The upcoming rumoured Apple iPhone 5S has been the subject of several leaks over the last few days. There are supposed pictures of the new smartphone and of its components including a dual-flash unit, the internals of the phone have been exposed and we have seen the new A7 chip too. In other related news, in tests by consumer magazine Which? the current iPhone 5 has come last out of seven contenders in a mixed benchmark suite.
iPhone 5S rumours and leaks
Leaked pictures and specs of the upcoming Apple iPhone 5S show a device with a two-LED flash unit built-in to its back shell. This flash is expected to provide superior lighting to the current effort. The two LEDs are of different colours and will possibly be used separately (daylight or tungsten lighting?) and in combination depending upon the shooting environment/effects required. Improving low light photo performance will go some way to help Apple fight back against the Android and Windows Phone competition boasting higher spec cameras. Quality smartphone cameras are thought to be increasingly important in consumer buying decisions.
The dual-LED flash
MacRumours says the internal photos reveal what will be branded the Apple A7 chip. “As seen in one photo, the chip carries an Apple model number of APL0698, suggesting that this is indeed intended to be branded as an A7 chip rather than a modification on the A6 chip found in the iPhone 5.” The A6 serial number was originally code named APL0598. The Apple A5 processor debuted as the APL0498. MacRumours also deduces that the A7 will be accompanied by 1GB of Elpida DRAM. One further piece of speculation, based on other serial numbers on the chip, is that this is the first Apple main processor to come out of TSMC rather than Samsung.
The iPhone 5S, above, next to an iPhone 5, below
Another development we expect to see is a more powerful battery as the prototype pictured simply has more room for it. Whether this will boost the iPhone 5S battery life over its predecessor or it will be eaten up by other upgraded components, like a faster processor or brighter screen, remains to be seen. Finally VentureBeat sees July as a likely time for the launch of this upgraded iPhone 5.
The Apple A7 processor
iPhone 5 “slowest” in Which? magazine testing
The Telegraph reports that the Apple iPhone 5 has come bottom in the results table following a new Which? assessment of current high-end smartphones. The test suite aimed to measure the overall speed of a smartphone by running photo edits, playing graphically intensive games and multi-tasking in various apps.
Which? Magazine said “We put all the handsets through the same tests. Undoubtedly, Apple will upgrade its next iPhone when it launches this autumn. For the moment, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is the phone to beat when it comes to speed.” Indeed the Samsung Galaxy S4 scored 3188, a lot higher than the Apple iPhone 5 at 1664.
Other smartphones in the Which? tests, which assessed seven phones in total, were the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Google Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and BlackBerry Z10 – these were placed second to sixth respectively. The Telegraph points out that the Google Nexus 4 performed admirably in gaining 4th spot, only slightly behind the Sony Xperia Z but at about £200 less than any of the top 3 smartphones.
