The iPhone 5S received mixed reactions as soon as it was announced.
Some loved the subtle, mostly under-the-hood, changes; others hated the
same thing. We take a look and decide for ourselves.
Design
Physically, it's the same as the iPhone 5 with a few more color
options. It retains the aluminum build, the slim dimensions, and the
overall premium appearance.
Display
One of the biggest disappointments for the new iPhone has been the
display. Don't get me wrong -- the 4-inch Retina display is still
awesome, with excellent sharpness, vivid colors, and all that good
stuff. With a market spoiled on large high-res screens packing the
same qualities, though, you couldn't really help but want more.
Seriously, when using photo, video, and graphic apps, the experience
with large displays just makes 4 inches feel lacking.
Camera
The improved camera on the 5S is arguably the phone's biggest selling
point. Sure, there are tons of smartphones with superb cameras now, bu
the 8.0 megapixel snapper on the iPhone remains stellar, with super
photo quality, a heavy load of features (e.g. true burst mode), a "True
Tone" flash, and similarly impressive 1080p video recording.
Touch ID
One of the most talked-about features on the iPhone 5S is Touch ID,
which puts an actual fingerprint sensor on the phone, right on the same
place where the home button is. Unlike many phones that implemented
fingerprint sensors in the past, Touch ID feels very natural and
seamless, as if you're not doing anything you wouldn't normally do on a
phone when checking in. As of now, Touch ID is implemented on only a
small part of the user experience (you can do it instead of entering a
passcode for some apps), but this will likely be expanded in future
iterations of the OS. Oh yeah, expect it to show up in many Apple
products, too, like iPads and Macs.
Features
All the usual smartphone fare are onboard, complete with a
graphically overhauled iOS 7 that feels different, but is familiar
enough to ease into. We love that Apple threw in the iWork app suite
for free, along with some nice new features like Control Center and file
transfer over AirDrop.
One of the forefronts it made serious strides on is graphics
performance. The games, especially those labeled as "5S-Optimized,"
just look stunning. The M7 co-processor, which aids in power
management, also serves as a dedicated fitness tracker hardware that is
starting to really revolutionize a lot of app features on the platform.
Performance
The A7 processor is a beast of a computing unit, posting serious
gains in performance over comparable tasks in the iPhone 5. Thing is,
not a lot of apps are able to take serious advantage of the new
processor's 64-bit muscle, so in many instances, you probably won't even
notice the supposed big step up.
Call quality remains similar to the iPhone 5, so we're guessing they
used near-exact implementations. It's good enough, though many current
smartphones we've tried sounded better. Battery life should last you an
entire day with moderate use.
Overall
Is the iPhone 5S a required upgrade from the last-generation device?
Probably not. It is faster, with a nifty fingerprint sensor and an
impressive secondary processor, although you can probably wait another
generation to see apps that truly take advantage of those new features.
If you're a power user who bleeds every inch of mileage you can get
from a phone, we guess you'll love playing around with the new iPhone's
power and the apps that will come in time. For everyone else, we're
betting next year's device kicks this one in so many places, you'll want
to upgrade immediately.
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