As expected, Apple has unveiled two new iPhones today, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
The widely-leaked phones speak to two different markets, with the more expensive 5S maintaining the same premium build, internal specs and price as the former iPhone 5, while the 5C enters the market as a so-called lower-cost variant.
First, the iPhone 5C. It will be available in green, yellow, blue, white and red. Apple claims that there are no seams or joints in the device — it is made with a single piece of “hard-coated” polycarbonate.
It has a 4-inch display with the same 1136×640 pixel resolution as the iPhone 5. It also has the same A6 chip and 1GB of RAM of the iPhone 5. There’s a new HD FaceTime camera on the front and an 8MP iSight camera on the back with BSI, IR filter and 5-element lens. Looks to be the same one as the iPhone 5, too.
It will also have full LTE connectivity and dual-band WiFi along with Bluetooth 4.0.
The company is touting the iPhone 5C as an introductory phone for many users, and the device will come with a variety of cases for $29 each.
The second phone on the docket today is the iPhone 5S.
The iPhone 5S has a 4-inch 1136×640 pixel IPS display, identical in size and resolution to the current iPhone 5. What’s different is tantamount to the typical evolution of an iPhone: a faster processor, improved camera, colour additions and, yes, a fingerprint scanner.
According to Apple, it’s the “most forward-thinking phone we’ve ever created.” It comes in a new gold colour, in addition to the existing white and slate.
Probably the most important improvement is the A7 chip, a 64-bit SoC that’s “the first ever of its kind in a smartphone.” It has over one billion transistors and a modern instruction set — this is truly a computer, just shrunk to a 102mm squared die size.
While apps will have to be re-engineered to support the new instruction sets, it opens up a number of possibilities for mobile computing (can’t wait to see what the A7X is capable of in the new iPad this fall).
To the layman, it means that the A7 CPU and GPU are twice as fast as the iPhone 5?s A6. The new GPU supports OpenGL 3.0, which is one of the newest programming frameworks for 3D games (which also came recently to Android 4.3).
There’s also something called the M7, a chip that works alongside the A7 to measure motion data, accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. It works with the newest generation of health and fitness apps such as Nike+ Move, to track all of your movement. This works instead of a Fitbit.
The iPhone 5S promises 10 hours of battery life from LTE browsing and 3G talk time, along with 40 hours of music playback and a staggering 250 hours of standby. Similar to last year’s model.
The new camera is also improved over the former model, with a wider f/2.2 aperture and bigger pixels despite the 8MP resolution. This lets in more light — a 15% larger active sensor area — which automatically makes better photos from the same lighting scenarios. There’s also a digital form of image stabilization, and a new burst mode at up to 10fps. The software analyzes multi-photo series and chooses the best one. This is similar to Best Shot from the HTC One and Galaxy S4. It also has dual flash.
The camera support 120fps slow motion (slo-mo) as well at 720p, and the built-in editor can speed up or slow down certain parts of the video for a great effect.
Perhaps the most important addition to the device is a digital fingerprint scanner. That ring around the mechanical home button indicates when it’s being used. Called Touch ID, “it reads your fingerprint at an entirely new level,” with 500ppi resolution and 360 degree readability.
The use cases are many, and Apple says Touch ID has been deeply integrated into iOS 7. It allows you to authenticate purchases using just a slight depression of the home button. There is a sapphire crystal lens that takes a photo of a user’s fingerprint and analyzes it for consistency.
In Apple tradition, Touch ID can be used by multiple people, and sensitive information is not stored on Apple’s servers at all. All data is encrypted, too.
Indian pricing has not been revealed yet but the US price points are the same as the iPhone 5 before it. Pre-order for the iPhone 5C will begin on the 13th while the iPhone 5S can be booked starting from the 20th.
[toggle title=”Press Release”]Apple Announces iPhone 5s-The Most Forward-Thinking Smartphone in the World
Apple® today announced iPhone® 5s, the most forward-thinking iPhone yet, featuring an all-new A7 chip, making iPhone 5s the world’s first smartphone with 64-bit desktop-class architecture for blazing fast performance in the palm of your hand. iPhone 5s redefines the best smartphone experience in the world with amazing new features all packed into a remarkable thin and light design, including an all-new 8 megapixel iSight® camera with True Tone flash and introducing Touch ID™, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your phone with just the touch of a finger. iPhone 5s comes with iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, engineered for 64-bit technology and featuring hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop®, enhanced Photos, Safari®, Siri® and iTunes Radio?.
“iPhone 5s is the most forward-thinking smartphone in the world, delivering desktop class architecture in the palm of your hand”
“iPhone 5s is the most forward-thinking smartphone in the world, delivering desktop class architecture in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5s sets a new standard for smartphones, packed into its beautiful and refined design are breakthrough features that really matter to people, like Touch ID, a simple and secure way to unlock your phone with just a touch of your finger.”
The all-new A7 chip in iPhone 5s brings 64-bit desktop-class architecture to a smartphone for the first time. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance, almost everything you do on iPhone 5s is faster and better than ever, from launching apps and editing photos to playing graphic-intensive games-all while delivering great battery life. Apple also engineered iOS 7 and all the built-in apps to maximize the performance of the A7 chip. iPhone 5s is the best mobile gaming device with access to hundreds of thousands of games from the App Store?, the A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture and support for OpenGL ES version 3.0. iPhone 5s delivers incredibly rich and complex visual effects, previously only possible on Macs, PCs and gaming consoles.
Every iPhone 5s includes the new M7 motion coprocessor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency. Developers can also access new CoreMotion APIs that take advantage of M7, so they can create even better fitness and activity apps that go well beyond what other mobile devices offer. The M7 motion coprocessor continuously measures your motion data, even when the device is asleep, and saves battery life for pedometer or other fitness apps that use the accelerometer all day.
iPhone 5s introduces Touch ID, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your iPhone with just the touch of a finger. Built into the home button, Touch ID uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image of your fingerprint and intelligently analyze it to provide accurate readings from any angle. Setting up Touch ID to recognize your fingerprint is easy, and every time you use it, it gets better. The Touch ID sensor recognizes the touch of a finger so the sensor is only activated when needed, preserving battery life. All fingerprint information is encrypted and stored securely in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5s; it’s never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud®. Touch ID can also be used as a secure way to approve purchases from the iTunes Store®, App Store or iBooks Store?.
iPhone 5s makes it even easier to take great photos with the world’s most popular camera. The all-new 8 megapixel iSight camera features a larger f/2.2 aperture and a new, larger sensor with 1.5? pixels for better sensitivity and low-light performance, resulting in better pictures. These improvements, along with the Apple-designed image signal processor in the A7 chip and the new Camera app in iOS 7, provide up to two-times faster auto-focus, faster photo capture, automatic image and video stabilization, and better dynamic range. iPhone 5s introduces the new True Tone flash-the world’s first for any camera-that variably adjusts color and intensity for over 1,000 combinations, so photos taken with a flash appear more natural. iPhone 5s also includes a new Burst Mode, Slo-Mo video with 120 fps, a new FaceTime® HD camera for better low-light performance and audio-only FaceTime calls with iOS 7.
iPhone 5s features a remarkable thin and light, precision-crafted design that customers around the world love, including an anodized aluminum body with diamond cut chamfered edges, a stunning 4-inch Retina® display and glass inlays. iPhone 5s is available in three gorgeous metallic finishes including gold, silver and space gray. To complement iPhone 5s, Apple designed premium leather cases in six rich colors-beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED)-with soft, color-matched microfiber lining.
iPhone 5s makes it even easier to connect to high-speed networks with support for up to 13 LTE¹ wireless bands, more than any other smartphone in the world. With download speeds up to 100 Mbps², you can browse, download and stream content even faster. iPhone 5s includes dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support for up to 150 Mbps² and Bluetooth 4.0. iPhone 5s delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi and LTE networks and up to 8 hours on 3G networks, and up to 10 hours of video playback and up to 40 hours of audio playback.³
iPhone 5s comes with iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, engineered to support the A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture, the new iSight camera and Touch ID fingerprint sensor. iOS 7 features a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant color palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes®.?
iPhone 5s customers have access to the revolutionary App Store, which offers more than 900,000 apps to iPhone, iPad® and iPod touch® users in 155 countries around the world. More than 50 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store to date, offering customers an incredible range of apps in 23 categories, including newspapers and magazines in Newsstand, games and entertainment, business, news, sports, health and fitness and travel.
Designed specifically for iOS, iPhoto®, iMovie®, Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote® are among the most popular apps in the App Store and are now available as free downloads with the purchase of iPhone 5s. iPhoto and iMovie enable you to do more than you ever thought possible with your photos and movies, and with Pages, Numbers and Keynote you can create, edit and share stunning documents, spreadsheets and presentations on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Pricing & Availability
iPhone 5s comes in gold, silver or space gray, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model.? iPhone 5s will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 5s cases will be available in beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) for a suggested retail price of $39 (US) through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPhone 5s will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 20. A new iPhone 4S 8GB model will also be available for free.? iOS 7 will be available as a free software update starting on Wednesday, September 18 for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). Some features may not be available on all products.[/toggle]
