Apple has announced a new flagship for its iOS line, the iPhone 5s, and it promises to be faster and better than the last, a line we hear every single year.
It’s not just a slightly faster iPhone this time, there’s actually a lot of new kit inside Apple’s latest iPhone, including a fingerprint sensor, dubbed Touch ID, a 64-bit A7 processor and a camera capable of taking larger pixels.
When you first look at the iPhone 5s, you’ll notice that it’s very similar in design to the iPhone 5, but there is one striking difference — that being the home button which has ditched the classic rounded square.
Apple has done this because the home button is no longer just a home button, instead it doubles as a fingerprint sensor, so you only you can access your phone or buy things from the iTunes store. Don’t worry about this new security feature though, Apple will allow you to add multiple fingerprints so if you want your mum, brother and aunt to access your phone, all you need is their finger.
The company has also promised that the iPhone 5s’ fingerprints will not be stored on its servers, which should hopefully make those of you paranoid about the NSA happy.
Whilst Touch ID is the most striking aesthetic change to the new iPhone 5s, Apple didn’t stop there, packing in a 64-bit A7 processor which is apparently capable of being a lot faster than the iPhone 5, thanks to its one billion transistors — double that of the previous generation.
If you want to get your hands on the iPhone 5s then you’ll be spoilt for choice, with the device coming in three colours, rather than the normal two. If you are a fan of the white iPhone, then you’ll be sad to know that it’s no longer white, it’s now known as the iPhone 5s silver. The newest edition to the iPhone colour palette though is a new golden iPhone, confirming what we had previously speculated.
Battery life has supposedly improved over the previous iPhone, with the company quoting 10 hours of 3G talk time and LTE browsing, although we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on it to put those to the test. If Apple is correct, then it would likely be a significant improvement over the current iPhone 5.
It’s no lie to say the iPhone 5s has one of the best cameras on the market, of course not in the megapixel race — which is clearly won by Nokia — but it’s still a great camera to have.
Well now it’s even better, thanks to Apple upping the size of the pixels to 1.5 µ, which is 0.5 µ smaller than the HTC One’s supposed “ultrapixel” camera — although this was a compromise on Apple’s behalf to ensure that you still got 8 megapixel shots.
Of course it’s not all about the size of the pixels or how many pixels there are, so you’ll be pleased to know Apple has also made the camera sensor 15 percent larger than the iPhone 5.
We know you’re likely itching to get your hands on an iPhone 5s, and you don’t have long to wait — with the phone going on-sale alongside the iPhone 5c on September 20.
The iPhone 5s will cost around £80 more than the iPhone 5c, with prices starting at £549 for the 16GB model, and £629 and £709 for the 32GB and 64GB models respectively.
