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iPhone 5s- Last day as king of the hill

1

1981d

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 24, 2013
265
65
Since the iPhone 5s will officially be a lame duck after tomorrow, I thought I'd take a moment to remember what's great about this phone, before the iPhone 6 sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

Touch ID turned out to be just as advertised, at least for me. We finally got a fingerprint scanner that was actually more convenient than typing a pass code. It seems like a small thing, but I never liked having a pass code. I only used one for security. Now my phone can be "woke up" and ready for use seamlessly, and I was able to enable the "complex" pass code option for even better security, since I use the manual pass code so rarely.

The A7 chip with it's "desktop" infrastructure didn't really get a chance to show it's stuff over the last year, but I'm hoping it keeps this iPhone running and receiving updates longer than previous generations.

I didn't really use the improved camera/flash, so can't comment on that.

The only thing I didn't like about this phone was that the space gray was pretty much the only option on launch day, and I wanted a silver one.

What else did you love/like/meh/hate about the 5s?
 
Touch ID is great. Didn't really notice the camera improvements. iOS 7 was an ugly, buggy and messy update IMO. Battery life could've been better. By far the worst thing was trying to get the gold version in a reasonable amount of time. Was happy with the performance improvement overall, coming from a 4S the new processor was appreciated.

Really looking forward to a bigger screen and hopefully better battery life. A better camera would be nice too. Much more excited for iPhone 6!
 
You might be surprised at how many people will be buying an iPhone 5s once all the stores begin to clear them out at a discounted price.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the iPhone 5s continues to be sold, for people who desire the smaller form factor.

Sadly they're probably going to make it only available in 16GB though.
 
Vodafone are giving away free iPhone 5S 16GB on certain contracts at the minute, normally you would have had to pay an upfront fee.

Guess they're trying to push the stock now.
 
zorinlynx said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the iPhone 5s continues to be sold, for people who desire the smaller form factor.

Sadly they're probably going to make it only available in 16GB though.
Click to expand...

I know many folks that are thinking of getting the 5S - but need at least 32gb because they cut corners and got the 16 before.
 
No doubt the 5S will still be sold. There are always people that will want a new phone at a very discounted or zero dollar price tag.
 
Just took my 5s out of it's case this weekend to get used to the metal back (likely won't be using the 6 with a case unless there's Apple leather ones) and wow this phone still feels amazing.

Luckily it'll be kept in the family and my mom will always have a case on so it'll remain pristine.
 
The 5s isn't getting discontinued. Also it's technically "king of the hill" until the 19th when we can get our hands on the 6. I'm super excited for sure
 
Tthomas612 said:
The 5s isn't getting discontinued. Also it's technically "king of the hill" until the 19th when we can get our hands on the 6. I'm super excited for sure
Click to expand...

Yeah, but after tomorrow it's like the old president in between Election Day and Inauguration Day, still there but everyone paying attention to the new guy.
 
First iPhone, but 5th iOS device overall in our household. One year later, and the 5s still holds its own against the competition. That shows how far Apple advanced the state of the art when the only true "iPhone killer" will turn out to be another iPhone.

As with all of the "s" models, the 5s gets short-changed for what it brings to the table. It doesn't have physical changes from the previous model or a long list of "new" features. And for whatever reason, 2X+ performance increases are seen as boring by ADHD-addled tech bloggers that want something shiny and mind blowing in every product cycle.

IMO, the migration to 64-bit in one swift step was huge, and by far the most important feature in the 5s. Moving the chip architecture, OS, and pre-installed apps to 64-bit was a huge task, and the 5s seeded the user base for 64-bit, which will pay dividends to the iOS ecosystem in the years to come.

The true impact of the 64-bit migration will occur over time, as the rest of the ecosystem adapts. The transition will be just as seamless as Apple's prior architectural changes. The under-the-hood changes to iOS 8 seem to also greatly benefit the A7, so the 5s will likely have a lot of developer and app support, and continue to remain viable after Apple inevitably draws its line in the sand and deprecates 32-bit iOS support.

While the 64-bit migration was not as much of a consumer-facing change, Touch ID was definitely the most tangible benefit to consumers. Here too, a lot of tech reviewers and bloggers and forum posters again tried to downplay and trivialize the feature, or blare scary headlines about how purportedly easy Touch ID is to break.

But, I take a much simpler view -- Touch ID makes the iPhone 5s more secure simply because people use it. Just going from Tim Cook's figures, less than half of smartphone users secure their phones, while 80+% of 5s owners use Touch ID. If true, this means that Touch ID makes it nearly twice as likely that someone will secure their phone.

Having used biometric security with PCs, I'm familiar with how poorly swipe scanners can work. Touch ID's not a new feature, but it's easy to use and it works. It really represents Apple at its best, by breathing new life into a once promising but poorly implemented feature, and making it indispensable.
 
1981d said:
Yeah, but after tomorrow it's like the old president in between Election Day and Inauguration Day, still there but everyone paying attention to the new guy.
Click to expand...
At least the 5s won't be a dead president and will continue to be made, just like the 4s has been.

Apple didn't see fit to grant that little courtesy to the iPhone 5. Instead it killed it in favor of the 5c.
 
My 5s won't be a lame duck to me tomorrow. With only a year into my contract, and preferring smaller phones (based on rumor only), I'd not want a larger phone right now. I was the last person I knew to grow from the 4s to the 5s, as I preferred the 3.5" screen. The 4" screen is barely small enough, as I prefer one-handed operation. Of course, all this talk about single hand mode has me curious. Will sit and await the "s" models next year. That one typically has the bugs worked out.
 
1981d said:
Yeah, but after tomorrow it's like the old president in between Election Day and Inauguration Day, still there but everyone paying attention to the new guy.
Click to expand...

Yes that's very true lol and a good analogy too. I know I'm very excited for the 6 and after tomorrow I will feel like my 5s is yesterday's news.

However the iphone 6 will be in my hands on LAUNCH day ...
 
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