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iPhone 5S in the flesh, first impressions

We managed to snag an iPhone 5S from Hong Kong during the first day of its global release. While the champagne gold color quickly ran out of stock (and was selling for close to 70k in the gray market), the we still got the 32GB space gray variant. Check out our initial review after the break.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

Managing our expectations, we didn’t put much attention to the device while unboxing it. We knew it will look like the iPhone 5 and we were not disappointed with the stark similarities (insert sarcasm here).

Yes — the iPhone 5S is almost identical to the year-old iPhone 5, except for two minor physical dissimilarities.

First is the slightly elongated dual-LED light at the back of the phone, just beside the camera and a small pin-hole for the noise-canceling mic.

Second is the fingerprint scanner embedded into the physical home button. The old one has a perfectly concave but shallow button with a small, squarish mark with rounded corners at the center; the new one has a ridge around the flat, depressed circular area where the Touch ID sensor is incorporated.

The rest seemed exactly the same, at least from what we initially observed. Of course, there’s also the new color variants that’s been introduced. The rest of the improvements are all covered inside the same aluminum enclosure.

Apple iPhone 5S specs:
4.0-inch IPS LCD display @ 640×1136 pixels, 326ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 2
Apple A7 1.3GHz dual-core processor
PowerVR SGX544MP4 quad-core graphics
16GB, 32GB, 64GB internal storage
1GB RAM
DC-HSDPA 42Mbps, LTE 100Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
Bluetooth 4.0
8MP iSight camera, LED flash
1080p video recording
1.2MP HD front-facing camera, 720p @ 30fps
GPS w/ aGPS support, GLONASS
iOS 7
112 grams (weight)
123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm (dimensions)

We believe Apple really intended to change the colors of the new iPhone 5S so consumers will be able to distinguish them from the older iPhone 5. This is partly the reason why that champagne gold variant is so rare and in demand that it commanded street prices of up to Php70k.

During the unboxing and activation, we have to insert and use a nano SIM. The process is almost the same as the previous models except for the part where it asks for a finger print scan. The configuration required several runs of the scan and once completed, it also asks for a PIN password just in case the biometric sensor does not work.

This gives you the option to input the PIN codes every time you unlock the device or just press down a finger on the home button for automatic unlock. Same goes when purchasing an app in the iTunes Store. (And no, we did not try that nipple scanner!)

The biometric sensor scans your print very fast and has high accuracy rate based on our initial tests. The iPhone 5S comes with iOS 7 pre-installed out of the box (there is a 7.0.1 update for security and bug fixes). We were already familiar the new UI since it’s release last week. As such, we actually did not notice any significant performance difference between the 5 and the 5S. We might spot some one we do our full review though.

Check back with us in a few more days for the full review of the iPhone 5S. We won’t actually see official release of this unit until December and gray market prices are thru the roof.

You can also check our initial review of the iPhone 5C here.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

114 Responses

  1. Avatar for Ronald Ronald says:

    Now available at Lazada. www.lazada.com.ph/apple-iphone-5s-16gb-gold-85138.html

  2. Avatar for Whambam Whambam says:

    Kelan release nito sa pinas?

  3. Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

    Sarap mag basa nang mga comment ah… Android this.. IOS that… I bet mga taga android dito hindi alam na kinopya nang Google ang iOS from Apple… and that must be the reason why they’re bitter whenever Apple updates iOS.

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      kopya mu muka mu.. bka d mu alam my pinagkopyahan dn ios kng makapagsalita ka jan.. tsk

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      @simultaneous and that would be?

      “Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google you f***ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off,'” Jobs said, according to Isaacson. “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.”

      Via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-google-grand-theft_n_1023111.html

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      I REPEAT…

      “It’s a STOLEN product….” ????

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      I REPEAT…

      “It’s a STOLEN product….” ????

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      I REPEAT…

      “It’s a STOLEN product….” ????

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      I REPEAT…

      “It’s a STOLEN product….” ????

    • Avatar for Kabayan Kabayan says:

      I REPEAT…

      “It’s a STOLEN product….” ????

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      si mr. abuzalzal na bahalang magpaliwanag sau.. hahaha.. stolen product your face! hahahaha

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      and if you do have an iphone and already update it on ios 7 you will now probably know where they copied it from.. hahahahha loser!

    • Avatar for bajigjig bajigjig says:

      Kabayan – Your argument is invalid. Or rather, that post is invalid. Apple fans lagi nalang ba kayo maglilink ng mga article? Tapos luma pa ng mga pinagbabasehan nyong opinyon ng iba. Explain naman in your own words. Naka-iDevice nga kayo tapos panay lang kayo relink ng mga ganyan? LOL

  4. Avatar for Kat Kat says:

    @Simultaneous: “Your carelessness make your phone broke” Lousy statement. :) Why did my carelessness made my iPhone broke when it fell? To think it’s made of glass and my Samsung phone is plastic it should have not broke.

    “why don’t you watch some videos regarding the durability of apple and samsung?” I’m talking based on my experience. So I presume your ranting is based on Youtube. LOL! :)

    @Bajigjig: OMG! What a statement. Nothing else to say! Bwahaha! :)

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      oi kat katangahan sisihin mo wag ung material na ginamit…sabe mo ung screen ung nabasag diba?bat ung pagkaplastic ng samsung phone ang sinisisi mo?hahaha lol kung between plastic(sgs3 for ex.) or aluminum(iPhone 5), mas maganda ang plastic pag nabagsak kasi pag nakadent di masyado halata,unlike ung sa aluminum especially on the sides pag nagkatama ang pangit na tignan…tska ganito gawin mo ah gawa ka drop test ung sgs3 unang tatama sa lupa ung plastic back,tas ung iPhone ang unang tatama ung screen ngaun tignan mo kung anu ang magcacrack ang screen

    • Avatar for bajigjig bajigjig says:

      There is nothing else to say. I already torched your sorry ass. Inamin mo na kasi na tanga ka. And again an S3 still beats your iPhone. O sasabihin mo naman plastic yun. Yun lang ata alam mong advantage nun over the Galaxy line. E sa comparison ng specs ano masasabi mo? :D

      Suck on that, you social climbing, clueless moron. :D

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      @bajigjig mali ka rin wag mong pinagkukumpara ang iPhone sa sgs3 specs-wise kasi magkaiba sila ng OS cguro ung features oo pero ung manufacturer-exclusive features lang cguro…so the bottomline is there’s no clear winner between those 2,depende na yan sa user kung ano mas preferred nya…ung mas customizable na OS o ung mas simple na OS (not to mention the other pros of OSes) and @Kat kung base sa experience mo ung statement mo…edi sana sa una pa lang di mo na nilahat na to the point na sinasabi mong mas matibay ang iPhone…maganda magrely sa mga drop tests sa youtube since ung tests nila ay mas controlled di katulad ung sau na di naman sinasadya…

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      see? based on your experience.. and your carelessness made your experience.. hahaha..

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      and ill stop this arguement with you.. I already found out that you are really careless. and you don’t have knowledge on how it happens, why it happens and who made it happens.. hahaha.. don’t just rely on your experience because there are people who means to test the durability of both phones. and your stupidity on handling your phones makes it differ on how they got broke.

    • Avatar for Kat Kat says:

      Whatever Samsung losers, nothing else to say kayo.bwahaha!

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      you ran out of thoughts to defend your lovable disposable iphone??? hahaha

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      sa susunod kasi Kat kung alam kong mali ka na sa una pa lang humingi ka na ng dispensa at wag ka nang humirit pa…kasi pag napatunayan na mali ka sa huli mas malaking kahihiyan ang aabutin mo.

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      agree with you wew..

    • Avatar for Kat Kat says:

      Whatever Samsung losers. :)))

    • Avatar for bajigjig bajigjig says:

      Wala nang masabi. Another moronic Apple fantard. Sige na go back to your social climbing ways. :)

    • Avatar for Kat Kat says:

      @bajigjig. Yes poor fellow. Whatever Samsung losers. :)))

    • Avatar for bajigjig bajigjig says:

      ^

      Wala nang masabi yung Social climber na tanga oh.

  5. Avatar for boybato boybato says:

    i bought a samsung duos last may. came september, di na gumagana yong kanyang wi-fi. so i had it checked sa samsung store i bought it. they tried to “re-program” it but still it didn’t solve the problem. then they told me that the chip inside the unit will have to be replaced. it was replaced naman.

    good thing i have my reliable iphone na kahit ilang bagsak na eh super tibay pa rin naman. unlike don sa samsung duos ko na never ko namang nabagsak pero hayun, after a few months pa lang eh may sira na.

    • Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

      So? kasalanan na ngayon ng Samsung?

      OR you’re probably insinuating na mas sirain ang Samsung (in general) kesa iPhone…

      ding ding ding

      ignoramus comment of the day

      ELECTRONIC gadgets will fail at random (branded or not)…’that’s their nature, huwag isisi sa OEM ang katangahan

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      @abuzalzal technically yes…kung may mga depekto ang mga units for ex. samsung,apple,sony,etc. usually isolated cases lng ung mga un…pero not with CHERRY MOBILE XD pag nakatanggap ka ng depektong unit galing sa kanila wag ka nang magtaka, wag mo na ring balakin na ipaayos sa kanila at wag kang aasa na maayos pa nila kung sakali.ang gawin mo dapat ay umiyak sa isang tabi,magipon ng pambili ng bagong phone pero hindi CM =)))

    • Avatar for kimchi kimchi says:

      Iphone 5s sana dumating kna dito hinihintay na kita.Ayaw ko ng ibang brand kc para akong naka hawak ng walkie-talkie.

  6. Avatar for tmcr7 tmcr7 says:

    70k for a gold plated phone that’s made in China which you will scrap next year as soon as the iPhone6 is released. :)) Ito ang katunayan na di nabibili ang common sense. :))

  7. Avatar for eco eco says:

    To all iOS & android owners, discover great free apps and get rewarded with gift cards. Just enter the site from your iDevice or Androids http://m.freemyapps.com/share/email/f4c771e4

    No gimmick so far I’ve earned US$40 gift check since March this year, try it there’s nothing to loose.

  8. Avatar for TuxedoMask TuxedoMask says:

    nauubusan na ng innovation ang apple.. at habang tumatagal nawawala ang excitement sa mga mga bagong release na unit nila, di tulad ng dati.. pero sa ngaun good buy pa rin iphone 5s. “Iphone” eh.. pero kung papipiliin ako, iphone 5s or note 3.. note 3 ako, preference ko lng..

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