iPhone 5s review: Feel the need for speed?

Is your smartphone speed more like Driving Miss Daisy or Top Gun?

Unfortunately, my current phone — a Nokia C3 — is in the slow lane. At three years-old, it can be considered a senior citizen piece of technology. 

Contrast that to the new iPhone 5S, which I had the opportunity to test out courtesy of CellOne.

Previously, they had lent me an iPhone 5C, which had me salivating as a possible Christmas or Black Friday present, but the 5S is even better.

The number one thing people use their smartphones for is browsing the Internet and the iPhone 5S was fast. That’s because Apple has upgraded to a 64-bit A7 processor with a 1.3 GHz powered CPU.

It also comes with the iOS 7 operating system which has AirDrop — that allows users to take share with others instantly. I found it useful to snap photos and then AirDrop them. As a journalist it means I can send photos back to the office without physically having to go there.

The one caveat being other users have to be on a Mac with at least the OS X Lion operating system. The iPhone 5S did not upgrade from the 8 megapixels the iPhone 4 models had but the lens has and has a larger aperture and the pixels are larger in its image sensor than previous iPhones.

I found the picture quality better than average compared to other smartphones and better than the ones on the iPhone 4 (which my wife has and I have used). 

Another top three use for smartphones is texting and chat and I used both the Whatsapp and BlackBerry Messenger app text functions on the 5S. Both worked better than fine, so it’s just a matter of personal preference. With some many Bermudians still hooked on BBM, there’s not a problem in having and using both.

Overall, I was thrilled with the 5S. I generally prefer Apple products, but do use a variety of different brands between home and work.

My one complaint would be the screen size. It’s fine for browsing the web, but if I’m playing a game on it, it was too small. One of the top uses for a smartphone is for playing games (Funny enough, making phone calls was only #4). 

It’s a minor complaint and I certainly would prefer it over my current model. 

At CellOne the Iphone 5s with 16GB retails for $899 for a two-year contract, $999 for a one-year contract and $1,099 prepaid or no contract.