iPhone 5S Announced with A7 SoC, Fingerprint Scanner

[JD88]

I don't like Apple for various reasons, but all you people's bashing is simply unbelievable. There is 2X the raw performance, and it comes with a friggin fingerprint scanner, and people yell like robots how it is inferior to some Samsung or other.

And don't forget, they're making 2x the margins that everyone else is too.

 

[teknic111]

If the iPhone doesn't have over 4 gigs of RAM, what good is a 64 bit processor???

 

[sundragon]

If the iPhone doesn't have over 4 gigs of RAM, what good is a 64 bit processor???

Because to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit takes time - It doesn't happen overnight - Developers need to rewrite a lot of code and make it work well.

If Google switches Android to 64-bit, they are gonna pour a lot of effort to make the transition smooth for devs as it makes a difference on the finished product.

You may be too young to remember the switch from 32-bit to 64-bit CPUs on the desktop but it took a while before programs took advantage of it. Furthermore it happened way before we hit the 4GB ceiling for 32-bit OSs but there were a lot of issues and giving people more time to port and to develop is a good idea.

More importantly, the Apple chip uses ARMv8 ISA which thus far hasn't been used by any phone/tablet. It's the next generation ISA with better performance than the current ARMv7 ISA which is used in all current SOCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, etc...

Why do people question this move?

 

[Bloob]

I don't like Apple for various reasons, but all you people's bashing is simply unbelievable. There is 2X the raw performance, and it comes with a friggin fingerprint scanner, and people yell like robots how it is inferior to some Samsung or other.

Don't be fooled. There is 2X the performance on some very specific situations (like double precision floating point calculations). Basically the SoC is faster, but the 64-bit -part is of no benefit right now. Overall, I find the phone a decent upgrade over iPhone 5.

Also, surprised no one has mentioned the fragmentation "issue", as 64-bit apps will not run on 32-bit CPUs. Then again, unless your code is highly optimized, it should be easy enough compile both versions.

 

[JD88]

What no one is mentioning here is what a nugget (brown not gold) this thing is in terms of value.

They are basically slapping a top end price-tag on 2012 hardware (screen, RAM, 16gb storage). Can anyone honestly put this thing next to something like the LG G2, Note 3, or even the HTC one and say it's worth the same amount of money? Do fruit zombies even look at other phones while they are waiting in those lines?

It's not a bad phone at all. What's bad is the price Apple is asking for it. This is a mid range phone, nothing more.

 

[wopr11]

"I am a android guy. But holy moly that finger print sensor is pretty sweet. "

Yeah, now you can finger yourself before getting to use the device - you'll love it.

 

[fuzzion]

Apple has just shot themselves in the foot.

 

[pkellmey]

A fingerprint scanner is the best they have? This is tech that is already considered too easy to bypass, which is why Samsung stopped researching it for the S4. The camera upgrade is so far behind the times it's laughable. A 64 bit chip with that little amount of memory will only slow this phone down. This company is beginning to smell like a corpse.

 

[hitman40]

Apple really needs to start giving their products a major upgrade. My tmobile S2 has a 400Mhz faster processor than the iphone 5 and its from 2011. Apple also continues to leave the screen sizes puny compared to other phones. s4 is a full inch bigger in size than the iphone 5s. and as for apple claiming their 64 bit processor will make it double the performance of the 5, consider this: iphone 5 was a dual core 1.3ghz phone, doubling the power would give it the strength of a quad core 1.3 ghz phone. Might be good somewhat but that only is barely matching the low power cores in the s4. camera megapixel resolution is another thing apple needs to improve on. 720p at 120 fps may be nice but its not 1080p. and its still 8mp when the s4 is 13mp and the lumia 1020 is 41mp. the 5s better have more than 2gb ram or the 64 bit processor will be useless. Also the 5s does NOT support wireless ac. And apple conveniently does not offer a micro sd card slot or a removable battery. Iphones also run at lower resolutions. s4 has full 1080p while 5s isnt even 720p yet XD.

overall the smartphone race isnt going in apple's favor. the only thing keeping apple in is the 64 bit processor and hordes of iZombies

You should know better than to compare Mhz or Ghz. Especially since as I recall, the example of a Pentium Dual Core at 3.0 Ghz was beaten to a pulp by an Intel Dual Core at 2.0Ghz. And you should know better than to compare Megapixels. You can have a thousand times better quality picture than the Nokia Lumia's 41mp camera with simple things like improving image quality first rather than megapixels. The only thing more megapixels will give you is the ability to zoom into pictures without image quality loss.

 

[hitman40]

What no one is mentioning here is what a nugget (brown not gold) this thing is in terms of value.

They are basically slapping a top end price-tag on 2012 hardware (screen, RAM, 16gb storage). Can anyone honestly put this thing next to something like the LG G2, Note 3, or even the HTC one and say it's worth the same amount of money? Do fruit zombies even look at other phones while they are waiting in those lines?

It's not a bad phone at all. What's bad is the price Apple is asking for it. This is a mid range phone, nothing more.

While Apple subconsciously teaches people to keep rebuying the same phone over and over and over, Samsung has simultaneously created a different group of people. Since Samsung focuses on hardware, they have taught people, with there non-existant craftsmanship and build quality materials, to not consider the former or latter into the equation when comparing phones. In short, people just compare hardware nowadays rather than craftsmen ship and build quality.

That's also exactly while people were surprised the iPhone 5 did better in drop tests than the Galaxy S3. What do you think will prevent the impact of dropping the phone getting to the screen more? Plastic or high-grade aluminum? My 2cents.

 

[wopr11]

"The plain fact of the matter is that (for once) Apple has actually begun to innovate again. I am the current owner of a Samsung Galaxy S4 and love it. But, I have to say that I was impressed with all the new technology Apple has released with the upcoming iPhone 5S. Yes, the iPhone 5C is a waste of time to even look at unless you are upgrading from an iPhone4 or earlier generation iPhone model. The fact that Apple is introducing all-new technologies is great. Unlike the iSleep event of the iPhone5 product release last year, Apple seems to have awakened, smelled the coffee, and said "time to start innovating and time to stop whining about patents". And that's what has happened here. Apparently, very few people that posted here actually read the official press release by Apple or watched the entire product release video which goes into detail about each feature of the iPhone 5S. The 64-bit A7 processor is the FIRST EVER processor to be made available in any smart phone - period. Most of you have a common misunderstanding that 64-bit means double the processing power of current 32-bit processors...WRONG! 64-bit processors are expotentially more powerful than 32-bit processors. Once new 64-bit written apps begin to be released by Apple and 3rd party app developers, then most of you will have to just shut up, open your eyes, and smile. Apps will run much faster with virtually no lag or load times. Multi-tasking will become silky smooth and seemless. Be patient and you will see the full potential of 64-bit processing. The adaptive flash which adjusts for background light ambience color is simply amazing and the first of its kind over in a camera of any kind - smart phone, point-and-shoot, or DSLR. Wow. And it does make a huge difference for those who take indoor pictures. The slo-mo feature is also a very cool feature that will come in handy for those times where you just want to take casual movies of sports or miscellaneous spontaneous moments. The one disappointment with the slo-mo feature is that it is supported only up to 720P. The fingerprint function is something that previous owners have been asking for since the iPhone4 came out, and when it is finally developed and released by Apple all you hear is complaining? Typical technology ignorants - SHUT UP! If you don't like the feature and think that the government is out to get you then don't use the feature. Keep it turned off. Still not happy with America and think it's government is corrupt? Well, then that's an easy solution. Just buy a one way ticket to Syria and see just how great your rights are respected there...or what very little rights you will have at all...nuff said!

The bottom line is that Apple has released a great product once again. Yes, it has been several years since they have really innovated anything. The iPhone 5S finally delivers on most of what their customers have been waiting for. Apple did fail in one main area and that was to provide another model that has a bigger screen. For now I will keep my S4 as I still prefer the larger screen over the tiny one offered on the 5S. Can't wait for the S5 to come out as it too will have a 64-bit CPU "

The longest, most worthless, useless rant I've seen all day.

 

[rhangman]

How long till someone manages to unlock one using a fingerprint lifted from the actual phone?

 

[michael908]

If the iPhone doesn't have over 4 gigs of RAM, what good is a 64 bit processor???

Because to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit takes time - It doesn't happen overnight - Developers need to rewrite a lot of code and make it work well.

If Google switches Android to 64-bit, they are gonna pour a lot of effort to make the transition smooth for devs as it makes a difference on the finished product.

You may be too young to remember the switch from 32-bit to 64-bit CPUs on the desktop but it took a while before programs took advantage of it. Furthermore it happened way before we hit the 4GB ceiling for 32-bit OSs but there were a lot of issues and giving people more time to port and to develop is a good idea.

More importantly, the Apple chip uses ARMv8 ISA which thus far hasn't been used by any phone/tablet. It's the next generation ISA with better performance than the current ARMv7 ISA which is used in all current SOCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, etc...

Why do people question this move?

What no one is mentioning here is what a nugget (brown not gold) this thing is in terms of value.

They are basically slapping a top end price-tag on 2012 hardware (screen, RAM, 16gb storage). Can anyone honestly put this thing next to something like the LG G2, Note 3, or even the HTC one and say it's worth the same amount of money? Do fruit zombies even look at other phones while they are waiting in those lines?

It's not a bad phone at all. What's bad is the price Apple is asking for it. This is a mid range phone, nothing more.

While Apple subconsciously teaches people to keep rebuying the same phone over and over and over, Samsung has simultaneously created a different group of people. Since Samsung focuses on hardware, they have taught people, with there non-existant craftsmanship and build quality materials, to not consider the former or latter into the equation when comparing phones. In short, people just compare hardware nowadays rather than craftsmen ship and build quality.

That's also exactly while people were surprised the iPhone 5 did better in drop tests than the Galaxy S3. What do you think will prevent the impact of dropping the phone getting to the screen more? Plastic or high-grade aluminum? My 2cents.

It's not made out of plastic, it's made out of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is significantly stronger than glass and is used in the manufacturing of cockpits for fighter jets. Also i work in construction and my company stopped using Iphone because of how prone they are to breaking from just being on the job site. We switched to the S4 and haven't had any break on a purchase order of 40 from early June. On an order of iphones 5s we had 6 broken screens out of 50 just after 3 months. Your drop tests are meaningless if they can't perform in real world scenarios. The Galaxy's are also a lot easier to clean the dust out of them since they have the removable back cover.

 

[sundragon]

If the iPhone doesn't have over 4 gigs of RAM, what good is a 64 bit processor???

Because to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit takes time - It doesn't happen overnight - Developers need to rewrite a lot of code and make it work well.

If Google switches Android to 64-bit, they are gonna pour a lot of effort to make the transition smooth for devs as it makes a difference on the finished product.

You may be too young to remember the switch from 32-bit to 64-bit CPUs on the desktop but it took a while before programs took advantage of it. Furthermore it happened way before we hit the 4GB ceiling for 32-bit OSs but there were a lot of issues and giving people more time to port and to develop is a good idea.

More importantly, the Apple chip uses ARMv8 ISA which thus far hasn't been used by any phone/tablet. It's the next generation ISA with better performance than the current ARMv7 ISA which is used in all current SOCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, etc...

Why do people question this move?

What no one is mentioning here is what a nugget (brown not gold) this thing is in terms of value.

They are basically slapping a top end price-tag on 2012 hardware (screen, RAM, 16gb storage). Can anyone honestly put this thing next to something like the LG G2, Note 3, or even the HTC one and say it's worth the same amount of money? Do fruit zombies even look at other phones while they are waiting in those lines?

It's not a bad phone at all. What's bad is the price Apple is asking for it. This is a mid range phone, nothing more.

While Apple subconsciously teaches people to keep rebuying the same phone over and over and over, Samsung has simultaneously created a different group of people. Since Samsung focuses on hardware, they have taught people, with there non-existant craftsmanship and build quality materials, to not consider the former or latter into the equation when comparing phones. In short, people just compare hardware nowadays rather than craftsmen ship and build quality.

That's also exactly while people were surprised the iPhone 5 did better in drop tests than the Galaxy S3. What do you think will prevent the impact of dropping the phone getting to the screen more? Plastic or high-grade aluminum? My 2cents.

It's not made out of plastic, it's made out of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is significantly stronger than glass and is used in the manufacturing of cockpits for fighter jets. Also i work in construction and my company stopped using Iphone because of how prone they are to breaking from just being on the job site. We switched to the S4 and haven't had any break on a purchase order of 40 from early June. On an order of iphones 5s we had 6 broken screens out of 50 just after 3 months. Your drop tests are meaningless if they can't perform in real world scenarios. The Galaxy's are also a lot easier to clean the dust out of them since they have the removable back cover.

Polycarbonate has ONE fatal flaw... It scratches more by a few orders of magnitude than glass!

The G4 has Gorilla Glass not Polycarbonate, lol

Sapphire and Gorilla Glass are both even more scratch resistant than any polycarbonate you can buy.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-Galaxy-S-4-demo-first-phone-with-Gorilla-Glass-3_id40884

I would rather have a scratch free screen that could break than a screen that's scratched up from my pocket that is unbreakable.