I have to work another overnight, so I thought I'd check in with my good buddy [MENTION=2]Thai[/MENTION]. I picked up a 5s and an iPad Air since I surrendered the thread to his benchmarks and tons of headroom cheering. And to be fair, he's posted many good articles if benchmarks interest you.
iPhone 5s. Like TouchID. Camera a little better. Overall speed: no substantial difference but I expect that apps haven't caught up with the architecture yet. It's been a bit more crashy than the 5, not unexpected since it's a new phone on a new OS. I don't edit video or audio on the phone. I don't think what few games I play have been recompiled. Overall, not worth an upgrade if you already have an iPhone 5.
I briefly tried a Windows Phone since I live in a Microsoft world at work. That didn't work out well. I also used a friend's Note 2 for about a week, nice phone, too big, want to stay out of the Google-verse to the extent I can.
And since Thai will want to know, it was $803.49 for a 32GB Space Gray model on ATT. Yup, expensive. Yup, unsubsidized. Now I wait for the iPhone 6. And since Thai will want to know, I gave my iPhone 5 to a friend whose phone died and has been out of work for a couple of months. And, I had pancakes for breakfast. That should cover it.
iPad Air. Since I'm coming from a Gen3 iPad retina, this was a much bigger upgrade. It's very light in comparison to my old iPad and is quicker. Again, I don't do much heavy lifting on this device either, and I'm having a little buyers remorse that I went with T-mobile because of their 200MB/mth free data. But that can be changed. Overall, I'm very happy I picked up the new iPad and am really looking forward to running Gaia GPS on it when I wheel in Colorado next summer. In this case "tons of headroom" will be a factor for me since I'll probably keep this iPad for at least 3 years.
So, there you go. I'm all Appled-out and have to start thinking about 2014 mods for the 4Runner. I yield the thread back to its rightful caretaker.
I think that your "review" could have gone better without all the cheap shots taken at me. Did it make you feel better?
It is always funny to see that people who whine the most about Apple come right back to them after trying the field. You now own more Apple stuff than me! I am no Apple fan, but i am forced to be with them due to failures from the competition. And i do my research, even in field not related to my own profession.
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You're right...TouchID, by far, is the biggest thing for me on 5S. Camera improvement is seen in low-light and the new features. Burst Mode really really works well, IF there is good light. Inside the house in low light, burst mode is useless. But, yesterday, the iPhone 5S actually took FASTER burst mode than my brother's $4k Canon 5D!
I took 31 pics instantly as my nephew went to the basket in basketball. And the pics were surprisingly good...very useable! (You can't do this in iPhone 5.) I have not played much with Slo-mo...don't have much need for it.
As for A7 differences, make sure that you are on 7.0.4. Remember, it is up to the app DEVELOPER to update themselves to iOS7, not the other way around. Otherwise, my 5S has not crash at all since 7.0.4.
There are more and more apps for the A7 chip, including EPOCH 2, Infinity Blade 3, dJay2, Sling, etc.. But, the difference will be subtle because A6 was quite powerful in its own right. Again, it is really up to the developers to make changes. With iPads now also on A7 architecture, i think that developers will get on board faster, which is probably why Apple went with A7 on both iPad versions.
As for Android, i played with my brother's Nexus 5 yesterday. Good phone, but horrible camera and it crashed on me in the brief time that i played with it. It was noticeably slow to boot up camera and very slow focus and shutter. Opening up some apps was slower than expected given the Qualcomm S800 and pure Android software. I don't think KitKat has been optimized yet.
BTW, Maps (from Apple) is excellent...i now use it over Google maps because it is better integrated. And with A7, the Maps run smoother than on my wife's iPhone 5. And i think that Google Maps will be A7-optimized soon. So, either one should be excellent for main road driving. Not sure about off-roading.
As for iPhone 6, i will wait. If the bigger screen is going to make the phone much bigger (like a Note 2 or LG G2), then this may be a problem. For example, i have a Lifeproof FRE case now for 5S...a Nexus 5-sized phone with case may be too damn big for me for everyday use. (This size factor and outdoor visibility were two major reasons why i got rid of Galaxy Note 2.)
My hope for iPhone 6: Size of Motorola X + sapphire composite display around 4.7-5.0" + thin bezels all around + integrated TouchID below sapphire with digital Home Button (instead of physical one) + A8 (quad core version of A7).
