With the iPhone 5s, you spend a few minutes teaching it your fingerprint, which is stored on a special ‘secure area’ of the phone as a mathematical representation of the fingerprint - and never backed up to Apple’s servers.

After that, simply pressing the home button and keeping your finger there for a few moment activates the phone.

The sensor works flawlessly and up to four people can be programmed into each handset.

At the moment, it’s only used for unlocking your phone and making iTunes purchases, but expect Apple to expand that to mobile payments in the near future.

Visually, the iPhone 5s looks identical to the iPhone 5, except for a silver ring around the home button and a redesigned camera. But don’t let that fool you, this is a big step forward from the iPhone 5, even if many of the changes are not immediately obvious.

There are also two new colours to go along with the white and silver of the 5, a champagne (which is surprisingly classy and un-bling in the flesh) and a space grey, which was my favourite.

The iPhone 5s processor is a big leap forward for Apple, and is the first 64-bit chip in a mobile phone.

The most obvious difference is that menus and scrolling is a little bit snappier.

However, the best is yet to come with this added power, as we really haven’t seen what it can do yet. The demos that have been shown of games in particular using the feature are jaw-dropping.

Because of Apple’s veil of secrecy surrounding the new processor, developers only saw it when the public did - so expect a lot of app updates in the coming months.

The iPhone 5s also has a hidden secret and one that points squarely at Apple’s much-rumoured iWatch becoming a reality.

As well as the main A7 processor, there’s a little chip called M7, which allows your phone to capture a huge amount of data about your movements through a variety of sensors without draining the battery as current apps do.

It effectively puts the internals of trackers like the Nike Fuelband of FitBit into your phone.

Most importantly, it gets app developers thinking about how to use this kind of data in a phone, or a wearable computer in general.

Although Apple hasn’t even acknowledged it’s working on a watch, we’d put money of the M7 being inside it.

Apple has also addressed the criticism of its camera - but in a slightly different way to others such as Nokia, who recently released a 41 megapixel cameraphone.

While still an 8 megapixel camera, Apple has increased the size of the sensor and the pixels, giving pictures a noticeable boost in quality.

The camera actually takes four images in quick succession, taking the best bits from each to form a key image with all the best bits, which is then shown to the user.

In use, it’s great and pictures are sharper, with more clarity and depth than those taken with the iPhone 5c or iPhone 5, and there is a range of new features such as a ‘square’ mode for instagram snaps and a panoramic mode.

The flash is also a vast improvement, as it now uses smart software to create a coloured flash designed to look images look more realistic.

There are also some neat new tricks, such as burst mode, which captures a quick succession of pics, and for video, a slo-mo mode which looks superb, capturing video at 120fps and allowing you to control the speed of capture using an on screen button.

It’s definitely an evolution of the iPhone 5, but the 5S does more than enough to warrant an upgrade.

The fingerprint sensor alone is a huge timesaver, and also an added layer of security desperately needed on modern devices - as Apple itself admitted that 50 per cent of iPhone 5 owners don’t even have a passcode.

Over the coming months app developers are expected to really get to grips with the power of the iPhone 5s and its 64bit chip, so while most apps look and work the same as they always have today, look out for some amazing new games and fitness apps taking full advantage of the power of the iPhone 5s - and showing this really is a major update for Apple.

Overall, the 5s is a winner, and the best smartphone on the market - the biggest question seems to be not should you buy one, but which colour should you go for.

Technically, the iPhone 5c is pretty much identical to the iPhone 5, that was until today, Apple’s flagship handset. The processor and most of the innards are pretty much the same and that’s no bad thing.

The iPhone 5c really isn’t about technical specs though; those who worry about such things will buy the 5s, with its fingerprint sensor and 64bit processor.

For the rest of the world, who really don’t care about tech specs and just want an easy-to-use phone that looks good and can be customised to suit their taste, the iPhone 5c is perfect.

Terming the 5c a plastic iPhone seems harsh after you’ve picked it up as this really doesn’t feel cheap in any way.

There are five colours available - white, red, yellow, blue and green. Coated with lacquer, they also seem extremely resilient, coping with the odd drop without leaving a mark (and rather unfortunately, I’ve dropped my yellow handset more than once - but it shows no sign of damage).


Apple believes people may even buy more than one in different colours and for the more affluent consumers, that’s probably true.

Crucially for the vast ecosystem that surround Apple products, the 5c is also a massive payday for case makers, so expect some lovely and some truly awful novelty to appear.

The iPhone 5c has a 4-inch Retina display which is sharp and clear and Apple’s older, A6 chip (which is found in the iPhone 5) alongside an 8 megapixel camera and an updated front-facing camera for FaceTime and taking irritating selfies. It’ll also work on all of the UK 4G networks.

The price is the only issue for some, who were expecting a ‘cheap’ iPhone - but remember, Apple just doesn’t do cheap.

The 5c is a new take on the iPhone and one that will hugely expand Apple’s reach.

It’s a quality product with some astonishing engineering, which in many ways feels nicer than the 5s in use as the curved edges really make a difference.

While the critics may sneer at its colours and plastic, the proof is set to be in the sales figures and I fully expect Apple to once again show it has an unparalleled handle of what consumers, rather than spec-obsessed technical experts, want.