicate but which actually adds a slight grippiness, making them less prone to catastrophe. (I’d still use a case for the 8 Plus, which I find ungainly to hold; the 8, though, shines in its caseless glory.)
iPhone 8的整体设计略有改善。新机型的背壳是玻璃材质的，你以为会更脆弱，但实际上却稍微增加了抓握力，使得它们更不容易遭受滑落之灾。（我仍然给8 Plus装了个手机壳，我觉得要抓握它并不是很轻松，而8则在仿佛没有背壳的情况下显得熠熠生辉。）
The glass back allows for the iPhone 8’s handiest new feature, wireless charging. This works just as it does on the many other phones that have long sported this trick: Set the phone down on a charging pad and it just starts charging, even through most cases. Apple said it would release its own charging mat next year; for now, you can use one of the many third-party mats that run the Qi wireless standard. (Over all, battery life on the 8 was comparable to that of the 7 — it lasted all day with light use, about half a day with heavy use, and always not long enough.)
玻璃背壳可以让iPhone 8发挥非常方便的无线充电新功能。充电方式和很多早就拥有这个功能的其它手机差不多：将手机放在充电垫上，然后它就开始充电，大多数手机壳都不会妨碍这个过程。苹果表示明年将会推出自己的充电垫，就现在来说，你可以使用其他支持Qi无线标准的众多第三方充电垫。（总而言之，8的续航时间与7相当，充一次电轻度使用可以用一天，重度使用可以用半天，总是嫌不够长）。
? The display on the 8 and 8 Plus is better than on the 7, but only very slightly. In particular, the screen uses a technology Apple calls True Tone, which automatically adjusts the display’s white balance to match the lighting in your surroundings. This adds a subtle vibrancy to everything you see — though honestly the only time I was able to appreciate it was when I compared it side by side with the iPhone 7.
? 8和8 Plus的显示屏好于7，但只好一点点。值得一提的是，该显示屏采用了苹果称为True Tone的技术，可自动调节显示屏的白平衡，以便与你周遭的光线相匹配。这会为你看到的一切增添一点微妙的艳丽——不过老实说，我唯一一次有所体会，是将其与iPhone 7并排放在一起进行比较的时候。
In other ways, the display is where the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus fall furthest short of their rivals. The 8s use a technology called LCD, while Apple’s rivals in the high-end phone market, including Samsung, use a newer screen technology called OLED. I won’t get into the differences here except to say OLEDs are noticeably superior — they produce more vibrant colors and deeper contrast ratios. Even Apple seems to agree, given that OLED is the basis for the display in the iPhone X.
就其他方面而言，显示屏是iPhone 8和8 Plus最不及竞品之处。8和8 Plus采用了一种叫LCD技术，但苹果在高端手机市场上的对手，其中包括三星，都采用了更新一些的OLED显示技术。我在此就不详述两者的差异了，只想说OLED屏幕要好出一大截——它们能呈现更鲜活的色彩，提供更高的对比度。就连苹果似乎也同意这一点，因为iPhone X的显示屏就是以OLED技术为基础。
? The cameras in the 8s are very good, which is always true of cameras in the iPhone. My kid had a birthday party this weekend, and just before leaving for the venue, I decided to take a risk — I left my fancy interchangeable-lens “mirrorless” camera at home, and instead took just the 8 Plus.
? 8和8 Plus的摄像头非常好，iPhone的摄像头一向如此。这个周末，我给孩子办了个生日派对，就在出门前往派对场地之前，我决定冒一次险——把昂贵的可换镜头“无反”相机留下，只带上8 Plus。
It would be too much to say that the phone produced images comparable to those I could get on my dedicated camera. In some indoor, low-light shots, Apple’s noise-reduction algorithm left an annoying watercolorlike ripple on my shots (a problem that has plagued previous iPhones, too).
要说8 Plus拍出的照片堪比我的专用相机，可能言过其实。拍照时如果室内光线较暗，苹果的降噪算法会在一些照片上留下恼人的水彩般的波纹（这问题也困扰着以前的iPhone）。
But that was the exception. Most images were astounding, and given the iPhone 8’s advantages in size, convenience and usability, I predict that my camera will be spending a lot more time in the drawer. In particular, I fell hard for the 8 Plus’s “Portrait Lighting” feature, which uses data from a depth sensor to mimic the blurred-background “bokeh” effect you get when taking portraits with expensive cameras. That feature made its debut last year on the iPhone 7 Plus, but in the 8 Plus, it’s been further refined to let you adjust the lighting of each shot, making for breathtaking portraits that you’ll be surprised came from a mere phone.
但这只是特例。大多数照片都令人惊叹，加之iPhone 8在尺寸、方便度和可用性方面的优势，我猜我的相机还会在抽屉里待很长时间。我尤其喜欢8 Plus的“人像光线”(Portrait Lighting)功能，即利用来自深度传感器的数据，模拟让背景变模糊的“散景”效果——拍人像时要达到这种效果，你常常得使用非常昂贵的相机。该功能于去年首次在iPhone 7 Plus上亮相，但在8 Plus上得到进一步完善，你可以调节每一张照片的光线，制作出令人叹为观止的肖像照——你会惊奇于它们竟然是用手机拍出来的。
? But the best thing about the 8 and 8 Plus is what’s most hidden: It’s the processor that powers everything else. The first thing I usually do when I get a new iPhone is run a benchmark app to get a sense of the kind of power I’m dealing with. (Yeah, I’m real fun.)
? 但8和8 Plus最好的地方也是最深藏不露的地方：令这所有的一切成为可能的处理器。拿到一部新iPhone时，我通常会先运行一个基准测试应用，以便感受一下处理器的性能（没错，我就是这么有情趣的一个人。）
For the last few years, Apple’s phones have been producing benchmark scores so high you wonder if they’re powered by some kind of black magic. For instance, on Geekbench 4, one of the more popular benchmark apps, the iPhone 8 gets a single-core processor score of around 4,200. That makes it about 25 percent faster than the iPhone 7 and about 80 percent faster than the iPhone 6S.
过去几年里，苹果手机的基准跑分一直极高，简直让人觉得他们是不是用上了什么黑魔法。例如，在比较常用的基准测试应用Geekbench 4上，iPhone 8的单核处理器跑分约为4200。比iPhone 7快了约25％，比iPhone 6S快了约80％。
The fastest Android phones, though, are painfully behind. With a Geekbench score of around 1,900, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8 is not just half the speed of the iPhone 8, but it’s actually slower than last year’s iPhone 7, and even slower than the iPhone 6S, released in 2015. In fact, Apple’s phones are now so powerful that the closest rivals aren’t phones but computers — for instance, the processor in the iPhone gets benchmarking scores comparable to the Intel chips found in some of Apple’s latest MacBook Pro laptops.
然而，最快的安卓手机远远落后于此。三星旗舰手机Galaxy S8的Geekbench跑分约为1900，仅相当于iPhone 8的一半，其实比去年开售的iPhone 7还要慢一些，甚至不如2015年开售的iPhone 6S。实际上，苹果手机现在的性能非常强大，同它最接近的竞争对手不是手机，而是电脑——例如，iPhone处理器的基准跑分堪与苹果最新数款MacBook Pro笔记本电脑中一些英特尔芯片的跑分相媲美。
I spoke to several processor analysts about why Apple is so far ahead on processing power. They explained that Apple can produce these gains because it designs its own processors, while its competitors rely on chips created by third parties. And performance matters. Everything you do on a phone is improved by better chips: The interface is more responsive, advanced graphical features like augmented reality (in which digital scenes are interposed on the real world) work more fluidly, and they allow for groundbreaking new features, like the face-detection system Apple built into the iPhone X.
我与几位处理器分析师探讨苹果为什么在处理能力方面遥遥领先。他们解释说，苹果之所以能够取得这些进展，是因为处理器是由它自行设计的，而其他竞争对手则需要依赖第三方创制的芯片。性能是很重要的。有了更好的芯片，你用手机所做的一切都能得到改善：接口响应会更灵敏；扩增实境（在现实世界中插入数字场景）等高级图形功能可以更加流畅地运行；而且还可以开创突破性的新功能，比如苹果为iPhone X内置的面部探测系统。
And while experts said Apple’s lead might slip over time, for now, its advantage remains enormous enough to make the iPhone a must for people who think of their phones as their most important computing device — in other words, you and me and everyone we know.
虽然专家表示，苹果的领先优势可能会随着时间的推移而下滑，但目前它的优势仍然很大，因此，对于那些将手机视为最重要的计算设备的人来说，iPhone依然必不可少——换句话说，就是你我，以及我们认识的每一个人。
