Elsewhere, Apple point to the 5s’s improved camera, which is still 8MP but now features a larger sensor, a better flash and a larger aperture. It continues to produce excellent pictures but it now does so better in low light. More headline-grabbing is the burst mode, with ten shots per second, and the slo-mo option that shoots 120 frames per second and then lets users select a section to slow down. The results are lovely, but few users will buy a phone because its camera offers decent slo-mo filming.
In fact, the burst and 120fps filming are a consequence of the new 64-bit A7 processor, which theoretically offers computing power that has previously only been available on a full-size desktop computer. Samsung says that its forthcoming phones will also be 64-bit, but it is Apple that has innovated here to get 64-bit processing into a phone for the first time, to get a fingerprint sensor to work and to offer a seriously useable, excellent camera. The faster processor - twice as quick as the A6 processor in the iPhone 5 - will manifest itself in better gaming and other improved apps. For now, other than saying I couldn’t find a way to slow down the 5s, there’s little to show it off.
For the first time the iPhone also now comes in a gold colour - it’s nowhere near as bling as it sounds, and its novelty, for now at least, gives it character. Apple claims that the new model offers improved battery life, in part thanks to a new chip that powers the accelerometer and other sensors. My own impression is that if there is an improvement in battery performance, it remains fairly small. Heavy users will find the iPhone needs a top up charge, but extra cases such as those from Mophie are more than acceptable. Using 4G - Apple says it now has more 4G options than any other manufacturer - is now possible on all UK networks.
All of Apple’s innovations are combined with iOS7, the new, brighter software that redesigns the look and feel of the entire iPhone - many users will say it’s a change that makes their iPhone harder to navigate, but that’s largely down to unfamiliarity. The design looks lovely, and there’s an improved control and notifications centre, a new photos app that lets you see where you took photographs more easily in a lovely combined view, and much improved multitasking.
The 5s is, overall, a beautiful piece of engineering, lovely to look at and lovely to hold. Is it a brilliant phone to use? Unequivocally. But the accusation is that Apple has lost its magic, and that it is no longer reinventing categories. And indeed it isn’t, because it doesn’t need to. The 5s makes technology, as Apple has always aimed to, easier to integrate into everyday life - the fingerprint sensor alone is superb.
If, however, a user without a smartphone were to go into Carphone Warehouse in search of their first smart device, would they come out with the 5s? It starts at £549 - it doesn’t do many of the things other devices do, but it offers a user interface that is more intuitive than any other, and an ecosystem of apps and accessories that is unavailable elsewhere. Geeks will argue about the features it is missing. But this, the most premium product available, is also the one best suited for the mass market. That’s the secret of Apple’s success. It isn’t the most flexible, but for millions it simply remains the best option. Its only rivals are Apple’s other iPhones, as the world moves ever closer to a world divided between iDo and iDon’t.
Photo taken with iPhone 5s
Photo taken with iPhone 5c
Read the iPhone 5C review
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