Apple’s lion share in the smartphone space has been slowly receding in the last couple of years, as competition from Android smartphones has been whittling away at the iPhone – to the point of not only matching its level of prestige and superiority, but even surpassing it. Frankly, the iPhone 4 was arguably the last smartphone in the company’s storied history to prove itself as a specs beast, seeing that the Retina display’s resolution was something that was thought of as being so ahead of its time. Despite the lessening gap between it and the rest of the competition in the field, its most recent flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5, has been able to retain its position in the industry as the most popular smartphone in the last year.
As history has shown us, we’re in one of those years where Apple decides to retain the styling and design of its previous iPhone, and simply spices things up in the specs department, as well as throwing in some other new goodies into the mix. In this particular case, the iPhone 5s brings forth a fancy schmancy new fingerprint scanner called Touch ID, a first of a kind 64-bit based Apple A7 mobile processor, and an updated iSight camera with larger sized pixels. Beyond the hardware goodness in tow with the iPhone 5s, it’s also sporting Apple’s biggest undertaking yet, iOS 7, which has been a long time coming.
With so much on the line, it’s still amazing to know that the iPhone 5s is going to be Apple’s flagship smartphone for the next one year. Knowing that, we bet you’re all curious to know how this latest endeavor will pan out – even more when there are a host of Android smartphones that push the boundary in the specs department. Is this going to be able to fend off the competition for the next year? Will it continue to stay at the head of the class? Does it even have the staying power anymore? Prepare yourself ladies and gentlemen! Let’s all find out, shall we?
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Design
No surprises here whatsoever, even more knowing that there’s that “s” letter attached to its name. Much like the other “s” attached iPhones, namely the 3GS and 4S, the iPhone 5s maintains its predecessor’s design to the teeth – with no noticeable nuances between the two. From its size, overall dimensions (4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 inches), profile thickness (0.3”), and weight (112 gr), it’s identical to the iPhone 5 before it. Whereas big phones seem to be the trend in the smartphone space, the iPhone 5s remains to be quaint in size when it’s compared to some of the other big named Android smartphones. Obviously, some will appreciate the more compact in-the-hand feel of the iPhone 5s.
Heck, even the overall styling and design hasn’t changed too, which can be seen as both a good or bad thing, depending on who you talk to of course. Employing the same iconic design as before, everything that made the previous handset is here again – like its chamfered beveled edges, uniform flat front & rear surfaces, button placements, and premium brushed aluminum rear casing. There's a slight change in the color scheme, as the black version now has “Space Gray” metal body, which is slightly lighter than the dark gray on the iPhone 5. And now, a new, third color is added – Gold.
No doubt, there’s still that premium attachment with the phone, which few smartphones in the space can match. Needless to say, the iPhone 5s’ construction is expectedly solid, with no creaks or hollowness found with its build quality. It’s able to withstand the usual wear and tear that smartphones are accustomed to experiencing, however, we find it unlikely to endure something more serious – such as lengthy drops.
Visually speaking, we’re not enamored by the iPhone 5s, rightfully so, seeing that it’s a recycled design. Despite that, though, it remains to be one of the more premium looking and feeling smartphones on the market.
Checking out the same metal banding that's hugging the iPhone 5s, all the same ports and buttons from before are once again here. On the left side, we have the silent switch and separated volume controls, while on the right, the slot for the handset's nanoSIM slot. Up top, the same power button sticks out ever so much from the surrounding area, and right on cue, it’s springy as we've come to expect. And lastly, the iPhone 5s' proprietary Lightning docking port, microphone, and internal speaker are lined in unison on the bottom edge.
In a landscape dominated by behemoth sized cameras, like the 41-megaixel beast in the Nokia Lumia 1020, the iPhone 5s is still packing the same 8-megapixel snapper from before, but it’s simply stuffed with even juicier internals. Everyone seems to think they have the correct recipe with their respective fancy termed camera technology, like HTC’s “Ultrapixel” or Motorola’s “Clear Pixel” cameras, but who says that Apple has is correct with the iPhone 5s? Right? Maybe they do, but one thing’s certain – the 8-megapixel iSight camera here benefits from a larger pixel size and aperture.
Specifically, pixel size this time around jumps up to 1.5µm, up from the iPhone 5’s previous 1.4µm size, which is supposed to improve with low lighting situations. Combined with an f2.2 aperture lens, it is said to see an increase of 33% with light sensitivity. Other neat features include a backside illuminated sensor, digital image stabilization, dual-LED flash (white & amber colors), HDR, panoramic, 1080p video recording, and slow-motion recording. Oh yeah, there’s also a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, which also employs a backside illuminated sensor, larger 1.9µm pixels, and 720p video recording. We’ll talk more about quality a bit later, seeing all of this mumbo-jumbo won’t matter if it can’t snap GOOD looking photos.
In part of keeping its iconic design, the iPhone 5s continues to flaunt a circular sized, recessed home button beneath its display. Indeed, the springiness is here yet again, however, as we closely inspect it with our eyes, there’s an apparent difference this time around. Low and behold folks, the home button that we all know and love now incorporates a biometric fingerprint sensor, which is protected soundly by sapphire crystal glass. It’s not the first time we’ve seen fingerprint scanner on phones, as the Motorola ATRIX 4G and older Windows Mobile phones like the LG eXpo featured fingerprint scanners of their own.
Unlike them, Apple’s take with its Touch ID fingerprint scanner relies on capacitive technology – whereas with the aforementioned devices, we were required to swipe our finger multiple times over their scanners to register. Setting it up is a breeze on the iPhone 5s, since it requires us to tap various regions of our finger over the sensor until it’s able to map out a good portion of it. Once completed, we’re able to unlock the iPhone 5s from the lock screen by merely placing our finger over the sensor. And it works flawlessly! Besides unlocking the phone, it’s used to confirm purchases, which helps to minimize the step of inputting our password. Concerned about privacy? Well, Apple specifically mentions that fingerprints are stored locally in the iPhone 5’s new A7 processor – as opposed to being stored in the clouds. So there’s no cause for alarm just yet, right?
Apple loves to think differently, but seriously, Touch ID isn’t necessarily an innovative thing. At the end of the day, its purpose is mainly reserved for unlocking the iPhone 5s – a neat gesture no doubt, but hardly something we’d consider profound. Just like other unlocking alternatives, such as Android’s face unlock, some people might view it as a novelty feature.
Display
Who knows if Apple will ever reclaim the bragging rights to having the most detailed smartphone display, but one thing is for sure – it’s certainly not the iPhone 5s. Donning the same screen as before, the iPhone 5s sports a 4-inch Retina Display that keeps its resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels – a figure that may not look so impressive on paper, but still delivers the pretty reasonable 326 ppi pixel density. Because of this, image clarity may not be as superb as on those 1080 x 1920 pixel displays out there, but in most cases, you'll never have an issue reading the new iPhone's screen.
The iPhone 5s' IPS-LCD based display continues to produce colors that are incredibly accurate in tone. It's probably the most accurate display on a smartphone, with nicely saturated, yet realistic colors, along with eye-catching, contrasting look and gamma that is close to perfect. Thankfully, its brightness output is also excellent, allowing for easy and comfortable viewing when outdoors. Oh, and did we mention that viewing angles are also superb? Yep, they certainly are.
The numbers below represent the amount of deviation in the respective property,observed when a display is viewed from a 45-degree angle as opposed to direct viewing.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone. Double click or press keyboard
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Drag the picture in the desired orientation to rotate the phone.
Interface and Functionality
Frankly, the most impressive thing to us on the iPhone 5s beyond everything else, is the new iOS 7 interface it’s running. Indeed, it’s available on other past iPhones too, but the folks over in Apple’s headquarters mainly sought to have people experience its vastness most with its latest smartphone. And why shouldn’t they, as the new software experience is a long time coming. We won’t go into too much detail regarding every minute thing we love and hate about the experience, since you can read more about it in our comprehensive review of iOS 7, but we’ll quickly graze over a few noteworthy things.
Visually it’s different, but it continues to maintain Apple’s core foundation of simplicity. For those out there that have grown fondly of using iOS, there isn’t anything entirely new to learn here with iOS 7, seeing that all of the features and functions of the experience are intact – albeit, the execution might vary with some things (multi-tasking view). And there’s a lot of attention to detail found throughout the new interface, like the translucent look of panels that are layered on top of one another, that show off the visual evolution of the platform. Can we also talk about the fonts? The addition of it helps to complement the overall minimalist look and feel of the experience.
Contrasting the spiffy new looks is iOS 7’s continued support of keeping it simple, to the point that newbies will have no issue navigating through the platform. Heck, even first timers will have a breeze understanding the intricacies of the platforms’ various functions. However, if we’re to nit-pick something, it has to be the new implementation Apple has decided to go with the multi-tasking aspect of the platform. Before, double tapping the home button enabled us to view all opened apps, which would allow us to “close” them down by long pressing on one of the icons – thus, causing the icons to jiggle in place with an “x” placed on top of them. With iOS 7, however, we’re now given webOS-like mini windows that require us to swipe up to close them down. Now, it’s still a practical function, but a tedious one at that.
Other things worth mentioning are iOS 7’s new Control Center and Notification Center. With the former, it’s wonderful we have access to common connectivity features of the iPhone, which beats having to go into the Settings just to enable thing like Airplane mode or Wi-Fi. On top of that, we have the ability to adjust the screen brightness, have access to the music player, and access to the flashlight function. And then there’s the new Notification Center, which aggregates all of our notifications. Although it’s broken down to different categories, it doesn’t seem as intertwined with some of the handsets apps – similar to how Android’s notification panel enables us to quickly archive emails. And then there’s Siri, who now talks in a more human-like voice, whereas before, Siri sounded too robotic.
Aside from all that, Apple has incorporated some cool effects like animated wallpapers (as in Android), which look pretty cool and can be interacted with using the accelerometer. Static wallpapers also move around as you tilt your device in various directions, creating a pleasing sense of depth.
Processor and Memory
Like we said, iOS 7 is what makes the iPhone 5s so darn enjoyable, seeing that it’s a refreshing sight for sore eyes. However, the iPhone 5s bears something that’s regarded as a first of its kind – a 64-bit based mobile processor! Generally speaking, most people gauge raw power by the amount of cores in the processor, and its clocked speed. For the everyday Joe, the notion of a 64-bit processor might not cause them to jump with joy, but nevertheless, it’s something that needs to be applauded.
Armed with Apple’s new A7 processor, which relies on 64-bit architecture, Apple claims that it doubles the performance of the iPhone 5’s CPU and GPU. In all seriousness, we can talk about how this new piece of silicone smokes its predecessor in all objective benchmarking categories, but we’ll simply say this – it’s fast. Did we really expect anything else? Not really, seeing that the iPhone in general is known to exude a consistent amount of fluidity and responsiveness with all functions – whether it’s basic stuff like opening apps, to more complex thing like playing graphically intensive titles.
Honestly though, we’re hard pressed to realize the most miniscule of differences between its performance against the iPhone 5, but it’s obvious that it’s similar in many aspects. Right now, the 64-bit processor’s potential can’t be seen or felt, but as developers optimize apps/games to it, we’re most certainly going to visualize the iPhone 5s’ performance superiority. In the greater scheme of things, it continues to be one of the snappiest smartphones around.
Asides the new 64-bit based Apple A7 processor, the iPhone 5s also so happens to package an accompanying M7 motion processor. Call it the companion processor or something else, but the M7 is dedicated to monitoring the iPhone 5s’ motion from data compiled by its accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass – so that battery life is extended, thus in turn, alleviating some of the slack from the A7. Although it’s something that’s not necessarily seen by us as we’re interacting with the phone, it helps to optimize the handset’s battery. For example, if they iPhone 5s is left alone for a long period of time, the A7 is able to realize that and adapts to the situation by disabling certain functions (like receiving data).
At one point, Apple was known to push storage capacities to the limit. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the introduction of the iPhone 5s, since it’s available in the same capacities as the iPhone 5 before it – 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB options. When everyone is snapping photos and 1080p videos, the 16GB base option seems oh-so insufficient, especially when some of its competition has made 32GB their minimum tally.
Messaging
It’s not the most spacious thing, but the iPhone 5s’ on-screen keyboard still proves itself as one of the best out there. Visually, the keyboard boasts white colored buttons that are surrounded by a grayish background color, but the layout is the same as before – so there’s nothing new to learn here. As always, the responsiveness and killer auto-correct feature of the keyboard aids us to type at a fanatical rate without worry. Better yet, we can also speak what we want to write down by tapping the microphone button on the keyboard. For the most part, it does a fantastic job transcribing what we speak.
Organizer
Like what we mentioned about the overall platform experience, we can say the same thing about its various organizer functions. All of the visuals have been updated with all the corresponding apps, but their functionalities have remained unchanged for the most part. So whether you’re using the Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Weather, Clock, Calculator, or Notes apps, there’s nothing really new to learn with them.
Using the default email client on the iPhone 5s, the visual presentation has changed, naturally, but we’re able to navigate through things relatively easily. There’s nothing to learn honestly, as all the functions from before are here.
Internet and Connectivity
The beloved Safari browser has made some good progress, as it now has a full-screen option in portrait mode, a unified search bar and a new tab view, which tends to be more convenient than the old one. You can still share webpages (now with AirDrop as well), bookmark, or add them to your reading list. Throwing in the usual 4G LTE connectivity with its new found snappy Apple A7 processor, the iPhone 5s delivers the goods with the experience – namely speedy page loads, buttery smooth navigational controls, and instant page rendering. So what’s there not to like about this one?
Interestingly, the iPhone 5s bears one feature that might be overlooked by the general population – its support for global LTE. In the US, the handset is available in GSM and CDMA flavors to play nicely with each of the four major wireless players’ different networks. Dissecting it even further, Apple manufactures four different versions of the iPhone 5s that operate under the various regions and mobile networks littered throughout the world. Beyond that, it lays claim to all the usual suspect of connectivity features we commonly expect to find – like aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. Despite its lack of NFC, which enables competing handsets to quickly share files amongst each other, the iPhone 5s employs something similar with its own feature called AirDrop, which is iOS 7’s version of file transfer via Wi-Fi local connectivity.
Camera
The stock Camera app has gotten a decent upgrade as well – it allows you to choose from a set of 8 photo filters, and it also sports a new 'square' photo mode, for those of you who would enjoy snapping square photos. The panorama picture option is once again here, of course, and so is HDR. If you've been hoping for some more advanced options, such as ISO, sharpness and so on, you're in for a disappointment, because the camera app is just as simple as before. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because it's incredibly fast and easy to use. If you'd like a more "manual" experience, well, you'll surely find an app for that. Although it’s not something entirely new, the iPhone 5s now offers the useful mode of burst shooting, which is accessed by merely pressing and holding onto the shutter key.
Alas, we now come to the point where shutterbugs are bound to know for sure if the iPhone 5s is indeed an improvement over the iPhone 5 in terms of picture quality via its updated 8-megapixel iSight camera. So what’s the final verdict on this one? Well, we can certainly say that it’s a valid claim, but its superiority is mostly reserved to low lighting quality. In fact, as we compare samples taken by the iPhone 5, we’re unable to actually tell the two apart with their outdoor quality. It’s not a bad thing honestly, seeing that it’s rich with sharp details and warmer toned colors to continue making it one of the best in its class. Also, it handles dynamic range fairly well too, as both light and dark areas are well exposed.
The true telling, however, is most evident with its low lighting quality, which is attributed due to the combination of its backside illuminated sensor, larger aperture f2.2 lens (f2.4 for the iPhone 5), and larger sized pixels (1.5µm vs 1.4µm) thanks to the 15% bigger sensor (from 1/3.2” in the iPhone 5, to 1/3.0” in the 5s). Not only are images brighter in tone in lower lighting situations, thus, exposing more details than the iPhone 5, but there’s also less blurring and haziness too. Essentially, it translates to images that rival the sharpness and clarity of outdoor shots – though, details of course, are a smidgen softer looking. With this new model, it’s sporting not one, but two LED flashes. Through the combination of its white and amber colored LED flashes, the iPhone 5s composes images that have a more balanced look with colors. And yes, it’s extremely potent as well, enabling it to light things up as far as 7 feet away!
Packing an HDR mode as well, images clearly make good use of the various exposures that the iPhone 5s snaps up. Naturally, dynamic range is handled exquisitely in HDR mode, seeing that the handset does a bang up job of performing its post processing effects to get the best result.
Previewing its 1080p video recording quality, there’s not a whole lot different here that jumps at us. Certainly, it produces videos that are most pleasing to the eyes, as it’s filled with plenty of visual eye candy – like its sharp details, accurate colors, smooth recording, progressive exposure adjustment, and clear audio recording. Sure, there are a few instances of artifacting that’s evident every now and then as we pan quickly, but it’s hardly a distracting element. One of these days Apple is going to get it right, but alas, we’re only presented with touch focus yet again.
Mixing things up, the iPhone 5s has a neat-o high definition slow motion recording mode as well. Specifically, it shoots the video at a blazing fast rate of 120 fps, enabling us to select when to apply the slow motion mode by merely adjusting the cropping marks in the video timeline. Without a doubt, it’s a pretty cool and slick feature, especially when the audio also receives the same slow motion treatment as well. Depending on the action that’s being shot, you can seemingly get a cool Matrix-like effect with this particular mode.
Multimedia
It might not sport fancy looking 3D visual effects, but the Photos app of iOS 7 also gets its long deserved update. Running the app, we have quick access to looking through photos stored locally on the iPhone 5s, and others stored in the cloud via Photo Stream. Everything is once again presented in the customary 2D scrollable view, but the organization of content has been improved considerable – as we can view them according to date, album, or location. Not only do we have quick sharing via the usual portals (Messages, Mail, iCloud, Twitter, Facebook, & Flickr), we can also share then through iOS 7’s new AirDrop feature.
Say it ain’t so?? The music player is no longer carrying the app’s usual flare in its cover-flow mode! Yes, you heard that right folks, cover-flow mode is no longer seen with the music player, as it’s been replaced by this resizable album cover grid layout when tilting the phone sideways to landscape. Seriously, it’s not as flashy! Despite the omission of cover-flow, the functions of the music player are intact. As for the presentation, it boasts the same lovable visual improvement we see throughout the platform, but for the most part, it’s still rather conventional looking – it doesn’t try to be flashy.
However, we do appreciate the addition of iTunes Radio, which is Apple’s new streaming music service that’s similar to Pandora. When it comes to audio output from its internal speaker, we can attest that it doesn’t differ whatsoever from what we’ve seen with the iPhone 5 already. It’s potent, but nothing earth shattering.
Copying videos to the iPhone 5s continues to be a process of its own, mainly due to the requirement of having us to convert them to properly load. Regardless of that, the smartphone is a decent offering when it comes to watching videos. Why only decent? Well, we’ll point out that high definition videos play flawlessly and without any hitches, but considering that larger screens prove to be more suitable for the experience, the 4-inch Retina Display seems rather quaint when compared to its rivals. Still, it suffices for the occasion.
Apple didn’t really expand on anything related to the iPhone 5s’ call quality during its unveiling, so that’s probably why we don’t notice anything different this time around with its quality. In fact, it’s identical to the iPhone 5, as its earpiece emits a potent punch with its volume output – enabling us to comprehend our callers with ease. At the same time, our callers clarify to us that they’re presented with rich, natural sounding voices that aren’t muddied on their end of the line. However, when we switch to its speakerphone, we can make out a subtle hint of distortion with voices, but it’s nothing too detrimental to the experience. Oh yeah, its noise-cancelling feature is yet again spot on this time around, as it instantly is able to mute out background distortions.
Battery
Something we’ve come to expect with the announcement of any new iPhone, Apple claims that the iPhone 5s delivers better battery life than its predecessor. Despite the claim, we don’t actually notice any better battery life this time around, since we’re still getting the same 1 day tally of normal usage from a full charge – while heavy usage permits us roughly 10 hours. Considering the newer and more potent processor it’s packing along for the ride, we can’t complain about the single day of usage, but it would be a nice change of pace to see its tally increased from that.
We measure battery life by running a custom web-script,designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage.All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.
Crazy to believe it, but this phone has been seeing competition long before its arrival on the scene. Heck, you can argue that everyone was trying to one-up the iPhone 5s way before the first round of juicy rumors came up to the surface, but now that it’s finally here in the flesh, it’s rather interesting to see how the landscape plays out as we near the busy holiday season – as well as the end of the year. Everyone has been wondering if this particular iPhone can still put up a fight, especially when it’s vying for success in an already crowded market filled with big named smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1, LG G2, and the Motorola Moto X.
From a specs standpoint, we can argue that all those aforementioned smartphones would most certainly manhandle the iPhone 5s multiple times over. However, as consumers are being bombarded on all sides by these specs beasts, the iPhone 5s proves once again something we’ve come to embrace dearly – it works in all the aspects of what makes a smartphone so darn lovable to use. And knowing that, we're sure it’ll continue to be a benchmark device.
Seriously, it’s a premium constructed phone. It has a great quality screen. It’s snappy with its performance. It captures stunning photos and videos. Its call quality is undeniably above average. Its battery life is enough to get us through a single day of normal usage. And yes, even the software on the phone has finally been updated with a more modern presentation. Lastly, it’s just simple to use and operate. So what more can we ask, right?
Obviously, it’s not the most mouthwatering inducing iPhone we’ve seen to date, but considering that it hits the mark in the categories that matter the most, the iPhone 5s proves itself as being a feared competitor in the space. Like we said, there’s nothing in the specs or hardware department that would terrify its rivals, but the updated iOS 7 experience is enough to make this iPhone look and feel different from past ones. That brand new 64-bit A7 processor is unique; however, its true potential isn’t seen or felt that much right now. Rather, we’ll more than likely experience it in the very near future, when third-party app developers begin to take advantage of it. For the money, starting at $200 on-contract, the iPhone 5s is definitely a worthy option fit for your hard earned money.
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