iPhone 5S – first impressions

So, Apple has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5S. Sporting a fingerprint sensor and an improved camera, while being up to twice as fast as the previous generation, the iPhone 5S looks to be another stellar smartphone entry.

Price

The iPhone 5S starts at £549 ($649) for a model with 16GB of storage, with prices going up from there, through £629 ($749) for 32GB, and hitting a hefty £709 ($849) for 64GB of storage. Compared with last year's iPhone 5, the starting price is £20 higher, and makes it more expensive than competition from the likes of HTC (HTC One: £450 for 32GB), Samsung (Galaxy S4 16GB £432, 32GB £525) though not Sony (Experia Z1 16GB £599).

Prices on-contract, directly from mobile phone operators, will be slightly lower when taken out with relatively expensive monthly plans.

Camera

For the iPhone 5S, Apple has improved the camera compared to previous iPhones by physically increasing the size of the image sensor. That should mean significantly higher low-light performance, which should result in better pictures captured in the often-poor lighting conditions users find themselves in. Apple also showed off a dual-colour LED flash, which monitors the prevailing light and tries to provide a better colour mix by providing the right mixture of lights (more yellow or more blue, depending on the conditions). Notably, neither the HTC One nor Samsung Galaxy S4 has this.

Party photos from bars, pubs and dimly-lit homes should be clearer, sharper, and with better colours compared to pictures captured by the iPhone 5 and 4S.

The 5S also offers "burst mode" for the still camera (taking 10 shots per second), and a "slo-mo" option for video recording. In burst mode, you hold the button down and it will take the pictures - and then present the single shot it thinks is the best from the series. (You can still choose from among the set, and keep as many as you want.) With the video, you can choose which parts are slow and which are fast in a simple editing function. Expect to see plenty of this on YouTube, Vine and Instagram in the near future.

Features

The iPhone 5S marks Apple's first introduction of a fingerprint reader called "Touch ID". The sensor sits under the traditional home button, allowing users to unlock their iPhones just by holding their finger on the home button. It's a major leap forward in both phone security and usability, because users will not have to use PINs or passwords. Touch ID will also allow the user to purchase music, apps and videos from Apple's iTunes Store on the phone.

Five fingerprints can be stored on the device to unlock the iPhone but do not all have to be associated with your iTunes account. Your kids could thus have a fingerprint to unlock your phone, but not to buy apps, videos and music, which could save you from some very expensive bills. Apple says your fingerprint data - in a coded form which is not a picture of your print - is only stored on your phone, and it isn't sent over the internet or stored on Apple's servers.

While Apple has barely changed the design of the iPhone 5S compared with last year's iPhone 5 – maintaining its pin-sharp 4-inch retina screen and thin and light body – it is available in a new colour: gold. The traditional black (rebranded as "space grey") and white ("silver") colours are still available, however.

iOS 7, a complete redesign of Apple's mobile operating system, is also launching with the iPhone 5S. It aims to revitalise iOS, which has essentially used the same design language since its introduction in 2007, and has taken the approach of "flat" yet colourful design. Improvements are available across the board for all of Apple's built-in apps such as Mail, iMessages, Calendar and Photos. It's worth noting that the iOS 7 update will also be available for existing iPhones, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. (Owners of the original iPad or iPhone 3GS are out of luck.)

Speed

Apple has kitted out the iPhone 5S with its latest processor. The Apple A7 combines a new 64-bit architecture with improved processing capabilities, which it says will result in a doubling of the speed of the phone compared with the iPhone 5.

Coupled to the new A7 processor is a new co-processor called the M7. Its job is to collect data from the phone's various sensors, including the GPS and accelerometers. It can process that data without the main A7 chip. That could be used for monitoring health or movement data without waking the heftier chip, thus saving energy.

Battery life

Apple claims that the iPhone 5S gets equal or better battery life than the iPhone 5 and earlier generations for everything but standby time (where the iPhone 4 claimed up to 300 hours' standby time - 12 and a half days - against 250 hours, or 10.4 days, for the new models). It claims 10 hours' 3G talk time (against 8 previously), 10 hours' LTE browsing (8 previously), and 3G, Wi-Fi, video and music playback unchanged at 8, 10, 10 and 40 hours respectively. Real-life battery usage will, of course, vary.

Conclusions

With the inclusion in a mass-market phone of a fingerprint sensor, Apple could potentially remove the need for constant use of passwords, and truly enhance the mobile user experience. Internally, the addition of the M7, shift to 64-bit processing, and inclusion of many more LTE bands while also improving battery life is important too.

Yet you would be pushed to tell the difference between them from a quick visual inspection. Of course, the internal parts have been upgraded, and the new camera system could make a real difference to your photos.

Smartphones aren't all about internal specifications, and are much more about experiences, which is something Apple is very good at delivering. Combined with the new iOS 7, the iPhone 5S should be very good indeed.