iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6 comparison review

Price When Reviewed

iPhone 5s: $549

Best Prices Today: iPhone 5s

The iPhone 5s is now the old generation iPhone with the unsurprising arrival of the iPhone 6. A new Apple smartphone means changes so here’s where we compare the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 to explain the difference between the two including price, features, performance and specs. See also: Best smartphones of 2015.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Release date and price

The iPhone 6 has been on sale since September but don’t expect the price to be any lower so it still costs £539 for the 16GB model, £619 for the 64GB and £699 for the 128GB. The iPhone 5s was £549 so that’s a small price reduction and the now old generation iPhone drops to £459 and is only available in 16- or 32GB.

Here’s a price table to give you a quick and easy overview of all the prices for the available iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s models. Click to view the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 at the Apple Store.

	iPhone 6	iPhone 5s
16 GB	£539	£459
32 GB	–	£499
64 GB	£619	–
128 GB	£699	–

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Screen size

The iPhone 5s has a 4in display, which for a flagship smartphone is actually pretty tiny. Even mini versions of flagship phones from Samsung, LG and HTC have displays bigger than 4in. As expected, the iPhone 6 has a 4.7in display (the iPhone 6 Plus is even bigger at 5.5in). See also: iPhone 6 release date, price, specs & new features.

With a bigger screen comes a higher resolution – 750 x 1334. The iPhone 6 has 38 percent more pixel but the larger screen means the pixel density stays the same at 326ppi (that’s what Apple calls Retina quality).

In terms of technology, the iPhone 6 has LCD tech called dual domain pixels, which allow it to have a very broad angle of view. The display also has higher contrast and a thinner backlight, according to Apple.

See also: LG G3 vs iPhone 5s comparison. 

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Design

As per the rumours, the iPhone 6 has a new style of design which is more rounded than before and somewhat matches up to the most recent iPads. The iPhone 5s is 7.6 mm but Apple has managed to slim the iPhone 6 down to 6.9 mm. The larger screen size means that the new iPhone is heavier at 129 g compared to 112 g.

Because the screen is bigger, the on/off button is now positioned on the side of the phone rather than the top. The iPhone 6 still comes in the same colours options: space grey, silver and gold.

Several allegedly leaked photographs of the iPhone 6’s back seemed to suggest that the iPhone 6 would have an illuminated Apple logo on the back but that’s not the case.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Features & specs

The iPhone 5s has a powerful A7 processor and, you’ve guessed it, the iPhone 6 has a new A8 processor. It uses a 20nm process and delivers 25 percent more CPU power and 50 percent better efficiency than the A7, according to Apple. It also add 50 percent on the GPU side of things. It’s still 64-bit, of course and you can check out our benchmark results below.

	iPhone 6	iPhone 5s
GeekBench 3	2794	1076
GFXBench T-Rex	49 fps	37 fps
GFXBench Manhattan	26 fps	21 fps
SunSpider	351 ms	417 ms

The A7 comes with the M7 co-processor and the A8 comes with the new M8 co-processor which can identify what type of activity you’re doing, estimate distance and – with the introduction of a barometer – knows details on elevation change.

Of course, there is 4G LTE support and Apple has added support for 20 LTE bands – the iPhone 5s has 13. A new feature is VoLTE (voice over LTE) which will be supported on EE in the UK.

We’ve heard rumours about a bigger and better battery in the iPhone 6, but some of that extra power could be used up by the iPhone 6’s bigger display.

Rumours on the iPhone 6 appear to have been pretty spot on as the device now features, for the first time, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a new 128GB option (no 32GB any more) and NFC. The latter will be used in conjuction with ApplePay which will launch first in the US in October with credit cards/debit cards from AmEx, MasterCard, and Visa.

In terms of battery life, Apple claims the iPhone 6 will provide 14 hours of talktime and 11 hours of video playback compared to 10 hours for both on the iPhone 5s. You can see the full set of theoretical numbers below.

Our tests show that on average, the iPhone 5s lasts a day of usage whereas the iPhone 6 offers two. So this is a good reason to opt for the newer model.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Cameras

The iPhone 5s has an 8Mp camera with an f/2.2 aperture, and while rumours suggested Apple would boost things to a 10Mp camera, it did not happen. The iSight camera on the iPhone 6 remains at 8Mp does have a few improvements and new features.

For starters is introduces ‘focus pixels’ which means phase detection autofocus (something which has been on Android phones for a while). It also has digital image stabilization (the iPhone 6 Plus steps this up to optical). The new camera also allows users to record slo-mo footage at up to 240fps, twice that of the iPhone 5s.

The front facing Facetime HD camera has a new sensor, larger f/2.2 aperture and lets in 81 percent more light, according to Apple. New features include a burst mode and improved face detection.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6: Software

Both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 will run iOS 8, the update to the Apple mobile will be available to iPhone users (back to the 4S) on 17 September. One new feature which will come to the iPhone 6 is the landscape orientation homescreen (see below). Since the iPhone 5s lacks NFC, the ApplePay feature which we mentioned earlier will also be exclusive.

Best Prices Today: iPhone 5s