Apple unveils iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C smartphones

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple has unveiled its new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C smartphones, catering to the high-end and low cost smartphone markets, AfterDawn.com reports.

The iPhone 5S is available in gold, silver and grey, designed with high-grade aluminium with cut chamfered edges. As widely speculated before, the new iPhone 5S supports fingerprint authentication through Touch ID. A 170 micron-thin, 550ppi sensor is built right into the iPhone 5S Home button, allowing the user to unlock the device and also to authenticate iTunes purchases.

The iPhone 5S is powered by the new 64-bit A7 chip, which provides processing and graphics performance twice as fast as the A6, according to Apple. The upcoming iOS 7 comes with native 64-bit kernel, libraries, and drivers, with Xcode support and backwards compatibility.

A new M7 motion co-processor measures motion data fed from the device's instruments; accelerometer, gyroscope etc.

The iPhone 5S has a new camera with a 15 percent larger active sensor area (f/2.2 aperture). It supports shooting images in Burst Mode at up to 10 frames per second if the user holds the button down. The iPhone 5S will then analyze the shots and suggest which is likely to be the best pick to keep.

Users can also shoot video at 720p at 120fps, allowing them to select areas of the video to play in slow motion.

As for the battery life, Apple estimates 250 hours standby on a charge, or 10 hours 3G talk time, 10 hours LTE browsing time or 40 hours of music playback.

With a two year contact, the iPhone 5S is available with 16GB storage for $199, 32GB of storage for $299 and 64GB of storage for $399. It will be available from September 20 from stores.

Apple also unveiled the iPhone 5C, a low-cost iPhone set to compete with budget Android smartphones.

The iPhone 5C - available in White, Blue, Pink, Yellow and Green - features a 4-inch retina display with full sRGB, powered by an A6. The front of the smartphone is one multitouch surface, while the sides and back are comprised of a single part. It is made with hard-coated polycarbonate, though reinforced with a steel structure.

It features an 8MP iSight camera with a 5-element lens, and a new Facetime HD camera. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11abgn) and Bluetooth 4.0.

It will be available from September 20, priced at $99 for 16GB and $199 for 32GB.

Apple also announced that iOS 7 will be available from September 18, free for iPhone 4 or newer, iPad 2 or newer, iPad mini and the fifth generation iPod Touch.