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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melgross - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Considering the differences in the multitasking implementations, 1GB for iOS is closer to 2GB for Android. It's not as much of an issue.DarkXale - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Considering iOS's tendency to reset everything that isn't in the foreground there is plenty of motivation for increasing RAM. As is, I cannot depend on iOS to remember what I was doing in an app as soon as I switch out of it. Even if its for just 2 seconds.On the iPad 4 you basically can't have multiple tabs open in Safari. If you browse or scroll, write anything, or trigger any javascript in them - it'll be undone once you move to another tab. That is, quite frankly, awful user experience. And thats purely down to RAM shortage.
Dug - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Try a different browser. Others don't do what you are explaining so I don't think it's a ram shortage.jeffkibuule - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
If I remember correctly, you need more RAM when running a virtual machine (then again, Windows Phone has a CLR and most of their phones have 1GB or less...).I honestly think it's because Android apps are allowed to run in the background without a care in the world, whereas on iOS, you must be performing a specific task the API allows to get that time. And if you are using too much memory, you get axed.
steven75 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
True on iOS 6, but no longer true on iOS 7.danbob999 - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
I would have prefered a 32 bit CPU with more RAM.KPOM - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Nice thorough review as always, Anand.juicytuna - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
That CPU is amazing. Higher IPC than A15 and without spending die area on implementing a complicated big.LITTLE scheme to keep power down. Have ARM and Qualcomm engineers been sleeping all this time? Their efforts look to be hopelessly outclassed by Apple. This is a big a feat as when intel dropped Conroe on the world.ddriver - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
No they haven't been sleeping, they just know when enough is enough. What kind of applications are you running on a mobile phone? 3D MAX? MATLAB? ANSYS? Or are you just using it to jerk your vanity around facebook and take duckface photos in front of the bathroom mirror? I know most people are :) Surely, extra performance never hurts, and will likely improve battery life a bit, but knowing how much is "enough" never hurts on its own.ARM v8 transition is scheduled for all high-end products, apple just did it before it was optimal to impress its fanatical devotees and reinforce their blind belief in the brand. Just like it used exclusive deals with hardware vendors to bring new tech a little earlier than other manufacturers to give itself an "edge".
The funny part is that if performance intensive applications were even available for mobile phones, the 5S will run into a brickwall with its single gigabyte of ram, because real-world workloads are nothing like those limited footprint benchmarks used in this review. I suspect the note 3 will actually score better in a heavy real-world application despite its slower CPU, because the moment the 5s runs out of memory swapping begins, and that speedy CPU will be brought to its knees because of the terrible storage bandwidth. Luckily, it is very unlikely to see any such applications for mobile phones, at least in the general public, in-house custom implementations are another matter.
dugbug - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
There is a review above that describes the benefits empirically. You may want to read it.Also, ARM was surely not asleep at the wheel, they created the outstanding V8 architecture and I am sure were very in the loop with apple. Qualcomm on the other hand are in a quandary as they need to wait for an OS to be ready for this. Windows phone perhaps?