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:
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darkich - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Anand really should be ashamed of himself.. doing the same old Java Script(software dependant to a major extent) trick over and over again, and clearly as a day, refusing to include a hardware benchmark such as GB.That way, he can keep on kissing Intel's and Apple's behind.
(Btw I actually love what Apple is doing with its custom ARM chips, and I am really looking forward to the A7X and iPad 5)
Despicable dishonesty
Dug - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Funny, you want different information than what's provided and some how you come to the conclusion that it's biased. Yet throughout your post you have nothing to back it up, and all you have added is your own personal comments against Apple. Pot calling the kettle black? And from what I can tell from you blabbering on about 64bit code, you have no educated information on iOS 7 64bit or the 64bit proc. Correct me if I am wrong and show me an app that you have developed for it. In the end it comes down to how well the product will perform, and Anand's review has shown that. And what's this comment 'Native benchmarks don't compare the new apple chip to "old 32 bit v7 chips" - it only compares the new apple chip to the old ones. What 32bit v7 chip are you talking about? And why wouldn't he compare the new chip to the old ones. And what difference does it make?Patranus - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
What difference does it make if the iOS and Android use different JS engines?StevenRN - Saturday, September 21, 2013 - link
By "unbiased" you mean a review from a site like AndroidCentral or similar site?barefeats - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Excellent review. I'm sharing it with every iPhone freak I know.jimbob07734 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I'm sure not gonna be that guy that buys the first Samsung 64 bit chip they slap together to match the A7. I doubt they have even started working on it until last week.NerdT - Monday, September 23, 2013 - link
All of these graphics performance comparisions (except the off-screen ones) are incorrect and absolutly miss-leading. The reason is that most of the other phones have a 1080p display which has 2.8x higher resolution that iPhone 5s! That being said, all on-screen scores will get bumped up by about the same scale for iPhone because they are calculated based on FPS only, and the frames are render the the device resolution. This is a wrong benchmarking because you are not having an apple to apple comparision. I would have expected a much higher quality report from Anandtech! Please go ahead and correct your report and prevent miss-leading information.akdj - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
You're simply wrong. We'll leave it at that. This is objective data. You can't argue that. If you're unhappy with the results, build your own benchmarking app. Question---why would it NOT be relevant (on screen tests) when you're using said product? Is there a chance down the road you're going to upgrade your current 4" display to 4.3"? 5"? 6"---720p? 1080p? Easy answer=No. You can't upgrade your display. The onscreen tests are neither 'wrong', 'incorrect' or 'absolutely misleading'. They are numbers derived from current testing suites and software. You can't compare bananas and beans. They're different. So Android has increased the resolution of their displays in some cases??? Who cares! The numbers are STILL accurate. Again, each unique device is of it's own making. If Anand went forward with his site and your reasoning we wouldn't have any type of way to benchmark or gauge performance.jljaynes - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Beast of a chiptredstone - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
i agree. and to think android fans have been criticizing the a7 and the 5s in general. this chip is amazing . wow, what a phone it is