Yay! It’s Christmas come early! NEW iPhones WOOO HOOO…^ THAT IS HOW I WOULD HAVE RESPONDED TO THE APPLE MEDIA EVENTS OF THE YESTERYEARS (ALA STEVE JOBS ERA)
But of course, I wouldn’t today. Why? Simple. I’ve already seen the product that they announced. I mean, just take a look at the various tech news sites around the interwebs. Almost every week there will definitely be an Apple product leak of some sort, be it a new shell for the iPhone 5C or some mockup of it. Why can’t Apple keep their stuff a secret anymore? Well i’m not an industrial analyst so I can’t comment on that. Besides, i’m not here to rant about how unsurprising this September 2013 Apple Media Event was. I’m here to look at the new iPhones.
Whats the point of having an event to launch your new product when its already been leaked in ENTIRETY?!
So, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. Two new iPhones. Lets delve into the details!
iPhone 5S SPEC SHEET*
- Apple A7 System-on-Chip
- Dual ARMv8 cores with 64-bit address capability and instruction set
- Apple A7 GPU (possibly PowerVR series 6)
- 1GB or 2GB LPDDR* RAM
- 4″ Retina Display @ 1136 x 640, possibly IPS-LCD
- 8MP iSight camera with 1.5 micron pixel size, f/2.2 aperture
- TouchID Fingerprint Sensor
- M7 Motion Chip
iPhone 5C SPEC SHEET*
- Apple A6 System-on-Chip
- Dual ARMv7-s cores
- PowerVR SGX543-MP3 GPU
- 1GB LPDDR2-1066 RAM
- 4″ Retina Display (IPS-LCD) @ 1136 x 640
- 8MP iSight camera
So in essence, what we have here is a souped up iPhone 5 and an iPhone 5 in a plastic shell. Right.
The iPhone 5S may seem like a pretty dull update to the iPhone 5 (and the 5 was a pretty dull update to the 4S, so on and so forth) but, there is a a saving grace. The iPhone and iOS has embraced the future of ARM architecture, the ARMv8 architecture. Featuring a 64-bit capable processor with a faster and more efficient CPU operation, the iPhone 5S does offer a glimpse into the future of mobile devices. With such a powerful chip, one can only imagine what Apple or other ARM device manufacturers can dream up of. But of course, the only place that this powerful chip is applicable in is gaming. And obviously the topic of gaming will bring in the question of the GPU in the iPhone 5S. According to Apple, the GPU in the iPhone 5S is up to 56x faster than the one in the previous iPhone. WAAAAAIT. 56x? Is that a typo error or what? 2x faster than the previous iPhone. Well that should do some justice to Infinity Blade or the next Real Racing.
The iPhone 5S carries on the tradition of including the latest in mobile graphics tech, by the way this is the screenshot of Infinity Blade 3
Onwards!
TouchID. Well, its a fingerprint sensor to unlock your phone or make iTunes purchases. Convenient! Great! Superb! Awesome! Brilliant! …moving on.
The iPhone 5C. In essence its an iPhone 5 but in a plastic shell. And the only reason why it exists is to keep Apple’s profit margin in the stratosphere. By removing the iPhone 5 from sale and re-shelling it in a cheaper plastic body, Apple can sell a product for $99 (on contract) and still make just around what they made with the previous flagship iPhone 5. In the eyes of an accountant, this is a brilliant move! But in the eyes of the consumer and I bet even Sir Jony Ive, this move is just plain stupid and unnecessary. If you guys really wanted to make a budget iPhone, why not scavenge parts from the old iPhone 4S and put in that same plastic shell, maybe with a cheaper display, and price it for $400-$500 off contract! Isn’t that awesome! Thats what Samsung is doing with its Galaxy S4 mini and HTC with its One mini. But of course, one can't help but fall in love with the design and ergonomics of the 5c. The plastic shell maybe subjective, but in my eyes, it looks better than the 5s.
FINAL WORDS
If you are in the market for a new iPhone, go for the 5S. If you can’t afford it at USD199 on contract and considering the iPhone 5C, take my words, forget it. Save up that extra $100 and reward yourself with the 5S. Don’t buy the iPhone 5C if you're sensible, buy it if you, like me, love it's design :P. If you are in the market for a phone in general, there are now 4 choices in the market: iPhone 5S, Sony XPERIA Z1, Samsung GALAXY S4 LTE-A and the Nokia Lumia 1020 and for Blackberry sympathy, the Blackberry Q10.
* Listed specifications may not be the official specification as Apple does not usually release details of their iPhones, we’ll have to wait for iFixit to tear it down.
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