The iPhone 5s Review

http://anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review

by glasshead969 • 13 years ago

270 269 13 years ago

glhaynes• 13 years ago

Supposing A-series chip performance continues to improve at the rate it has been, how long until an Apple TV with the then-current high-end A chip puts games on a TV of the same quality as current-gen video game systems? What about next-gen?

mbell• 13 years ago

While it's far from a complete measure of performance, one data point is that the PS4 GPU is capable of 1.84 tflops, the 5s GPU is capable of 76.8 gflops, only ~4.2% the throughput of the PS4.

Alphasite_• 13 years ago

Well yes, but the thermals are less of a battery when you don't have to worry about battery condition or battery usage.

6ren• 13 years ago

xbox360's Xenos GPU has 240 gflops. Maybe iPad 5 will reach this, by x4 the iPad 4's 76.8 gflops. The series 6 rogue GPU has a lot of headroom.

flakmonkey3• 13 years ago

The GPU in the PS4 is, essentially, an Nvidia 7900-class GPU. Anandtech recently did a comparison of old PC GPUs to current SOCs and the results are surprisingly close. I'd imagine Snapdragon 800 and Oscar close the gap considerably. http://anandtech.com/show/6877/the-great-equalizer-part-3/3

edit: I'm stuck in past. This comment is about PS3 not PS4.

glasshead9692• 13 years ago

Minor correction: A7 SOC is cyclone not oscar. The article was updated. IMO cyclone is a apt name given benchmarks. oscar is name for M7.

Impossible• 13 years ago

The PS4 GPU is significantly more powerful (orders of magnitude) than an Nvidia 7900 class GPU, unless you meant PS3 or Radeon 7900 series :).

twodayslate• 13 years ago

This is one of the most thorough reviews I have ever seen. I loved all the information and benchmarks.

acchow• 13 years ago

You should check out Brian's HTC One review.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6747/htc-one-review

The only upsetting part was that it took eternity to come out :(

asafira• 13 years ago

Anandtech has really stellar reviews, and this review is just one example. I'm sure the number of charts and plots loses the people with shorter attention spans, but the alternative really is a far more vague review. I remember The Verge's video review of the Moto X filled with the phrase "the ___ is awesome", making it borderline useless. Moreover, I actually feel like I am gaining a much deeper understanding of the hardware internals when reading Anandtech reviews. While other reviews would simply say "the processor makes for a very snappy experience", Anandtech explains the new 28nm architecture and thus exactly how much potential it has to be more efficient, the overhead required to deal with 32 vs 64 bit apps, etc. Unless someone can show me otherwise, my tech news reading experience over the last few years leads me to believe that Anantech is in its own class when it comes to consumer technology reviews.

eigenvector• 13 years ago

AnandTech = reviews for engineers. The use of actual lab-bench display testing alone puts them in a category of their own.

ibrahima• 13 years ago

By engineers, for engineers, I might add. No offense, but most writers on tech sites tend to be writers who are interested in technology, whereas AnandTech is full of engineers who are interested in dissecting and explaining technology. Not to pick on anyone, but if you gave the writers at The Verge, for instance, a month to review the iPhone 5S they would not cover the depth that the first page of this review covers.

masklinn2• 13 years ago

The use of actual lab-bench display testing alone puts them in a category of their own.

That and the architectural dissections they do every time a new CPU or GPU is even announced, only through anandtech do I look forward to new Intel or NVidia stuff, even though I'm not a hardware geek at all the reviews are engrossing, interesting and interested and strike a very nice balance of depth and clarity.

Symmetry2• 13 years ago

They're pretty great at most things. Real World Tech goes into more depth on the architecture side, though they don't really benchmark and they're much less prolific. I like The Tech Report's way of measuring GPU performance more, too. But in general I'll go to Anandtech first.

Hillary_Pe• 13 years ago

Only 1GB RAM?! bah humbug

kylelibra• 13 years ago

I was hoping they had finally bumped it up to 2gb, but I guess not. I often read this is related to battery life, can anyone corroborate?

jevinskie• 13 years ago

DRAM requires periodic refreshing or the cells lose their memory. This refreshing uses energy. More bits, more energy. You get the same issue with SRAM (think CPU caches) though without the refreshing.

krallja• 13 years ago

Yes, DRAM requires power to refresh its memory. That's why computers can't use DRAM as permanent storage.

glasshead9692• 13 years ago

At least it's LPDDR3, so it should be faster than iPhone 5.

auctiontheory2• 13 years ago

Yeah, that's a surprise. Increasing RAM would surely have been an easy way to speed up video editing. What else are we to do with the fancy camera?!

Aloha3• 13 years ago

I never considered video editing a key application for my mobile telephone. Even with the camera, I would expect to take the video on the phone, and edit it elsewhere.

blinkingled2• 13 years ago

The iPad definitely needs more RAM though. Whenever I use it, I quickly get annoyed by Safari/Chrome reloading pages and background apps disappearing due to OOM.

UnoriginalGuy• 13 years ago

So really with the 64 bit architecture this phone has effectively less RAM than the iPhone 5?

To maintain backwards compatibility between legacy 32 bit and new 64 bit processes Apple will have to stick two copies of their library into RAM, plus any native applications running in 64 bit mode will consume more RAM than their 32 bit counterparts anyway (12%~ more).

I love how this review is basically "THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING S RELEASE EVER (but I cannot really explain why, here is me dismissing most of the new features of this phone: Evolutionary camera, 64 bit which is meaningless today, gimmicky fingerprint reader, faster A processor which makes it almost competitive with Intel's last generation, etc)."

I think it is entertaining that tons of Apple's fans have been claiming entirely without basis that this phone would have 2 GB of RAM in it and that was largely their explanation for the 64 bit-eating RAM-issue, now it only has 1 GB still I wonder how they'll magic that huge deficit away.

joakleaf2• 13 years ago

It takes a lot to hit that RAM barrier on iOS with code. Yes 64-bit code takes up more space than 32-bit code, but the majority of memory is not used for code. It is used for images etc. -- Most apps do not use large amounts of memory for pointer intense structures or contain tens of megabytes of code.

Also, 64-bit addressing may be "meaningless" today if you disregard memory mapping of content (into virtual memory), but , as stated in the review, the 64-bit architecture comes with couple of other improvements including increasing the # registers.

mirsadm• 13 years ago

Interestingly enough the GPU is approximately the same speed as the upcoming (or current?) generation of Android phones with the Snapdragon 800 SOC. In the past Apple has generally held a large performance advantage in that area. There is potential that in 6 months when the next Galaxy/HTC phones are released that they will be significantly ahead of Apple for 6 or more months.

wklauss• 13 years ago

I'm not sure current benchmarks can really measure the A7 correctly, or if they are at all ready to deal with OpenGL ES 3.0.

devx3• 13 years ago

All new chips support OpenGL ES 3.0 except Tegra 4.

gilgoomesh• 13 years ago

As Anandtech points out: the iPhone 5s' PowerVR Series 6 moves to a fully scalar architecture (allowing better shaders and GPGPU performance) but loses a lot of raw triangle performance in the process (30-50% slower than iPhone 5 in some cases). On shader heavy scenes (T-Rex HD) the tradeoff is worth it (iPhone 5s is 30% faster than any other GPU).

Apple (and PowerVR) have made a couple tradeoffs in this generation that sacrifice performance on some tests for better shader capabilities.

Final point: it'll be interesting to see what these numbers look like when the bugs in the different graphics tests are resolved (are they compiled using the armv8 instruction set?)

flakmonkey3• 13 years ago

That 30% faster figure is because the iPhone is rendering the scene at a lower resolution than many of the phones with larger, 1080p screens. Look at the next graph where each phone is rendering a 1080p scene to see the difference.

rsynnott2• 13 years ago

The Snapdragon 800 tested is a relatively power-hungry tablet part. I _think_ the phone ones will have fewer execution units. If history is a guide, the iPad 5 A7 (A7X?) will have twice the execution units.

sciwiz• 13 years ago

LG G2 is a phone.

blinkingled2• 13 years ago

Looking at the benchmarks - the A7 SoC is a pretty darn great achievement for Apple! And more than that it is a serious threat to Intel given it is within striking distance of 22nm Bay Trail at 28nm and two less cores!

If they continue this - the next gen MacBook Airs will be running the A8 or even A7x with full day battery life. Intel better have something disruptive up their sleeves!

dangrossman• 13 years ago

8 days ago Intel demoed Broadwell, its 14nm Haswell shrink that cuts power usage another 30%.

turing• 13 years ago

As Dan said, it's not as if Intel is standing still. I definitely don't expect any Macs to be running ARM for at least a few years. Would definitely be interesting though :)

For those that haven't read the full review, here's a quote from Anand that addresses this topic:

As far as Macs go though, there's still a big gap between the A7 and where Intel is at with Haswell. The deficiency that Intel had in the ultra mobile space simply doesn't translate to its position with the big Core chips. I don't see Apple bridging that gap anytime soon.

arrrg2• 13 years ago

Current MacBook Airs already get full-day battery life. Apple/ARM and Intel are quickly converging from two sides – but the cost of switching architectures (while something Apple certainly has been quite good at in the past) seems too high to me for the payoff, and that’s even if, spec for spec, ARM could beat out Intel. Add to that that the relationship of Apple with Intel seems to be a quite good one (so there is no reason for petty politics) and I really don’t see it happening.

24 hour battery life (instead of 12) and half the performance in a MacBook Air seems hardly worth it to me. To my mind that device is already more constrained by performance than battery life.

(Conversely I also don’t see ARM/Apple getting too slow to keep pace with Intel on the mobile side, so I don’t see them switching there to Intel, either.)

cremnob• 13 years ago

Apple owns a stake in ARM and likely has more influence on their direction than they would with Intel. Apple is fond of controlling their destiny and that means controlling the entire stack. They might keep iOS and OSX separate but I could definitely see them unifying hardware across all their lines as much as possible. They avoid the margin paid to Intel and can lower costs via scale.

e: I know they had a stake in ARM at one point, but I'm unsure if they still do.

DustinCalim• 13 years ago

Reading through the comments here, I see a lot of reference to GPU speeds. Anand mentions in the article that the new iPhone 5s is more powerful than the 2010 Macbook Air 11" and has more graphics performance than the iPad 4. I used to be one of those guys who would build his own PC and spend hours overclocking everything for the maximum performance gain but I do not understand this;

What's the infatuation with performance in a cell phone?

Snappy is snappy but there are diminishing returns here past a certain point; I think Anand stated it best when he said it is "the most future-proof of any iPhone ever launched"

Derander• 13 years ago

I care about cell phone performance because I'm excited for the day when I can realistically start booting a general purpose OS on my phone and call it good enough w/ a monitor and external keyboard.

brymaster• 13 years ago

That will also be the day where you need to 'jailbreak your PC' thanks to Apple.

hboon• 13 years ago

What's the infatuation with performance in a cell phone?

With better raw CPU and GPU performances, it's easier and faster to write decent code with less time spent on optimisation and well as a great UI — Motion Effects and UIKit Dynamics (supporting parallax effects, physics engine, 30D/layered look) requires a powerful GPU. Games, of course always push the performance of CPU and GPUs. I doubt there'll ever be future-proof hardware in terms of performance, unless the software is dead.

Someone2• 13 years ago

One advantage: the faster the hardware, the more time it can spend in idle states at the same load. So, if you manage to speed up your hardware by a factor X while increasing power usage by a factor < X, it is a net win (I don't know whether they achieve this)

Symmetry2• 13 years ago

That's not really true for the sorts of architectural changes happening here. Because smaller process nodes mean that leakage power for transistors has grown faster than active power there's now a lot to be said for running those transistors fast for short bursts rather than at a reduced frequency. But adding more transistors still increases your power usage linearly, and performance only goes up with something like the square root of the number of transistors you use. There's things that make this not entirely true on the system level, if a better branch predictor or better cache then you might see less bandwidth to main memory and you'll be saving power there. And you can do things with the silicon level process to reduce leakage power at the cost of performance but then make the performance back up with more transistors and still come out ahead. But in general a smaller core will be more power efficient than a larger one.

terapixel2• 13 years ago

> What's the infatuation with performance in a cell phone? Assuming you're talking about GPU performance: Apple cares a lot about GPU performance because iOS uses the GPU heavily for a lot of tasks - all the animations, transitions, blurring and blending effects that you see are executed on the GPU, mostly via CoreAnimation.

Also, there are new games and other applications that are pushing GPU requirements to near desktop-class. For example, the Infinity Blade demo that was shown during the launch.

I think a lot of people care about having enough GPU performance to enable all of these.

ludwigvan• 13 years ago

What's the infatuation with performance in a cell phone?

Consider the case when Apple starts using these (ARM) in a MacBook Air.

Einherji• 13 years ago

I really doubt that will ever happen. If anything I think it will end up being the other way around with x86 CPUs in phones.

iand• 13 years ago

Cell phones don't need uber graphic performance but we are a long way from these devices being merely cell phones. They are general purpose computer with sophisticated displays and interfaces. Performance matters here.

gnaffle5• 13 years ago

While I don't generally get why people get so hung up on specifications ("my phone has more cores than yours"), the performance is actually put to good use. You wouldn't be able to do HD video recording and editing, slo-mo and burst shots and a host of other things had it not been for more powerful and efficient processors. It has nothing to do with snappy, and everything to do with functionality.

kalleboo3• 13 years ago

Phones haven't quite reached the point that desktop computers have. With a desktop, a 5 year old machine today is still completely useable even with the latest software. Meanwhile, a 5 year old phone is the original iPhone. This generation of phones might be the beginning of that era, but the increased performance in phones is still enabling new features that weren't possible before (full res burst with image evaluation, 120fps video editing, etc).

If it's true that the iPhone 5s of today matches or exceeds the performance of a laptop from 5 years ago, that could mean we're not long away from full-featured convergence devices (plug your phone into a monitor+keyboard to turn it into a complete PC)

numbsafari• 13 years ago

It runs about as fast as a Core2 Duo 2.4GHz from 2010, which was used that year in the Mac Mini.

So, yeah, we're there.

corporalagumbo6• 13 years ago

I find Apple so incredibly impressive. They target a few key features with every release, absolutely nail those features, and sell the new products perfectly. Their product line-ups and messages are constantly evolving, but slowly, determinedly. And so they achieve things no other company seems capable of - like an unlocking mechanism that is going to be market-defining. Why? Because when the other companies become jealous and try and come up with their own versions, they'll rush and release something half-baked, and out of the confusion only Apple's solution will speak to consumers. Apple is so far ahead of the competition it's ridiculous - maybe Google can compete in the medium-term, I'm not sure. Apple's confidence and poise is awe-inspiring.

ajross2• 13 years ago

Not responding to the fawning per se, but specifically the "unlocking mechanism that is going to be market-defining": face unlock seems undeniably cooler still, works reasonably well, has been shipping on all Android phones for nearly two years now, yet certainly hasn't "defined" any markets.

How exactly is putting a little scanner inside a button going to be meaningfully better? Like face unlock, it's at best a cute trick. Apple's past genius has been about finding new fundamental ways to use technology. Slightly easier protection against spousal snooping doesn't qualify, sorry.

pbreit2• 13 years ago

Face Unlock doesn't work very well, is less secure and much more difficult. This is hardly a "cute trick". We are going to see the rapid expansion of fingerprints in place of passwords and it is going to be pretty neat.

sami36• 13 years ago

"works reasonably well"

It doesn't.

rhizome• 13 years ago

Android's face-unlock, while also slow, is easily defeated:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/08/03/android-jelly-beans-...

corporalagumbo6• 13 years ago

It's all about execution. When Android manufacturers make these "innovations," by and large they're sloppily implemented and poorly communicated. They're generally part of dozens of features that companies like Samsung try to boast about - so the net result is that consumers don't know what to pay attention to, they aren't inspired to feel lust for the product or any of its particular features, and so the product becomes just one more indistinct phone on the scrapheap.

Whereas Apple focuses on a few core features to improve on and communicate with each phone, and they're overwhelmingly cautious - like only integrating Touch ID with a few spots of the phone at first. But they nail the initial execution, and the communication. So their phones are still the absolute centre of the market. And no other company can inspire product lust to the degree they can.

gareim2• 13 years ago

Having used face unlock, it's really gimmicky. I turned that off right away. It could be a good idea in the future but, like with Samsung's hands-free gestures, right now I'd have to spend too much time aligning my face and waiting and hoping that it was going to work.

Touch ID takes what you would have done anyways (thumb on home button to wake and then type in PIN) and makes it even faster. Now you still put your thumb on and eliminate the typing pin part.

I haven't used Touch ID yet but I wake my phone a lot during the day, so this seems like a nice (but not absolutely necessary) feature for me. Something small that makes the experience that much better.

planb• 13 years ago

Not responding to the fawning per se, but specifically the "unlocking mechanism that is going to be market-defining": face unlock seems undeniably cooler still, works reasonably well, has been shipping on all Android phones for nearly two years now, yet certainly hasn't "defined" any markets.

See, that's exactly what the OP means. I tried to use face unlock on my Nexus 7 - it's just noot good enough. Too slow, too unreliable, especially in bad light conditions. I obviously haven't had the change to play with the iPhone 5s yet, but I'm quite confident that after getting used to keeping the thumb on the home button after turning it on, you won't event notice the fingerprint scanner.

terapixel2• 13 years ago

> How exactly is putting a little scanner inside a button going to be meaningfully better?

Quoting from the article: "Apple's Touch ID was the biggest surprise for me. I found it very well executed and a nice part of the overall experience. When between the 5s and the 5/5c, I immediately miss Touch ID."

Coming from someone as respectable as Anand, I would call that reasonable grounds to call TouchID "meaningfully better".

Maybe you can point to something similar for face unlock?

psteinweber• 13 years ago

With the new keychain syncing in iOS7, the "Touch ID" is only one small step away of making typing passwords unnecessary. That's big!

Steko• 13 years ago

The fingerprint scanner isn't just a phone unlocking mechanism. It's an entire mobile identity solution.

Tloewald• 13 years ago

Wasn't face unlock spoofed the day of release by people using crummy printed photos?

flyosity2• 13 years ago

I remember when two of my friends got Android phones that were face unlockable. First thing we did was hold up an iPhone with a picture of their face to it and it worked to unlock the phone! We tried this a bunch of times and it worked every time. I don't know if the technology still sucks like it did about a year ago but I have a feeling that Touch ID will not be foiled as easily.

felipeerias• 13 years ago

"Slightly easier protection against spousal snooping doesn't qualify"

It is about far more than that: it is about a new payment system, both more secure and more convenient. If that doesn't seem ambitious enough for you, I don't know what would.

You wouldn't trust face recognition to allow payments on stores or the Internet. Touch ID is designed so you can trust it, down to the separate secure storage for your fingerprint data.

It starts with being able to use your fingerprint to authorise payments at the App and iTunes Stores, and escalates from there.

evilduck• 13 years ago

How does this "protections against spousal snooping" joke of an argument not apply 100% equally to your "undeniably cooler" face unlock? Both have PIN fallbacks anyways.

leoc• 13 years ago

Not to bag on the iPhone's fingerprint detection in general - it looks to be impressive to me, in fact - but one thing it probably won't do very effectively is protect you from your spouse, or anyone else who has access to your hands while you sleep. The same risk will be present during overnight stays in police cells, probably.

rayiner• 13 years ago

How do you use face unlock while glancing at your phone from the corner of your eye?

I think it's these sorts of practical considerations that really make Apple products special. I feel like there is someone at Apple thinking through what happens when a dad carrying a baby gets a phone call. I don't feel like that's the case with say Samsung.

amatheus• 13 years ago

I think the key here is "works reasonably well". Nothing at this level will be as market-defining as "works perfectly" which is what Apple aims.

MaysonL• 13 years ago

How exactly is putting a little scanner inside a button going to be meaningfully better?

From the review: "When [moving] between the 5s and the 5/5c, I immediately miss Touch ID."

mmhd• 13 years ago

You're not seeing the big picture. Touch ID isn't just another gimmicky feature, it's something Apple spend a lot of money on. They acquired the company that made the technology, and improved it in a way only Apple could.

Today it's a method to unlock your device, but there is no way that this is all Apple wants it to do. The possibilities are endless. Imagine not having to put your password into another website, instead you just touch the home button. Making a purchase on iTunes? Use the scanner instead of the password, etc.

But that's not all. This could easily be used in a retail environment, where a prompt on your screen shows up and says "Buy foobar for $5.99?". Touch ID does the rest.

bitserf• 13 years ago

Its their discipline that impresses me: How much they are willing to play the long game, and take short term hits to do it.

While getting hammered by Wall Street and the press for not innovating, they stick to their guns and keep evolving in incremental steps, and laying the ground for the innovation they want to do in the future.

For example, current iPhone battery life isn't the greatest compared to some of the larger phones out there that are packing much more battery.

But they keep making small efficiency improvements, over and over, so that if (when?) release a device with a larger battery, it will be like the MacBook Air situation, where the MBA gets staggering battery life on the next hardware iteration compared to competitors that have just adequate battery life, basically being carried by the hardware.

I imagine the larger display is a similar situation, they're not happy with some compromise they'd have to make to produce a display of the larger size, whereas competitors are happy to pump something out that is better by some metric (PPI, size), but has adverse effects (battery life, color oversaturation, artifacting).

I think Google has the ability to continue competing with them if they remain focused.

I have my doubts about any of the other Android manufacturers, though Xiaomi could be interesting in the future, due to their focus on services.

corporalagumbo6• 13 years ago

Yes, discipline is a great word for it. Against a sea of nay-sayers and critics they keep their composure and stay focused on the long-term. The result is that their competitors blow their opportunities by rushing, and squander any stature. Apple remains in total control of the industry.

kbrower• 13 years ago

iphone battery size isn't much compared to android phones, but they are constantly on top of the web browsing battery life tests in spite of this. disappointing that the 5s was a small step backward here.

bentcorner7• 13 years ago

I imagine the larger display is a similar situation, they're not happy with some compromise they'd have to make to produce a display of the larger size, whereas competitors are happy to pump something out that is better by some metric (PPI, size), but has adverse effects (battery life, color oversaturation, artifacting).

The iPad 3 is a counter-example; retina display almost for the sake of it, and the hardware suffered. The fact that Apple pushed out the iPad 4 so quickly thereafter can, IMO, be chalked up to the fact that the iPad 3 was either a stopgap device or immediately regretted internally and caused the schedule of the iPad 4 to be bumped up.

jemeshsu• 13 years ago

Would be great if there is insider info on the process Apple made their decisions on what features to put into new product. It definitely not just marketing driven, but a mix that includes the technical and supply chain. Material for a book.

Gustomaximus• 13 years ago

From what I heard the fingerprint reader is partially enterprise driven. Apple are doing everything to ensure maximum security on devices so they can replace BlackBerry and have a strong USP against Android in enterprise sales.

pedalpete• 13 years ago

I think you've got some selective bias here (you couldn't tell by your writing :)), I see two things happening here. Keep in mind, I think TouchID is a great feature, but...

1)Minor improvements get fawned over and made to seem like such a life-changing massive improvement and Apple fans gloat about how Apple is the best because of x, often when other manufacturers have had the same feature/capabilities for a long time. Doesn't matter, now Apple has it, it just sucked before.

2)Apple actually seems to regularly release just about as many new features/capabilities as the next guy, but then focuses in on the things that it's fan base promotes and is excited about, and that becomes a feedback loop regarding the 'few key features'. There was a tag-cloud image from the keynote that listed all the new stuff, and most of it you'll never hear about again. It isn't the focus on key features in every release, it's you, deciding what features are key and then telling your friends all about them, and then Apple also amplifying your message. If people latched onto iBeacons, we'd be reading about that non-stop now. The difference (and where you're correct) is that Apple focuses on these features vs. Samsung with the S4 commercial that tries to show you everything and you end up not remembering any of them. Contrast that with the MotoX ads (very well done), which are still a bit scatter-shod, but much more focused.

Question for you though, what's with the comment about "Google competing in the medium-term"?? I think you're more confident about Apple then they are ;)

acqq4• 13 years ago

other manufacturers have had the same feature/capabilities for a long time

No they haven't, nobody had such a fingerprint reader in the phone, all others (specifically I know of only one at the moment, do write if you know more) are "slide you finger, not too fast, not too slow, don't press the side, oops not good enough, slide it again." Having used such readers, I know they are really annoying. Not the one on iPhone 5S. You press the finger not having to care about the angle and that's it. Compared to the slide ones that reject your whole slide because it was a little to the left or to the right and where only one slide direction is allowed and it takes exact time, iPhone's is pure magic.

"Having something" is not "we can write it on the spec sheet even if it's unusable."

interpol_p3• 13 years ago

Doesn't matter, now Apple has it, it just sucked before.

Because this is very often exactly the case.

Apple get things wrong (especially when it comes to network services). But when they get things right — really right — you realise that no one else had done it properly before.

Apple actually seems to regularly release just about as many new features/capabilities as the next guy, but then focuses in on the things that it's fan base promotes and is excited about

This is not true. Apple focuses on the features that it feels defines their products — not what their "fan base promotes." Apple didn't focus on Touch ID because everyone was clamouring for a fingerprint scanner; they focused on it because they felt it was a truly good solution to the problem of unlocking your phone (something many people didn't even consider to be a "problem").

The tag-cloud image is from WWDC. They always do this to show the new APIs and features that developers will be excited to use.

Apple focused on three features with the 5s. They did not choose to focus on these because of what people were talking.

I am not sure why you state:

It isn't the focus on key features in every release, it's you, deciding what features are key and then telling your friends all about them, and then Apple also amplifying your message

This does not happen at all. Apple does not "amplify" what people are talking about.

panacea4• 13 years ago

iBeacons was under NDA, and the NSA has made that particular advance a hard sell.

pavanky• 13 years ago

Motorola Atrix shipped with fingerprint scanning back in 2011. The reason any other device doesn't have that feature ? Apple bought the company that made the scanners and stopped all further support. This even killed support for new android versions on the Atrix. They then took 2 years to implement it on one of their devices.

Also having not used the iphone 5s, you can not blindly say the solution will be market defining or very secure. Any technology like this will consistently work. Your phone will most likely ship with a backup security system that will be used when the phone can't match the finger prints. What would that mean ? Any random person can exceed the number of tries with finger print unlock and then go to the back up system that is no more secure than existing solutions.

Apple is so far ahead of the competition it's ridiculous - maybe Google can compete in the medium-term, I'm not sure

This line just reeks of Apple fan boyism. There is literally nothing on the ios now that is ahead of android. Infact for the last couple of releases ios has been catching up with android (notifications, quick settings etc). It still does not have intents, widgets, default apps that can be replaced. But yes, live inside your own bubble and drool at everything apple.

gareim2• 13 years ago

The fingerprint scanner on the Atrix was of the primitive kind, where you have to swipe your thumb and hope it scanned. Half the time it didn't. The reason it took Apple 2 years to implement it was because they waited for a better solution to come up. Their implementation is less of a hassle than previous fingerprint scanners were for consumer devices. This is where Apple shines: execution.

badman_ting• 13 years ago

I really am amazed to see this comment on Hacker News. I don't know what else to say.

pkulak• 13 years ago

Let's not get carried away. Apple makes the best hardware. They always have, and probably always will. But there's a lot more to a phone than the hardware. Lots of people genuinely prefer the way Android does things and I don't think Apple will ever figure out how to do cloud services properly.

sideproject• 13 years ago

what an EXCELLENT review. Seriously. The author went through so much detail. It's ridiculous how thorough this review is - loved it. Thank you.

jordanthoms• 13 years ago

As usual for Anandtech - by far the best review site around, at least for the technology side of devices.

dragontamer5• 13 years ago

I wouldn't call it "by far" the best. TechReport IMO has taken a similar style of super-duper in-depth reviews. Phoronix is the only review site that does this kind of in-depth review... except from a Linux-slant. (how good are the drivers for various graphics cards. Which CPU offers the best compile times, etc. etc.)

What CNet lacks in depth, it gains in breadth. CNet has far far more reviews of decent quality than any other site I know. In comparison, the few reviews that Anandtech / TechReport do are far far deeper than anything from CNet.

I think overall, I prefer TechReport over Anandtech.

pbreit2• 13 years ago

5S definitely a nice upgrade and I don't see any reason to get a 5C beyond color and slight battery life advantage (presumably on non-motion usage). Saving $100 on a $2,000+ service contract is nothing.

But I'm super disappointed that Apple didn't target 5S battery life for dramatic improvement. The 5's battery life is already awful and it looks like 5S is even worse. Ugh.

sandipc2• 13 years ago

http://anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/9

with the exception of cellular talk time, the 5 and 5S are near the top...

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

Gee, silly me, caring about the cellular talk time on my phone. That's the last thing anyone should use a phone for.

martinald• 13 years ago

I agree. I was really, really hoping for a MacBook Air-style 2x improvement in battery life (either through a physically larger battery and/or silicon improvements).

The problem with battery life:

1) It's already terrible. If I go out to a bar or whatever after work and I haven't charged it through the day to >75%, it will be dead most likely by the time I'm trying to get directions home/phone a taxi.

2) No VoLTE support, so you need to have both the 3G & 4G radios on when making a call and using data at the same time, which sucks.

3) iOS7 will likely allow much more aggressive multitasking by developers, which will reduce battery life further. This hasn't really been seen on these benchmarks but I think once developers start pushing through these things, battery life is going to take a nose dive.

4) iPhone batteries aren't user replacements and people use them very heavily. I imagine many people will easily do 500 cycles a year, which makes performance suck pretty quickly.

tcoppi2• 13 years ago

VoLTE is largely a matter of carrier support, when it does get enabled on a major network it shouldn't be too hard to add support for it via a software update. The baseband might need to be updated as well, but the radio support is all there simply by supporting LTE.

sixothree2• 13 years ago

I get the impression America is not the target market for 5C.

toksaitov2• 13 years ago

8x MSAA. Impressive.

bobbles2• 13 years ago

Does this mean AA is actually applied in games? Not quite sure what to make of it.

toksaitov2• 13 years ago

PowerVR TBDR architecture is great at handling MSAA. I think quite a lot of games will be able to use it (as it was with 4x) http://gdcvault.com/play/1015331/Bringing-AAA-Graphics-to-Mo... (~page 28)

cpprototypes• 13 years ago

Does anyone else think like we're already in the "core 2 duo" era of smartphones? I look at my galaxy s3 and the newer phones and don't feel much motivation to upgrade.

devx3• 13 years ago

The nice thing about the mobile platforms like iOS and Android, is that they feel as fast as the Core 2 Duo era, even with lower end hardware than that, because the apps themselves and the OS, too, are a lot leaner than the ones on the PC a few years ago.

bobbles2• 13 years ago

In the daringfireball.net review Gruber specifically mentions in benchmarking the 5s outperforms the 2008 15" macbook that he has.

It's hard for me to justify from a 'need' perspective to go from my 4S to the 5s, since to be honest the 4S has no slowdown at all and is a great phone.

I'll probably end up donating it to my mum and moving her from dumbphone into smartphone land.

Marazan2• 13 years ago

Fingerprint scanning is yet more evidence that the iPhone was designed in sunny south California rather than chilly northern Europe.

Resistive touch screen may not allow multi-touch, but at least I can use them when wearing gloves (and no - gloves with a capacitive finger tip don't count).

gfodor5• 13 years ago

Just because there are segments of the population who can not take advantage of a feature at all times does not mean the feature is unwarranted or designed without considering this fact.

interpol_p3• 13 years ago

yet more evidence that the iPhone was designed in sunny south California

The evidence is also on the phone itself where it says "Designed by Apple in California"

vacri• 13 years ago

Noseprint?

Marazan2• 13 years ago

I have once dialled a call using only my nose.

actionscripted• 13 years ago

It allows for 5 stored "fingers", so you could set things up for each thumb, each index finger and your nose. Assuming there aren't any security issues about using a nose -- and that you're not worried about security much anyways -- you should be golden. How unique are nose prints?

nutanc2• 13 years ago

All I can say is that TouchID is the new Siri.

seertaak• 13 years ago

Any ARM experts around? The sagacity of the move to 64-bit is explained in terms of getting rid of cruft, and via analogy to a similar move by Intel on the x86 line. But I thought that the largest boost to that line comes from the many additional registers available under 64 bit mode. In ARM, with its RISC architecture, there are already a nice number of registers, so I'm wondering where the true advantage lies -- especially an environment of strongly constrained memory.

pja2• 13 years ago

Yes, the biggest boost to x86 performance in the move to 64 bit came mostly because they doubled the number of regsiters available to what was previously a very register poor ISA.

The ARM ISA has different legacy issues: the design makes it much more expensive than it otherwise would be to pipeline the CPU in order to get decent performance. The ISA was designed for an in-order CPU: at the time pipelining was something that mainframe / workstation class CPUs did. (ARM was designed in the very early 80s; Intel released a pipelined CPU in 1989 - the 486, and then only for simple instructions.)

For instance, every ARM32 assembly instruction has a bunch of condition codes which determine whether to execute the instruction depending on the state of the status bits in the program counter. You can also determine whether a given instruction will set the relevant status bits in the processor. This means you can do nice things like encode an if (R2 < 0) then (Add 1 to R3) else (Add 1 to R4) in just three instructions: one for the test, an instruction if the relevant flag is set & a second instruction to run if it's not set. No branches! You can also branch on any or all of the condition flags. This makes for very compact code. The trouble is that it's hell to pipeline because you have to keep track of all the possible states of the status bits and follow all the possible branch paths that result, whilst keeping track of all the dependencies.

They've also done things like simplify the exception handling so that the CPU needs fewer shadow registers, which again reduces power requirements.

pja2• 13 years ago

RealWorldTech has a good article here: http://www.realworldtech.com/arm64/ if anyone wants to do a slightly deeper dive into the ARM64 ISA.

tompudding• 13 years ago

It's worth noting that there are double the number of general purpose registers concurrently available in A64 (30 up from 15). I have no idea what effect that has on performance, but it's not the case that there is no improvement in that regard.

masklinn2• 13 years ago

It's worth noting that there are double the number of general purpose registers

Yeah same as x86 -> x86-64, but x86 was really starved in general purpose registers with only 6 GPR. Even in ARMv7, ARM had 2.5 times the number of registers of x86 making register pressure a much lower issue.

This means the performance gains from lowered register pressure are going to be significantly lower on ARM, as register pressure was much, much lower in the first place.

rsynnott2• 13 years ago

From the data presented, it looks like most of the performance gains are actually from improvements in Apple's micro architecture (they show up even using ARMv7 code).

cromwellian2• 13 years ago

Personally, I prefer proximity unlock, I shouldn't have to touch the phone at all. This might be done with Bluetooth LE devices, the same way modern keyless entry works for cars.

If my phone is within a meter or two of my keychain, or I'm in my car, then it is unlocked. This is especially important if you want to use it while driving via voice and don't want to have to unlock after each interaction.

Ditto for Moto-X style notifications. I shouldn't have to press the home button to see that tweet that just came in, in fact, I should be able to ask the phone to read it to me, through my headphones.

The fingerprint scanner is definitely a step up from 2-N touches (swipe to unlock + passcode), 1 touch is better than 2*, but zero touches is even better in some circumstances. Never having to think about needing to unlock.

calibwam• 13 years ago

The number one place I would want security on my phone, would be at a bar (or party), where someone might take my phone when I'm distracted, and then doing either something innocent ("lol. im gay. party hard!!!") or nasty (transfer $100 to own account), depending how well I know them. This could easily be done within a meter or two of me, without me noticing. Adding some rules could be nice (be in car, charging at home etc), but generally, I would want my phone to be locked unless I'm holding it.

cromwellian2• 13 years ago

How about proximity + voice print or proximity + face unlock. It's basically 2-factors. Maybe this is the use case for Google Glass, retinal unlock just by looking at the screen.

kalleboo3• 13 years ago

That's what I'm worried about with Touch ID. The new "draw a penis on someone's forehead when they're passed out" is going to be "unlock their iPhone with their finger and post things on their Facebook".

w1ntermute2• 13 years ago

You can do this quite easily with Tasker[0]. At home, you could use the presence of your home wifi network as the indicator that the lock should be disabled, while in your car you could use a passive NFC tag (about 50¢).

0: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....

doe88• 13 years ago

And if you want to use your phone in the toilet you need a Bluetooth Beacon in the toilet. Moreover all these beacons must somehow remain synced with your identity, so more cloud, more sensible data stored on big companies servers.

In summary, I think beacons are useful but I think the most interesting stuff is for a smartphone to unlock a car not the other way around.

tcoppi2• 13 years ago

Why would you need a beacon on the toilet when you could just keep one in your pocket or on your wrist at all times?

carlesfe2• 13 years ago

...or you can default to using the unlock code, you know. The fingerprint scanner is an added feature, it is not replacing anything

NicoJuicy• 13 years ago

I thought NFC was more impressive then fingerprints ... :)

Scaevolus• 13 years ago

Comparing CPU performance using Javascript benchmarks isn't very useful-- much of the difference depends on which Javascript engine is being used.

joakleaf2• 13 years ago

Isn't it exactly a very useful benchmark if you are going to use the phone primarily for browsing webpages with javascript on them?

yules• 13 years ago

Can't wait to get my hands on one. Soon ;)

mmariani• 13 years ago

""" ...but if Apple doesn’t offer a larger display option soon then I believe it will lose some users not because of cross shopping, but out of frustration. """

I don't get this huge screen trend for phones. That's not a smart move from an ergonomics perspective. Almost person person that has a phone with a big screen has to use both hands to comfortably use the phone, one to touch and the other to hold.

One would argue that more pixels == more content. But that's not an issue with iPhone 5 even though was with previous models. I mean, not an issue if you don't have ads taking up your precious pixels. And that is easily solvable by paying for your content and apps which has other benefits too.

Anyway, I feel the iPhone 5 screen size is perfect. And I still have one hand free to do whatever I want. I think more pixels are not more useful than a hand. People who think that too won't get phones with cumbersome screens, unless they have huge hands.

babesh• 13 years ago

I think certain kinds of content just look better on a big screen ex: videos and images. Also, if you have a limited budget you are not buying both a phone and a tablet (for the bigger screen to consume content). Instead you could buy a phablet to do both. So trade off one handed use for your phone against the cost of a tablet and not having access to the tablet at times. That's the tradeoff from the consumer's standpoint. From Apple's standpoint, they would have to design a phablet that works wells and can be economically produced. So for example, if they want the same quality screen as the iPhone, would the screen have really low yield rates and would thus be uneconomical to produce? Are there issue with building a larger aluminium frame? Do they have higher priorities or different products that they want to create?

kalleboo3• 13 years ago

Apple users always emphasize how things "feel". When I come back to my iPhone after having used an Android phone for a few days, I feel cramped. I feel like I'm constantly scrolling and zooming. I'd love a bigger screen. The thing is, "I feel the iPhone 5 screen size is perfect"... for YOU. Lots of people said the iPhone 4 screen size was perfect and Apple would never change that. Lots of people are buying the Galaxy Note devices too (especially in Asia).

vijucat• 13 years ago

Almost everything looks better on my wife's bigger Galaxy Note 2 screen compared to my Galaxy S2 screen. I can see more TODOs in my toodledo.com task manager (my primary usage), you can read more without scrolling in your browser, YouTube videos are a pleasure; it's like you're traveling with a mini-home-theater that can fit in your pocket, and using the stylus to make handwritten notes is actually practical.

I hardly notice the issue of having to use two hands to hold the phone. On the other hand, if you have to look at your phone while walking, which is uncomfortable when using a smaller screen and dangerous (bumping into people; maybe even uncivil towards others, come to think of it), the larger text on a larger screen makes it more comfortable and you get done taking a glance at what you want more quickly.

In the US, unlike here in Hong Kong, there seems to be a stigma attached to holding a large screen phone, almost as if people are extremely worried about looking uncool. In Hong Kong, the recognition of the practical advantages of the larger screen and the shift away from Apple to Android phones was overnight; the pace at which everyone adopted the Galaxy Note 2 (and other Android phones) after the iPhone 5 was fairly dramatic. I wish there were some statistics on this.

marincounty• 13 years ago

I miss Steve Jobs. I once remember him saying something like,'I'm a little worried about Cook; he's not a gadget guy.'

Did anyone notice during the Apple press conference, the head honchos tried to capture Steve's enthusiasm, but it seemed forced?

I don't understand why they are making such a big deal out of multiple colors? I guess it's a calculated marketing decision? Maybe they think the Iphone will end up a fashion statement? Sorry, but I don't think Job's would care about different colors, or a fingerprint scan--at this point in history. I'm pretty sure hackers will find a way around around the scan pretty quick? Out of respect for Jobs, I'm more than content with my Iphone 4, and my Ipad 2. They get the job done, and their still perfect for my needs. I don't think I'll buy another mac book pro for a long time. I have a feeling I'll be able to buy parts forever?

rahoulb• 13 years ago

I would say phones are already fashion statements (or at the very least lifestyle statements, if you want to make the distinction).

I'm sure Steve Jobs understood this - since his return, Apple has consistently made emotional appeals, not technical ones. Their "innovations" are generally improving on the execution of existing technology (music players, smartphones, tablets) but packaging it in a way that people connect with.

Colour, on a device that you carry with you everywhere you go, is very much a part of this.

allsystemsgo• 13 years ago

If you watch the keynote when the mac came in different colors, you'll see he emphasizes their new see through body and colors just as much as apple is emphasizing the iPhone 5C's colors.

In fact, Apple had a poster with all the different colored macs in a circle, and below that it just said "Yum".

Steve Jobs said Tim Cook isn't so much of a product guy, correct. But that was Steve's opinion. I don't necessarily agree with that sentiment.

And out of respect for jobs you're sticking with dated technology? I don't quite understand... If he were alive he'd probably push you to update your device.

nicholassmith• 13 years ago

I think the Anandtech reviews are one of my favourite parts of a new iOS device launch, talk about thorough.

Interesting comment was made that the A7 seems capable of driving a larger Retina screen than the iPhone, which gives credence to the rumour that the next Mini will shift to Retina, if they've managed to offset the battery life concerns as well anyway. The A7 does seem really rather impressive, I don't know hardware as well as I'd like, but that was some fairly effusive praise in the review.

atestu• 13 years ago

It's not that surprising given that the A5 has been powering the iPad's retina screen… Or am I missing something?

JonFish85• 13 years ago

Focusing on the fingerprint unlock thing. I'm curious how this is going to evolve. I wonder if this will be the new two-factor auth. If I want to log into a website (via Safari of course) on my Macbook Pro, do I have to swipe my finger on my iPhone? I wonder if something like this could start replacing passwords (long-term)?

carlesfe2• 13 years ago

I read somewhere that a fingerprint couldn't replace a password, as they are different auth methods, and the fingerprint can't really replace the password. Does anybody know why? I searched the article but haven't been able to find it.

ajanuary• 13 years ago

My guess is it's referring to the "something you have", "something you are" and "something you know" [1]

Current two-factor authentication on the web combines something you know (password) with something you have (mobile phone with an app that generates tokens).

The parent is suggesting this could change to something you know (password) and something you are (fingerprint). It could easily be extended to include something you have by combining the fingerprint with a token generator on your iPhone.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication

goldudu• 13 years ago

It smells like 2005 nokia to me.

The iPhone 5s Review

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