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The iPhone 5S is the first 64-bit phone. It’s faster, và has a better camera than the iPhone 5 và offers features that are simply missing from the older phone.

But is it worth the upgrade? We’ve compared the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5 khổng lồ 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 di động series, the iPhone range is updated yearly. The iPhone 5 was the 2012 edition, and the iPhone 5S is the new model for 2013. It’ll be the ‘current’ model for most of 2014 too, though.

The iPhone 5 launched in September 2012 – in time for those who were after a particularly pricey Christmas present. Like 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 apple discontinue the iPhone 5. You can no longer buy that phone from the online táo bị cắn dở Store – the iPhone 5C is intended khổng lồ 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 smartphone 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 táo bị cắn dở – that gets you the 16GB version – và contracts without any extra up-front cost tend khổng lồ 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 & superb build quality is matched with a phone that feels almost impossibly thin & light if you’re upgrading from an older, chunkier phone.

They are just 7.6mm thick, and weigh 112g. That’s thinner & lighter than all of the big-name game 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 khổng lồ 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 to use. We’re not talking about the software here, but the hardware – where many app android phones are a bit too large lớn use comfortably in one hand, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5 fit in even small hands perfectly.

Both phones use the standard táo bị cắn Lightning port, which made its debut with the iPhone 5 in 2012. These phones won’t work with the 30-pin táo cables of former táo apple phones, but táo khuyết does produce a 30-pin to Lightning adapter if you’ve already forked out for a fancy speaker dock for an older model of iPhone.

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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 touch 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 lớn get hold of.

The white & 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 & iPhone 5 are prone to lớn scratching, và 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 vày is restrict who can unlock your phone without having khổng lồ resort khổng lồ a passcode. All you do is khổng lồ place your finger of choice on the home button, wait a fraction of a second and the phone does the rest. You need to lớn ‘teach’ the iPhone 5S what your finger looks lượt thích first of all, but it’s a quick và 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 like a way to accidentally spend money.

Having thought the cảm biến ID sensor might be a gimmick, we find it an excellent time-saver in actual use.

Want lớn 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 and 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 and iPhone 5 are almost identical. They are both 4-inch displays with 1,136 x 640 px IPS panels, offering 326ppi px density. That’s the same cấp độ of sharpness seen in the iPhone 4 và iPhone 4S, but it’s high enough to lớn make text appear super-sharp. As táo likes lớn boast – you can’t see the pixels.

Actual image quality is excellent in both phones. Colours are rich và fairly accurate, contrast is great and black depth is excellent for an LCD-type screen. As usual with an táo bị cắn dở mobile device, viewing angles are just about perfect too.

Apple is rumoured to be planning a larger-screen phone for next year, but these phones’ screens are exactly the same size. Và 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 và iPhone 5 use exactly the same software – tiện ích 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 tiện ích ios 7. But if you’re new to lớn the system, it’s slick, good-looking & easy khổng lồ use.

iOS 7 was the biggest update to lớn the system since its birth back in 2007. It made the OS look & feel more modern, with a new design & better-looking screen transitions. It also added several features seen in điện thoại thông minh rival app android – giving you easier control over things lượt thích screen brightness, Wi-Fi và so on.

System software isn’t a reason lớn 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 A7, 1GB RAM, PowerVR G6430 GPUiPhone 5 – 32-bit dual-core 1.3GHz táo apple A6, 1GB RAM, PowerVR SGX 543MP3 GPU

If we were to talk in the terms we usually use when describing phone processors, the iPhone 5S doesn’t sound lượt thích 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, and it’s also much faster than rival quad-core app android phone CPUs despite being ‘just’ dual-core.

To see the real benefits of this extra nguồn you’ll need khổng lồ wait a bit. The iPhone 5 is already capable of excellent visuals in games, and it has enough power lớn make tiện ích ios 7 run quickly. Without an increase in screen resolution, there’s not an obvious avenue for the extra power lớn be routed down.

Apple does claim that the extra nguồn is part of the reason why the fingerprint scanner is able lớn 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 khổng lồ 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 và 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 máy tính bảng ipad Air and iPad mini 2, though.

Our favourite chạy thử of the difference is Apple’s Garageband music-making software, which offers 32 tracks for any 64-bit mobile 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 is starting lớn offer capabilities that might be compared with those of a desktop PC.

Other apps that offer táo khuyết A7 CPU optimisation include –

djay 2 What is it? A virtual DJ appYou can simultaneously process two 720p video clip streams at once with an iPhone 5S, và perform real-time transposing of songs. Sketchbook thiết bị 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 like a big change, but here it is the biggest change – the cấp độ of processing that goes into ‘natural brush’ apps lượt thích this is intensive. Galaxy on Fire 2 HDWhat is it? A 3d space shooterVeteran 3 chiều mobile game developer Fishlabs was among the first companies khổng lồ get to grips with the hãng apple A7 processor. It added extra lighting effects khổng lồ 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 lớn what many expected, táo bị cắn dở didn’t make massive conspicuous changes to lớn 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 khổng lồ 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 và clearer, và detail reproduction in much better even though the sensor doesn’t have more pixels to điện thoại tư vấn 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 and 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 đoạn clip is only recorded at 480p quality, và then upscaled to 720, rather than offering actual HD slo-mo, like the Galaxy note 3.

The iPhone 5S isn’t going khổng lồ challenge the nokia Lumia 1020 in the sheer unique of the photos it can produce, but it is an eminently usable camera. It’s a solid upgrade lớn the iPhone 5, although not enough reason khổng lồ upgrade by itself, in our view.

Verdict

The iPhone 5S is a low-key phone upgrade on first impression, but it actually makes some adventurous, intelligent changes. The 64-bit processor, the touch ID sensor & the new camera flash are by no means ‘standard’ phone upgrades, but ones that try lớn alter or improve what the phone is actually like 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, & it’ll be a while before we appreciate quite how good it really is.