Wesley's Tool-Box

It's now been nearly two months since iPhone 5S and 5C debuted. They have been available to Koreans for nearly a month as well. So now it's not so hard to find them and take a look if you wanted to. Even half of the people in my team who had old iPhones already switched over to 5S.

If you remember, I gave up the much-sought but hard-to-get gold coloured iPhone 5S for the widely available space gray version because that would've been the only way I could get my hands on a 5S as soon as possible.

Looking back, I think I made the right choice. I was able to test it out earlier than most of the people. And I was going to put a skin on it as a basic protection anyway. This brushed metal style dark blue skin I put on really suits the phone well. When I finally got to see the gold version in person as you can see here, I still felt that my skinned iPhone looked better.


As for iPhone 5C, it did indeed look like someone put a coloured plastic case on a black iPhone 5. Nothing too impressive, really. I would have preferred the look of a 5th generation iPod Touch. I can definitely see how people would rather pay $100 more and get a 5S instead. This is perhaps why there are so many iPhone 5C ads in the city as well as commercials on TV.

There hasn't been much of wind-up toys in the house that my kids could get their hands on. I wanted to fill this hole a bit, but past experiences told me that kids don't play with one toy too long, so I should save money and go for some variety. For this, this little assembly kit series called "InoQ" from David Toy seemed to be a good idea.

I bought a Tyrannosaurus model from a local discount warehouse, which cost about US$3. It was on the low-end of assembly kits as far as price goes, but it said it would move, so it looked better than the stuff that you build and doesn't do anything else after. It also didn't look very sturdy, but considering the price, I thought it should be good enough for several minutes of enjoyment.

And boy, did it give us enjoyment.

If you buy a phone with camera function in Korea, you'll notice that taking a photo will produce a shutter sound even if you set the phone to vibrate or silent mode. This is because of a government recommendation set in 2004 to have phones always make a sound louder than 65dB when a photo is taken, to curb spy shots and boost privacy.

iPhones are no exception, and if you buy one in Korea, the silent mode switch does nothing to, uh, silence the shutter sound. This is interesting because iPhones are generally not differentiated except for slight variation in CDMA or LTE support.

(ADDENDUM: The situation seems to be the same for the iPhones bought in Japan or the Philippines.)

The question, then, would be if this shutter sound is controlled on a carrier / region basis or device basis. If it's controlled by detecting what carrier or region it's being used, then taking the phone outside Korea would silence the shutter sound. If it's preconfigured on the device, whether or not the sound will persist would depend on where you originally bought it from. So which is it?

Over the past 30 days of using the iPhone 5S, I've written several reviews of the phone on various aspects, as one of the first person to use it in Korea. I believe all the major points have been covered, and since the phone has been officially released in Korea last Friday, Here's a quick summary and link to each of the aspects that I took a look at.

1. Exterior [Click to Read]
Almost identical to iPhone 5 except the home button, flash, and colour.
The packaging box is smaller due to smaller charger.

2. Network Compatibility [Click to Read]
Unlocked iPhone 5S bought overseas will fully work in Korea, including LTE.

3. "Wideband" LTE Compatibility [Click to Read]
Yes, it's compatible.

4. Camera Speed [Click to Read]
At least twice as fast as iPhone 5. Slo-mo and burst modes work well.

5. Camera Quality [Click to Read]
Smoother photos, improved low light performance, and more natural flash.

6. Biometric Feature [Click to Read]
Convenient, fast, and moderately secure. Works with several body parts.

7. Motion Coprocessor [Click to Read]
Tracks your movement well without battery penalty. Great for fitness apps.

8. Performance Tests [Click to Read]
Twice as fast as iPhone 5 in CPU and GPU tests. LTE speeds remain the same.

9. Sensor Issues [Problems in iOS 7.0.2] [Fixed in iOS 7.0.3]
Accelerometer had calibration problems, but it was fixed in iOS 7.0.3.
Other sensors worked fine within margin of error.

10. Battery Performance [Click to Read]
Lasts slightly longer and charges slightly faster than iPhone 5.

Even with excellent performance, lackluster battery life will tarnish the usability of a phone. It's thus natural to see if iPhone 5S has made any improvements with battery usage from the previous generation. Apple has targeted it to be at least as good as iPhone 5, so I wanted to see how the two really compares in real life use.

The official capacities are 5.45Wh (3.8V 1440mAh) for iPhone 5 and 5.92Wh (3.8V 1560mAh) for iPhone 5S, an 8.6% difference. So 5S could use a little more power and still stay even. The iPhone 5 I have has seen use for about two months, while iPhone 5S has been with me for a month. So both have relatively fresh batteries close to these original capacities.

With these in mind and full charge, I started using the two devices, which were running iOS 7.0.3 now, in the same manner throughout the day. This meant opening the same app and taking the same actions at the same time. It's an interesting experience, and because apparent responsiveness of the two devices are similar at casual use, it wasn't too difficult to carry out.

To even the playfield further, push notifications, push data and automatic app updates were disabled, while screen brightness was fixed to 33%, which is good for indoor use. WiFi and Bluetooth were both enabled, but not used, so LTE was responsible for data. Other settings like GPS and visual effects were kept on by default. So how did the draining of the battery turn out?