iPhone 5S/5C thread

[evident]

It's on the Apple store now - somewhat laughable to me.

$550/650 for the 16/32 5C
$650/750/850 for the 16/32/64 5S

$550/650 for the 16/32 5C IS THIS A F***ING JOKE?

i'll just sell my wife's 4S and pick up a used 5 for her since it has LTE support and call it a day. also nice to not have to put your fingerprints all over it as well.

 

[Crono]

Here's the thing. We always knew Apple was the bad guy when it came to price extortion for memory. However, our savior Google isn't doing any better by releasing 8gb/16gb Nexus 4s and removing all SD cards.

If you expect Apple to move the industry when they're supposedly stagnant and the last to change, then I would implore Google to move first.

One charges a premium and earns a tidy profit on hardware, the other is a services company who expects you to upload all your stuff to the cloud.

I don't know why you would expect anything from either of them.
The company we should be supporting is Ubuntu, who put 128GB storage in the Edge. No microSD, but at 128GB you start wondering how essential external via cards is. And for the same price off contract as an iPhone 5.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

One charges a premium and earns a tidy profit on hardware, the other is a services company who expects you to upload all your stuff to the cloud.

I don't know why you would expect anything from either of them.
The company we should be supporting is Ubuntu, who put 128GB storage in the Edge. No microSD, but at 128GB you start wondering how essential external via cards is. And for the same price off contract as an iPhone 5.

I don't expect microSD if you give me reasonable storage. I'd just like someone to make that push towards 32/64gb. With both Apple and Google moving towards cloud, that's unlikely. Thankfully Samsung is pushing with 32gb on the Note 3.

 

[dawheat]

Absurd. To me fair would have been:

$450/550 for the 16/32 5C
$600/700/800 for the 16/32/64 5S

But that to me is reasonable in Apple terms given that they do the +$100 per 32gb.

I somewhat agree- Apple could have taken half steps and gotten a TON of praise from everyone if they had gone:
$500/550 for the 16/32 5C
$650/700/800 for the 16/32/64 5S

 

[bearxor]

It's simply becoming so frustrating watching Apple run around in circles. They had a real opportunity here to shake things up. A cheap iPhone 5C, a reduced cost 5 and a 5S would have been perfect. Increasing the storage to 16 and 32 on your entry models. Charging a sane price for NAND upgrades. Give every iPhone LTE, the lightning connector and the larger screen.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with today's announcement. I'm disappointed with just how routine the whole thing has become.

 

[Mopetar]

The 5C doesn't look like a bad phone - but still, you used to be able to get last year's flagship at $99 on contract - now it's last years phone in a cheaper shell for that price. <edit> And now confirmed $550 off contract - seriously lol for the 'budget' iPhone. </edit>

This made me scratch my head as well. I figured that the 5C would replace the 4S and be the free on contract phone and they'd do the usual price drop on the 5 which would be the mid-range device.

Keeping the 4S with the old screen resolution and dock connector around seems like an incredibly odd decision.

 

[Seven]

It's simply becoming so frustrating watching Apple run around in circles. They had a real opportunity here to shake things up. A cheap iPhone 5C, a reduced cost 5 and a 5S would have been perfect. Increasing the storage to 16 and 32 on your entry models. Charging a sane price for NAND upgrades. Give every iPhone LTE, the lightning connector and the larger screen.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with today's announcement. I'm disappointed with just how routine the whole thing has become.

Supply and demand bro. It's going to sell very well, so why bother lowering the price?

 

[Ayrahvon]

5C looks better than I was expecting, but the price point is much higher to boot. Am I the only one that feels like the 5C in terms of design just copied the Nokia windows phones (the whole matching the color of the phone to the OS thing)? The sad part it, that glossy finish on the 5C isn't nearly as nice as the finish Nokia has been putting on their phones.

I haven't looked too much at ios 7 but I think it looks like a nice visual upgrade from its predecessor. Can't wait to see how well the 5S fingerprint authorization will work.

Edit: I will say the pricing for spec isn't awful, I was expecting that the 5C would come in with a little more budget chipset.

 

[Red Storm]

This made me scratch my head as well. I figured that the 5C would replace the 4S and be the free on contract phone and they'd do the usual price drop on the 5 which would be the mid-range device.

Keeping the 4S with the old screen resolution and dock connector around seems like an incredibly odd decision.

At 8GB too. Good luck using an iPhone with only 8GB.

 

[SlitheryDee]

So is 64 bit processing the killer feature this year? I'm not terribly impressed by that. I don't really care much about the camera improvements. The fingerprint sensor is a novelty, and I'm sure apple will have it working more seamlessly than most other companies have, but that's not really something I care about either.

Still, there's solid improvement in cpu speed and graphics capability, and I had already kind of made up my mind that I was getting the new iphone so long as apple managed to not make it actually worse than the previous one. Android phones have burned me a couple of times, so I guess I'll be seeing if the 5S is any good this round.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

It's simply becoming so frustrating watching Apple run around in circles. They had a real opportunity here to shake things up. A cheap iPhone 5C, a reduced cost 5 and a 5S would have been perfect. Increasing the storage to 16 and 32 on your entry models. Charging a sane price for NAND upgrades. Give every iPhone LTE, the lightning connector and the larger screen.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with today's announcement. I'm disappointed with just how routine the whole thing has become.

If you talk contract pricing its not too bad and the 5C is still a great phone--better than what many expected. You can get 32gb at $199 at least. That's not the case with the Moto X.

Also about the camera. I know the iPhone gets praise for image quality, but honestly its camera software is just as bad as AOSP if not worse. You can't burst, you only got to panorama last year, etc. But it seems we dont' give Apple enough flak for its primitive camera software. But maybe it's the fact that image quality really is far more important. So in retrospect, I don't mind the shitty AOSP camera in Android--just get me the hardware and proper drivers and firmware to take amazing photos.

At 8GB too. Good luck using an iPhone with only 8GB.

It's a contract phone that's free and it's from 2 years ago. That's fine in my books at least. In some ways it's better than a 2011 phone like the GS2.

 

[dawheat]

There has to be a tipping point where the moderate Apple fan looks at Apple's pricing and the alternatives and frankly says I'm willing to switch.

Last year, flagship Android phones finally seemed the equal overall to the iPhone. Today with the variety of WP and Android handsets at every price point and size - it's harder to justify Apple's pricing.

Are you a camera person? There are WP and Android phones with amazing cameras. Screen person? There are 1080p IPS screens from HTC and LG that are simply amazing. Battery life? Maxx, G2, and the Note series. Want big screens? Note 3, Z Ultra, One Maxx. Want small screens? One Mini, S4 Mini, and the upcoming Sony mini phones.

 

[poofyhairguy]

64-bit is a necessary step at some point. It's just hard to be enthused whether it's introduced in the 5S, 6, iPad Mini retina, etc. Not really a selling point of the device itself, so I'm just going to ignore it when it comes to recommendation time (I'm not an iPhone user myself).

It is needed, but won't matter for the average life of the 5S.

My biggest disappointments with the S is no 128GB model and no OIS.

 

[Crono]

There has to be a tipping point where the moderate Apple fan looks at Apple's pricing and the alternatives and frankly says I'm willing to switch.

Last year, flagship Android phones finally seemed the equal overall to the iPhone. Today with the variety of WP and Android handsets at every price point and size - it's harder to justify Apple's pricing.

Are you a camera person? There are WP and Android phones with amazing cameras. Screen person? There are 1080p IPS screens from HTC and LG that are simply amazing. Battery life? Maxx, G2, and the Note series. Want big screens? Note 3, Z Ultra, One Maxx. Want small screens? One Mini, S4 Mini, and the upcoming Sony mini phones.

Agreed with all of the above. And not to mention Windows Phone is an easier to use, and I would argue better looking and cleaner OS out of the box than iOS, and Android has the potential for that depending on your skin or how you customize it.

The iPhones still have have a good balance of features and hardware, but it's hard to justify their pricing now compared to the 4/4S and prior. Apple isn't really leading on anything except graphics, which I have yet to see anyone - not in the Android space, either - really push in apps except benchmarks. There are a few graphically intense games, but not as many as you would think or hope for.

Anecdotally, I am seeing more iPhone users looking at the other phones, including both Android phones and the Lumias, but there are still a lot of combo iPhone/iPad users who feel compelled to stay within the iOS ecosystem.

 

[Red Storm]

It's a contract phone that's free and it's from 2 years ago. That's fine in my books at least. In some ways it's better than a 2011 phone like the GS2.

But an 8GB Nexus 4 is not like you've said countless times? Come now, you can't flip flop just because the brands are different. 😛

8GB is way too low no matter whose name is on the phone. The 8GB 4S is priced at $450 off contract. That's highway robbery.

 

[Mopetar]

So is 64 bit processing the killer feature this year? I'm not terribly impressed by that.

I don't see other companies moving to 64-bit in any hurry. Even though the other ARM SoCs are 32-bit, the ARM Cortex-A15 has 40-bit addressable memory, so there's no danger of hitting a wall there anytime soon.

The fingerprint sensor is a novelty, and I'm sure apple will have it working more seamlessly then most other companies have, but that's not really something I care about either.

It's nice to have I suppose, but it will be a novelty until Apple adds NFC or something else that allows you to make payments with the phone. That's when the finger-print scanner starts to add a lot more value. However, the infrastructure isn't there yet, and I suspect Apple wants to have something new to sell next year's phone so I can see why they haven't included it yet.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

But an 8GB Nexus 4 is not like you've said countless times? Come now, you can't flip flop just because the brands are different. 😛

8GB is way too low no matter whose name is on the phone. The 8GB 4S is priced at $450 off contract. That's highway robbery.

I'm not flip flopping. Yeah it's too low for me to use, but remember it's a free phone. The Nexus 4 is THE phone on Google right now (pending N5). So yes my viewpoint is that 8gb is low, but I'll pay for that extra storage.

In this case Apple gives me that 32gb option that I find to be the right balance. I'm hoping Google will give me that option with the N5.

If I were to buy an Apple device now it would be the 5C/5S and not the 4S, so therefore the 8gb isn't really a concern to me.

Edit: Let me add that after searching AT&T and Verizon for free smartphones, the other offerings are really just trash. So yes, the 4S would seem like a good buy for free.

 

[Thegonagle]

That the 5c replaces the 5 isn't very surprising. The 5c is undoubtedly less expensive to manufacture, probably costs the carriers less (allowing for deeper discounts if necessary), and it offers an improved camera.

I'm a little surprised the 4s is sticking around. I had assumed the carriers wouldn't want it because the sooner they get LTE phones into everybody's hands, the sooner they can start phasing out 3G and reusing the channels for additional LTE.

Maybe they're not quite to that point yet.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

That the 5c replaces the 5 isn't very surprising. The 5c is undoubtedly less expensive to manufacture, probably costs the carriers less (allowing for deeper discounts if necessary), and it offers an improved camera.

I'm a little surprised the 4s is sticking around. I had assumed the carriers wouldn't want it because the sooner they get LTE phones into everybody's hands, the sooner they can start phasing out 3G and reusing the channels for additional LTE.

Maybe they're not quite to that point yet.

3G is sticking around til 2020+. LTE isn't even that well deployed on the GSM networks, especially worldwide yet.

 

[Oyeve]

I for one am glad they are getting rid of the 5. It was a POS like the first retina ipad. That was a thick POS too. The latest ipad and 5s is what the original parts should have been. Saying that, i am disappointed in the 5s camera. Yeah, the new stuff is ok, but I was hoping for a major pixel bump, like 20mp or so. Yeah, theres more to pic quality than megepixels but 8 to 13 I CAN see a big difference and 13 to 20+ is also a big difference especially when editing.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I for one am glad they are getting rid of the 5. It was a POS

Really? Why do you say that?

If anything today's announcements makes the iPhone 5 look like the best value ever in iPhone history.

 

[zaydq]

Correct me if I am wrong but... Apple literally did 0 alterations to the display? Whats this 1136x640 crap? The iPhone 5 had the same resolution and they literally did nothing to change it for the 5s?

I was slightly hopeful that the 5s might convince me to sell my HTC One and switch back to Apple(after i had given up the iphone 5 for Android) but it looks like I will be waiting to see what the 6 has to offer.

Horrible upgrade choice... everyone's logical best bet is to pick up the current 5 and call it a day.

 

[TuxDave]

They're bragging about 64 bit. A feature in phones that will have at most 2gb of RAM in the near future.

Amazing feature there.

What about the doubling of general purpose registers? No one cares about that?

 

[Red Storm]

There has to be a tipping point where the moderate Apple fan looks at Apple's pricing and the alternatives and frankly says I'm willing to switch.

Last year, flagship Android phones finally seemed the equal overall to the iPhone. Today with the variety of WP and Android handsets at every price point and size - it's harder to justify Apple's pricing.

Are you a camera person? There are WP and Android phones with amazing cameras. Screen person? There are 1080p IPS screens from HTC and LG that are simply amazing. Battery life? Maxx, G2, and the Note series. Want big screens? Note 3, Z Ultra, One Maxx. Want small screens? One Mini, S4 Mini, and the upcoming Sony mini phones.

There's this thing called ecosystem lock-in that can keep them buying iPhones (or Android users buying Android). They think about switching platforms then remember all the apps they've bought and paid for and decide to stay in the same camp.

 

[jiffylube1024]

5S features look awesome - fingerprint sensor, dual LED's, slightly improved camera sensor, faster A7. I don't care for the small 4" screen but to each their own.
------

I don't understand how the 5C addresses the China/3rd World/Prepaid market at all, though, after 6 months of rumors that the 5C was Apple's holy grail solution for developing markets and prepaid plans. $549 off contract is ridiculous IMO. You can currently get a Nexus 4 for $249, and probably the Nexus 5 for $399.

I was expecting the 5C at $399, but also figured Apple could be Apple and sell it for as high as $449/459. $549 is crazy expensive!! Especially since it's just basically an iPhone 5 in a cheaper (quality & looks) plastic shell! Is Apple just hoping people will buy it because it comes in colours? Because at that price point, it makes no sense just to pay a little bit more and get the much superior 5S.