Apple has revealed its iPhone 5s, which boasts their new 64-bit A7 system-on-chip processor. Apple now claims to offer the world’s first 64-bit smartphone.
Apple says the A7 offers “up to twice the CPU and graphics performance” of the iPhone 5, which used their A6 processor. The A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture supports the OpenGL ES version 3.0 graphics standard, which Apple says can deliver “incredibly rich and complex visual effects, previously only possible on Macs, PCs and gaming consoles.”
The iPhone 5s also includes an M7 motion co-processor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7. Developers can access the M7 for creating fitness and activity apps.
The M7 motion co-processor 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.
iPhone 5s also comes with the new iOS 7, which boasts a new user interface and colour palette. iOS 7 will be launched on 18 September 2013.
Apple said that the update to iOS 7 would be available for free for the iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation), warning that some features may not be available on all products.
Rounding out the iPhone 5s is a new 8 megapixel iSight camera with improved flash, and a fingerprint sensor built into the home button for unlocking the phone and making app store purchases.
Apple said the fingerprint information is encrypted and stored inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5s, adding that it is not stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud.
In terms of appearance, not much has changed except for the home button, which loses the square decal, presumably for fingerprint scanner functionality. iPhone 5s will be available in three metallic finishes in the colours gold, silver and space gray.
iPhone 5s colour range
iPhone 5s pricing and availability
SA pricing and availability has not been communicated at the time of writing. The iPhone 5s will be available on 20 September 2013 in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the UK.
- US$199 (US) for the 16GB model
- US$299 (US) for the 32GB model
- US$399 (US) for the 64GB model.
By December 2013, the device will be available in 100 countries across 270 carriers, said Apple.
iPhone 5s
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Always frustrates me when a version of the same device with just double the memory is also double the price… WTF?
Isn’t basically flash memory ? 64GB is not a difficult size to fit into a small form factor either