iPhone 5s and 5c

[Pahn]

Well, the info is out. I'm sure Ex will do a much better job summing up their info, but this is a very underwhelming release.

5s has very little to offer over the 5. You get a faster CPU/GPU (not that you'll really notice), fingerprint reader, and 120 fps 720p video capture. 5c is essentially identical to the 5, internally. So you have a phone that is being built with year old specs, and now in plastic instead of metal...and you only get a $100 price drop.

At this point, it looks like the best buy is a used 5. But that's just me.

I say all this as an Android user. I wouldn't mind switching to iOS for my phone, because I don't really need Android for that. For tablets, yeah, I'm sticking to Android. Either way, this release fails to impress.

EDIT: It's not surprising -- interesting, but not surprising -- that the 4S is staying in the lineup. Keeping the 5 would make the 5s and especially the 5c a hard sell.

[Baron3ss]

Originally Posted by Pahn

Well, the info is out. I'm sure Ex will do a much better job summing up their info, but this is a very underwhelming release.

5s has very little to offer over the 5. You get a faster CPU/GPU (not that you'll really notice), fingerprint reader, and 120 fps 720p video capture. 5c is essentially identical to the 5, internally. So you have a phone that is being built with year old specs, and now in plastic instead of metal...and you only get a $100 price drop.

At this point, it looks like the best buy is a used 5. But that's just me.

I say all this as an Android user. I wouldn't mind switching to iOS for my phone, because I don't really need Android for that. For tablets, yeah, I'm sticking to Android. Either way, this release fails to impress.

EDIT: It's not surprising -- interesting, but not surprising -- that the 4S is staying in the lineup. Keeping the 5 would make the 5s and especially the 5c a hard sell.

I really like the fingerprint idea, but only because I don't like having to type in my 4 digit code every time I unlock the phone(mandated by ActiveSync policy). I suspect though that fingerprint lock will not be available when a corporate policy is applied to the phone, since they can't control it, which renders it useless for my needs.

The 4S needs to go. I just switched from a 4S to an HTC One last week. I don't want to ever go back to that 3.5" screen. I will say though that I miss being able to do everything with one hand. I can manage on the One, but its not so easy.

[Pahn]

I think Sony is about the only Android OEM that does a 4" screen these days.

[Razor]

I really like the iPhone 5S, but I don't like the 5C.

You're pretty much bang on with what I don't like about the 5C. Your buying a plastic iPhone 5. Apple has never been about cost effective hardware, why start now?

5S: They hit the nail on the head with the Fingerprint Scanner. This is what made Apple Apple. Bridging a need with technology. Not bridging a phone to your wallet.

The A7 processor is a significant step up, and although you do not think it will be noticeable; IOS 7 appears to be hardware intensive.

Actions such as Card Based Multitasking, swiping forward and back in Safari, 3D Wallpapers, etc. will pull a fair bit a CPU Power.

They don't seem to be announcing the memory in the phone, but I would expect a minor bump up from the 1 GB in the iPhone 5.

[SmAsHeD IxNaY]

I'll pass on it. i would like to try an iPhone at some point, but a 4" screen just doesn't cut it for me. I wouldn't mind a 4.7" iPhone, but I bet that's probably 5 or so years out still. It wouldn't surprise me if the make the iPhone 6 a 4.3" screen, so it could give them something new to say such as, "Our biggest iPhone yet!". Oh well. I'll keep my S4 a little longer.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Pahn

I'm sure Ex will do a much better job summing up their info,

Not likely, but I'll try to add to the conversation. I'm not an iPhone guy, but my wife is, so I keep up with their releases. Especially in a cycle where she's going to upgrade, such as this one. I intend to have a 64GB model (for her, of course) on or shortly after release. We've already lined up a buyer for her 4s, which was far easier to sell than my S2, though at a slightly lower price.

Originally Posted by Pahn

5s has very little to offer over the 5.

I respectfully disagree. Apple typically uses a tick-tock release cycle. The problem with this cycle, combined with the way that most Apple fans think, makes the minor upgrade seem big and the major upgrade seem minor. For example, the iPhone 3Gs - iPhone 4 was a minor upgrade. Camera and display were upgraded, and the outer design was changed. The CPU/GPU remained the same (small bump in clock speed), while the RAM remained the same. The 4s was a MAJOR upgrade over the 4, with a vastly superior CPU, GPU, and camera. The display was also recalibrated to be higher quality, despite the same resolution. But, they looked the same, so most considered it to be a small upgrade. Basically, their "tick" is aesthetics, and their "tock" is performance.

Apple deviated here by upgrading every aspect of the iPhone 5, leaving it to be a tick-tock all in one. So with the 5s, we're getting the usual 'tock upgrade (camera, CPU/GPU, other internals), but keeping the same display, size, and looks. It's not as big an upgrade as 4s --> 5, but it's in line with the other two big iPhone upgrades (3G --> 3Gs and 4 --> 4s).

Originally Posted by Pahn

5c is essentially identical to the 5, internally. So you have a phone that is being built with year old specs, and now in plastic instead of metal...and you only get a $100 price drop.

Many were initially under the impression that Apple would forego their traditional sales model, which applied to today's phones, would be the iPhone 5s ($199+), iPhone 5 ($99+), and the iPhone 4s (free). The expectation was for the 5c to offer various storage options on contract for $0-$99, while being relatively cheap off contract. Instead, Apple simply got a phone that slots into their traditional sales model, replacing the expected place of the iPhone 5. With similar specs and cheaper parts, this becomes a margins piece. Apple realized that their best profits (margins + volume) came from the mid-ranged iPhone, not the free one or the high-end one, so why not pad the margins on that model? This is not the kind of move that Steve Jobs typically made, but since he's not around, anything goes.

Originally Posted by Baron3ss

The 4S needs to go. I just switched from a 4S to an HTC One last week. I don't want to ever go back to that 3.5" screen.

Not just the screen, but also the connector. Ditching the 4s and 5 in favor of the 5c would have made all "currently" available iPhones use the same Lightning connector. That would have helped to reduce consumer confusion, but I guess it would also reduce revenue for Apple.

Originally Posted by Pahn

I think Sony is about the only Android OEM that does a 4" screen these days.

Motorola has the Droid Mini on Verizon now, which is a 4" version of the Moto X with more Verizon apps. Limited to one carrier for now, but we should be seeing alternate versions of the Moto X soon, supposedly.

Originally Posted by Razor

The A7 processor is a significant step up, and although you do not think it will be noticeable; IOS 7 appears to be hardware intensive.

It's not. It runs beautifully on the 4s. I've heard it runs very well on the 4 as well (single core), but I haven't tried it first hand. Amazing that they're putting the current OS on a phone from 2010.

Originally Posted by Razor

Actions such as Card Based Multitasking, swiping forward and back in Safari, 3D Wallpapers, etc. will pull a fair bit a CPU Power.

These are surprisingly not that resource intensive. The card-based multitasking is taken from WebOS. It's just a set of horizontal images representing the apps that are already backgrounded, so resources aren't much higher (if any) over the current implementations.

Originally Posted by Razor

They don't seem to be announcing the memory in the phone, but I would expect a minor bump up from the 1 GB in the iPhone 5.

All indications are still 1GB, as you mentioned. However, Apple doesn't background/multitask to the degree that Android does. Also, Apple doesn't include as much bloat as the carriers do with Android. For example, a friend of mine just got the LG G2 on Verizon, and I have the Galaxy S4 GPE. Both devices have 2GB of RAM and we're both power users. His was caching 1.3GB of RAM. Mine was about 750MB. Between more aggressive memory management, no carrier bloat, and just the overall way that iOS multitasks, 512MB is sufficient for most current usage patterns, and 1GB for future proofing and/or power users (to the extent that you can be a power user on iOS).

Originally Posted by SmAsHeD IxNaY

I'll pass on it. i would like to try an iPhone at some point, but a 4" screen just doesn't cut it for me. I wouldn't mind a 4.7" iPhone, but I bet that's probably 5 or so years out still. It wouldn't surprise me if the make the iPhone 6 a 4.3" screen, so it could give them something new to say such as, "Our biggest iPhone yet!". Oh well. I'll keep my S4 a little longer.

You should pass, you JUST upgraded I won't even be looking at a phone until the 2014 release Nexus, giving me about 18 months with my S4 GPE. Even then, I'd like to wait 2+ years before upgrading, so maybe the 2015 Nexus (Nexus 7? ).