On Tuesday Apple announced its latest iPhones at its Cupertino Headquarters in Calif, US, the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.
Essentially the 5c is a new and updated version of the iPhone 5 which comes in one of 5 colours (Blue, White, Pink, Yellow or Green) and is supposedly billed as a ‘budget iPhone’. With the same A6 chipset as the iPhone 5, the only main difference between the two is the look of the phone itself which now has a hard-coated polycarbonate rear instead of the aluminium one of its predecessor. When iOS 7 is released on the 18th September, if you have an iPhone 5 it will pretty much be the same as the iPhone 5c. The camera is pretty much the same; its 8 megapixel camera features a five-element lens with an f/2.4 aperture supporting 1080p video capture at 30 frames per second. The front facing 1.2mp camera will offer 720p HD as with the iPhone 5.
The iPhone 5s however, is built with Apple’s A7 chip, its newest processor capable of running its 64-bit system. Shifting to 64-bit, Apple is the first to do this with a smartphone with industry experts acknowledging the advancement as ‘paving the way for Apple’s future’. Billed as ‘desktop-class architecture’, the A7 chipset is twice as fast as the previous and a CPU speed 40x faster than the iPhone 3. The iPhone 5s is available in Gold, Silver and Space Grey.
Other advancements with the iPhone 5s include ‘Touch ID’ or fingerprint security. The device’s screen lock feature is now easier than ever, put your finger on the home button and it will read your fingerprint and unlock without the need to enter a passcode. Improvements continue with the introduction of the new iSight Camera. It has a larger sensor with bigger pixels measuring 1.5 microns and an aperture of f/2.2, continuous burst mode and a true tone flash. At a staggering 8 megapixels and with its hybrid IR filter, the pictures look to be a lot better than the iPhone 5’s. The 5s also has the M7 chip in it with an inbuilt accelerometer it will allow fitness fanatics to track their daily activity. Nike has developed a new App similar to the Nike+ Fuelband App which will work with the accelerometer in the phone and track calories burned, steps and Nike Fuel.
Another new feature is AirDrop which allows you to share photos etc. with people around you using the devices WiFi, this will work on the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5.
There are other improvements too but these come with iOS 7 which is available on iPhone’s 4 and above, iPad’s 2 and above inc. the iPad mini as well as the 5th Gen iPod Touch.
In terms of connectivity the iPhone 5s and 5c will be available on 4G LTE however, only on EE and Vodafone in the UK. With the iPhone 5 only offering 4G LTE on the EE network. O2 have announced that the 5s and 5c will be enabled to run in its 4G network “in the coming weeks” and will offer any customer purchasing one of the phones on their a 4G tariff £5 off their bill for 1 month. Industry insiders believe this is as a result of Apple’s vetting process which prevents carriers offering the devices on their networks without passing Apple’s tests for LTE network performance. Surprising considering O2 was the first carrier to offer the iPhone in the UK when it was first released back in 2007.
Sadly the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s don’t offer anything ‘new’ when it comes to WiFi… even though at the launch they mentioned ultra-fast wireless, this relates to the 4G LTE network. In terms of WiFi, all 3 devices support 2.4GHz and 5GHz on IEE 802.11n and 2.4GHz on IEE 802.11a/b/g. What comes as a bit of a shock is that there is no mention of IEE 802.11ac and support for the next generation of superfast WiFi, an area which Samsung were certain not to neglect with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 earlier this year. The 802.11ac standard allows higher data rates (theoretically up to 1.3 Gbps), the ability connect to more devices simultaneously and overall reduced latency.
I guess it will become apparent on 20th September when the iPhone 5c and 5S are released. Will demand be the same as last time with two new iPhones on offer? I know that I, for the first time, won’t be queuing up on launch day.