iPhone 5S: Initial Impressions

Well it finally showed up. After tracking my little package all the way from China as it crossed the globe to end up in my grubby little hands (or drunk hands maybe) I finally got to experience what a few million other folks had already experienced. Yes the iPhone 5S had arrived. 

Now usually I immediately plug my new iDevice into iTunes and restore the backup of my soon to be ex-iPhone. However, this time I broke from tradition. I thought I'd start with a clean slate and just add services and apps as and when I needed them. 

But before we get to that I feel I must first justify my choice of colour. Yes, I went with the gold version (GOLD!!!). Now I have heard several negative statements regarding the gold variant. Terms such as chav, delboy and medallion man have been banded around like a beachball at summer music festival. I must admit initially, when I heard the rumours of a golden phone I pictured a gaudy bauble that must have somehow escaped from some dark recess of Jony Ive's imagination where he often fears to look. However, as if often the case, the design and colour scheme was much more than I could ever dreamed of.  The gold is not gaudy in the slightest, in fact if anything it is understated but it does add a touch of flair to the little device. 

I have always previously gone with a black phone. Even when I had the chance to buy the Stormtrooper version my head was not turned. However, I just could not resist that lure of gold (GOLD!!!), no matter how ostentatious it may appear. So I went 3PO and this was definatly the phone I was looking for. 

Since I had decided to go the clean install route I avoided that annoying wait while iTunes synced all my old content back to the new phone. Instead I dove straight in and was soon encountering the new Touch ID set-up page. Following the simple on-screen instructions the phone soon had a copy of my left thumbprint hashed, salted and stored in the recesses of its A7 processor. Now, as long as none of those pesky 'easy' fingerprint fakers are around my friend Alex will find it much more challenging to tweet in my name while I'm busy buying the next round at the local drinking hole. Ha, I've outfoxed the Fox...possibly. 

The first thing I noticed was the speed. Boy can this thing move those pixels around. Taps are highly responsive and screen slides dance across the screen without hesitation or a hint of a stutter. 

The new OS certainly looks better on a White iPhone I feel personally. There is a general air of lightness and freshness that compliments the new design choices made by Jony Ives, although this could possibly be due to the black frame I have become accustomed and climatised too over these many years of use. 

As always the phone feels very sturdy and has a nice heft to it. It feels like a solid well built piece of technology, which of course, it is. 

I hope to head in to London over the weekend and give the camera a through testing. I'm particularly looking forward to trying out the video and the new Slow Motion effect. To be honest this is something I have been looking forward too for such a long time to appear on the iPhone platform and I am so glad it is finally here. 

As I mentioned these are just my initial impressions and I shall be returning to my new toy over the coming weeks as I discover more about the device. Needless to say I am very happy with my purchase and my desire to jump to an alternative platform has diminished for at least another year.