The iPhone 5S has finally been unveiled by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at its big media event. The handset will be available in white, champagne (as has been rumored) and space gray. That’s right, black is no longer an option.
The real iPhone 5S specs
The handset looks a lot like the iPhone 5 and will actually be the first smartphone to feature a 64-bit chip. It will be backwards compatible with 32-bit apps. Of course it will feature the A7 chip as expected. The chip is at least 40 times faster than the original iPhone chip and twice as fast as the A6 chip, which is in the iPhone 5.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has also introduced OpenGL 3 support for the iPhone 5S. Developers from Epic Games showed off the popular title Infinity Blade 3. Support for OpenGL is a major move for Apple because it is a very powerful and popular API which could attract many of the most popular games to the iPhone and the iPad when it receives a 64-bit chip.
Other iPhone 5S features
Other features in the iPhone 5S include a second processor for motion data, which Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) calls the M7 chip. It collects accelerometer, gyroscope and compass data. The device will also have excellent battery life with 10 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time. It will also have 40 hours of music playback time and 10 hours of LTE time.
The camera on the iPhone 5S will have a 2.2 aperture, 15 percent larger sensor, and a special lens designed by Apple. It also features a better auto focus and auto settings, as well as a True Tone flash. Apple even claims that the camera is actually as good as an SLR camera.
What about the fingerprint sensor?
And of course there is a fingerprint sensor, as expected. The scanner itself is called Touch ID, and Apple users can use their fingerprints to buy off iTunes. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) claims that users’ fingerprints won’t go on their servers or into the iCloud and that they remain out of most of iOS 7.
What’s the iPhone 5S going to cost?
And finally we get to what everyone wants to know. What will it cost? The 16 GB version will sell at $199, while the 32 GB model will sell at $299. The 64 GB iPhone 5S will be sold at $399 with a two year contract.
