The iPhone 5S is the first 64-bit phone. It’s faster, and has a better camera than the iPhone 5 & offers features that are simply missing from the older phone.
But is it worth the upgrade? We’ve compared the iPhone 5S & iPhone 5 to lớn see if this is an essential upgrade, or one you can skip.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Release Date
iPhone 5S – September 2013iPhone 5 – September 2012
Like all of Apple’s key mobile series, the iPhone range is updated yearly. The iPhone 5 was the 2012 edition, & the iPhone 5S is the new mã sản phẩm for 2013. It’ll be the ‘current’ model for most of năm trước too, though.
The iPhone 5 launched in September 2012 – in time for those who were after a particularly pricey Christmas present. Lượt thích clockwork, the iPhone 5S arrived in September 2013.
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It’s highly unlikely the iPhone 6 will arrive until around the same time in 2014, if you’re worried about your iPhone 5S getting old before its time.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Deals
iPhone 5S – £549 SIM-free from Apple, from £42 a monthiPhone 5 – No longer available from Apple, from £32 a month
The iPhone 5S launch saw táo discontinue the iPhone 5. You can no longer buy that phone from the online táo Store – the iPhone 5C is intended to lớn offer a slightly lower-cost alternative to lớn the ‘legacy’ iPhone 5 these days.
However, there are naturally still loads of iPhone 5 phones about, so you can still snap one up from a thiết bị di động network. They generally cost around the same amount as an iPhone 5C – about £32 a month on contract, without any additional up-front cost. The iPhone 5 is not a cheap phone, despite being a discontinued model.
The iPhone 5S is one of the priciest phones available. It starts at £549 from apple – that gets you the 16GB version – và contracts without any extra up-front cost tend to lớn cost around £42 a month.
Over the course of a two-year contract, opting for an iPhone 5 rather than an iPhone 5S will save you around £240.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Design
iPhone 5S – 7.6mm thick, 112g, aluminium rear, toughened glass frontiPhone 5 – 7.6mm thick, 112g, aluminium rear, toughened glass front
The designs of the iPhone 5S và iPhone 5 are almost identical. Beautiful industrial design and superb build quality is matched with a phone that feels almost impossibly thin và light if you’re upgrading from an older, chunkier phone.
They are just 7.6mm thick, and weigh 112g. That’s thinner và lighter than all of the big-name app android rivals.
Most of the rear of the phone is made of lightly textured aluminium, & there are black/white glass cut-outs on the top và bottom at that help to avoid the sort of signal issues you can get with all-metal gadgets.
One of the best hardware elements of an iPhone is that the phones are so easy lớn use. We’re not talking about the software here, but the hardware – where many android phones are a bit too large to lớn use comfortably in one hand, the iPhone 5S và iPhone 5 fit in even small hands perfectly.
Both phones use the standard táo bị cắn dở Lightning port, which made its debut with the iPhone 5 in 2012. These phones won’t work with the 30-pin apple cables of former táo bị cắn dở phones, but táo bị cắn dở does produce a 30-pin to lớn Lightning adapter if you’ve already forked out for a fancy speaker dock for an older model of iPhone.
There’s just one significant visual difference in the construction of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5. The trang chủ button of the 5S is outlined by a metallic ring – it’s part of the cảm ứng ID sensor fingerprint scanner, which you don’t get on an iPhone 5. More on that later.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Colours
iPhone 5S – space grey, white/silver, gold iPhone 5 – black/slate, white/silver
Apple introduced colourful iPhones in 2013 with the iPhone 5C, but the iPhone 5S colours remain fairly conservative. There’s just one new one – a ‘champagne’ style gold. However, the gold edition has suffered from stock issues, making it the trickiest khổng lồ get hold of.
The white và black colours of the iPhone 5 are also available with the iPhone 5S, but the darker iPhone has been lightened a bit.
The darker iPhone 5 was called the ‘black/slate’ model, where the iPhone 5S alternative is called ‘space grey’. Forgetting Apple’s naming for a minute, the iPhone 5S version is lighter.
We think it’s a moderate improvement visually, & it wears better too. The aluminium backs of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5 are prone to lớn scratching, & as scratches show the shiny aluminium underneath, they’re much less apparent with the new, lighter ‘space grey’ finish.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – cảm ứng ID Sensor
iPhone 5S – Touch ID sensoriPhone 5 – No cảm ứng ID sensor
The most obvious new hardware feature of the iPhone 5S is its cảm ứng ID sensor. This is the fingerprint scanner that sits under the surface of the trang chủ button.
What it lets you vì is restrict who can unlock your phone without having to lớn resort lớn a passcode. All you vày is to lớn place your finger of choice on the trang chủ button, wait a fraction of a second & the phone does the rest. You need khổng lồ ‘teach’ the iPhone 5S what your finger looks like first of all, but it’s a quick & painless process.
The fingerprint scanner can also be used to stop you having to input đầu vào your password when buying new apps from iTunes – although you can disable this feature if it seems lượt thích a way to lớn accidentally spend money.
Having thought the cảm ứng ID sensor might be a gimmick, we find it an excellent time-saver in actual use.
Want khổng lồ know more about how it works? It doesn’t, as you might assume, simply take a photo of your fingerprint, but performs a capacitive scan.
The conductive properties of your finger alter depending on the valleys và ridges of your fingerprint, though, so in reality the effect is the same. But it means you can’t simply unlock an iPhone 5S with a high-resolution print-out of someone’s finger or thumb.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Screen
iPhone 5S – 4-inch IPS 1,136 x 640 pixel screeniPhone 5 – 4-inch IPS 1,136 x 640 pixel screen
The screens of the iPhone 5S & iPhone 5 are almost identical. They are both 4-inch displays with 1,136 x 640 px IPS panels, offering 326ppi pixel density. That’s the same cấp độ of sharpness seen in the iPhone 4 & iPhone 4S, but it’s high enough to lớn make text appear super-sharp. As apple likes khổng lồ boast – you can’t see the pixels.
Actual image chất lượng is excellent in both phones. Colours are rich and fairly accurate, contrast is great and black depth is excellent for an LCD-type screen. As usual with an hãng apple mobile device, viewing angles are just about perfect too.
Apple is rumoured lớn be planning a larger-screen phone for next year, but these phones’ screens are exactly the same size. & while they are bigger than those of early iPhones, they don’t feel that much bigger as the screen has only gotten taller (or longer, if you like). The screen width is the same as the very first iPhone, from back in 2007.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Software
iPhone 5S – iOS 7iPhone 5 – tiện ích ios 7
The iPhone 5S & iPhone 5 use exactly the same software – ios 7. There are improvements made in the iPhone 5S’s hardware, but they don’t fundamentally alter what the phone feels lượt thích to use.
If you’re a current iPhone user, it’s likely you’ve already made the leap to quả táo 7. But if you’re new lớn the system, it’s slick, good-looking & easy to use.
iOS 7 was the biggest update khổng lồ the system since its birth back in 2007. It made the OS look và feel more modern, with a new design and better-looking screen transitions. It also added several features seen in điện thoại thông minh rival game android – giving you easier control over things like screen brightness, Wi-Fi & so on.
System software isn’t a reason to pick the iPhone 5S over the iPhone 5, though.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – CPU, GPU and RAM
iPhone 5S – 64-bit dual-core 1.3GHz táo bị cắn A7, 1GB RAM, PowerVR G6430 GPUiPhone 5 – 32-bit dual-core 1.3GHz hãng apple A6, 1GB RAM, PowerVR SGX 543MP3 GPU
If we were khổng lồ talk in the terms we usually use when describing phone processors, the iPhone 5S doesn’t sound like much of a power nâng cấp over the iPhone 5 – both have dual-core 1.3GHz processors made by Apple, both have 1GB of RAM. In truth, the iPhone 5S is much, much more powerful than the previous model.
It’s the first 64-bit phone processor we’ve ever used, & it’s also much faster than rival quad-core android phone CPUs despite being ‘just’ dual-core.
To see the real benefits of this extra power you’ll need khổng lồ wait a bit. The iPhone 5 is already capable of excellent visuals in games, & it has enough power to lớn make ios 7 run quickly. Without an increase in screen resolution, there’s not an obvious avenue for the extra power to be routed down.
Apple does claim that the extra power is part of the reason why the fingerprint scanner is able khổng lồ work so quickly – the 64-bit CPU allows for fast processing of the data involved. However, in most respects it’s not a particularly obvious change.
It’s not just the GPU that has been upgraded, though. The 1GB of RAM has gotten faster – moving from DDR2 to lớn DDR3-type RAM – and the GPU is more advanced too.
The iPhone 5 uses a triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3, the iPhone 5S a quad-core PowerVR G6430. It’s about 2.5 times faster than the older phone’s chip.
There’s masses of potential in the iPhone 5S – it just won’t be realised fully for a little while.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Apps and Games
iPhone 5S – ứng dụng Store – minor 64-bit optimisationsiPhone 5 – App Store
There are some apps that already offer optimisation for the iPhone 5S & its 64-bit cohorts the ipad tablet Air & iPad mini 2, though.
Our favourite kiểm tra of the difference is Apple’s Garageband music-making software, which offers 32 tracks for any 64-bit di động devices including the iPhone 5S. You only get 16 tracks with an iPhone 5. It’s a pretty clear demonstration that with a 64-bit processor táo khuyết is starting khổng lồ offer capabilities that might be compared with those of a desktop PC.
Other apps that offer táo bị cắn dở A7 CPU optimisation include –
djay 2 What is it? A virtual DJ appYou can simultaneously process two 720p clip streams at once with an iPhone 5S, and perform real-time transposing of songs. Sketchbook di động What is it? An art/drawing appWith a 64-bit phone, you can use larger canvases và larger brushes in this art app. That may not seem lượt thích a big change, but here it is the biggest change – the cấp độ of processing that goes into ‘natural brush’ apps like this is intensive. Galaxy on Fire 2 HDWhat is it? A 3 chiều space shooterVeteran 3d mobile game developer Fishlabs was among the first companies khổng lồ get to grips with the táo bị cắn dở A7 processor. It added extra lighting effects lớn its excellent space shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 HD for iPhone 5Ss.
iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5 – Camera
iPhone 5S – 8-megapixel camera, 1/3.2-inch sensor, dual-LED ‘true tone’ flashiPhone 5 – 8-megapixel camera, 1/3-inch sensor, LED flash
Contrary khổng lồ what many expected, táo bị cắn didn’t make massive conspicuous changes to the iPhone 5S’s camera. There are improvements, but they are fairly subtle ones.
Both phone use 8-megapixel sensors, but the iPhone 5S’s is slightly larger. It has a 1/3-inch sensor where the iPhone 5 has a 1/3.2-inch sensor. It’s not a massive difference, but does result in slightly larger sensor pixels – 1.4 microns lớn 1.5 microns.
The aperture has also been improved, from f/2.4 to f/2.2. This means the lens is ‘faster’, improving low-light performance.
In direct comparisons, it is clear that the iPhone 5S is better than its predecessor.
Differences in exposure aside, the iPhone 5S photo is significantly less noisy than the iPhone 5’s. Images are cleaner and clearer, and detail reproduction in much better even though the sensor doesn’t have more pixels to call upon.
Apple has done a sterling job here.
The iPhone 5S also has a new flash. It uses a ‘true tone’ dual-LED flash, rather than the standard single-LED flash used by the iPhone 5.
It differs from a standard dual-LED flash in that its LEDs have differing tones. There’s a ‘warm’ one và a ‘cool’, bright one. The intensity of each LED required at each exposure is judged by the phone, in an attempt lớn bring more natural-looking results – avoiding blowing out people’s faces, as standard flashes tend to.
The iPhone 5S can also shoot slow-motion 120fps video, which the iPhone 5 cannot do. It’s great fun, but it has been claimed that the video clip is only recorded at 480p quality, & then upscaled lớn 720, rather than offering actual HD slo-mo, like the Galaxy chú ý 3.
The iPhone 5S isn’t going to lớn challenge the hãng nokia Lumia 1020 in the sheer quality of the photos it can produce, but it is an eminently usable camera. It’s a solid upgrade khổng lồ the iPhone 5, although not enough reason khổng lồ upgrade by itself, in our view.
Verdict
The iPhone 5S is a low-key phone tăng cấp on first impression, but it actually makes some adventurous, intelligent changes. The 64-bit processor, the cảm ứng ID sensor and the new camera flash are by no means ‘standard’ phone upgrades, but ones that try to alter or improve what the phone is actually lượt thích to use.
It’s not a phone that makes the iPhone 5 seem out of date, but the iPhone 5S is a true next-generation phone. However, if anything it’s ahead of its time in some respects, và it’ll be a while before we appreciate quite how good it really is.