The iPhone 5s Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 17, 2013 9:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone
- iPhone 5S
Video
Apple’s new H6 ISP brings with it a modernization of the video recording options for the iPhone 5s. The default video record mode is still 1080p at 30 fps, but there’s also a new 720p 120 fps “slo-mo” mode as well. In the latter, video is captured at 120 fps but optionally played back at 30 fps in order to achieve a high speed camera/slow motion effect. The result is pretty cool:
In the camera UI you can select what portions of the video you want to play back at 30 fps and what portions you want to leave at full speed. The .mov file is stored on NAND as a ~27Mbps 720p120 without any customizations, however when you share it the entire video is transcoded into a 30 fps format which preserves the slow motion effect.
The slo-mo mode is separate from the standard video recording mode, it’s the next stop on the dial in the new iOS 7 camera app. Video preview in slo-mo mode also happens at 60 fps compared to 30 fps for the standard video record and still image capture modes.
Camera preview frame rate, toggling between slo-mo and normal modes
Adding high speed camera modes to smartphones is a great step in my opinion and a wonderful use of increases in ISP and SoC performance. I would like to see Apple expose a 1080p60 mode as well. Technically 1080p60 does require slightly more bandwidth than 720p120, but I’d hope that Apple targeted both in the design of H6 and simply chose to expose 720p120 as it’s an easier feature to market.
Standard 1080p30 recording is also available:
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
464 Comments
View All Comments
Bragabondio - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Great review. Anand is an Apple fanboy (meaning he is an active user of mac, iphone and ipad) so he has bias towards the ecosystem but his reviews are top notch regardless of his personal preferences. Although I do not necessary always agree with him I respect his technical acumen and his desire to look deeper and discover things that most casual observers miss.I would like to see an update on :
a) GPS - how the navigation has improved (or not) in ios7 perhaps testing it head to head vs. Nexus 4 or 5 (in case he has a prototype) during a ride;
b) speaker quality - this is subjective but perhaps at least loudness and is it mono or stereo
c) phone calls quality - yes this depends on the carrier but again a subjective evaluation would be appreciated.
A few comments on the actual review.
graphic tests
I love to see improvements in the graphics quality of ARM devices although I practically do not play games on my phone. Hopefully, Apple's example will push the industry towards faster development.
Missing AC Wi-Fi is a bummer
Regarding future-proofing I disagree with Amand it is not the CPU or GPU but the 4 inch screen is too small for web reading and the trend towards larger devices will continue thus unless you really like the screen and OS (I bet when Iphone 6 is revealed with 4.5 inch screen Anand will say that yes, it is hard to go back to iphone 5 :)
WoodyPWX - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
For the web browsing battery life benchmark, it would be better to have also the number of reloads executed and the energy spent for one reload (computed from those two). There are two problems it could help solve. First, slow reloads caused by a slow connection most probably force CPU to sleep, so they actually save battery and favorize worse device. Second, faster CPU processes a web page much faster. It could draw more energy but for shorter time, so it would be a win in a normal situation. Unfortunately that's not the case in your benchmark, where another reload immediately follows. Energy spent on each reload could prove here on the 5s it will stay longer in real life situations and that's what I'm interested in.sfaerew - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
you are right!jeffkro - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Looks kind of like the HTC one.joshjw - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
Well i think what you are trying to say is that the HTC one looks a lot like the Iphone because the 5s looks identical to the 5 except for the home button and the 5 was released before the HTC 1tipoo - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
So what was up with the Infinity Blade 3 guys saying it loaded 5X faster on the 5S? How much faster is the NAND, exactly?Sabresiberian - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Apple, so far, has proved me wrong. I said they were going to be a cell phone dead end eventually a few years ago, but they have continued to innovate. The fact that they designed their own SoC has very much impressed me.I'm a PC guy, I'm a Windows guy; but I recognize a commitment to making a product better when I see one. Well done Apple!
If Microsoft wants to grab more smart phone market share, then they could do well to emulate Apple in this regard. Moral of the story here is - don't follow, lead!
slickr - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Anand is a shill for the NSA, don't trust the retard. He is there to tell you to buy a spy system that scans your face, that scans your fingertip and has your full name and all other information.This is the NSA's dream, a spy device masquerading as phone that shills like Anand the retard push.
dugbug - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Your tin foil budget must be quite largehulkkii - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
How fast is the camera compared to iPhone 5? (Can you test with CamSpeed)?