Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A little history on my situation. I just upgraded from a Blackberry Storm 2. My wife has an iPhone 5 and previously had a Motorola Droid 2. These are the phones that I can compare to, so keep that in mind when reading my review. My first impression out of box was that the phone was beautiful. I seriously didn't even want to touch it. I debated between space gray and white silver. I ultimately chose white silver because my wife has a black iPhone 5 and everything electronic I have is black. I though white was refreshing and if I can always put a case on to make it any color I want. I am so happy I chose white. It really makes the phone look fresh - sorry that is the best word I can find to describe it. The colors on the screen pop against the background. It doesn't show finger prints as much as my wives black phone. I got a clear case for the phone that just adds to the appearance. It also protects it from scratches and drops. In my opinion a case is required for an iPhone 5S. I honestly think that Apple designed it with the intent to use it with a case. Other competitive phones advertise a built in grip or that it feels better to hold than an iPhone, which is probably true. Apple made the phone so thin and light that adding a case just makes it feel better. Where other phones if you add a case it just makes the phone larger and heavier. I personally like putting my phone in a case. It is a way to personalize your phone and protect it. If the case gets dirty or worn, just spent $10 or $20 bucks and buy a new one. The screen on the iPhone is not as large as some of the Android giants. Android seems believe that a bigger screen is better. For me this doesn't make sense. I carry my phone in my pocket which you can do with the iPhone 5S because it is skinny enough to fit. I also like that I can reach all the screen with one hand. The screen is much larger than my old Blackberry. The retina display is beautiful. The colors and crispness are very pleasing to look at. It seem similar to my wives iPhone 5. Does clarity make a difference - yes it prevents eye strain. I have had no trouble with the moving elements on the display. I have no idea why people are complaining about that, but maybe they have some vision troubles or motion sickness issues. You can turn off the moving screen and I would expect future IOS 7 updates to allow users to disable all features people are complaining about. I use the phone for work and the speakerphone is in use for several hours a day. The sound quality is great on speaker phone, on handset and with headset. My wife noted an improvement over my Blackberry. The camera is incredible - even better than my wives iPhone 5. I am getting rid of our Nikon compact camera because the quality is so good. The video modes are so easy to switch between. It takes no time to shoot a phone and upload or send it multiple ways. I am still discovering all the features but some items like panorama and slow motion are just fun to use. E-mail is way better on the iPhone than my Blackberry. Calendar integration for Outlook is awesome. The speed of the phone is really fast. There are never any delays on anything and touch response is immediate and accurate. I have not had apps crash, but I don't doubt there are some buggy ones out there. Just nothing I am using. The touch ID has been getting a ton of attention - good and bad. When I got the phone it scanned my thumb and took just a minute to complete. I scanned it at all angles. It works perfectly. In the last month I have only had a couple times that I needed to reposition my thumb to get it read properly. It was due to me not having it on all the way. It will read your print from many different angles. This feature for me is HUGE. My company mandates a password that has lower, upper, number, special character 8 digit password. That is a total pain to enter in the phone throughout the day. My companies security team has approved touch ID as an alternate. That means no more password. Just to be clear the phone still has a password, so you can optionally use it. For example if your touch id gave you trouble or wanted to get access to your spouse or friend. Plus you can load multiple fingers. I don't know why other people are reporting troubles with touch ID. I assume either their phone is defective or their finger print is damaged by cracked skin. I have some experience with finger print scanners from a previous job and we did have one employee with dry hands that could not be read on a finger print scanner. The issue is that his skin was cracked and cracks kept healing and showing up in new places. In other words the scanner had nothing consistent to read. I am sorry for those people that suffer a skin condition but to blame the phone for not reading it is not really fair. Those people will have to use the password which is no worse than any other phone. Battery time seems ok. I need to charge it every day but I use it all the time. I am used to charging my phone every night. I purchased an external battery pack for recharge when I travel if I cannot find an outlet at an airport. I purchased the 32 GB the day after it was released and waited 2 weeks for delivery. Verizon sent it overnight delivery. Final thoughts - this phone is the best and fastest according to speed tests. It has changed my life my making things easier. That may sound over the top, but it is my first iPhone. After comparing it to the iPhone 5 I would say it is better. I don't have an iPhone 5C but as I understand the hardware is similar to my wives iPhone 5. Honestly I am sure you would be happy with an iPhone 5C if you are trying to decide. You would be missing the touch id and better camera. You gain colors and a more comfortable feel (without case). I chose the 5S because I use my phone all day for work. I need the best tools for my job. ----------------- Added May 7, 2014 I have had the phone for 6 months now. I thought I should include an update: First I want to talk more about the finger print scanner (touch ID). For me this is a huge feature because my company requires complex password entry. The touch ID allows me to instantly get into my phone by touching it with my thumb at any angle. The touch ID has always worked fairly well for me. When I first got the phone I would occasionally need to reposition my thumb. I also found issues after having my hands in water a long time because when your skin is wet it puckers up and therefore the fingerprint is distorted. That is totally acceptable in my opinion. I also found that if my thumb was only half on the button it may not work the first time, but I always got in on a second try,. With the recent IOS updates I get in on the first touch every time. It is really amazing how well it works. It works so well that I have tested it with non-registered fingers a couple times just to make sure it was still working. Compared to the new Samsung scanner that you have to swipe your finger, the touch ID is way better. It may seem minor but think about how many times you get into your phone every day. I carry the phone in my front pocket and it fits well in my jeans pocket. I have not broken the screen or had any issues with scratches. I use no screen protector because I like a clearer view on the screen. I still use a case on my phone and find when the phone is out of the case it is not comfortable to hold. I would recommend to Apple that future designs have rounded corners similar to my iPad so it can be used without a case. This would not stop me from buying the phone, because I would never use my phone without a protective case, but I know some people who do. I have dropped my phone several times with no issues, but I could just be lucky. The Apple ecosystem is amazing. Every good app is available for iPhone first or exclusively in some cases. The shear number of iPhones and the high end nature of the device ensures developer attention. The speed benchmarks indicate the 5S is the fastest smartphone. It also scores high on the most available memory. In other words if you buy a 16GB phone, keep in mind a good chunk of that is the operating system. Android can be bloated and take up considerable space. The Google versions are better. The 5S still scores as top selling phone with all carriers after 6 months, so the phone has staying power. The battery needs charging daily. I use it for business and spend considerable time on the phone, so I feel I represent an extreme user. Sometimes I wish the battery was bigger, which Apple could easily do by increasing the phone size to match competitors. That is how Samsung and Motorola get the long battery time, by just making the phone thicker and heavier. Apple made the choice to keep the size and weight down. There are extended battery packs you can purchase. I have one that I use when I am traveling and it more than doubles the battery life. Other phones have replaceable batteries. The battery on my old Blackberry went out after 1.5 years so the replaceable battery was great. Now by comparison I have a 4 year old iPod touch that still has a good battery and I know people who have iPhones several years old with good batteries. The point is that you only need a replaceable battery if the battery needs to be replaced. I know that sounds strange but if the battery is good it should last as long as the technology. For those that die early, they can be replaced at an Apple store. One other thing to consider - have you ever dropped your phone and the cover falls off. It happened to me all the time on my Blackberry, but with the iPhone when I drop it nothing falls apart. Other phones have expanded memory capability. I have the 32GB version and the only time I have had trouble is when I loaded a bunch of videos on for watching while I work out. I had hours of video that I had already watched on the phone, so it was just a matter of me needing to delete what I had watched. As long as you are removing content you dont need from the phone, I found 32GB is more than enough. The camera continues to work great. I have stopped using my camera and video cameral and I am getting rid of them. Everything I shoot is with my iPhone and the video is superior to my 4 year old Nikon camera and Panasonic video camera. I mean superior when shown on my 50 inch TV. When you consider that a good phone can replace devices that cost me six hundred dollars four years ago, that is amazing. I am really still waiting for the true power of the 5S to be realized. The motion co processor and 64 bit CPU are so new that I am not sure they have even scratched the surface on what they can do. That is great because it means I will be able to enjoy future IOS updates and new features for a long time to come. As I write this, I am waiting for a MacBook Air to arrive from Amazon. The iPhone has caused a chain reaction making me convert to Apple. I used to be the guy that said "a windows laptop gives you more power for your money, Apple is just paying for a name". I was wrong and I am here to tell you it is ok to convert to Apple.