Apple’s much anticipated iPhone related event was held Yesterday, and after months of rumors, guessing and hoping, we finally have the new iPhon 5S, and the iPhon 5C. Here’s a recap of everything Apple revealed:
The iPhone 5S
The new iPhone 5S
The new iPhone 5S, now in 3 colors
- Just as we expected, the iPhone 5S’ home button pulls double duty as a fingerprint scanner. Apple dubs the feature “Touch ID.” The scanner adds another layer of security to your iPhone by allowing you to use the fingerprint scanner in lieu of a passcode. Place your thumb down on the new sapphire crystal home button and the iPhone 5S will unlock. The silver ring around the home button will detect when your finger is on it so you don’t have to actually press down on the button.
- Will be identical in look compared to the iPhone 5, apart from the icon-less home button that has a silver (or gold) ring around it to signify the 5S-exclusive fingerprint scanner.
- Faster processor and memory. Powering the iPhone 5S is Apple’s new A7 processor which is a 64-bit chip. It’s the first 64-bit chip in a smartphone and it’ll make the iPhone 5S two times faster than the iPhone 5 (and 40 times faster than the original iPhone). The 5S runs OpenGL ES 3.0 which makes the graphics performance in the 5S pretty gnarly too (that’s 56x faster than original iPhone, which yay, I guess?). The A7 chip has 3x general-purpose registers, 2x floating-point registers and over a billion transistors. Along with the A7, Apple is using a “motion coprocessor” in the 5S called the M7. It continuously measures motion data with an accelerometer, gyroscope and compass support. It’s supposed to “enable a new generation of health and fitness apps” by letting apps use all that motion data without tapping into the A7.
The redesigned home button, icon-less with a fingerprint scanner.
- Apple puts extreme focus on the camera and this time was no different: The iPhone 5S has dual-LED flash that might make the flash on the iPhone camera actually usable. The dual-LED flash—one is white and the other is amber—in the 5S may help make your pictures look more natural and balanced because the iPhone can combine the right percentage and intensity of the two bulbs to create 1,000 different variations of a flash. Also, the camera has 33 percent greater light sensitivity, which will make for better looking pictures.
- There will be a gold/champagne colored version of the iPhone 5S, together with the white and black.
- Better battery life: The iPhone 5S has slightly better battery life with ten hours talk time, ten hours LTE browsing, and 250 hours standby. That’s an improvement over last year’s eight hours of talk time, eight hours of LTE browsing and 225 hours of standby. We’ll have to see how this actually translates in real world use though.
iPhone 5S Fingerprint Scanner
iPhone 5C
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The most notable upgrade (other than color) is that the 5C does come with “slightly” better battery life. Other than that, though, you’re just finding more of the same guts. The 5C comes packing Samsung-made A6 chips that are identical to those that powered the iPhone 5 before it. The exact same. As in no changes whatsoever. No a& chip for the iPhone 5C, yet. Still, although you’re getting the same 8MP iSight camera, Apple promises it will support all the features of iOS7’s new fancy camera software. And the new HD front-side camera is a pretty nice trade-off—the previous version wasn’t so hot.
- The device will come with a black front-face, but the back shells will come in white, red, blue, yellow, green, and pink.
The new iPhone 5C
- Jony Ive said it best: “iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic.” It’s definitely not ashamed of its plastic. Unfortunately, the 5Cs come with black fronts instead of the white ones we were expecting.
- Price: The 16GB iPhone 5C will cost $100 with a two year contract, the 32GB model is $200. Off contract prices are way rougher: $550 and $650 respectively. Ouch. You’ll be able to pre-order one this Friday and get it Friday September 20th
The iPhone 5C
Hands on reviews of the iPhone 5C at Today’s event received the following first-off reviews:
TechCrunch
The iPhone [5C] performs terrifically, and looks fantastic. The colors really pop, and the case fits solidly in the hand and thanks to a slightly rubberized feel it should be easier to hold onto than any previous iPhone as well. …I’m maybe most impressed by how light and yet solid the iPhone 5C feels. While it may not quite live up to the ultra-luxe metal and glass feel of the iPhone 5 and now 5C, it doesn’t feel like a cheap device; this is a premium phone, despite the price tag and somewhat older internals.
The Loop
The iPhone 5C is a gorgeous looking phone, no matter what color choose. They all feel very rugged in their construction, so you can put any thoughts of a cheap iPhone out of your mind right now. Perhaps it’s the reinforcement that Apple put inside the plastic casing or the build of the casing itself—whatever it is, the 5C is a solid phone.
The Verge
It’s actually a bit surprising how high-end Apple’s made the plastic phone feel, though it certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the new 5s, which is far more premium and attractive. The 5c is almost like a toy, a rugged, comfortable device that doesn’t feel much heavier than the iPhone 5 despite being noticeably larger …the device feels far better than Samsung’s or LG’s plastic options. Even the rubbery cases look nice, their open-circle backs fitting in nicely with the color palette.
Pocket Lint
Technology aside, the plastic outer, which is meant to represent a more youthful product and one that is more playful is shiny-smooth to touch, but feels very much a part of the phone rather than something that could be peeled off after some use.
The polycarbonate has a very different feel from other “plastic” devices on the market at the moment and feels more of a return to the same finish – but in an array of colours – to the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
SlashGear
The [iPhone 5C’s] form-factor is unmistakably that of an Apple smartphone, though the glossy-finish plastic feels warmer and softer to the touch than the 5S’s bevelled edges.
It’s not a cheap-feeling phone, but it doesn’t have the same premium finish as the 5S. There’s something a little toy-like about it, though not in a bad way; it’s solid and dense, and creak-free, and the weight is evenly balanced along the length.
Engadget
Apple continually mentioned during its event that it’s “unapologetic” about the plastic build, and deservedly so — not only does it feel great, it’s the most solid polycarbonate build that we’ve ever laid hands on. There is absolutely nothing about this setup that makes us believe it’s not capable of handling a full share of wear and tear, and the reinforced steel frame convinces us that it’s even going to survive falls without a problem.
iOS 7
Roll-out date is September 18, and we will be getting a whole bunch of extra features compared to what we thought we were getting. One of them are the camera roll ‘Moments’. The retooling of the Camera Roll which has been replaced by a groups feature called “Moments.” This groups all of your photos into times and moments, kind of like iPhoto already does. Apple also added photo effects (think: filters) to the Camera that can be applied during or after shooting. Read more here on the complete new colorful look that iOS7 will give us.
If your’re looking for more hands on videos from the event itself, then feel free to check here.
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