[attach id=285367 size="medium"][/attach]
The launch of the iPhone 5s has come and gone and I’ve had time to sit down with the phone and explore its main functions.
From the outside, the iPhone 5s looks just like the iPhone 5 but in different colours. It retains the slick aluminium case, that great screen and the overall aesthetics we know and love. The different colours do make a nice change from white and black.
The gold, silver and space grey all add value to what is already a very polished product. It also makes the iPhone 5s stand out from the thousands of other black or white smartphones on the market.
Once you get under the hood, the real changes are apparent. The new Apple A7 processor is the company’s first 64-bit chip, offering up to 40 per cent more performance than the original iPhone.
The new M7 motion chip integrates gyroscope, accelerometer and compass and offers a lot of potential for app developers. Cue more fitness apps, better navigation and even more location-aware apps than we have already.
The big news is TouchID, the fingerprint recognition technology introduced with the iPhone 5s. Not without its problems, it is a neat piece of technology suitable for the consumer market. It won’t protect national secrets but it will deter all but the most determined phone thief.
The camera is also another aspect of the iPhone 5s that got some attention. While still at eight megapixels, the unit has a larger sensor to allow much more detail. The other advantage of a larger sensor is better colour and light management, which should result in much higher quality images from the same resolution camera. The iSight camera app is also a big leap forward. The algorithm is more powerful, more flexible and faster. It includes a burst mode, face detection, geotagging and much more.
The iPhone 5s comes with Apple’s new iOS 7. This has been received with mixed feelings. Most users like the new direction Apple took with iOS 7, but others were disappointed that the new user interface is way too colourful. Some elements are unintuitive and a number of users were even complaining online that the new animations make them feel dizzy.
One of the best improvements is the Control Center, which offers what many users wanted and needed for years – easy access to frequently used settings. You can now quickly make changes without having to dig into the settings menu, making it a real step forward. It’s just one of the many improvements iOS 7 offers.
The iPhone 5s is a solid phone for the next year or so. It’s powerful, sleek and continues the lifestyle product philosophy that has made it so popular.
Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.