iPhone 5s: 3 years later review

So I`ve had my iPhone 5s for 3 years now. Bought it when I was 14, and I`ve had it since. Now I`m 17, I would like to share my experience of owning the iPhone 5s for 3 years. I`m going to break this part up into 3 parts, performance, durability, and support.

Firstly performance. The performance on the iPhone 5s is good till this day. I wouldn't say it flies but, the geek bench results it dishes out currently are single core of 1200, and multi core of 2500. Now compared to the new iPhone 7, which dishes out scores of single core 3300, and multi core score of 5500, it`s nothing impressive, but with the optimisation of iOS 10, it really rarely has any hick ups.

The 3 year old battery still serves well, and has a screen on time of around 4 hours on wifi. The battery life is significantly less with 4g LTE. So I would say the battery life is below average and if you're careful with it, perhaps with low power mode on then it can last relatively long, but I wouldn't rely on it.

Secondly, the durability. Now this is a more perspective one, as it depends on the way you would treat a phone but I have used a case for the most part, with no screen protector on. I don`t typically like screen protectors, and never really use them. The phone has held up really well, with only one scratch on the top and that being it. The screen has no scratches on it, and the back glass and aluminium has no scratches what so ever. Most of my friends wouldn't believe its been with me for the past 3 years. The whole phone is very sturdy, but it isn't the most rugged phone so if you are thinking of getting one soon, I would suggest to get a case because a good drop on a pavement can easily crack the screen.

Fingerprint. The 5s was the first phone that came out with a fingerprint on its front home button, and also the phone that made the fingerprint scanners main stream. It was the main reason why I bought the phone. The fingerprint scanner, flies. It is so quick, even at todays standards. Obviously it doesn't`t stand a chance against apples second generation touch ID, or the fingerprint scanner on the oneplus 3, but it is still an extremely fast and reliable fingerprint scanner. I think this is one thing most people should care about. It doesn't matter how fast the fingerprint scanner is, if it isn't reliable. The touch ID sensor on the 5s is reliable. Very. It rarely ever fails, and this is amazing considering it was the first phone to have it.

Finally support. When I mean support, I mean software updates. The iPhone 5s I have currently runs iOS 10. This is something we have to admire about apple, their support on older devices are very good. Especially the fact that the new OS always rolls out for every phone at the exact same time. I think the A7 processor in the 5s will be able to support the next iOS 11, but probably not the year after. So thats something to keep in mind if you are in the market for buying a 5s.

So at the end of the day is the iPhone 5s still a good phone. It depends. The sub 720p resolution screen doesn't look bad but its no 1440p AMOLED. Overall though, if you're buying this phone off auction for around $200 USD, it`s definitely one of the best phones you can get for that price. If you want a reliable cheap phone, I would say go for it.

Thanks for reading ;)