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Reviewed: Apple iPhone 5S

On the 10th of September Apple execs took to the stage, at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, and showed off three new things. The first was iOS 7 – a revamp of the company’s mobile operating system for the iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone. The second was its attempt at a budget iPhone, the 5C – a device that’s mostly an iPhone 5 in a slick plastic shell. Since the 5 is still a good phone, we have no doubt the 5C will be as well.

But the grand unveiling was the one everybody had been waiting for: a new high-end iPhone. As anticipated, Apple simply added an S to the 5, and gave us a 5S – a practice it started with the 3G and 3GS, then followed up with the 4 and 4S. What’s new? What’s changed? How is it better? Should you get one? Well, we bought one in the US, on launch day, and now you can read on to find out what’s in store.

Design

Pictured next to the 5, it's physically identical.
Pictured next to the 5, it’s physically identical.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the design for the iPhone 5S that hasn’t been said before. Not because we’re lazy and deferring to other reviews, but just because it’s pretty much exactly the same as the design used for the iPhone 5. An all-aluminium chassis with a glass front; two coloured glass inserts on the rear aluminium panel; and chamfered edges on the metal frame.

While the 5 was available in white with a silver frame, and black with a slate frame, this year’s phones swap things up. The 5S can be had in a choice of three new colour designs: white glass with either silver or gold anodised aluminium, or a black glass in a darker aluminium colour called space grey. While we’ve yet to see the gold model in person to assess whether it lives up to the hype, we’ll just have to believe those online who say they have one and that it’s beautiful.

Our review unit is space grey, and compared to the scratch-prone slate iPhone 5, it looks a bit nicer. But looks are subjective.

Other than the colours, which only real geeks are likely to spot, the only physical differences on the iPhone 5S are the home button and the camera’s flash. The former is surrounded by a metal ring, used for the fingerprint sensor, and also flatter (but still indented). It lacks the iconic rounded square graphic seen on previous iPhones. The latter now houses two LEDs – but more on that when we get to the camera.

Performance

Inside last year’s same aluminium shell sits an all-new dual-core processor called the A7. Apple correctly claims that this is the first 64-bit processor in a mobile phone. The day the iPhone was announced, Intel announced its new Atom processors for mobile use, also with 64-bit capabilities, and Samsung has since also announced that its next device would use a 64-bit chip.

Does it matter, though? At a high level, yes. Developers now have a few more technical resources at their disposal for creating more demanding applications that work with larger data strings. On the face of it, most users won’t notice or, likely, care. The choice to go 64-bit now is a trump card for Apple, but it won’t be an absolute necessity until phones and tablets start shipping with 4GB of RAM, or more. A 64-bit processor can address more than 4GB of memory, while the current 32-bit chips (used in every other phone) can only address up to around 3.5GB of memory before running into actual mathematical limitations.

The move to 64-bit now suggests that Apple is starting to prepare developers for a future in which its tablets and phones all have 64-bit processors. Developers can start coding for the next generations of iPhones and iPads, so that when those arrive

But right here, in the present, the iPhone 5S still has 1GB of RAM, just like its predecessor. To be fair, it’s a new type of memory that uses less power and runs faster. Combined with the A7’s speed increase there are definite benefits to be had right now. Applications launch faster, there is more graphics processing power, so newer games that harness the 5S’s capabilities will look better.

Should you upgrade for the speed alone? We wouldn’t go so far as to say that. If you’re still using an iPhone 5 you’re fine. iPhone 4 and 4S owners, though, will notice the speed – especially now that iOS 7 runs on all devices. It can be a bit heavy on resources, and those stuck on older devices will want to consider the 5S if they’re experiencing sluggishness and slowdowns.

Camera

Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.

While the speed increase is welcome and the future-proof 64-bit processor is a comforting thought, they won’t be must-haves, for most people. However, the new camera is a real beauty. Even coming from an iPhone 5, which also has an 8-megapixel camera, there is a noticeable difference – mostly thanks to Apple’s choice to use a physically larger sensor. While it still captures eight million pixels, each of those pixels is physically larger, on the image sensor. This means that they are more sensitive to light, and as a result low-light performance benefits drastically.

The shot on the left was snapped at night, from the balcony of a restaurant. The new sensor with its more-sensitive pixels works a real treat in cases like this, where ideal light isn’t available. When viewed at 100% crop there is some noise, as can be expected, but it remains remarkably sharp. For more shots taken with the iPhone 5S, check out the gallery below.

There’s also a new flash. Apple’s included two LEDs for the flash: a regular white LED, and then a warmer yellow one. The camera uses its own magic to determine when to fire the flashes, but the result is that photos will have more natural tones to them, rather than a bluish hue thanks to the white LED.

Two of the new features in the camera are made possible by the aforementioned A7 processor and its welcome speed boost. There is now a high-speed burst mode that takes full-size photos at ten frames per second. That’s ten 8-megapixel photos in a second – and you can hold the shutter button down until 999 photos have been taken. In practice that might prove to be overkill, but that it’s possible is pretty awesome. In testing, a burst of between 10 and 40 frames was enough to secure a great shot. The camera app not only preselects the best phot

os of the bunch (those with the least blurry results), it even bundles all the burst photos together, so you don’t have 40 identical littering your camera roll. To see it in action, check out the Vine on the right, where we fired up the camera from the lock screen and immediately held down the shutter to start shooting.

The other camera feature that’s made possible by the faster processor is the slow-motion video mode. This captures 720P high-def video at 120 frames per second, and lets you play it back at regular speeds of 30 frames per second. That means playback speed is a quarter of the recorded speed, effectively slowing down what you recorded. It works very well… but there is a catch.

Videos shot using the slow-motion mode can be viewed fine on the iPhone 5S, but copy them to your computer and you’ll only be able to watch them at regular speed. The actual files are still 120fps video clips, but media players will not slow them down. To do this, on a computer, you’ll need a video editing package. Fine for Mac users, who have iMovie, but Windows users will need to download at least Windows Movie Maker.

Even if you keep them on your phone, you can only play them in slow-motion using the Camera or Photos apps. You cannot, for instance, upload a slow-motion video to Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Those apps don’t support it yet, but hopefully they’ll be updated.

Bottom line: slow mo video is really cool – see the embedded clips we recorded, below – but right now it’s not the “it just works” experience we’ve come to expect from Apple products. The number of steps involved in sharing a slow-mo clip or editing one for uploading are just more than most people might bother with.

Fingerprint sensor

Right, let’s not ignore the other big feature on the 5s: that fingerprint sensor. It should be noted that Apple isn’t the first company to use this technology in a mobile device – many have had it before. But, at the risk of sounding like unashamed Apple fans, Apple has definitely done it right with the 5S.

On every other device where we’ve seen a fingerprint reader, it’s been a bar-type sensor that required the user to slide their finger across its surface. Apple has gone for a far more elegant approach, implementing the sensor into that sapphire crystal home button. No sliding of fingers, and consequently dropping phones. You just hold your print in place and it gets read in around half a second.

There are a number of ways to get this done. To show them all in action, we’ve made a few Vine videos.

Most convenient of all is just holding your thumb or forefinger on the home button for half a second before pressing it. This action lets it authenticate the fingerprint before the screen switches on, so when you press the home button the phone immediately unlocks. Alternatively, you can hit the home button first and hold your finger in place until it unlocks.

It’s not instantaneous, but scanning takes less than a second. It’s definitely faster than swiping and having to enter a passcode. Those who’ve developed the muscle memory of swiping and typing in a PIN will still find themselves doing so for the first week, but after that the convenience of simply hitting one button takes over. This is bound to be a bit of tech that finds its way into all other Apple products, we think.

button

The fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S is definitely intended as a convenience feature. Rather than fiddling and having to enter a 4-digit (or longer) passcode each time you unlock the phone, you simply use your fingerprint to unlock it. Apple doesn’t market it as a security feature. If you have very sensitive information on your device, and are likely to be targeted by people who want access to it, then stick to a secure passcode. There have already been reports that the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S has been hacked, but as one internet commenter put it: that’s like taking high-res photos of your keys and saying your door locks have been hacked.

Our only gripe, though, is that the reader is currently only in use by two bits of iOS. You can unlock your phone with your print, and you can also authenticate purchases on the iTunes Store using your print – bypassing the need to enter a lengthy Apple ID password.

iOS 7 will have a shared password keychain with Mac OS X, in a future update, and if we were betting people we’d go as far as saying that perhaps that would be a third use for the fingerprint sensor. Using it to log into websites, for which the iPhone already has stored passwords, would be a great way to justify its use. It’s no gimmick right now, integration with Keychain would immediately sell many people on it.

Battery life and connectivity

With the big features covered we can now move onto the things that are still there, but haven’t changed much. The display on the iPhone 5S is still a 4-inch Retina model, with a native resolution of 1164 x 640. Colour and brightness remain unchanged, and it’s still great to look at. Some might say that the size is where they expect the next big change to be, but it comes down to taste. A number of staffers in the htxt.africa offices have found the tall and slim iPhone to be better for single-hand usage. Devices with larger displays are wider and not conducive to one-hand typing. Either way, Apple’s stuck with this display, and there’s really nothing wrong with it.

Battery life has improved slightly, and during our week of testing the 5S ended up with around 30% charge remaining at bed time. This compares well to the 5, which would be closer to 20% or less, and definitely in need of a charge by the end of a work day. This will vary, though. Some people have seen better figures from the 5 or even the 3GS. It really comes down to usage patterns, screen brightness, and which services you’ve left on. When using the 5S for photography, the processor got hot in a hurry and drained the battery faster than the 5 would. We could run an extensive battery of comparative tests, but just because we get 11 hours doesn’t mean another person will. Overall, the 5S seems to be more efficient in regular day-to-day use.

Apple’s also not changed the wireless connectivity on the phone. Just like the iPhone 5, the 5S features 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy. The latter is great because it can be left on without significantly impacting battery life, as previous iterations of Bluetooth were known to do. Apple’s decision to use the same 802.11n wireless hardware, though, might irk some. Its new desktop and notebook Mac computers, as well as its Airport Express and Airport Extreme wireless base stations, use the newer, faster 802.11ac standard. It’s a given that the next iPhone will support that standard, but in the meantime the 5S sits on 802.11n. It’s not a train smash, though. In our testing it streamed HD files just fine, and coverage was as good as our router would get.

Conclusion

For the last three iPhone announcements Apple has been chastised for not innovating enough. Compare the 5S to the iPhone 4, though, and there is a huge difference. There’s also the fact that each S generation is a fine-tuned version of an existing product; an iPhone on steroids, if you will. The changes here are under the skin. The inclusion of that 64-bit processor is a strategic move, but thankfully it does have real benefits. The fingerprint sensor is cool, but we can’t wait for it to be used more widely by the operating system. And the camera… well, that’s the biggest take away from our time with the 5S. It’s the best new hardware feature – and that’s totally ignoring iOS 7. Once everybody has gotten over the race for larger screens, cameras will be – wait for it – the next focussing point, and here Apple has a head start.

topdown

If you still have an iPhone 5, don’t worry – it’s not obsolete, and you don’t have to upgrade right now. But when you eventually do get an iPhone 6 or 6S, the tech that’s been introduced with the 5S will be the things that make you smile the most, especially since they’ll be more mature.

But if you have a 4S or older, you’re in for a treat. If you intend on upgrading to an iPhone 5S when it launches in December or January, you best start lining up right now.

Design 5/5
Performance 5/5
Battery life 4/5
Value for Money 3/5
Display 4/5
Handling 5/5
Interface 4/5

Overall 5/5

Detail

Price: R9 300 (US price plus taxes, converted to rands)
Contact: Apple

Display: 4-inch Retina display, 1164 x 640 resolution
Processor: Apple A7 processor, with M7 co-processor
Memory:
1GB RAM
Storage: 64GB
Camera:
 8-megapixel rear, 1.2-megapixel front
Networking: LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, 802.11n wireless
Sensors: Gyroscope, accelerometer, fingerprint identity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor

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