IPhone 5s replaces iPhone 5
The iPhone 5s is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the seventh generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, and unveiled in September 2013, alongside the iPhone 5c.The iPhone 5s maintained almost the same external design as its predecessor, the iPhone 5, although the 5s received a new white/gold color scheme in addition to white/silver and space gray/black. The 5s has vastly upgraded internal hardware, however. It introduced the A7 64-bit dual-core system-on-chip, the first 64-bit processor to be used on a smartphone, accompanied by the M7 "motion co-processor". A redesigned home button with Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition system which can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate App Store and iTunes Store purchases, was also introduced. The camera was also updated with a larger aperture and a dual-LED flash optimized for different color temperatures. Earphones known as EarPods were included with the 5s, and Apple released accessories including a case and a dock. It had a 4-inch display, similar to the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c.
The iPhone 5s originally shipped with iOS 7, which introduced a revamped visual appearance among other new features. Designed by Jony Ive, iOS 7 departed from skeuomorphic elements used in previous versions of iOS in favor of a flat, colorful design. Among new software features introduced to the iPhone 5s were AirDrop, an ad-hoc Wi-Fi sharing platform; Control Center, a control panel containing a number of commonly used functions; and iTunes Radio, an internet radio service. The 5s is the first iPhone to be supported through six major versions of iOS, from iOS 7 to iOS 12, along with the iPhone 6s and the first-generation iPhone SE which were supported from iOS 9 to iOS 15, and the second iOS device to support six major updates – the first being the iPad 2 which supported iOS versions 4 to 9.
Reception towards the device was positive, with some outlets considering it to be the best smartphone available on the market due to its upgraded hardware, Touch ID, and other changes introduced by iOS 7. Some criticized the iPhone 5s for keeping the design and small display of the iPhone 5, and others expressed security concerns about the Touch ID system. Nine million units of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were sold on the weekend of their release, breaking Apple's sales record for iPhones. The iPhone 5s was the best selling phone on all major U.S. carriers in September 2013.The iPhone 5s was succeeded as Apple's flagship smartphone by the larger iPhone 6 in September 2014. On March 21, 2016, the iPhone 5s was discontinued following the release of the iPhone SE, which incorporated internal hardware similar to the iPhone 6s while retaining the smaller form factor and design of the 5s.Reception
Critical reception
The iPhone 5s received a positive reception from reviewers and commentators. Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital gave the phone a favorable review, saying that Touch ID "sounds like a gimmick, but it's a real advance, the biggest step ever in biometric authentication for everyday devices," and labeled it "the best smartphone on the market." David Pogue of The New York Times praised Touch ID, but said that the innovation of the smartphone market has been saturated, and "maybe the age of annual mega-leaps is over." He focused much of his review on iOS 7, which he believed was the biggest change of the device over previous generations, praising new Siri features, Control Center, and AirDrop. In an editorial, Pogue stated that iOS 7 was the biggest change in the iPhone series, citing utilitarian interface changes as the main contributor to this. Scott Stein of CNET criticized the lack of design change over iPhone 5 and said that although the iPhone 5s "is not a required upgrade, but it's easily the fastest and most advanced Apple smartphone to date." Although praised for its camera, 64-bit A7 chip, M7 motion-chip, and fingerprint scanning capabilities, some investors thought that the iPhone 5s, although a notable improvement over the iPhone 5, was still relatively unchanged from its predecessor, and worried that the iPhone line had become a stagnant, dull product. Apple's share price fell 5.4% after the launch to close at a month low of $467.71 on the NASDAQ.Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch who praised the iPhone 5s as the best smartphone available said "looks may not be different from the iPhone 5, but the internal components have a dramatic impact on day-to-day activities normal for a smartphone user," and went into detail explaining the impact of the improved camera and specifications on the phone. Etherington suggested that the 64-bit A7 processor will not reach its full potential until developers create applications supporting it. Myriam Joire of Engadget found that the iPhone 5s could benefit significantly from the A7 if developers created applications optimized for the 64-bit processor. Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech praised the phone's A7 processor, describing it as "seriously impressive", and stated that it was the most "futureproof of any iPhone ever launched. As much as it pains me to use the word futureproof if you are one of those people who likes to hold onto their device for a while – the iPhone 5s is as good a starting point as any." Scott Lowe of IGN also spoke highly of its 64-bit processor, "which has a substantial lead in processing power over the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, accounting for a graphics boost of up to 32% and 38% in CPU benchmarks." The debut of Apple's 64-bit A7 processor took rival Android smartphone makers by surprise, particularly Qualcomm whose own 64-bit system-on-chip was not released until 2015.Most reviewers recommended the iPhone 5s over the iPhone 5c which was released at the same time. The 5c retained almost the same hardware as the discontinued iPhone 5, while the iPhone 5s featured substantially improved performance/features thanks to its new 64-bit A7 processor, as well as extra storage space, all for a relatively small additional upfront cost over the iPhone 5c (US$650 versus US$550 in March 2014). This was especially the case when iOS 8 was released and both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were moved to the mid and low end of the iPhone range, respectively; the iPhone 5s still had 16 or 32 GB (14.9 or 29.8 GiB) storage available while the iPhone 5c had to make do with 8 GB storage with only 4.9GB available to the user after installing iOS 8. Furthermore, the 5c's polycarbonate exterior received a mixed reception and was seen as a cost-cutting downgrade compared to the iPhone 5's aluminum/glass case; the 5s retained the latter design and looked even more premium due to its additional gold finish.As of 2015–16, there were still a significant number of customers who preferred the 4-inch screen size of iPhone 5s, which remained the second-most popular iPhone after the iPhone 6 and ahead of the iPhone 6s. Apple stated in their event that they sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015, even as that form factor was succeeded as the flagship iPhone by the redesigned larger display 4.7/5.5-inch iPhone 6 and 6 Plus back in September 2014. Furthermore, the 5/5s design was regarded as "long been the golden child of Apple phone design and a benchmark for phones in general" (with the 5s's gold finish adding a premium touch to the 5's already well-regarded look), while the succeeding 6 and 6S design was less critically acclaimed as it "felt a little bit wrong, as though you were holding a slick $650 bar of soap". The iPhone 5 was described as "elegance rooted in the way the aluminum and glass work together. It felt streamlined, yet substantial, which is different from iPhone 6, which feels substantial in size alone. Plus, unlike the ubiquitous rounded corners of the 6, iPhone 5 didn't really look like anything else on the market at the time". However, the iPhone 5/5s design was not suited to scaling up, in contrast to the iPhone 6/6S which could better accommodate the growing consumer trend towards larger screen sizes and indeed spawned the 6/6S Plus phablet models. When Apple discontinued the iPhone 5s, it was replaced by the first-generation iPhone SE which outwardly appears almost identical to the 5s even as the SE's internal hardware has been upgraded significantly.