Apple iPhone 5S Silver 16GB Unlocked GSM Smartphone (Certified Refurbished)

Apple iPhone 5S Silver 16GB Unlocked GSM Smartphone (Certified Refurbished).

The iPhone 5s is superior in these areas:

1. The design is a work of art, finely sculpted and proportioned; a pleasure to hold and use
2. The screen is fantastic; big enough to be really useful but small enough for the phone to be easily pocketable. The Blackberry screen was maybe too small for most applications except for email, and the Android too big and heavy for portable use. I particularly like the long narrow screen on the 5s.
3. A lot of thought has gone into the way a user can navigate around the screen through the different functions. I have owned an iPod Touch for a couple of years and have become a fan of Apple's clear and simple graphics: on the 5s, it's even better. The software never crashes, which it did with both my Android phones frequently.
4. For a user with larger than average hands/fingers, the on-screen keypad of the 5s is really well designed - especially true if you use the phone in landscape format which has the effect of widening the keypad. In comparison, the Android was frustrating and not very user-friendly and the Blackberry Storm completely hopeless - though the permanent keypad on the Curve was great.
5. The ring tone & speaker volume is louder and clearer on the iPhone than any of its rivals.
6. Phone reception is the best. I don't know how Apple manage this, but I have made and received calls in locations where other phones don't seem to work - like travelling on the London underground and in deep underground car parks.
7. The camera is so good it's up to the standard of a dedicated Canon or Nikon compact, for the first time on a cellphone.
8. Siri, iMessage and Facetime are genuinely useful apps, not just gimmicks. They actually work well. The fingerprint scanner works too, though how much of a real security feature this is remains doubtful.

Little gripes for Apple iPhone 5S Silver :

1. The battery life isn't great, but no worse than the Android Galaxy 4 and you can substantially improve it on the 5s by turning off power-hungry applications.
2. The unique nano-SIM means you can't swap the SIM over to another phone in an emergency, or for example if the phone is damaged and needs repair.
3. The price of the 5s is a bit steep, but here you really do get what you pay for.

Overall I have become a reluctant Apple convert. It's easy to see why they have become market leader with such an excellent product. Of course in another 2 or 3 years the tech will have moved on again, there may be a new market-leading manufacturer and the 5s will be an antique. But until then, the 5s for me is the King of cellphones.