Posted in: Android, Featured, iOS, Mobile phones

Apple has just revealed its iPhone 5s flagship smartphone and it’s everything that rumors made us expect, really. The company hasn’t redesigned the smartphone, but has made plenty of changes on the inside.

But is it enough? That’s what we will be finding out in the following comparison table. The main rivals of the iPhone 5S come from Korea and they’re the LG G2 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Let’s see what Apple has done with the iPhone 5s in an attempt to stop its melting user base jump over to the Android camp.

Android can boast that the smartphones it runs on now push the 3GB RAM barrier and the eight-core CPUs. Apple has opted for its in-house built A7 chip with a dual-core CPU, but of the 64-bit variety. In a usual Apple fashion, we won’t know the details until at least a couple of days go by.

Okay, the iPhone 5s isn’t something completely unseen, in fact it uses the same body of the iPhone 5. The new smartphone is available is now available in three colors rather than two – Silver, Gold, and a “new space gray.” The other novelty is the fingerprint scanner-touting home button (Touch ID). It enables you to unlock the iPhone just by touching the home button and buy stuff without needing to enter your password. It’s cool, and it certainly better implemented than when we last saw it on the Motorola Atix introduced it in January, 2011.

Here’s the comparison table itself.

Apple iPhone 5S LG G2 Samsung Galaxy S4 OS iOS 7 Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Display 4.0" LED-backlit IPS LCD 5.2" TFT LCD True HD IPS Plus 5" Super AMOLED HD Resolution 1136 x 640

(326 ppi) 1920 x 1080

(424 ppi) 1920 x 1080

(441 ppi) Height

Width

Thickness 123.8 mm

58.6 mm

7.6 mm 138.5 mm

70.9 mm

8.9 mm 136.6 mm

69.8 mm

7.9 mm Weight 112 grams 143 grams 130 grams Processor Apple A7 chipset (64-bit)

dual-core CPU Snapdragon 800 chipset

Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 Exynos 5410 Octa 1.6GHz

Quad-core Cortex-A15

Quad-core Cortex-A7 GPU N/A Adreno 330 PowerVR SGX544MP3 RAM TBC (probably 1GB) 2GB 2GB Storage 16/32/64GB 32GB 16/32/64GB microSD card slot No Korean version only Yes, up to 64GB Primary camera 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, dual LED flash (one cool, one warm), simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR 13 MP, 4128×3096 pixels

auto-focus optically-stabilized camera, LED flash, 8X digital zoom, face detection, HDR mode, panorama, geo-tagging; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 60fps 13 MP, 4128×3096 pixels,

autofocus, LED flash, 1080p@30fps, HDR, video stabilization

Simultaneous HD video and image recording Front camera 1.2 MP

720p@30fps 2.1MP

1080p@30fps 2MP

1080p@30fps Battery Li-Po 1440 mAh Li-Po 3,000 mAh Li-Ion 2600 mAh Battery life Standby: 250 hours

3G talk: 10 hours

3G talk: N/A

(check out our battery test) Standby: N/A3G talk: N/A

3G talk: 17 hours

(check out our battery test) Standby: 370 hours3G talk: 17 hours Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP Yes, v4.0 LE with A2DP Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR Network Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Quad-band UMTS/HSPA

Penta-band LTE support,

LTE-Advanced Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Quad-band UMTS/HSPA

Penta-band LTE support,

LTE-Advanced Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Penta-band UMTS/HSPA

Tri-band LTE support NFC No Yes Yes Speakers Mono Mono Mono Distinctive features •Touch ID home button with fingerprint scanner

• Dual LED flash •Compact size for a 5.2″ display

•Buttonless front and side design •Smart and Air gestures Availability September, 2013 September, 2013 Currently available

Naturally, all three smartphones have much more distinctive features than the ones we’ve mentioned, but we are currently looking at the major stuff here. Apple still bets on gradual updates and the overall feel and experience of its flagship smartphone. Everybody knows that the “S” in iPhone 5S stands for speed, but we’re yet to see how much faster it really feels compared to the now discontinued iPhone 5.

Apple claims it has updated the camera, which now supports “Burst mode” – it captures 10 photos and automatically chooses the best one (*sarcasm*we haven’t seen that before*/sarcasm*) and boasts a pixel size of 1.5μ. Just like the A7 chipset, we’re yet to witness how that camera fares against the competition, but at least on paper – it doesn’t seem like too great an update.

All in all, Apple’s offering is clearly lacking in terms of hardware, and it will have to rely on the splendid iOS 7 ecosystem to keep it relevant. It has worked quite well in the past, but times change and Apple might be made to pay the price for not being adaptable enough.