Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Cupertino, CA- Apple revealed two new iPhone models here yesterday and also showed off more of its upcoming iOS 7 software.

C is for Colour

Geared towards the mid-tier in terms of pricing as well as emerging markets, the new iPhone 5c takes the best features and functionality of the iPhone 5 but adds a colourful spin by offering the device in pink, yellow, blue, green and  white as well as a variety of bright cases to serve as accent pieces.

 

“iPhone 5c is everything iPhone 5 was and more, in an all-new design packed with great features,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5c is designed with a beautiful polycarbonate enclosure that looks and feels so solid in your hand.”

My first impressions of the iPhone 5c was that it felt very well constructed with an almost lacquered finish to the polycarbonate exterior.

This, after all, isn’t the first time Apple’s made plastic smartphones since the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs were notably made from polycarbonate as well. The iPhone 5c has a steel frame to add to its rigidity and also cleverly incorporates all the antennas seamlessly into its chassis.  Compared to various polycarbonate smartphones in the market that suffer from a somewhat inferior fit and finish. The iPhone 5c, which is sealed in and offers no access to the battery or internal components, feels more structurally sound.

Other differences that that iPhone 5c has over the iPhone 5, which has now been discontinued in favour of the higher-end 5s, are an improved 10-hour battery life and the most LTE bands on any smartphone. The iPhone 5c will be available for pre-order on September 13 for $599 (16GB) and $719 (32GB) for the unlocked, off-contract versions. Carrier-locked version are also expected although pricing hasn’t yet been released. Apple will launch and ship pre-orders of the iPhone 5c on September 20.

New Gold Standard

The iPhone 5s is now Apple’s new flagship device. Looking very  much like last year’s iPhone 5, the 5s is being offered in three new colour variants. Models are now finished in either Silver, Gold ora Space Grey colour. While they are easy to miss at first

There are some new features that are quickly visible. The first and most innovative is the Touch ID is a learning fingerprint sensor built into the home button. It can memorize various fingerprints and when trained will allow access to the device as well as enables users to make purchases on the iTunes Music or App Stores with simple fingerprint identification.

The iPhone 5s’ A7 processor is the most dramatic new features since it ushers 64Bit computing on smartphones. What Apple calls ‘desktop-class’ computing means that the iPhone 5s has twice the performance of its predecessor as well as enough under the hood to manage various apps simultaneously.

iPhone 5s also has an M7 motion co-processor that can sense if the phone is inert, if the user is jogging or if it is in a moving vehicle and fine-tune features to optimize power usage.

This power was quickly demonstrated using the new camera’s slow-motion HD video recording feature as well as the impressive Burst Mode that captures DSLR-level 10 frames per second.

For slow motion capture, the camera shoots video at 120 frames per second at 720p and play back any section at quarter speed for a dramatic effect. This happens instantaneously with no rendering time whatsoever.

For burst mode, simply hold the shutter button and the camera quickly fires 10 shots a second and chooses which frames are the best depending on real-time analysis of the image. Choose the best photo of the bunch and it discards the rest.

The level of software sophistication at play here is staggering and I can’t think of any other smartphone, point and shoot camera or even DSLR that can capture images as fast as the iPhone 5s.

Apple has also added a unique True Tone flash that has amber and white LED’s work in unison to light the subject accurately and new larger camera sensor with bigger pixels to enable improved photo quality and detail in various conditions.

iOS 7 is coming on September 18

Of course, the biggest part of the iPhone update this year is iOS 7, a completely redesigned and tuned version of Apple’s operating system that feels like it was built from the ground up to offer vast improvements in user interface and operation. iOS 7 will be a free upgrade to existing iPhone users on September 18.

The iPhone 5s will be available to order  as unlocked units on September 20 starting at $719 for the 16GB version, $819 for 32GB version and $919 for the 64GB version.  Canadian carriers will likely release their plans for these models soon.