14 DAY TRIAL // Sources familiar with Apple’s 2013 product roadmap are telling iMore that the next-generation iPhone 5S is launching this summer, in August to be exact. The phone is said to boast an upgraded processor and enhanced cameras.
The blog supports rumors that the iPhone 5S will not mark a departure from the current iPhone’s design, meaning Apple will follow tradition this year as well.
Some pundits firmly believe that, this time around, Apple will also add some color to the iPhone lineup. A rainbow iPhone 5S range will look like a lot like this, if the rumors materialize.
The iPhone 5S will launch in August, according to author Rene Ritchie, whose sources also mentioned a faster SoC (system on a chip) and improved cameras.
The current iPhone, the iPhone 5, boasts the A6 SoC. The silicon houses a dual-core CPU and a triple-core graphics processor. It has 1GB of RAM inside and runs blazingly fast without taxing the battery too much.
But the A6 is not the latest custom processor used by Apple in its iDevices. The company has recently equipped the fourth-generation iPad with an A6X SoC.
The A6X uses a 1.4 GHz custom Apple-designed ARMv7 based dual-core CPU (codenamed Swift) and features an integrated quad-core PowerVR SGX 554MP4 graphics processing unit (GPU) running at 300 MHz and a doubled memory subsystem.
The A6X boasts twice the computing power and graphics performance of the previous Apple A5X processor.
However, it has no RAM inside the chip package, which means it’s not a good candidate for the next-generation iPhone (as space is of the essence in smaller devices). An all-new A7 SoC, however, just might.
Apple is said to be working with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to come up with a fresh custom design for its next range of iDevices, which includes the iPhone 5S and the upcoming iPhone 6.