iPhone X: Apple announces release date, features and everything else for the phone of the future

The new handset can scan your face

Apple has unveiled the iPhone X, its most futuristic ever phone.

The company says that the new phone is "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone" and that it "will set the path of technology for the next decade". It was released alongside the more conventional iPhone 8, at an Apple event in California.

The new phone will cost $999 and will be released on 3 November, Apple said. (It also confirmed that the name is pronounced "ten", not "ex".)

You can read everything about Apple's other phone, the iPhone 8, here. And you can read all the updates from the launch here.

Chief among the new features is a screen that goes all the way over the front of the phone.

That display is what Apple refers to as "super retina", using OLED technology for richer colours and sharper images.

Apple also boasted about how the phone can be unlocked simply by looking at it, because of sensors packed into the notch at the top of the screen.

"With iPhone 10, your iPhone is locked until you look at it, and it recognises you," said marketing chief Phil Schiller. "Nothing has ever been more simple, natural and effortless. We call this Face ID. Face ID is the future of how we unlock our smartphones and protect our sensitive information."

It does that by first taking a mathematical model of the users face. It then users those sensors – invisibly and in real time – to check whether the person holding the phone's face matches up with the one it has stored.

It said that the biometric recognition is far more accurate than the TouchID fingerprint sensor that is used in all of Apple's phones up until now, including the iPhone 8 that was released at the same time.

But the futuristic phone does borrow some features from that slightly more boring phone. Like the iPhone 8, it has the same wireless Qi charging through the glass back on the phone, the same A11 "bionic" chip included, and many of the same internal specs.

Despite that increased performance, the battery lasts for two hours longer than the iPhone 7, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said.

That same technology will be used to power "Animoji". Those are animated emoji that "you control with your face" – tracking your facial movements and then using those facial movements on the emoji.

It also has a vastly improved camera, which can take pictures with fine detail and no noise, according to Apple. And it's also set on its side, rotated 90-degrees when compared with the iPhone 7 and 8.

And the phone is entirely water- and dustproof.

The new phone was revealed during an event that also saw the release of a new Apple TV and Apple Watch, as well as the new phones. Tim Cook opened the announcement at the Steve Jobs Auditorium on Apple's new campus with a tribute to the company's co-founder and former CEO, who died in 2011.

The Apple building itself was considered to be Jobs' final product, and Cook spent a few minutes boasting about the design, energy-saving features and public spaces at the new campus, including a flagship Apple Store.

The theatre, never before open to the public, features an expansive glass-enclosed lobby, with two massive white stone staircases leading down to the auditorium. Inside, the decor is similar to that of Apple's stores, with hard maple flooring and tan leather seats.