Yes, it has finally happened – Apple has taken the wraps off both new smartphones, the iPhone 5S and 5C. As you’d expect, the former is the successor to last year’s model, while the latter is the (not-so) cost efficient alternative that everyone’s been talking about for the past few months. We’re mainly going to focus on the high-end model, or you can check out the 5C by clicking here.
The iPhone 5s is 7.6mm thick and it weighs 112 grams. The deice looks no different from its predecessor, apart from getting a new gold paint job, and it retains various components such as the 4-inch Retina screen and 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera on the front. However, there are various modifications carried out here. The 8MP rear iSight camera is completely new featuring a 1.5µ pixel size for lesser noise in images. Then there’s the True Tone flash and Touch ID which is the rumored fingerprint sensor located under the home button for securely unlocking the phone.
If there’s anything about the iPhone 5S that caught our attention, it’s the new Apple A7 processor. The company has taken a leap ahead of the competition by introducing the first 64-bit mobile processor. The SOC is based on the ARMv8 design and the company’s own Swift microarchitecture. Popular chip makers are expected to launch APs based on the new ARM design next year.
According to the company, the A7 is capable of delivering 2x CPU and graphics performance over the previous generation chip and there’s even support for OpenGL ES version 3.0. Additionally, iOS 7 has been ‘engineered’ for 64-bit technology. Accompanying the chip is the M7 motion coprocessor which helps save power by taking up the task of gathering sensor data instead of the A7.
The iPhone 5S will hit stores on the 20th of this month. The on-contract version destined for Sprint, AT&T and Verizon comes in 16GB ($199), 32GB ($299) and 64GB ($399) choices. T-Mobile customers, on the other hand, can purchase the handset unlocked in the same storage options for $649, $749 and $849, respectively.