All You Need to Know About iPhone 5S
Apple’s Cupertino event has come and gone, and finally, we’re getting to see the company’s latest baby – the iPhone 5S. Confirming months of speculation and leaks, the iPhone 5S will indeed come in a Gold color, and 2 more in fact – Black, and ‘Space Grey’. What else does the iPhone 5S feature? Here’s all you need to know about it.
The Features of The iPhone 5S
On the outside, the iPhone 5S is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor. The same 4 inch Retina display, the same thickness (7.6mm), and the same build will might have anyone confuse it for the iPhone 5. However, some features do stand out.
As the leaks suggested, the phone does feature a dual “True Tone” LED flash for improved low light photography. True Tone will help balance the colors on the pictures, making the iPhone the first phone to have color variable temperature flash.
Of course, the most talked about feature is the integration of the fingerprint sensor. Called Touch ID, the system consists of a fingerprint reader embedded in the home button, which is now made of sapphire. Rumors that the new iPhone would ship with a fingerprint reader sparked off last year itself, when Apple acquired security firm AuthenTec.
Touch ID will scan your fingerprints in any orientation, allowing you to unlock your device, or confirm app or music purchases on the App store or iTunes store. You can also store multiple fingerprint records for the same device, allowing your family and friends to access your iPhone without needing your finger. The ‘ring’ on the home button is prominent, distinguishing it from the iPhone 5.
Although it wouldn’t completely satisfy paranoid users – Apple claims all your fingerprint information and data will be stored locally on the device only. It will not be sent outside – to any of Apple’s servers, or even to iCloud.
The Performance
There seem to be some good improvements packed inside the iPhone 5S. It is now powered by Apple’s new A7 processor, which the company says is the first 64 bit chip on a smartphone. Apple is claiming an incredible 40x increase in CPU speed along with an equally astonishing 56x increase in graphics performance. Games should be more fun than before – with support for OpenGL ES 3.0
Although still an 8 megapixel shooter, the camera now has a bigger f/2.2 aperture lens, allowing in more light per pixel. Paired with the Dual-LED flash, this should be a big boost to low light photography. The on-board software takes care of the adjustments, such as white balance and auto-focus on its own.
The camera is capable of shooting burst mode photos at 10 fps. There’s 1080p video recording at 30fps of course, but a new addition is slow-motion videos at 720p quality, or at 120fps. Additionally, you can also take 28 megapixel panorama images. The front iSight camera can take still images at 1.2 megapixels, and shoot videos at 720p.
The iPhone 5S will ship with iOS 7 – the latest version of Apple’s iOS. iOS 7 is a major overhaul for iOS, featuring entirely new colors, layout, themes and features.
The iPhone 5S will support 13 LTE bands, more than any other phone in the world. According to Apple, the device will be made available to over 100 countries by December this year. Unfortunately, Apple still hasn’t added NFC support. Neither has it added Wi-Fi 802.11ac capability, or DLNA.
Apple is claiming a battery life of 10 hours on for LTE and Wi-Fi browsing and 3G talktime, or 8 hours for 3G browsing. Standby will give you 250 hours.
Availability
The iPhone 5S will start at $199 on a two year contract for the 16 GB variant. The 32 GB version will be made available for $299, and the 64 GB variant will be available for $399. It will release on September 20th on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. The slightly lower-priced variant – the iPhone 5C, will be launched simultaneously. Apple’s website lists the unlocked version for the iPhone 5S starting at $649.
Pre orders begin on September 13th.