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| iPhone 5s |
And so it has finally arrived. The phone by which people wanted to judge whether the legacy of Steve Jobs is alive or not. Mostly, till now the reaction is on the negative side, which I might add is completely unjustified. Although I am not an Apple fanboy, rather I am someone who would not buy an iPhone(due to its cost here in India, the Bluetooth limitation, etc.), I still appreciate the phone for what it has to offer. People often judge a product emotionally rather than factually. I have at times recommended the iPhone to people and sometimes dissuaded it, depending on the requirements of the person. It all boils down to what you require and what you don’t.
With the iPhone 5S, I can gladly say that the features are not at all gimmicky(unlike some recently launched devices, *cough S4 cough*), but in fact are features that should be adopted by the industry as a whole. Let us take a look at the specifications and innovations of the iPhone 5S and also see what they missed out on.
Fingerprint Scanner
From a consumer point of view, I would rate this as the most important feature of the iPhone, a foolproof(mostly, considering that every device is hackable) security feature which was lacking in the industry. A feature whose applications are innumerable, the one that mostly comes to mind is safety of data and privacy. On a lighter note, this would prevent your sweet little daughter from running up a bill of thousands of dollars on the app store;I referring to a case where a little girl bought apps worth thousands of dollars from her dad’s iPad. She had seen him enter the password. Fortunately, Apple waived off the charges completely. Such a situation would be prevented by fingerprint authorisation for purchasing apps. Imagine this, someone steals your iPhone and so, you activate an app online that would send you the fingerprint information of the next person that pressed the home button. You could easily pass this information to the authorities which would make it easier for them to track your phone.
Better yet, only your fingerprint would give you access to all features of your iPhone, like your inbox, gallery, etc.. No more peering nervously at the phone display when it is in other people’s hands.
64 bit SOC
A new fad? A gimmick? I don’t think so. Think of this as the next big step in the evolution of smartphones. Now I know that there is a lack of apps that will use this 64 bit architecture, but then again, without the supporting hardware what would be the point of developing 64-bit apps? Now that the hardware platform is there, you can expect a slew of 64 bit apps in the making.
What is benefit of a 64 bit architecture? In short, It will result in a much faster performance.
Motion Chip
One of the major issues with owning a smartphone is a poor battery life. This also prevents people from using the full capability of their phones most of the time as they are not always near a charging point. What good is a smart device if you are limiting its use due to resolvable issue like ‘battery power’? You should be able to use a smartphone when and how you want whether it is intense computing, gaming, watching videos, video conferencing, etc..Some manufacturers/OS developers have solved this issue through software updates, better processors and even by the obvious method of bumping up the battery(Lenovo P780 has a monster of a battery standing at 4000 mah). However, I would say that a combination of all of these would be an optimal solution.
Apple has introduced the Motion Chip called M7 in its latest iPhone which takes care of the various sensor(accelerometer, gyroscope, etc) related data. This can be impact the battery life in a positive way as the sensors won’t then be using the more powerful main processor for the sensor data. Considering that the phone is loaded with a plethora of sensors, this will help in significant battery savings. I someday hope to see a smartphone which will last at least a week(asking for a month would be asking too much) without any compromise on usage.
Apart from saving power, this is a boon for ‘Quantified Selfers’. The M7 chip continuously monitors sensor data which can tell whether you are stationary, running or walking, maybe even driving. Easy to see that this will spawn a lot of Quantified Self apps and maybe a few safety apps that could determine if you are in trouble by detecting unusual movement patterns, etc..
Screen size
Now many people are complaining about the screen size remaining at 4 inches. Ask yourself one question, are you looking for a tablet or a phone? The 4 inch form factor of the iPhone is very comfortable to use and is great for one hand typing(for those who say they can do it with bigger phones, the world also has people whose hands are comparatively smaller). This is perfect as it fits comfortably into the pocket without that bulge. A smartphone should be comfortable to use and this form factor achieves precisely that.
Apps
One app grabbed my attention. I would say that making iWork free was a smart move. Microsoft must be sweating by now. I guess the move to make MS Office an exclusive Windows phone feature made it lose a premium market.
NFC
Now here is a goof-up or an example of Apple arrogance, that I will leave up to you to deliberate. Not including NFC in a premium device is a big mistake. This actually isolates the iPhone users from using a feature which would have made life very convenient for them(read up on NFC benefits to see what I mean).
Camera
When I had read an article about Steve Jobs getting in touch with the inventors of the Lytro camera, I was excited as hell as I was sure that he was planning to introduce a miniaturised version of the Lytro camera into the iPhone. “There is a visionary”, I thought, but alas, all my hopes were crushed after the unveiling of the iPhone. I don’t care about the improvements in the camera, every manufacturer does that. I was expecting something industry shaking. I expected the camera to be the highlight of the phone. I got disappointed there. Still hoping for this in the future versions though.
Design
Hmm, well. Yeah, not too excited there. I have seen such brilliant fan-made designs of the iPhone, I mean, those designs are to die for. Why can’t apple just pay these people and use those designs? We’ll never know(perhaps their design dept might not appreciate this move).
Basic specifications sheet for the iPhone 5s:
Display
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4-inch LCD (1136 x 640)
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RAM
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1GB LPDDR3
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WiFi
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2.4/5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n
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Bluetooth
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BT 4.0
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Storage
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16GB/32GB/64GB
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Battery
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1570 mAh
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Dimensions
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123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm
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Weight
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112 grams
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Camera
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8MP Rear Facing,
1.2MP Front Facing
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Video Recording
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1080p HD video recording,
30 fps
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Sensors
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Fingerprint identity sensor
Three-axis gyro
Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor
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