I posted this back when the iPhone 5s came out and it seems to be a popular post so I will repost it here. ************ My thoughts on iPhone 5s I have been asked by some friends about my thoughts on the iPhone 5s so I decided to jot down some of them here based on my experience with iPhone 5 from last year and the 5s I got recently. Feel free to skip the details to the bottom for the short recaps and my recommendations based on upgrading from iPhone 5 and 4s. - apple care + - let me get this out of the way first because I think its important. For first time, Apple finally offers this “extra” Apple Care service here in Hong Kong (and I suspect a few other places also). I will spare you the exact details. But basically, for about HK$500-600, Apple will extend your warranty by 1 year. More importantly, it will cover any accidental damage of your phone (say you drop it and break screen or you spill water on it) TWO TIMES. Each time, you have to pay $500-600 to fix it. But thats a lot cheaper than before (iirc HK$1,300+) and a lot better than going to shady repair shops (I and others around me have all and terrible experiences with those). Get this. Its totally worth it. Ok, onto the iPhone 5s. - speed - everything is fast and instant. Its just so silky smooth and frictionless. In general, this is very much an intangible feeling thats hard to describe. But in specific instances, the story is different. I will list some below. - battery life - it gets a minor upgrade for talk time but nowadays few people talk on phone much (if you do, its a good benefit). Apples new A7 CPU/SoC chip was built in a process such that it uses much less power. However, instead of increasing battery life, Apple decided to push the CPU speed instead. So the battery gain that could have been now goes to performance. -iMessages - it feels to me the messages get sent quite a bit faster than the 5. My hypothesis is that iOS encrypts each message before sending out and this is reliant on CPU speed. - camera - this is where the new CPU really shines. Pictures are taken instantaneously and you can take up to 10 pictures per second. For those who use HDR, this is WAY faster than 5. It takes about 0.3-0.5 second with 5s (on iOS 7) and maybe 1-2 seconds with 5 (on iOS 6). If storage is not an issue, it really allows one to keep HRD always without feeling the camera is too slow. I dont take pictures with flashes so I cant really say much on it. But it appears the duo-tone flash will make slightly better flash pictures than before. - panoramas - the 5s is VERY fast with this and the quality looks very good. I have not done any hard comparison but it seems its better than 5s output quality wise. - slow-mo video camera - the slow mo is really fun. But it really shines for people into sports (golf/bball come immediately to mind) or doing active things (say, with kids or dancing). Otherwise its a feature most wont use much or often, I imagine. - product design - I got the space gray. Its definitely much lighter than 5s “black” color option. THe biggest difference is the chamfer edge of the 5s is now a much lighter metallic color, instead of 5s solid black. This is important because with my black 5, the most visible scratches were all on the chamfer edges, thus giving it a worn out look. Not so with the 5s. With the lighter space gray and the much lighter chamfer edges, the 5s should look much less worn out than the 5 (which doesnt look that bad to me anyway). However, I just came back from Iceland. I would have loved to take the 5s to all the waterfalls I saw there and captured some interesting slow mo shots! On this note, I believe this easy to use and always-with-you slow-mo camera will get a lot of creative/artistic use. - fingerprint TouchID - this works surprisingly well and fast. It takes about, again, 0.3-0.5 second for it to process. One way to unlock is to just press the home button once and leave thumb on it for just a moment (sometimes it feels like just barely) and it will unlock. For people who were already using pass code, this will be a huge convenience feature. For those who didnt have any passcode at all, this will really be a big difference in security. (Apple says 50% of people dont use any passcode at all. Actually I have stopped using it since I quit my job but now Iam using TouchID.) You can also use this for iTunes / App Store purchase which works quite well and eliminate the annoying prompt for password all the time. Just a note: its not flawless. It can be fooled by people who had specialist equipment (very high density camera @ 2400 dpi). Besides, Apple never claimed it to be foolproof. So lets take it for what it is, a convenience feature for many and good upgrade on security for most. - internet/network connection - I will lump both aspects here. Pluses : Anecdotally, the wifi on my 5s does appear to have a bit of better reception than my 5. The LTE (so-called 4G chip) will support more frequencies, which means you should, for most part, be able to get 4G in more places internationally. While I cannot confirm this, I believe its also a newer generation LTE chip, so it should use less battery. Minuses: Unfortunately, 5s doesnt get the new faster/more expansive Wifi spec (802.11ac) even tho they sell routers that already do. As for LTE, it also doesnt get the LTE-Advanced, which is slowly getting deployed. As my friend Chris noted elsewhere, this is mostly a problem for those who will keep the 5s for the 2 year contract length. Honestly, I think its a relatively minor one. For those who REALLY desire and require the speed offered by LTE-Advanced, they are likely to replace the phone after 1 year anyway or they can choose to upgrade for it. Is it planned obsolescence on Apples part? For large part, probably yes. But we also dont know if the chips available for 802.11 ac and LTE-A are viable in both economic and manufacturing sense. Both of these should be on next years phone though. - the unknowns - this is a bit long Apple said the 5s is the most forward thinking phone its built. This is not typical marketing bs. I truly believe Apple has something big up its sleeves in next two years. People love to say these days Apple cant innovate anymore (whatever that means). The fact is plenty of “innovation” has happened but I believe this year its all mostly in building a platform and foundation. iOS 7 is also one. Apple fired the man responsible for iOS development for so long (S. Forstall) last late October and put together a new team with legendary Johnny Ive in charge. In less than 10 months, Apple put in a great deal of effort to completely re-design and modernize iOS7. Now back to the 5s. The 5s greatest strength is its CPU with benchmarks showing more than double performance from 5 in some cases. We get a lot of benefit of the CPU now today but I believe the really exciting stuff will be for iOS 8 and other apps who have yet to take advantage of it. Apple has spent most of last year rebuilding the platform in iOS7. I feel this coming year Apple will finally push for more functions/features in iOS8 and the 5s CPU is primed to take good advantage of that. One example I have is the 360 Panorama app (third party, not apples). Before 5 / 4s, the software requires the user to complete the 360 by lining up and taking a lot of pictures. While the output is not bad, this is a lot of work and so much so that it really prevented the app from taking off (most definitely with me). With the new CPU in 4s/5, and software redesign, you now only need to swing the camera around (albeit not too quickly) and it will keep snapping pics. Functionally and qualitatively, the two generations of this software is almost the same. You still get a 360 view with mostly same quality. But because the complete ease of use, there is a huge difference between an app being used, and hidden away in a folder somewhere. I believe the same thing will happen with the 5s. The great CPU will help push other uses / software that were held back before. Final words: - If you have an iPhone 5 - The 5s is a great phone. I think Fingerprint is a huge convenience feature but by itself is not enough to justify an upgrade. The great CPU speed increase is wonderful but comes at expanse of battery. The camera features are VERY nice. If you value your camera a lot, then it can justify an upgrade for you. In short, I wouldnt recommend upgrading over a 5 unless you have some other concerns (such as battery life, in my case that of the somewhat faulty replacement iPhone 5). I believe with another year, the LTE chips will be even more efficient and I doubt Apple will push for the same performance gain next year as they did this year. In order words, next years iPhone 6 will likely have better battery life. Also, as I said above, I think there will be a larger iPhone next year so if thats your cup of tea, I would definitely hold off this year. - If you have a iPhone 4s or older - The 5s will be quite a treat. It is a significant update for you. It will feel noticeably lighter in weight and size. The speed of everything will astound you, especially in day to day apps like the camera (HDR/burst/panoarma). The 5s cameras image quality will be a noticeable improvement over 4s. The larger screen may not seem much at first but once you try it, you wont go back to 4s or earliers screen. This larger screen is gained without sacrificing its ability to be held on one hand comfortably. (I do firmly believe Apple will release a larger iPhone next year somewhere between 4.5-5 inches) LTE will also be quite a significant jump in speed and latency from 4s 3G. In short: highly recommend upgrading; if you like iOS, you will love the iPhone 5s in just about every way. - On iPhone 5c - i do like the colors and from my brief experiences with them at the store, they feel REALLY good in my hands. Its decidedly not the cheap plastic feel. However, I think the 5s upgrades are really too strong over the 5c in the context of getting a new phone (as opposed to upgrading). In short: if you like the design but you can wait, then I suggest getting the iPhone 5Cs next year.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 05:32:46 +0000