Apple iPhone 5S & iPhone 5C

Apple unveiled two new iPhones last night for the first time, including the flagship iPhone 5S and a colourful model iPhone 5C that is made of plastic. Both models will feature the new operating system, iOS7.



The cheaper iPhone 5C comes with candy colour of blue, green, red, yellow and white while there is a gold iPhone 5S in addition to the silver and space grey versions. The Home button of iPhone 5S is now made of sapphire crystal instead of just glass and equipped with Touch ID. It features a 500ppi resolution capacitive fingerprint sensor that recognizes an individual’s finger as it touches the Home button to unlock the iPhone.

iPhone 5C, on the other hand, is just an iPhone 5 in plastic. That's why iPhone 5 is retired and only iPhone 4S, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S are available. iPhone 5C is intended for first-time smartphone buyers and developing countries such as China. However, the problem is that the iPhone 5C is still not so cheap if compared to other smartphones.

Let's take a glance at the spec of iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C:

Category	iPhone 5S	iPhone 5C
Processor	A7 chip (64 bit), M7 motion coprocessor	A6 chip
Dimension	Height: 123.8 mm Width: 58.6 mm Depth: 7.6 mm	Height: 124.4 mm Width: 59.2 mm Depth: 8.97 mm
Weight	112 g	132 g
Display	4-inch Retina display
Resolution	1136 * 640
Cellular & Wireless	GSM model: GSM/EDGE UMTS/HSPA+ DC-HSDPA CDMA model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A & Rev. B LTE Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n; 802.11n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 GPS and GLONASS
SIM Card	Nano SIM
Back Camera	8 MP with 1.5µ pixels	8 MP
Front Camera	1.2MP photos (1280 by 960) 720p HD video recording               New backside illumination sensor
Video Recording	1080p HD video recording 30 fps True Tone flash Slo-mo video Improved video stabilization Take still photos while recording video Tap to focus Face detection 3x zoom Video geotagging	1080p HD video recording 30 fps LED flash - Video stabilization Take still photos while recording video Tap to focus Face detection 3x zoom Video geotagging
Headphones	Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic Storage and travel case
Connector	Lightning
Talk Time	Talk time: Up to 10 hours on 3G Browsing time: Up to 10 hours on LTE Up to 8 hours on 3G Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi Standby time: Up to 250 hours
Price	16GB USD 720 32GB USD 823 64GB USD 926	16GB USD 604 32GB USD 720

iPhone 5S will be available starting 20th September in a number of countries including US, Australia, Canada, China, and Singapore.  According to Apple, iPhone 5S will be available in 100 countries from December 2013 which should include Malaysia. iPhone 5C is open for pre-order starting 13th September and it should be available about the same time as the iPhone 5S.

iPhone 5 Available in Malaysia on 14 December

In my previous post, I mentioned about the difficulties of supply chain that Apple was facing and iPhone 5 would only be available in Malaysia next year. Surprisingly, Apple managed to overcome this issue and is going to introduce iPhone 5 to more than 50 countries in December.

According to press info from Apple, below is the list of countries that are able to get iPhone 5 this month:


Dec 7: South Korea

Dec 14: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Dec 21: Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam.

What about the iPad with Retina Display (iPad 4) and iPad Mini? It is available in China starting today (7 December) and the good news is it is also available in Apple Store Malaysia now!

The selling price for iPad mini starts from RM 999, while the iPad with Retina Display starts from RM 1499. The iPad mini is selling cheaper than iPod Touch 5G (RM 1049) in Malaysia. Start shopping for your new gadgets now through Apple Store Online!

iPhone 5, iPad Mini & iPad 4 Launch Date

It is already 2 months since iPhone 5 was officially launched. Many of us are guessing when the Apple's latest product line up of iPhone 5, iPad Mini & iPad 4 will be officially available in Malaysia.

According to the news report of the Malay Mail, iPhone 5, iPad Mini & iPad 4 are very likely to be released in Malaysia after 2nd January 2013 due to 3 main reasons:

1. Apple is focusing to fulfill orders for Christmas sales in its key markets.
2. Apple may be facing constraints in the supply of its retina display touchscreens.
3. Foxconn, the manufacturer for Apple's products, is having difficulty to keep up with the demand.

If you are interested in Apple smartphone or tablet, should you just go ahead and purchase the current models this year or wait for the new models next year? Let's look at the performance benchmark of Apple iOS products done by Geekbench.

Based on the graph above, it's definitely worth to wait for the new models to arrive as both iPhone 5 and iPad 4 are more than 2 times more powerful than their predecessors. While for iPad Mini, its performance is slower than iPad 2.

A6 chip designed by Apple is a great success until there are rumours spreading around that Apple is looking to implement similar chips for its Mac and MacBook products to replace Intel chips.

iPod Touch 5th Generation

Apple has launched iPod Touch 5th generation in October and it is already available in Malaysia. This is the most iPhone like iPod Touch ever made by Apple.The iPod Touch 5G comes in a 4-inch Retina display that is exactly the same with iPhone 5 and it is even thinner than iPhone 5 by 1.5 mm.

iPod Touch 5G is powered by A5 chip, the same chip that is used to drive iPhone 4S. The front & back camera are also major upgrades as compared to the previous generation of iPod Touch. It seems that Apple is intending to make iPod Touch 5G as an alternative to Point-and-Shoot camera. Every iPod Touch 5G comes with a strap that Apple calls the loop to let you take the iPod just like a camera.

This is a quick comparison for the 3 new products of Apple:

Category	iPod Touch 5G	iPad Mini (Wifi)	iPhone 5
Processor	A5 chip	A5 chip	A6 chip
Dimension	Height: 123.4 mm Width: 58.6 mm Depth: 6.1 mm	Height: 200.0 mm Width: 134.7 mm Depth: 7.2 mm	Height: 123.8 mm Width: 58.6 mm Depth: 7.6 mm
Weight	88 g	308g	112 g
Display	4-inch Retina display	7.9-inch	4-inch Retina display
Resolution	1136 * 640	1024 * 768	1136 * 640
Back Camera	5 MP	5 MP	8 MP
Front Camera	1.2MP photos 720p HD video Backside illumination	1.2MP photos 720p HD video Backside illumination	1.2MP photos 720p HD video Backside illumination
Video Recording	1080p HD video recording	1080p HD video recording	1080p HD video recording
Earphones	Apple EarPods	N/A	Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic Storage and travel case
Talk Time	Music playback time: Up to 40 hours Video playback time: Up to 8 hours Charging times: Fast charge 2 hours (80% capacity), full charge 4 hours	Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi‑Fi, watching video, or listening to music	Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G Browsing time: Up to 8 hours on LTE Up to 8 hours on 3G Up to 10 hours on Wifi Standby time: Up to 225 hours
Price	32GB RM1049 64GB RM1399	16GB RM1099 (est) 32GB RM1399 (est) 64GB RM1699 (est)	16GB RM2199 (est) 32GB RM2499 (est) 64GB RM2799 (est)

You can see from the table that iPod Touch 5G has almost all the features like iPhone 5 except it only has Wifi connection and unable to make phone calls but the price of iPod Touch 5G is 58% cheaper. If you compare iPod Touch 5G with iPad Mini, you would notice that iPad Mini is actually overpriced with a screen that is not Retina display.

The selling price of iPod Touch 5G in the US is USD 299 (RM 900) but it is selling at RM 1049 in Apple Store. Since iPad 2 is selling for RM 1199 now,  if the upcoming iPad Mini is priced at RM 1099, it will affect both iPad Mini and iPod Touch sales. I hope that by the time iPad Mini is launched in Malaysia, the iPod Touch 5G price would be revised to RM 900.

Apple iPhone 5

Apple has officially launched its iPhone 5 a few hours ago. The new features are exactly same as the rumours spreaded around the Internet earlier. It comes with bigger screen, thinner and lighter body, different types of connector, new processor and LTE network.

The back of iPhone 5 is now made from aluminum and the lens of back camera is made of sapphire crystal. This provides the solid feel, better durability and reliability. The thinner iPhone 5 has also changed to lightning connector and nano SIM. For the headphones, they are changed to earpods which are claimed to be more comfortable, durable & stable. Let's take a look at the comparison between iPhone 5 and its predecessor iPhone 4S.

No	Category	iPhone 5	iPhone 4S
1	Processor	A6 chip	A5 chip
2	Dimension	Height: 123.8 mm Width: 58.6 mm Depth: 7.6 mm	Height: 115.2 mm Width: 58.6 mm Depth: 9.3 mm
3	Weight	112 g	140 g
4	Display	4-inch Retina display	3.5-inch Retina display
5	Resolution	1136 * 640	960 * 640
6	Cellular & Wireless	GSM model: GSM/EDGE UMTS/HSPA+ DC-HSDPA CDMA model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A & Rev. B LTE3 Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n; 802.11n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 GPS and GLONASS	GSM/EDGE UMTS/HSPA - CDMA EV-DO Rev. A2 - Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n; 802.11n on 2.4GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 GPS and GLONASS
7	SIM Card	Nano SIM (44% smaller than micro SIM)	Micro SIM
8	Back Camera	8 MP	8 MP
9	Front Camera	1.2MP photos 720p HD video Backside illumination sensor	VGA-resolution photos VGA-resolution video
10	Video Recording	1080p HD video recording 30 fps Tap to focus while recording LED light Improved video stabilization Take still photos while recording video Face detection	1080p HD video recording 30 fps Tap to focus while recording LED light Video stabilization - -
11	Headphones	Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic Storage and travel case	Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic
12	Connector	Lightning	30-pin
13	Talk Time	Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G Browsing time: Up to 8 hours on LTE Up to 8 hours on 3G Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi Standby time: Up to 225 hours	Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G Browsing time: - Up to 6 hours on 3G Up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi Standby time: Up to 200 hours
14	Price	16GB RM2199 (Estimation) 32GB RM2499 (Estimation) 64GB RM2799 (Estimation)	16GB RM1799