The 5.8 inch increase means it's almost unwieldy in one hand and the notch does not blend in with the Apple's well known design aesthetic. Facial recognition doesn't give you the legal protection of a passcode meaning you'll be forced to unlock your phone if required by an authority.

It's a very bad value proposition for the average person as you pay for an advanced front facing camera with portrait lighting, HDR 10 content support, 1 million contrast ratio, neural engine, redesigned touch subsystem, and dramatically increased screen to body ratio. Around the 50 second mark you'll see mention of a redesigned touch subsystem that makes it more responsive to touch gestures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4wEI5zhHB0&feature=youtu.be

We're talking $1,149 off contract not counting tax. At that point you might as well buy a $329 iPad, get a Skype subscription, get a textplus subscription, and spend $495 a year for data on Straight Talk wireless. AppleCare+ is $200 for the iPhone X vs the standard $129. The actually cost of the 256 gb model counting Applecare is $1349 not counting tax. That's MacBook territory so let that sink in...

The iPhone 8 is worth it for anyone coming from an iPhone SE through the 6S. You get wireless charging, higher max brightness setting, a neural engine for AI, wide color gamut, wide color capture for photos and live photos, four LEDs with true tone flash for image capture, 4K video recording at 60 fps, 1080p video recording vs the 720p on both SE/6S, wireless charging, and fast charging.

I want the 8 personally but refuse to beta test an Apple device at launch. Wait until Christmas, New Year's day, or February to find quality deals for the all the devices. If sales are slow then you'll see incredible deals.