Posted on 23 Aug 2013 at 14:29, by David Ludlow
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Our iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C specs, release date & price rumours article is updated regularly, check back for the latest updates. Updated on the 20th August 2013 with new colour information.
After months of rumour and lots of false leads, we're now officially getting close to the next iPhone being officially unveiled. So far, we know that iOS 7 is due for release in Autumn. Given that Apple usually releases a new OS with new hardware, the smart money is on this device being the iPhone 5S, although it's likely that the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 will also be released around the same time.
All we can say is that it's about time that we had a new phone, as the Android competition has become a lot stronger with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z piling on the pressure.
As always with Apple products, surprisingly little is leaked, but there are always clues as to what the company is up to. In this article we round up the latest rumours and information, including information how likely we think things are.
To start with, Apple generally uses the same design for two generations of products. If that holds for the iPhone 5S, it will be an update to the existing iPhone 5.
Completely new hardware and a different design are most likely going to have to wait until the iPhone 6, which is rumoured to launch in 2014.
iPHONE 5S RELEASE DATE
Every day of every month, pretty much, has been listed as a possible launch date for the iPhone 5S. As we approach the end of the year, it's clear that the vast majority of predictions were completely wrong. That's not to say that we can't have a good idea at a rough launch date for the iPhone 5S, based on what's been said already.
We can say with confidence that the iPhone 5S will be released in Autumn. As we already said at the start of this article, iOS 7 is due out then and a new OS is traditionally released with new hardware. Next, people at Apple have said that Autumn is going to be big for the company.
In an earnings call, Tim Cook suggested that Apple won't launch new products until Autumn.
"Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can't wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014," said Cook.
Apple's CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, said in a more recent earnings call that Apple would have a "very busy fall" in a more recent earnings call, but said that he would give "more detail in October". The last part of that statement doesn't make it clear if we can expect new hardware in October or if that's just when the next earnings call is scheduled for.
At the moment, the rumours are that the iPhone 5S will be introduced in September. AllThingsD reported information from sources stating that there would be a big iPhone event on the 10th September. It's also rumoured that the low-cost iPhone 5C will be unveiled at that event.
If Apple follows its usual course of action, we can expect hardware to hit the shops a couple of weeks after this, meaning it will be available late September or early October at the latest. Of course, we'll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out if this information is correct, as Apple traditionally sends out invites a couple of weeks before an event.
iPHONE 5S SCREEN
It has been claimed that the iPhone 5S will have a higher-resolution display than the iPhone 5, although that doesn't ring true with us if the screen size hasn't changed. According to Apple's definition of the iPhone 5's Retina screen, you can't see the individual pixels when you hold the smartphone at a normal viewing distance. In other words, upping the resolution would be pointless if the screen size doesn't change. We'd expect the iPhone 5S to have a 4in screen with a resolution of 1,136x640 pixels.
That doesn't mean that the underlying screen technology can't change, though. It's claimed that the iPhone 5S will use the new IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) material. If true, it would provide the 5S with a brighter iPhone 5, while also potentially dropping the thickness of the handset - albeit, only slightly.
This seems more likely following CES 2013, when the Sharp IGZO display technology was displayed for the first time inside a 32in 4K monitor.
That release certainly got the rumour mill going and it's been suggested that Apple has already approached Sharp about its technology, but not just for the iPhone 5S, but also for the upcoming iPad 5.
Rumours have stated that the iPhone 5S may launch with two or three different screen sizes. With the increase in popularity of large-screen smartphones, such as the 4.99in Samsung Galaxy S4, Apple is said to be interested in offering a range of different options to customers. However, different screen sizes for one product doesn't really feel like something Apple would do.
In fact, Tim Cook has said, "My view continues to be that the iPhone 5 has the absolute best display in the industry, and we always strive to create the very best display for our customers. Some customers value large screen size, others value other factors such as resolution, colour quality, white balance, brightness, reflectivity, screen longevity, power consumption, portability, compatibility with apps and many things.
"Our competitors had made some significant trade-offs in many of these areas in order to ship a larger display. We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist."
Reading between the lines, then, we'd suggest that a larger smartphone would be the iPhone 6. This makes sense in a lot of ways, as Apple could have a large screen phone for those that want it, while continuing to sell the smaller, more pocket-friendly iPhone 5S.
IPHONE 5S DESIGN
If all the rumours are correct, we'd expect the iPhone 5S to look roughly like the iPhone 5. This follows the usual Apple pattern: the original iPhone was replaced with the brand-new iPhone 3G, which was tweaked a year later into the iPhone 3GS. The launch of the brand-new iPhone 4 was followed by the tweaked iPhone 4S design, while the latest iPhone 5 model had a complete redesign once again.
Apple's quarterly filing with the SEC, would seem to back this up. This financial document shows how much money the company has spent on things, and shows that a few months ago Apple spent $4.5bn on equipment purchases, compared to just $903m the last quarter.
According to Morgan Stanley analyst, Katy Huberty, and reported on Business Insider, this shows that the iPhone 5S is likely to look like the current handset.
The argument here is that the larger spend from two quarters ago was when Apple was investing heavily in new screens for the iPhone 5. The decrease, therefore, is because Apple doesn't need new hardware for iPhone 5S.
IPHONE 5S COLOUR
While previous iPhones have been available in black or white, the iPhone 5S will apparently add a third colour, reported to be gold. Rumours of a third colour have been around for a while, with Apple Insider reporting information from a "trusted source" stating that there will be one colour option added to the iPhone 5S.
More recently TechCrunch has heard from "multiple sources" that the iPhone 5S will be available in black, white and gold. Now, gold can look tacky, but Apple is said to be going for a champagne gold, more like hi-fi kit from 10 years ago. Given that colours tend to cycle in and out of fashion, it must be about time that champagne gold was once again cool, plus it would give Apple a phone that stands out from everything else.
Japanese technology site ASCII posted some seemingly authentic photos showing what the gold iPhone 5s casing will look like, although the components look far from final they do give us a good idea as to how the new colour will sit alongside the original white and slate black colours.
iMore has backed up the rumours with some technical information on how easy the phone is to make, "According to our own Ally Kazmucha, who's no stranger to the process, gold is among the easiest colors to anodize onto an iPhone. It involves simple chemical reaction, with the possible addition of dye depending on the exact color they want to produce. (True black, conversely, is the hardest, and takes the most time, which is likely why we currently have 'slate' instead.)"
iMore shows what a gold iPhone 5 could look like
A gold iPhone ties in with some earlier leaked shots from Weibo. This showed the SIM-card tray, volume and power buttons from the iPhone 5S. As you can see from the image below, the iPhone 4 (bottom) had steel-colour components, the iPhone 5 had silver components and one version of the iPhone 5S is set to have bronze components. On a second inspection, the bronze components would sit well with a gold iPhone.
The iPhone 5S will allegedly have a bronze-coloured components, hinting seemingly supporting the rumoured gold version
iPHONE 5S A7 PROCESSOR
A faster processor shouldn't be ruled out, with the iPhone 5S slated to get an A7 processor, a step up from the A6 processor used in the A5. This seemed to be confirmed in recent iPhone 5S photos, showing a new processor in the phone.
There are no rumoured specifications and we don't know how many cores it will have. When a lot of other manufacturers were moving to quad-core parts, Apple stuck with dual-core, largely because iOS is very efficient and the phone only required two cores. However, we wouldn't be surprised to see this upped to quad-core for the new model.
This leaked shot is allegedly of an iPhone 5S, showing a new processor: is it an A7?
A note of caution must be attached to the photo: manufacturing date codes on the processor and memory put their production dates in October and September 2012 respectively and MacRumours says that the prototype itself was built in December 2012. As a result, it's likely a very early example of the proposed iPhone 5S design - and the final product may differ greatly from that pictured.
iPHONE 5S CAMERA
The compact camera market has been suffering due to the quality of smartphone cameras. It's clear that the camera is something that people really care about, wanting to take high-quality photos without having to carry two devices.
While the iPhone has been known for the quality of its integrated cameras, in recent months the competition has overtaken Apple. Competitor's phones, such as the Nokia Lumia 920, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z, have all been sold on the quality of their cameras.
It shouldn't be a big surprise, then, that the iPhone 5S is now being touted as having a higher-resolution camera. Viatnamese site Tinhte, which has managed to get Apple hardware early, has said that the iPhone 5S will have a 12-megapixel sensor.
While the jump to a 12-megapixel sensor would improve the resolution of photos, giving your larger photos, there is always the worry that it will increase noise. One of the problems with fitting high-resolution, but physically small, sensors is that there's less light per pixel. This can have a knock-on effect, particularly when shooting in low light.
Leaked shots have also hinted that the camera will have a dual-LED flash. This should make it easier to take shots in darker rooms, and create a brighter flash.
What is clear is that Apple needs to improve the quality of its camera if it's to compete and more resolution makes sense as a starting point.
IPHONE 5S 128GB CAPACITY
The rumours of a 128GB version would seem to be true, as we know that Apple now has that capacity, thanks to the recent launch of a 128GB iPad 4.
Recently quite quietly, the new model doubled the maximum capacity of the previous high-end iPad (64GB). This update was said to be about increasing the variety of uses for the tablet, with Apple stating that more storage was good for large files for use in applications such as CAD and music production. It's also a more useful amount of storage for photos and videos.
The update to the iPad 4 was a completely new model with a new price, so we'd expect the same range of capacities and prices to be available from the iPad 5: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. With Apple now using 128GB storage in its tablets, the question is whether or not it will provide the same range of capacities in its iPhone and iPad Mini range, too.
Given that the capacity is now available to Apple and that the smartphone market is even more competitive, we'd say that a 128GB version of the new phone is more than likely.
IPHONE 5S NFC
According to recent reports, the iPhone 5S will get a fingerprint scanner and NFC. It's thought that the fingerprint scanner will be used to authenticate NFC payments, making the smartphone a secure way of paying for things.
Reports in Taiwan have said that the fingerprint reader will be made by Chipbond, which has secured a huge contract to supply for the iPhone 5S. Apple will source the NFC chip elsewhere. Interestingly, Apple recently bought Authentec, which built a new fingerprint/NFC security system, fuelling speculation about the capabilities of the new phone. It seems likely that Apple will integrate a digital wallet into its Passbook app. Currently, Passbook only supports store cards, discount vouchers and tickets, but extending its functionality shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.
This will let Apple compete with Google Wallet, which launched recently in the UK and is available for any Android phone with NFC, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4.
NFC is by no means a certainty, though. During the iOS 7 launch, Apple presented AirDrop (it's file transferring technology) as being better than tapping two phones together, a dig at the way NFC and Android works.
IOS 7
Apple's iOS has been the one constant of the iPhone, being tweaked over the years but never radically overhauled. With iOS 7 we're set to see something completely different, with a 'flatter', cleaner interface. This is the biggest change to the OS yet and, from early looks as the OS, we're impressed.
New features include Control Center, which lets you access common settings, such as your Wi-Fi networking options, from a swipe-up menu; AirDrop, which lets you transfer files over Wi-Fi to other users nearby; better multi-tasking; a new camera app with new filters; and plenty more.
The OS is now being trialled by developers, with Apple stating that it will be released in autumn: just in time for the iPhone 5S.
iOS 7 is due out in autumn - just in time for a new iPhone
IPHONE 5S WORLDWIDE 4G
One of the problems with the existing iPhone 5S is that different models are sold in each country, each with its own specific 4G support. Currently, there's no global model that supports world-wide 4G. We're expecting Apple to solve this in the iPhone 5S and not just for convenience, but because making one model will work out cheaper for the company in the long-run.
Adding credence to this rumour is the fact that Qualcomm has created a new 4G chip, which will give the Phone 5S global LTE support.
Called the RF360 Front-End Solution, the chip provides compatibility with eight mobile network standards: LTE-TDD, LTE-FDD, EVDO, WMCDA, CDMA, TD-SCDMA, EDGE and GSM. This covers the full range of 2G, 3G and 4G networks, which means that a phone equipped with this chip should work with all mobile networks world-wide.
IPHONE 5S PRICE
If there's one thing you can count on for Apple, it's reliable pricing. Pretty much every time a new product is launched, it costs the same as the outgoing model.
That would mean, unlocked, that the iPhone 5S would cost £529 for the 16GB model, £599 for 32GB model and £699 for the 64GB model. If there is a 128GB model, we'd guess that it will cost £799. Deals will, of course, be available from mobile operators if you buy the phone on contract.
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