iPhone 5S Announced with A7 SoC, Fingerprint Scanner

Apple started with the iPhone 5C (which you can read about here), but, obviously, the main event is the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 5S is available in black, gold and silver and made of high-grade aluminum with cut chamfered edges.

As rumors indicated, the iPhone 5S will run on Apple's A7 SoC. Apple today confirmed that the A7 is actually a 64-bit chip with 2x general purpose registers, 2x floating point registers, over one billion transistors and 102 square mm die size. The result is CPU performance that is 40 times that of the original iPhone and graphics performance that is 56 times that of the original iPhone. You can read all about the A7 here. In addition to the A7, the iPhone 5S also uses a motion co-processor called the M7. The M7 is in charge of motion data, measuring accelerometer, gyroscope and compass data continuously (Apple is eyeing health and fitness apps with this).

The camera has been upgraded, too (again, not a surprise). The iPhone 5S camera packs a 5-element lens with an aperture of f/2.2 on top of a sensor with a surface area that's 15 percent larger than that of the iPhone 5. It also has burst mode, image stabilization, and slow motion (720p at 120 fps).

Apple also confirmed Touch ID, which is fingerprint authentication that can be used to unlock your device and make iTunes purchases. The sensor measures 170 microns thick and boasts a 500 ppi resolution. You don't have to press the home button to scan, just place your finger on top, and the phone can read multiple fingerprints. Additionally, your fingerprints are never stored on Apple's servers or backed up to iCloud.

As far as battery life is concerned, Apple is promising 250 hours of standby, 10 hours of LTE browsing, 40 hours of music playback, 10 hours of talk time on 3G, though the company didn't talk about the battery's size. We're also waiting for more information on the display, RAM, and other aspects of the iPhone 5S hardware.

The iPhone 5S is priced at $199 for the 16 GB model, $299 for the 32 GB model, and $399 for the 64 GB model. iPhone 5S and 5C will be available starting September 20. The 5C will go up for pre-order on September 13 (this coming Friday), and China and Japan are also on the list of launch-day markets. This is a first for China, and Japan's NTT DoCoMo, which is getting the iPhone for the first time. That explains why Apple was streaming the event in Beijing and Tokyo (but doesn't really explain why there was no stream for anyone else).

Check out the hands-on from our sister site LAPTOP:

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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.