iPhone 5S/5C thread

[Fingolfin269]

All I wanted was a larger screen. Knew it probably wasn't going to happen but held out hope. Now they've lost me for another two years. It's really sad when the majority of time is spent on talking about the camera and listening to Elvis Costello sing.

 

[Mopetar]

I don't know but Lumias and iPhone 5C look pretty glossy to me.

I don't know if it's glossier on earlier Lumia models or not, but I have a 620 and it's definitely not very glossy. The picture of the iPhone 5C phones makes them look quite glossy, though. It would probably be best to put them side by side to compare.

It is funny how similar they look though. I think I generally prefer the more rounded design of the Lumia, but I'd have to hold a 5C to see how it compares.

 

[zerocool84]

Most people don't even put on a basic password or slide lock on their phones so I just don't think the fingerprint scanner will be important to the average person.

 

[Ns1]

Are you a camera person? There are WP and Android phones with amazing cameras. Screen person? There are 1080p IPS screens from HTC and LG that are simply amazing. Battery life? Maxx, G2, and the Note series. Want big screens? Note 3, Z Ultra, One Maxx. Want small screens? One Mini, S4 Mini, and the upcoming Sony mini phones.

iPhone5s - jack of all trades, master of none.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

iPhone5s - jack of all trades, master of none.

In terms of screens it's not even a competitor much less a master. The iPhone 5S is lower resolution than all of the 2012 Android flagships and even the 2011 Galaxy Nexus. Additionally the 5S has lower pixel density than every single 2013 Android flagship, often significantly lower. For the company that tried to convince everyone pixel density and resolution were the most important factor for displays this is simply hilarious. And before you bring up color accuracy even the Galaxy S4 has beaten the 5S on that front too.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Anyone check out the LTE bands?

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

Impressive. 4 SKUs to cover the world. I do wish it could be 1 someday, but at least we're doing a little better than 3G was in 2010. I just wish they were able to squeeze Band 7 into these US phones because bands 1, 3, 7 are really what you need to get around most of Europe and Asia.

 

[shady28]

The 5c is a bad decision. Since I'm convinced very few are willing to make the switch from Android to Apple's ecosystem (anyway they'll need glasses and tiny fingers to see and touch what's on iphone's screen coming from 5" phones) this basically is in competition with the 5s, a more powerful and clearly better device which is slightly more expensive. Plus, $99 for a two year contract with already old tech doesn't makes sense.

This is no different than what they've done since the iPhone 4S came out, except they cheaped out this time.

On contract pricing :

When the 4S came out:
4S flagship for $199/$299.
4 for $99/$199
3GS for free

When the 5 came out :
5 for $199/$299
4S for $99/$199
4 for free

With the 5S :
5S flagship for $199/$299
5C for $99/$199 (this is the 5, with a cheap plastic back)
4S for free

This is the weakest of the iPhone releases from a consumer view, although I think the 64 bit switch is very forward thinking from a technical perspective. It's going to mean nothing to the user for some time though.

Everything since the 4S has been weak, imo. The 4S brought Siri, dual-core, killer GPU performance. That was the last S. Jobs phone.

Meanwhile android closed the gap with ICS and Jelly Bean. Though the Android ecosystem still suffers from having 'too many' options many of which were/are crap, it's way better than it was 2 years ago.

Thinking Apple is in trouble here.

 

[Hugo Drax]

They're bragging about 64 bit. A feature in phones that will have at most 2gb of RAM in the near future.

Amazing feature there.

And the 5C is 150-200? Weren't we just complaining about how the Moto X is so damn overpriced?

It is not about today. 64bit is so that developers get accustomed to targeting to 64 bit and testing etc.. so when in 4 years phones have 8gb of RAM, Apple will be ahead of the curve.

 

[Ns1]

In terms of screens it's not even a competitor much less a master. The iPhone 5S is lower resolution than all of the 2012 Android flagships and even the 2011 Galaxy Nexus. Additionally the 5S has lower pixel density than every single 2013 Android flagship, often significantly lower. For the company that tried to convince everyone pixel density and resolution were the most important factor for displays this is simply hilarious. And before you bring up color accuracy even the Galaxy S4 has beaten the 5S on that front too.

a fair point, esp the bolded.

 

[zerogear]

It is not about today. 64bit is so that developers get accustomed to targeting to 64 bit and testing etc.. so when in 4 years phones have 8gb of RAM, Apple will be ahead of the curve.

I'd be more sad if we're still using 'smartphones' at that time. I want contact lens display damn it.

 

[Hugo Drax]

There is absolutely NO point to 64-bit architecture in the mobile space at this point in time. The freaking phone only has 2GB of ram. So retarded, but I'm sure the Apple fanboys will eat it up.

Stop Thinking like Microsoft.

They have 64bit in place now so that in a few years when phones ship with 8GB of RAM, Apple is already ahead of the curve.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

It is not about today. 64bit is so that developers get accustomed to targeting to 64 bit and testing etc.. so when in 4 years phones have 8gb of RAM, Apple will be ahead of the curve.

For phones 64bit should be all but irrelevant to developers other than checking the appropriate box when building the app. No mobile apps push the limit of 32bit values mathematically and it's not like games will need it anytime remotely soon considering the number of 32bit Windows games that phones are a half a decade or more away from being able to run.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Besides, a great deal of Android software is fairly hardware agnostic because of Dalvik.

 

[shady28]

It is not about today. 64bit is so that developers get accustomed to targeting to 64 bit and testing etc.. so when in 4 years phones have 8gb of RAM, Apple will be ahead of the curve.

I agree with this however..


I do not understand the general belief here that 64bit is only for memory. That is simply not true.

It is true that whether you get a performance boost from 64bit operations depends a lot on what exactly you're doing. Multimedia specifically tends to get a boost.

See here :

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1204_3264&num=2

 

[ChronoReverse]

Actually you can't say that. The changeover from x86 to x64 involved a lot more than widening the registers and increasing the addressable space. The speedup you're getting is _in spite_ of going to 64bits (except when working with datasets that actually need 64bits of precision of course), gained from architectural improvements that aren't used in x86 mode.

 

[ponyo]

Did they mention anything about battery life for the 5S? Improved/same/or worse?

 

[Mopetar]

Most people don't even put on a basic password or slide lock on their phones so I just don't think the fingerprint scanner will be important to the average person.

It might actually get them to start securing their device. Someone people don't want to go through the hassle of having to enter a password every time they need to check something on their phone. This makes it a lot easier to be secure without a lot of overhead.

And before you bring up color accuracy even the Galaxy S4 has beaten the 5S on that front too.

Do you mean the 5, because I don't think anyone has been able to measure the quality of the iPhone 5S display yet.

It is not about today. 64bit is so that developers get accustomed to targeting to 64 bit and testing etc.. so when in 4 years phones have 8gb of RAM, Apple will be ahead of the curve.

I believe that starting with the Cortex-A15 ARM SoCs have a 40-bit addressable memory, so moving forward they won't have to worry about running out of address space for quite a while, as that would give them 1 TB of addressable memory.

My thinking is that they're planning on making some changes to iOS that will require a 64-bit SoC in the future and want to make sure that when they do, their older hardware will still be able to run the latest version of the OS.

 

[StrangerGuy]

why is 64bit such a surprise?
it wasnt anywhere in the beta release of iOS7?

I also dunno what's with the dissing on 64-bit either. Sure it's not big deal now but it doesn't hurt anything or kill a kitten for just being there.

 

[shabby]

iPhone 5C
*Instead of selling the outgoing metal/glass flagship iPhone 5 for $99 (as they have in years past), Apple wants to replace that option with a plastic phone and have us thank them for it. I don't have any issue with plastic phones, I have an issue with Apple offering less value for the money when they clearly need to head in the other direction.

Someone is getting a raise at apple for coming up with this idea, rather than selling last years flagship phone for $99 they're repackaging it in pretty plastic and selling it for the same price.

 

[zerogear]

Though at the rate Android is going (3GB phones coming out), it'll be going 64-bit fairly soon.

 

[blairharrington]

The idea/rumor was that the 5C would be phone aimed at emerging markets and for once we'd have an iPhone that wouldn't cost a fortune off-contract. No dice. It's replacing the 5.

A few thoughts.

iPhone 5 being replaced is just bizarre. I believe they realized that they could not properly anodize the slate model without it scuffing and hence why the 5S offers 'space grey' and no slate model. It won't scuff as badly or at all. It's also not as sleek but that's less of an issue.

I see the 5C as a step back. It's heavier than the 5. The colors will attract teens and women but maybe turn off men. I can only come up with 2 potential reasons why they went in this direction. One, the 5C costs a lot less to make then the 5. Two, they didn't want to produce any more slate models of the 5. Either way I think it's a shame. Worst yet, there is no LTE iPhone in the $350-$450 range off-contract. That would have been killer.

Gold 5S is going to sell like gangbusters. Women and Asians will eat it up.

Would have been ideal if that ring around the 5S home button lit up for notifications.

The elephant in the room is the larger screen iPhone. Apple is making a mistake to force us to wait until the summer/fall of 2014 to get one. After the success of the SIII they should have made every effort to produce a larger iPhone. I have the S4 Active and I can't see myself ever going back to a screen smaller than 4.7".

New Macs will be a part of the iPad keynote in October.

 

[Subyman]

a fair point, esp the bolded.

I don't believe so. Its about the same as the megapixel wars. Apple makes the intelligent choice to configure a megapixel rating with respect to the fidelity of their lens and CMOS, while Android makers wage megapixel wars. "My Android can capture more noise than your Android!"

The same is true for pixel density. You would have to be 4" from the device or use a magnifying glass to see the pixels on an iPhone 5 while Samsung and others are trying to one up a spec sheet number without asking if it even enhances usability. Higher pixel density means a brighter backlight is needed, so there is a fine balance between achieving a seamless look and saving battery life. Apple struck a fine balance with 326ppi.

With almost everything it constantly seems that Apple finds the right balance between spec and usability while other makers have a knee jerk reaction to add more more more. The S5 will have 10 finger print sensors!

 

[QueBert]

honestly your posts have become comic relief

polymer when done well is excellent (nokia) i agree samsung phones feel kinda cheap but TBH i don't really care what it feels like its a fing phone and provided it works as such is a non issue

the cases IMO are ugly as hell

the candy colors are also not attractive

Apple got it right here, the flagship phone looks and feels premium, the ghetto version is ugly and plastic, quite fitting actually. Meanwhile the other phone manufactures out there want to release their flagship phones made of plastic. Well except HTC who understands.

If I didn't know better, I'd say Apple's trolling us all with the 5c release, from the c (crap?) the use of shit plastic material to the price. It has to be a troll job lol.

 

[zerocool84]

I don't believe so. Its about the same as the megapixel wars. Apple makes the intelligent choice to configure a megapixel rating with respect to the fidelity of their lens and CMOS, while Android makers wage megapixel wars. "My Android can capture more noise than your Android!"

The same is true for pixel density. You would have to be 4" from the device or use a magnifying glass to see the pixels on an iPhone 5 while Samsung and others are trying to one up a spec sheet number without asking if it even enhances usability. Higher pixel density means a brighter backlight is needed, so there is a fine balance between achieving a seamless look and saving battery life. Apple struck a fine balance with 326ppi.

With almost everything it constantly seems that Apple finds the right balance between spec and usability while other makers have a knee jerk reaction to add more more more. The S5 will have 10 finger print sensors!

Why does someone need to ask if a larger screen with higher resolution enhances usability?

 

[Subyman]

Why does someone need to ask if a larger screen with higher resolution enhances usability?

The quote said nothing about physical screen size. It was pointed at the display's pixel density, which I addressed. Physical screen size is wholly a personal preference.