Should you buy an iPhone 8 Plus in 2020
Best answer: If you want a larger iPhone at a lower price, the iPhone 8 Plus is a great option thanks to its 5.5-inch screen, massive battery, and dual cameras.Still going strong: iPhone 8 Plus (From $549 at Apple)
The iPhone 8 Plus is still a compelling package for those looking for a bigger phone
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.
For those wary of Face ID, the iPhone 8 Plus provides the dual comforts of Touch ID and a Home button.
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.
Why you may want to wait
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).
If you're willing to wait, an iPhone SE Plus may be on the way
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.
Still a great large phone if you need it.
Despite its age, the iPhone 8 Plus is still a capable phone for those that need something large, but less costly than the iPhone 11 lineup. Plus, it has two Portrait Mode-capable cameras.
