Apple has announced the iPhone 5s, featuring an all-new A7 chip, making iPhone 5s the world’s first smartphone with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
It also packs a new 8 megapixel iSight camera with True Tone flash. The iPhone 5s comes with iOS 7, which has been engineered for 64-bit technology.
The all-new A7 chip in iPhone 5s brings 64-bit desktop-class architecture to a smartphone for the first time, says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance, almost everything you do on iPhone 5s is faster and better than ever, from launching apps and editing photos to playing graphic-intensive games — all while delivering great battery life, he adds.
Apple engineered iOS 7 and all the built-in apps to maximize the performance of the A7 chip. The iPhone 5s is the best mobile gaming device with access to hundreds of thousands of games from the Apple App Store, the A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture and support for OpenGL ES version 3.0, Schiller adds.
Every iPhone 5s includes a new M7 motion coprocessor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency. Developers can also access new CoreMotion APIs [application programming interfaces] that take advantage of M7, so they can, for instance, create even better fitness and activity apps. The M7 motion coprocessor continuously measures your motion data, even when the device is asleep, and saves battery life for pedometer or other fitness apps that use the accelerometer all day.
The iPhone 5s introduces Touch ID, a way to securely unlock your iPhone with just the touch of a finger. Built into the home button, Touch ID uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image of your fingerprint and intelligently analyze it to provide accurate readings from any angle.
According to Apple, setting up Touch ID to recognize your fingerprint is easy, and every time you use it, it gets better. The Touch ID sensor recognizes the touch of a finger so the sensor is only activated when needed, preserving battery life. All fingerprint information is encrypted and stored in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5s; it’s never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud. Touch ID can also be used as a secure way to approve purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store or iBooks Store.
The new 8 megapixel iSight camera features a larger f/2.2 aperture and a new, larger sensor with 1.5μ pixels for better sensitivity and low-light performance. These improvements, along with the Apple-designed image signal processor in the A7 chip and the new Camera app in iOS 7, purportedly provide up to two-times faster auto-focus, faster photo capture, automatic image and video stabilization, and better dynamic range.
The iPhone 5s introduces the new True Tone flash — which Apple says is the world’s first for any camera — that variably adjusts color and intensity for over 1,000 combinations, so photos taken with a flash appear more natural. The iPhone 5s also includes a new Burst Mode, Slo-Mo video with 120 fps, a new FaceTime HD camera for better low-light performance and audio-only FaceTime calls with iOS 7.
The iPhone 5s features a thin, light, precision-crafted design, including an anodized aluminum body with diamond cut chamfered edges, a 4-inch Retina display and glass inlays. It’s available in three metallic finishes, including gold, silver and space gray. To complement the iPhone 5s, Apple designed premium leather cases in six rich colors — beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) — with soft, color-matched microfiber lining.
The iPhone 5s offers support for up to 13 LTE wireless bands and download speeds up to 100 Mbps. The smartphone includes dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support for up to 150 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.0. According to Apple, the iPhone 5s delivers 10 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi and LTE networks and up to eight hours on 3G networks, and up to 10 hours of video playback and up to 40 hours of audio playback.
The iPhone 5s comes in gold, silver or space gray, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of US$199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. It will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers.
iPhone 5s cases will be available in beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) for a suggested retail price of $39 through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers.
The iPhone 5s will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on Friday, Sept. 20. (This is the first time Apple has rolled out an iPhone in China at the star of a new model launch.) iOS 7 will be available as a free software update starting on Wednesday, Sept. 18 for the iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). Some features may not be available on all products.
