Hands On with the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c
MSN Tech's David Phelan gives a hands on review of the new iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c.
Date 19/09/13, Duration 2:40, Views 18711
What is it?
Apple’s newest flagship phone with a familiar design but new insides
What’s great?
Super-fast processor, improved camera and a very cool fingerprint sensor
What’s not?
A new styling would have been even better, battery life same as before
The bottom line:
The 5S is a powerful, brainy smartphone with an astonishingly fast processor and an outstanding camera. Those with the iPhone 5 may desire a whole new design but the internal upgrades are definitely worth having
Apple iPhone 5S: Review
It’s that time of year again: Apple has announced its new iPhone, which goes on sale tomorrow. Though this time there’s a new wrinkle, a lower-priced polycarbonate phone, the iPhone 5C, which is reviewed HERE. For now, though, let’s concentrate on the flagship, the iPhone 5S, which is the handset that Apple hopes will put it in the lead again in the smartphone races. Will it, and if so for how long?
Apple iPhone 5S: Design and build
Let’s start with the design. It’s near-identical to last year’s iPhone 5. This may be a disappointment to some, but last year’s design was pretty spiffy so it’s no bad thing. If you want to make sure that all your friends see you have the new iPhone, you can opt for the gold colour, now available in addition to the silver and space grey shades. The gold is too subtle to please your average oligarch but won’t suit everyone.
If you do go gold, it’s the edge band you’ll notice, and the gold ring round the home button, which we’ll come to in a moment. Beyond that, there’s little different to spot, though hawkeyes will see the camera lens is different and the flash now has two lights, not one. Other than that it looks the same as the iPhone 5, and is the same size and weight – hey, you can recycle last year’s case.
Apple iPhone 5S: Fingerprint sensor
This is the first phone to have a fingerprint sensor, but as you’d expect from Apple it’s the execution of this feature which is outstanding. It's sublimely easy to register your digits – you can store details for up to five fingers or thumbs – and it works flawlessly. Only when I had water or dust on my finger did it fail to recognise me first time. At first I thought this was going to be nothing more than a show-off gimmick, but the time saved in not inputting my four digit pass code won me over very quickly. Expect rival companies to have similar devices soon.
I have no fear of someone reading my code over my shoulder, and there’s something pleasingly intimate about the experience, knowing that your phone responds to you alone.
Apple iPhone 5S: Performance
The 5S is tremendously fast, from the way apps leap into life to the build-in-an-instant web pages in Safari. This is all down to the Apple A7 processor which is extremely powerful, way more than the phone needs, probably. As apps are developed to exploit this power, expect games with eye-popping graphics and intensive business applications to shine. For now, it’s just very fast and shows off the new iOS 7 software, just out, at its best.
The A7 has a little helper in the form of the M7 coprocessor which monitors movement in the phone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. By analysing this data, the M7 knows if you’re walking, driving or away from your phone. First of all, that means it can save battery by not contacting the network too often if it senses you’re not there. Secondly, it means Maps can seamlessly switch from driving to walking instructions when it realises you’ve parked up and are on foot. And thirdly it will lead to new apps that make the most of this.
That’s really where Apple is better than any other company: at creating a vivid, appealing blank canvas that responds to the ingenuity of app developers. Expect the M7 to be crucial in the near future to incoming apps.
Battery life on the iPhone 5S is pretty good, though daily recharges are definitely necessary. It’s no match for the Sony Xperia Z1, for instance, or the Samsung Galaxy S4. It’s no worse than the iPhone 5, but it would’ve been great to see an improvement.
Apple
Apple iPhone 5S: Camera
The camera on the iPhone five was always pretty decent, though it excelled more for simplicity and ease-of-use van out and out image quality. This camera has the same pixel count, eight megapixels, but it has a larger sensor so the individual pixels are bigger and therefore better at accurately measuring light. The pixels here are 1.5 microns, and only one phone, the HTC One, has bigger pixels.
But what really sets the camera apart on this phone is down to that fast A7 processor which ensures there is absolutely no shutter lag on this phone. Where rival camera phones show a considerable pause before they shoot, this one is instant. It works especially well in burst mode where 10 frames per second are taken.
Other new features include a highly attractive slow motion video mode which shoots at 120 frames per second. There aren’t enough pixels here to zoom in massively without losing useful resolution, as with the Sony Xperia Z1 and Nokia Lumia 1020, but the convenience, speed and f/2.2 aperture make this a highly persuasive cameraphone.
Apple iPhone 5S: Software
The iPhone 5S comes preloaded with the latest operating software, iOS 7. This is the glitzy, colourful software designed by Apple’s Jony Ive. It has a bunch of new features, including FaceTime audio, which works like the video-calling system to route voice calls via a data connection rather than the conventional mobile network. If you have a decent data signal, the call quality is terrific and saves on your minutes if you don’t have an unlimited bundle.
The new OS has radical departures in every direction, not all brilliant. For instance, the Calendar app no longer has the option to show events in a list, or shows today’s appointments under the month’s calendar. But this is a rare exception – most apps are cleaner, more attractive and easier to use.
And then there’s the gorgeous parallax effect which makes the phone look amazing the moment you pick it up. The new iOS 7 is all about layers and the phone now makes the shortcut icons seem to float above the wallpaper in a deeply eye-catching way.
Apple
Apple iPhone 5S: Verdict
Every new iPhone is lambasted by critics for being not enough of a leap forward. It then sells in enormous numbers. At first glance the iPhone 5 S looks just like last years model, but so much more processing power has been squeezed inside that this is genuinely a significant update. The camera is a great improvement but remains simple to use. The central check means this is a real performance phone, but never slows down. And the fingerprint sensor, which could so easily have been an annoying, inefficient gimmick, is wholly persuasive. Easily the best iPhone yet, it’s also the most advanced smartphone on the market.
http://tech.uk.msn.com/mobiles/apple-iphone-5s-review
