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With the iPhone 5s pretty much all the big changes occur inside the phone such as the processor, new imaging technology and the new M7 coprocessor.Now to take a more in depth view of the iPhone 5s and see how fast its newly designed A7 processor and see if the Touch ID is really that useful.
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Starting from $199 with service plan.
Starting from $649 contract free.
iPhone 5S Design, Build and Display
To start things off the design build and display has only changed a little from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5s. The 5s has the same physical body as the iPhone 5.The materials, the volume, mute, and power buttons are the same, and even the speaker layout is the same.
Because of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, the button is no longer as concave as on previous models.Nothing has change from its display screen. It is the exact same display found on the iPhone 5 and the new iPhone 5c.A beautiful 4-inch Retina display LCD panel with an 1136x640 resolution at 326 ppi.It is still a crystal clear display but nothing new.
The only visual differences between the iPhone 5 and 5s are the Home button and the colors, with the latter being quite an obvious change. The new iPhone 5s comes in “space grey” gold and silver.Besides colours, the only other physical difference is in the Home button.
Pros:
Cons:
Incredibly fast 64-bit A7 processor and the M7 motion processor. Also brand new camera features such as auto image stabilization, Burst mode, and Slo-mo video.
Nothing much is new.Still the same 4-inch display and overall design. Touch ID is new but feature-limited.
With the iPhone 5s pretty much all the big changes occur inside the phone such as the processor, new imaging technology and the new M7 coprocessor.Now to take a more in depth view of the iPhone 5s and see how fast its newly designed A7 processor and see if the Touch ID is really that useful.
iPhone 5S Design, Build and Display
To start things off the design build and display has only changed a little from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5s. The 5s has the same physical body as the iPhone 5.The materials, the volume, mute, and power buttons are the same, and even the speaker layout is the same.
The only visual differences between the iPhone 5 and 5s are the Home button and the colors, with the latter being quite an obvious change. The new iPhone 5s comes in “space grey” gold and silver.Besides colours, the only other physical difference is in the Home button.
Because of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, the button is no longer as concave as on previous models. Nothing has change from its display screen. It is the exact same display found on the iPhone 5 and the new iPhone 5c. A beautiful 4-inch Retina display LCD panel with an 1136x640 resolution at 326 ppi. It is still a crystal clear display but nothing new.
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iPhone5S Connectivity
Just with the design, display and build,only a little has changed with the connectivity features of the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5s offers that same Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot, andBluetooth 4.0 as its predecessor, including full support for Apple’s AirPlay and AirDrop clients.
The iPhone 5S fully supports 2G and 3G (DC-HSPA and HSPA+) bands just as before but this time Apple has added in a host of additional 4G bands. With the iPhone 5s you are ensured that the phone will work in any country in the world provided you have a compatible Micro-SIM card.
iPhone5S Touch ID
What about the Touch ID? That’s Apple’s flagship iPhone 5s fingerprint scanner feature. Apple was so keen to add biometrics to the iPhone and for the most part the fingerprint scanner works well. I personally find this offers very little benefit as of now.
All you can really do with the Touch ID right now is use it to unlock your iPhone and approve purchases in the App Store and iTunes Store.I understand why this is the case – Apple needs to go slow and steady with the capabilities of the first useful fingerprint scanner a smartphone has ever seen. There is also a large amount of trust that users need to build up as far as biometrics are concerned. It’s a new technology and needs to be understood and proven safe before it’s adopted for more advanced features like mobile payments.
So i wouldnt recommend people buying the iPhone 5s only for the Touch ID. You’ll be disappointed because there is little to use it for. The good thing about the Touch ID is that it will be easy to add capabilities to in the future since the hardware is now there. Hopefully Apple will be rolling out iCloud Keychain soon, which would allow users to log into websites on their iPhone 5s with just the touch of their finger – no more passwords and usernames!
But the holy grail of Touch ID use is when Apple opens it up for use in third-party apps – something not likely to happen until at least iOS 8.. I keep several of my apps passcode protected. Instead of entering a passcode each time, it would be much faster if I could just tap my finger.
Touch ID is also probably Apple’s “in” into the world of mobile payments. NFC is great, but not very secure. But NFC with a Touch ID sensor provides security and speed and you can be sure Apple will use both in conjunction when they do enter the mobile payments market.This will be quite a simpler and easier way to make online transactions and payments online.
iPhone5S A7 Processor and RAM
One reason to buy the iPhone 5s the A7 processor and M7 motion-coprocessors would be it. Let’s now learn about the A7 first. It’s a 64-bit ARM processor with two cores running at 1.29Ghz.
The A7 proccesor is the world’s first 64-bit processor in a smartphone and it extreamly fast.Opening apps and loading GPU-intensive content like games is incredibly fast. Even the startup and shutdown times of the iPhone 5s have been cut in half over those of its predecessor.
As an addition to the A7, the iPhone 5s also features 1GB of RAM. Now, understand this: there are plenty of smartphones out there with more RAM, but they are nowhere near as fast as the iPhone 5s. That is because Apple doesn’t rely on brutal power to speed up its phones. It tackles speed the smart way by designing iOS around the processor and RAM and making them work smarter together. As you can see in the diagram below the iPhone 5s has an incredible 56x faster graphics perfomance than its original predessors.
iPhone5S M7 Motion Co-Processor
The M7 motion co-processor is the second part of the reason people should buy the iPhone 5s. The M7 motion co-processor’s job is to measure motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. In the predessesor iPhones this would have been the A7’s job.
The advantage this co-processor provides is a whopping saving on battery life because the A7 doesn’t have to be constantly engaged anymore to measure motion data. The M7 handles all of that in the background much more efficiently.
What’s more, the M7 is so sensitive it can tell the difference between when you are walking, running, sitting, or driving. This means apps that support the M7 can give you a much more accurate reading of how many calories you are burning since it can now tell what activity you are doing while moving.
Fitness apps also no longer need to be actively engaged to record your motion. Since the M7 is always recording motion data in the background, you can launch a fitness app after you started moving and it will look at the data from the M7 and update your stats appropriately.
It’s this software optimization that will keep the iPhone 5s the world’s fastest smartphone even after Samsung and others rush out mobiles with 64-bit chips and more RAM. Phones can run faster on less raw horsepower with good coding – as Apple has proved time and time again.
iPhone5S iSight camera
Many people were disappointed that the iPhone 5s kept an 8-megapixel camera. Even though it’s not uncommon to find 12 MP and larger on smartphones these days. But the case is that with iOS, the A7 CPU and the amount of RAM inside the iPhone 5s – more isn’t always the best, and sometimes a tweak will suffice.
As a matter of fact, the most important factor in capturing good photographs is light. How much light can a camera’s sensor capture? With the iPhone 5s Apple has bumped up the light sensor in the iSight camera by 15%, which allows us to capture that much more light, making your pictures to look better. This 15% larger sensor actually gives you better pictures than a 15% bump in megapixels would.
To capture even more light, Apple also added larger pixels to the light sensor, measuring 1.5 microns, and increased the aperture to ƒ/2.2. Is this even better than simply adding a 12 MP camera? Of coarse it is.
iPhone5S Battery and Storage
There is no new storage option on the iPhone 5s. It still comes in in three storage flavours: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
As for the battery, it’s slightly improved, with a 1560 mAhcapacity. Apple says that will give you 10 hours of talk time on 3G and 8 hours on 4G. even though we rarely ever only use our iPhones just for talking, so battery life is hard to calculate. Depending how you use your iPhone, the battery could last longer or shorter,it depends , which is why I feel that any battery tests are usually completely pointless. But yes, the iPhone 5s’ battery will last about 10% longer than the battery in the iPhone 5, provided your use it exactly the same of coarse.
iPhone5S Overall Conclusion
The iPhone 5s is the best smartphone Apple has ever made and the fastest smartphone on the planet. If you are a speedy junkie or a fitness buff, ditch your iPhone 5 for the iPhone 5s. It’s well worth it. It’s also worth it for the camera improvements if you enjoy taking lots of pics with your iPhone.
But don’t buy the iPhone 5s just for its flagship feature: Touch ID. Yes, it’s nice, but it has very limited use at present. But given that it would simply take software updates to make it more useful, that could change quickly. Apple no doubt has big plans for this feature.
Thinking about the iPhone 5c? Skip it if you can spend the extra money. For less than £90 more you’ll get twice the phone going up to the iPhone 5s –– and you’ll be future-proof when Apple decides to add more features relating to its Touch ID.
As for Samsung, they should be very worried. Yes, the company said the next Galaxy will have a 64-bit chip, but until they learn that software optimization is as important for performance as raw hardware power is, Apple’s iPhones will always get more power from less hardware. Such is the bonus of owning both the hardware are the software that powers it.
iPhone5S Tech Specs
|
Length |
123.8mm |
|
Width |
58.6mm |
|
Thickness |
7.6 mm |
|
Weight |
112 g |
|
Screen Size |
640 x 1136 pixels, 4.0 inches (~326 ppi pixel density) |
|
Operating System |
Apple iOS 7 |
|
Camera Resolution |
8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (True Tone) flash. Features: 1/3'' sensor size, 1.5 µm pixel size, simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR panorama, HDR photo |
|
Video Resolution |
Yes, 1080p@30fps, 720p@120fps, advanced video stabilization |
|
Processor |
Apple A7 |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 |
|
High-speed Data |
DC-HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, LTE, 100 Mbps; EV-DO Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps |
|
Built-in Memory |
16GB, 32GB, 64GB, no SD-support |
