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iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C - What we wanted, and what we got

2 for the price of 1

iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C - What we wanted, and what we got
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Last Wednesday at its headquarters in Cupertino, tech giant Apple - to nobody's surprise - announced not one but two brand-new iPhones.

As expected, the California-based company lifted the lid on the low-cost entry-level iPhone 5C and the stunning iPhone 5S, which is now Apple's flagship mobile device.

Before Apple's event, we had a list of features and upgrades we wanted to see Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, or other members of the Apple team announce on stage.

Let's take a look at what we wanted to see and what we actually got to see during Apple's latest event.

iPhone 5S

New design and more colours

The iPhone 5S is a stunning piece of kit, but, slightly disappointingly, it looks almost exactly the same as the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S, and the iPhone 4.

Sure, it has a new Home button (more on that later) and it comes in three new colours, but we had our fingers crossed that Apple would spice things up a little bit more and announce a smartphone with a completely new design.

The new colours, by the way, are gold, silver, and space gray. We'd kind of hoped for red, or blue, or maybe green, but at least we don't have to choose between just white and black this year.

New Apple-designed processor

Every year for the past few years, Apple has developed a new custom-built processor for its latest and greatest smartphone.

Last year, Apple unveiled its powerful A6 chip for the iPhone 5. This year, Apple announced the A7 chip, which is the world's first mobile processor with a "desktop class" 64-bit architecture.

According to Apple, the A7 chip is capable of delivering up to double the CPU and graphics performance of its abovementioned predecessor.

The A7 wasn't the only new chip announced at the event, though. Apple also unveiled its new M7 coprocessor, a chip specifically designed to measure data from the iPhone's accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass.

The M7 chip can detect when you're walking, running, or even driving, and will enable developers to create - among other things - a new wave of fitness apps.

New and improved camera

As always, a fancy new camera was on our list of features we wanted to see in the new iPhone. Once again, Apple didn't disappoint.

The 8-megapixel iSight camera on the iPhone 5S has a 15 percent larger sensor than its predecessor's, bigger 1.5 micron pixels, and an f/2.2 aperture.

For those of you who aren't camera experts, all of the above means you can take better photos with the iPhone 5S than you can with an iPhone 5.

Other new camera features include live video zoom, auto image stabilisation, slo-mo video capture, and a "continuous burst mode" that allows you to take up to ten photos per second.

Furthermore, the backside of the iPhone now boasts a dual-LED flash that's made up of both white and amber LEDs. Thanks to some "intelligent software algorithms", both the flash intensity and colour temperature can be adjusted on the fly.

Let's not forget about the front-facing FaceTime HD camera, which now benefits from larger pixels and an improved backside illumination sensor.

NFC capabilities

Ever since Samsung introduced NFC in its flagship Galaxy line of smartphones, we've quietly wished Apple would implement similar tech into the iPhone.

It still hasn't. How disappointing.

Anyway. Instead of NFC, Tim Cook and his merry crew have spent the last year or so beavering away on a nifty little feature called "Touch ID".

Via this clever little fingerprint identity sensor, you can unlock your iPhone, purchase movies from the iTunes Store, and buy games from the App Store by simply placing your thumb on your iPhone's Home button.

You may even be able to authorise payments in your local retail Apple Store by using just your fingerprint and the Cupertino giant's Apple Store app.


iPhone 5C

New design and colours

The iPhone 5C doesn't have a revolutionary new design. It may be made out of plastic rather than the harder materials that Apple usually uses to craft the iPhone, but it looks pretty much like the iPhone 4 and all the iPhones that have followed it.

You can, however, buy the iPhone 5C in a number of different bright colours, including yellow, blue (my personal favourite), green, pink, and white. Hooray.

A6 or greater processor

The idea of a cheaper iPhone is a great one, but only if it can run all of the power-hungry apps and games on the App Store.

Thankfully, the iPhone 5C houses the same Apple-designed A6 processor as the one you'll find inside the iPhone 5.

In other words, you should have no problems playing Real Racing 3, Call of Duty: Strike Team, or the newly announced Infinity Blade III on the iPhone 5C.

A 4-inch Retina display

If you're anything like we are here at Pocket Gamer, you'll love the iPad mini but constantly bemoan the fact that it doesn't have a Retina display.

If so, you'll be pleased to read that the iPhone 5C does have a Retina display. In fact, it has the same 4-inch Retina display as the iPhone 5.

Sub-£300 price

When we first started to hear rumours that Apple was gearing up to release a 'budget' iPhone, we crossed our fingers and prayed to the tech gods for a sub-£300 smartphone.

Somewhat inevitably, the tech gods ignored our fevered requests.

If you want a SIM-free iPhone 5C with 16GB of internal storage, for example, you'll need to fork out £469, which is pretty darn ridiculous whichever way you look at it. Especially considering the off-contract 16GB iPhone 5S is 'only' £80 dearer.

Anthony Usher
Anthony Usher
Anthony is a Liverpool, UK-based writer who fell in love with gaming while playing Super Mario World on his SNES back in the early '90s. When he isn't busy grooming his beard, you can find him replaying Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time. Aside from gaming, Anthony likes hiking, MMA, and pretending he’s a Viking.