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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stacey94 - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
I'm sure Qualcomm and Google are in contact and work together on these things. Google seems have have moved almost exclusively to Qcom SoCs on their devices. If KitKat brings 64-bit and ARMv8 support, I'm sure Qualcomm knows about it and the next gen Snapdragons will take advantage of it.steven75 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
This dude's got some SERIOUS Apple-envy.Btw, GarageBand, iPhoto, and iMovie will love the CPU headroom.
Eug - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Excellent review, Anand, as always. I too am getting an iPhone 5C, but re: iPhone 4 with iOS 7. I will say I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance of iOS 7.0 on the iPhone 4. I think it's very usable for UI navigation most of the time. There are occasional lags, but they were also there in iOS 6, albeit slightly less often in iOS 6. Where it really feels more consistently slow is internet surfing and the like. Overall though, my wife considers the iPhone 4 with iOS 7 to be reasonably speedy, because she does not do a lot of internet browsing on the phone, or gaming.Actually, a few things are actually a bit faster on the iPhone 4 in iOS 7 than iOS 6.1.3. For example, SunSpider 1.0.1 is about 2725 in iOS 7, but about 2975 in iOS 6. That's almost a 10% improvement.
So, while I personally would recommend nothing less than a 4S if getting a new phone for iOS 7, and preferably a 5C, for those existing users with the iPhone 4, don't throw it away just yet, because you might be surprised just how reasonable it is, especially if you are happy with it in iOS 6.
Eug - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Ooops. I meant I am getting a 5S. We geeks "need" the 5S, but slower iDevices are still quite usable. It's amazing just how much Apple has been able optimize iOS 7 for such ancient hardware.notddriver - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I love that we live in a world where 2-3 years old counts as seriously ancient.ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Do you have any data on NAND speed improvements? ChAIR said level asset loading was 5x faster in the iPhone 5s during their Infinity Blade III demo. Is that just CPU/GPU/RAM based or also due to NAND speed? Faster NAND could also be contributing to the good photo burst mode performance and 720p120 video support.jeffkibuule - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
I'm still wondering when Apple will be taking advantage of their Anobit acquisition. I'd like to see some real NAND controllers in iOS devices if they don't suck up tons of power.tipoo - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Yeah, I was curious about that, how did it get 5x faster? That seems too huge a jump for one NAND generation?pankajparikh - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Hi Anand big fan...can you confirm if the 5S supports LTE in India?rchangek - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
You can get Hong Kong model A1530 that supports 39, 39, 40.These will support LTE bands 38, 39, 40 and I think Airtel is on band 40.
There are reports of (yet) unmentioned models for China A1516 and A1518 that will support bands 38, 39, 40 for LTE. However, it would be interesting to see if they will support UMTS alongside TD-SCDMA for 3G.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-6452_7-57602366/unann...