iPhone 5s Review

Is the iteritive ‘s’ worth its weight in gold

First a quick overview of who I am so you can judge wether you should listen to me or not. I’m currently a mobile developer at HubSpot (If you don’t know what HubSpot is check it out, its awesome) and I spend my days developing for iOS. I’ve now had five of Apples seven iPhone iterations, skipping both the 3GS and the 5 over the years. I appear a bit of an Apple fanboy, but if I felt something else would better satisfy my needs/wants I’d switch in an instant. Now onto the review.

Design

The 5s is in just about every way the same as the 5 when it comes to appearance. You’ll be hard pushed to distinguish the them apart from a couple of giveaways. Firstly the new home button with its stylish silver/gold/black ring depending on your colour choice (white for me), looks great. It feels slighly more clicky then my 4s home button in a satisfying way. Secondly you’ll notice a slight change to the flash on the back of the device which now has two separate flash components. Other than that the 5 and the 5s really do look identical, and thats not a bad thing. The device feels premium in your hand if not a little on the light side, having played with both the white and space grey versions I personally prefer white, on a side note I haven’t had any hands on time with the illusive gold colourway.

Performance

I spend the end of last week watching both the outrage and delight on Twitter as people either loved or loathed iOS 7. I expect performance has had much to do with this but don’t worry the 5s has no such problems and really does fly when jumping around the OS. Everything performs nicely with no noticicable hiccups for me. Camera performance has certainly been improved and getting setup to take a shot is definitely quicker than before. If you want more speed that feel assured the 5s’s A7 chip does deliver and from more technical reviews I’ve read thus far its up to us developers to really show users just how much this device can do. The new M7 chip which tracks motion has also been introduced but its hard to have an opinion on this as its tasks are not very user centric and visible.

A quick note on battery life: As per usual were looking at a single day here. Its feels just about the same as before. Your settings of course make a huge difference in this department.

Touch ID

The new feature to this iterative release is Touch ID, a new way to approve purchases and prove you identity. Touch ID is really impressive, its setup process is simple but will be slighly annoying to for anybody who wants to setup each of their fingers but the payoff is very impressive. Once your setup unlocking your phone becomes a much quicker process, simply click the home button and leave your finger resting to allow the sensor to verify your finger print. I’ve yet to have this fail to unlock the phone completely, on a couple of occasions it did require me to lift and re position my finger before it unlocked but in general it is very accurate. You must also set a pin when using this feature just in case you can’t unlock with Touch ID for whatever reason.

Camera

I’m not a big camera guy, for ever my phone has been a suitable shooter for my needs but I still like my photos to look good. The 5s really is a nice upgrade in this department. The photos look great and feel like an improvement over previous models. I haven’t had any time to play with the camera in low light situations so the benefit of the new dual flash is unknown to me. Slow motion capturing is also present and its very cool. What would previously have been boring videos take on new life with the slo-mo mode, its definitely worth a try.

Overall

Overall the 5s is a beautiful device. It offers performance, a great camera and an appealing form factor. The price as per usual is prohibitive but not unexpected. As a user whom day to day was using a 4s the 5s is a marked improvement. For iPhone 5 users its less clearcut, on one hand they are pretty similar in functionality but on the other the performance boost usually does tell over time. Touch ID is a great addition even though it currently has limited uses. The camera is a big improvement and slow motion capturing along with standard photos are very impressive. I would say iPhone 5 users should hold off on this iteration.

For everybody else if your already on the iOS bandwagon or wants to join don’t be afraid to pick one up.