Love
The 2013 iPhones are now official, and we’ve had a few hours to process the announcements, go over all the new details Apple’s made available, and start bringing you some opinions about this new hardware. While neither device is an outright game-changer, and there are sure to be plenty of people upset at what Apple didn’t change, like keeping the same 4-inch 1136 x 640 display or delivering another 8-megapixel camera.
On the other hand, I think there’s a lot to like from these models, and a more than a few areas where Apple clearly delivered some valuable improvements. Let’s take a look at five of the best decisions Apple made when designing this hardware
1. The iPhone 5S Camera
But didn’t I just say… sure, there’s another 8-megapixel camera on the iPhone this year, but this is a perfect example of how dangerous it is to focus on just one spec in the camera world – heck, with smartphones in general, for that manner. Yes, there are just as many light-sensitive pixels on this year’s 5S as last year’s 5, but that only tells a fraction of the whole story.
I’ve stated time and time again that the most valuable improvement an OEM can make to the cameras on its phones isn’t throwing more megapixels at them, or even playing around with optical stabilization – it’s the size of the sensor that matters.
Problem is, that can be an expensive way to improve a camera, but this time it’s just what Apple’s doing, and the 8MP camera on the 5S has a sensor that’s 15% bigger than the 8MP camera on the iPhone 5. Combined with a larger aperture, and improvements to the optics, and we get a very smart, much appreciated camera upgrade.
2. The 64-bit A7
Just as the move to 64-bit processors spread across the PC market over the course of the past decade, so too is it finally coming to smartphones with the A7 chip in the iPhone 5S.
We’ve been looking forward to a development like this for a while now, and have taken the time to talk to you about why 64-bit will matter more and more for smartphones going forward. Clearly, someone was going to have to get the ball rolling, but it’s quite interesting seeing this development come from Apple.
After all, despite the great performance from its chips over the years, there’s always been a sense that Apple’s been off dancing to its own tune, ignoring industry-wide pressures like the race for core count. That freedom has given the company the ability to concentrate on performance elsewhere, and so we find ourselves hearing the announcement of the 64-bit A7 today.
We’ll need more time to give the hardware a spin for ourselves, but regardless of whatever specific performance improvements this chip offers the 5S over its predecessors, it’s still a great move for Apple and smartphones as a whole.
3. Colors, Colors, Colors
Say what you will about the gold option for the 5S , but the straight-up assortment of options Apple is giving iPhone 5S and 5C shoppers this year is like nothing we’ve ever seen before from the company.
I’ve got to wonder if Apple has been drinking a little of the Moto X Kool-Aid, because its online tool to preview combinations of the five iPhone 5C shells and the six available cases positively reeks of the Moto Maker.
That’s very much a good thing. Ignore all those Scrooges telling you that you’re killing your shot at finding a good resale value by not getting a plain, neutral-toned iPhone – this handset’s for you, not some cheapskate who buys year-old hardware, so get the phone you want, now.
4. Touch ID
I seriously cannot believe I’m writing this, having been a big fingerprint scanner nay-sayer, but dammit: what Apple’s cooked up for the 5S looks good.
The proof will be in the pudding; we’ll still have to see just well this feature performs when we get some actual hardware in-hand, but my first impression is hugely more favorable than I would have thought possible.
I attribute that both to the tech, which sounds capable of doing some pretty high-quality scans, as well as the aesthetics of this home-button-mounted scanner. Really, Apple wouldn’t have had the slightest chance if it went with an edge-mounted swipe scanner like on the Motorola Atrix 4G – instead, this is refined, elegant, and utterly unobtrusive. It works with how you already use the phone, and the choice of exotic materials – again with the sapphire glass – really shows that Apple didn’t want to cut any coroners with the Touch ID experience.
5. LTE Bands Like Whaaaat
Apple’s been getting a lot better with the sort of cellular bands supported by iPhones over the years. We saw it finally add T-Mobile support earlier this year, after the carrier’s users had been stuck using unofficial BYOD iPhones on its 2G network for ages, but today’s big news is about LTE connectivity.
Last year, the iPhone 5 supported a mere handful of LTE bands. The CDMA version was the big winner, with five bands covered, but the international GSM version supported a paltry three.
This year, the worst-supported options can operate on a minimum of seven LTE bands, and that’s for both the iPhone 5C and 5S. Elsewhere, we’re looking at ten, eleve, or even thirteen bands of supported LTE.
We’re not quite to the point where there’s a universal, global iPhone, but no matter which hardware you chose, this year’s options have far better LTE support than ever before.
These are just a few of the things to like about the new iPhone 5S and 5C. I’m sure I missed a few that might be near and dear to your own hearts, so speak up in the comments if you’d like to share your own take on what makes this year’s iPhone hardware so great.
Hate
The iPhone 5S is finally official, alongside its cheaper, “unapologetically plastic” sibling, the iPhone 5C. We have heard rumors of both since not long after the iPhone 5 launched last year, and the closer today’s event got, the more secrets started to spill out.
Today, we knew practically everything about both smartphones before Tim Cook & Co. ever took the stage. Many predicted today would be a fairly disappointing day for Apple fans. And while some seem infatuated with the color options of the 5C, the fingerprint scanner or A7 on the 5S, or iOS 7, there’s an air of discontent and gloom hanging over the Internet – like after paying and arm and a leg and waiting years to see your favorite band perform, only for them to play a short set of their absolute worst songs.
Every year, we see the same ho hum aftermath of the fall Apple announcements. But this year is different. There really isn’t a whole lot to be excited over, unless the new iOS 7 interface or fingerprint scanning blow your mind.
As such, we’ve composed a list of the five iPhone 5S disappointments.
Same storage as always
With ever-improving capabilities, graphics, and application libraries, storage space is more important than ever, particularly on devices that do not allow for expansion. The iPhone has come in the same exact storage capacities for years now.
We were surprised to see Apple not push the envelope in storage, considering competitors have caught up and started offering comparable storage capacities and 128GB NAND flash storage is being made by Toshiba, Samsung, Intel, and others. Sure, the more expensive storage options may have dug into the high profit margins Apple is so proud of, but it would have been the seriously bold move Apple needed this time around.
Nothing mind-blowing
To that end, there is nothing revolutionary or inspiring about the iPhone 5S. The closest feature to that is the fingerprint scanner, which quickly avoids the need to enter a PIN each and every time you pick up your phone.
In that sense, fingerprint scanning is useful, but quite limited. The Touch ID app opens the door for some great functionality in the future, such as social logins, faster App Store or iTunes purchases, etc.
Outside that, there isn’t anything worth getting too excited over. The A7 chip and its 64-bit architecture is great, but likely won’t yield a ton of improvements notable to most end users; the camera was already great, but with PureView and OIS, we all know it could be even better; iOS 7 is mostly skin deep; and the rest of the hardware is virtually the same.
The iPhone 5S is the epitome of iterative, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But this iPhone is missing a needed wow factor.
Seriously? … Gold?
The iPhone 5C comes in a a small selection of bright, pastel colors: yellow, green, blue, white, and red. The iPhone 5S comes in the two previously offered color options – black/slate (now called space gray) and white/silver – as well as a new color, gold.
In actuality, the gold color option is more along the lines of a champagne color. But … really? Gold?
We’d seen this color leak a few times, but we hoped it was fake. Is there anyone out there that actually likes the gold color option?
No optical image stabilization
It’s no secret the iPhone 5 is capable of taking some fantastic photos. Just like the two versions before it, the iPhone 4 and 4S, the iPhone 5 was wildly popular among photographers and photo enthusiasts – so much so, the term iPhonography was coined.
With the iPhone 5S, Apple improved the camera, and we’re quite thankful. Like HTC earlier this year with the One’s UltraPixel camera, Apple kept the same resolution while increasing the physical size of the sensor. At 1.5µ pixels, the 8-megapixel sensor will capture more light than 13-megapixel sensors of the same size. This is part of the reason the HTC One’s 4-megapixel camera is so impressive.
But that’s only half the story. The HTC One, like many other recent smartphone cameras (such as the Lumia 920, 1020, Note 3, etc.), utilizes optical image stabilization (OIS). The entire camera rig is stabilized mechanically to enable longer shutter times without the natural shakiness of your hand ruining the images. This is extremely useful in low-light situations. Instead of mechanical stabilization, a hardware feature, the iPhone 5S uses digital stabilization.
Despite the new dual-flash capabilities of the iPhone 5S, its low-light performance will suffer due to hardware limitation, unless you just so happen to have a camera mount, tripod, and third-party app handy at any given time.
There’s a reason OIS is quickly becoming a standard feature in mobile image sensing.
No NFC
To many, NFC is a useless feature with limited functionality. It’s a standard that hasn’t really taken off, despite hundreds of mobile devices actually coming equipped with the technology.
However, NFC is easily one of the most understated features around. It’s fantastic for quickly sharing small bits of data, even across multiple platforms. (You can send URLs between Android and Windows Phone by tapping to NFC-equipped phones together.) But it’s also useful for quick paring of Bluetooth devices, mobile payments, user-defined settings toggles from NFC tags, gathering information, and all sorts of other things.
Why Apple fails to recognize the full potential of NFC is beyond us, and once it finally does, we may actually see the full potential of NFC. We’re stuck in a catch-22 of sorts.
Source: Pocketnow
Tell us, readers. What do you hate about the iPhone 5S, if anything? If not, tell us what you love most about it in the comments below!
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