Summary of the iPhone 5S and 5C launch

Last night Apple opened the kimono on the latest and greatest iPhone products. For once the leaked images and specs were spot on. As predicted Apple introduced the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. The 5C is the lower cost variant that ships in 5 different colors. This replaces the current iPhone 5 and swaps the metal case for a plastic case. It looks very smart and has the same or similar internals to the iPhone 5. Johnny Ive spoke elegantly about the design and feel of quality and touch. This is a new approach for Apple and aimed at the more price sensitive markets. It does offer enhanced cameras front and back and will ship with iOS7 and will be color balanced to the case.

The iPhone 5S on the other hand is a dramatic improvement over the existing iPhone5. This starts with the news that it is driven by a new A7 CPU with a 64 bit architecture. This is a huge surprise and will provide a dramatic leap in performance. The 5S will be available in 3 metal finishes: Silver, Gold and Space Grey. Apple claims the performance with the 64 bit CPU is simply stunning. One assumes that iOS7 is designed for 64 bit computing and opens the door for extended graphics and computing performance. The A7 is twice a fast as the A6 with twice the graphics and over 40 times the power of the original iPhone. Al this comes with enhanced battery life compared to the iPhone 5.

The photo aspects have also been greatly enhanced with a new lens, sensor, flash with larger pixels resulting in better images with automatic and smart white balance, focus, and multiple image shooting. The flash has two LED that combine to produce perfect skin tones.The sample images look impressive.Image stabalization has also been enhanced with the blending of multiple images combined into the best image. Burst mode was introduced to capture 10 frames a second and do some smart image processing to determine the most interesting shots. Video also enhanced with the option of Slow Mo.

Other significant news that was not expected was the announcement that the well-loved iLife apps from the MAC are now available on the latest iOS devices for free. You will have access to Keynote, Pages, Numbers, iMovie and iPhoto on the new iPhones and other IOS7 powered devices. This is a huge announcement and drives yet another nail into the MS Office coffin.

Security has been enhanced with the introduction of a finger print scanner built into the home button with a new feature Touch ID. This widely predicted and seems better than expected. It scans at 500 PPI and works with any finger in any orientation. Now touching the home button un-locks the device and also lets you access and buy from the iTunes store. Another typical Apple feature, providing a huge benefit in a virtually invisible way.

On sale in the UK and other countries in two weeks time: With pre-orderding this Friday the 13th and availability on the 20th, one week later.