Wesley's Tool-Box

As my iPhone 6 Plus came home safely, the screen & backside protector set and the belt case, both of which I ordered online earlier, had arrived as well. It meant that I would be able to protect and carry the device from day one. And thus, I proceeded to get the box opened.


And this is the unboxing video I took. The honour of actually opening the box went to my daughter Celine. She's getting good with handling tools nowadays. Other than the fact that the iPhone itself was really big, everything else was quite similar. I suppose you don't need to change what works well.

Celine and I had some fun making light trails at home during the night. The whole thing was spontaneous, but the results were pretty good. There weren't so much to prepare. All I needed to do was to have my iPhone 5S shoot at 1/2 second shutter speed, while Celine swung this LED-equipped electric fan all over the place.

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.

Apple has constantly improved the iPhone camera's overall quality over the years, and this time is no different. It has touted iPhone 5S's larger sensor (1/3.0", compared to 1/3.2" in iPhone 5) that results in bigger pixels (1.5 microns instead of 1.4) and brighter lens (f/2.2 instead of f/2.4) that lets more light in. These are supposed to gather 33% more light, and low-light performance would be improved as such. One thing not mentioned is the focal length. Both devices are fixed to 4mm, but 35mm equivalent values are different - iPhone 5 is 33mm, while iPhone 5S is 30mm. This means the latter has a slightly wider field of view.

iPhone 5's camera already takes great outdoor shots, so I felt that improvements from these upgrades would be most noticeable in indoor shots. Therefore, I decided to use both iPhone 5 and 5S to take several comparison photos in the house, with iOS version both at 7.0.2. First one shown here is taken in a brightly lit room, and the low ISO value tells you that the sensors should be subject to minimal noise. This should be typical of the photos that were taken with good lighting. You can see that both phones perform similarly, but iPhone 5S does apply slightly more smoothing. This makes the 5S photos in good lighting conditions look a little too clean. Fortunately, the details are mostly there and the file size did get a bit smaller on average as a result. This seems to be more or less the difference in post-processing pattern than the sensor performance itself.


When the lighting is dramatically reduced, the difference in sensor performance becomes evident. The photos here were shot with identical ISO and shutter values, yet iPhone 5S's photo preserves the details of the objects and letters much more than iPhone 5's. You can make out the letters with 5S, while 5 gives you muddled goo. Both had noise reduction kicked in, but it iPhone 5 clearly had less detail to work with in the first place. Apple's efforts are paying off here.

Of course, camera module itself is only half the story. Let's take a look at a photo in even worse lighting and go from there.