It has been a couple months since Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) where they showed off the beautiful iOS7. It has been a year since the last iPhone event, in which the iPhone 5 was released. Today Apple held an event to unveil the next generation of iPhones. Here’s what you need to know:
iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S is the successor to the 5. Apple is dubbing it their “most forward looking” phone to date. As far as the physical changes to the phone, there are really none aside from the new champagne (gold) finish (which looks hideous in my personal opinion). The 5S is also equipped with a fingerprint scanner, located on the home button. You can use this in place of a traditional lock code or your Apple id password. I thought this was a gimmick feature from rumors that were floating around, but the ability to scan your finger in place of your password is a great user experience move.
Internally, the 5S is vastly improved over the 5. The camera sensor is 15% bigger and has a 2.2 aperture. This means more megapixels and better low light shots. As far as video, you can now capture up to 120 frames per second in the new slow motion feature of iOS7. The 5S is now the first and only smartphone to have a 64 bit processor, running 64 bit apps. Basically this means that your apps and your phone are going to run a lot faster. 5 times faster than the iPhone 5 to be exact. The iPhone 5S will be available on September 20th starting at $199 with a standard 2 year contract.
iPhone 5C
The iPhone 5C has been the center of Apple rumors for years now. Everyone has been wondering “When is Apple going to make a cheaper iPhone?”, “When are iPhones going to be available in different colors?” Well the 5C finally answered both of those questions today.
The iPhone 5C has been called many things leading up to todays event: 5 Cheap, 5 China, 5 Color, ect. Physically, this is a huge change compared to previous iPhones. Apple is positioning this as the “budget” iPhone. It has the same dimensions as the iPhone 5, but has a cheaper soft silicone rubber casing compared to the more durable aluminum finish of newer iPhones. Colors available are green, white, blue, red and yellow. Spec wise the 5C has pretty much the exact same specs as the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5C will be available on September 20th starting at 99$ with a standard 2 year contract.
Trying To Decide?
If you’re deciding to purchase a new iPhone and are having trouble on deciding, here is my advice: If you’ve never owned an iPhone before or you’re looking for a new carrier and contract, then go for the 5S. If you’re looking to upgrade from an iPhone 4S or older, I would recommend opting for the 5S as well. Honestly, with cheaper parts and manufacturing I don’t think that the 5C is really worth getting. You would be better off shelling out an additional $100 for the 5S which looks to be far superior than the 5C. If you have an iPhone 5 and want to upgrade, I would just hold out until next year when the iPhone 6 (or whatever Apple will call it) gets released. Also, keep an eye out for price drops from carriers. Go into a store and play around with the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S to see which one suits you best.