The first thing that makes a tangible difference is Touch ID, with a fingerprint scanner having made the iconic Home button its residence. The camera has a bigger sensor and dual LED flash, and gladly takes advantage of what's probably the most notable improvement - the 64-bit A7 chip. The iOS enters its 64-bit stage in its seventh iteration, well ahead of the competition. What this means is better memory management and more complex tasks and apps ahead. This could as well be the first step to bringing the iOS closer to Apple's dedicated desktop OS X - an early message that both platforms are due for a rendezvous eventually.
- Quad-band GSM and quad-band or penta-band 3G support with 21 Mbps HSDPA, 42 Mbps DC-HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
- LTE support on all models and CDMA support when sold by CDMA carriers
- 4" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 1136px resolution, 326 ppi
- Corning Gorilla Glass, fingerprint-resistant coating
- 1.3 GHz dual-core ARMv8 64-bit CPU, PowerVR G6430 GPU, 1GB of RAM, Apple A7 SoC
- iOS 7 and iCloud integration
- 8 MP autofocus camera, 1/3'' sensor size, 1.5µm pixel size, True Tone dual-LED flash, touch focus, digital image stabilization
- 1080p video recording at 30fps, 720p@120fps slow motion videos
- 1.2MP secondary front-facing camera, 720p video recording
- Touch ID fingerprint scanner embedded into home button
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
- GPS with A-GPS connectivity, GLONASS support; digital compass
- 16/32/64GB storage options
- Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone, dedicated third microphone for Siri
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v4.0
- Apple Maps with free voice-guided navigation in 50-odd countries
- iTunes Radio
- AirDrop file transfer
- Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
- Supports HD Voice (needs carrier support too)
- FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular
- Impressively slim and light
