Well the day has finally come and gone. Yes, Apple debuted its latest mobile wares last night in California, with three new models of iPhone making their presence known. The iPhone X was the star attraction on the night, but the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus need not be overlooked, as the company updates its lineup of smartphone offerings.

Starting off with the 8 and 8 Plus’ design, which on the surface may not seem like much has changed, but Apple has opted for a combination of glass and aluminium instead of the aluminium unibody of last year's iteration. Along with the new glass back cover, Apple has scaled back on the number of colour options, with only space grey, silver and gold options available.

Switching to action up front, new Retina HD displays are present with Apple's own True Tone technology. On the iPhone 8 it's a 4.7" variant, with the iPhone 8 Plus upping things to 5.5", with Apple also noting that it has improved colour accuracy. Underneath it all, Apple has introduced a new A11 Bionic hexa-core processor, which the company says is its most powerful to date. To back up the claims, the two performance cores are said to be 25% faster, and the efficiency cores 70% faster than the previous A10 Fusion CPU.

Flipping over to the back, there is a enhanced 12 MP camera present, the key difference once again though, is that the standard iPhone 8 only has a single lends while the iPhone 8 Plus goes the dual lens route. As such, of the two, it's the larger device that you may be leaning towards when it comes to camera capabilities.

Along with subtle improvements across the board to the design and specifications, the iPhone and 8 Plus will also ship with Apple's latest operating system - iOS 11. Some of its standout features include new effects for Live Photo, support for Augmented Reality (AR) applications, and a male voice option for Siri.

Pricing for the new iPhone 8 models start at $699 in the States, with the larger iPhone 8 Plus available from $799. Like many of the Apple Event devices from last night, orders for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus begin on 15 September, but once again South Africa is missing from the first round of selected countries.