iPhone 5S评测 可能是迄今最好的智能手机

Cards on the table, this is not going to be a forensic review of the iPhone 5S. Seven weeks ago it reached the hands of the public, and since then Apple has struggled to keep their latest flagship smartphone in stock. It’s hard to disagree with those sort of sales numbers, and after spending two weeks with the iPhone 5S I haven’t found any reason to even try. The iPhone 5S is the best all-round smartphone on the market right now.

打开天窗说亮话，这篇对iPhone 5S的评测不是为了引发争论。七周前，这部设备到达了大众手中，自那以后，苹果就一直在努力确保这款最新旗舰智能手机的库存。很难对那些销售额数字提出异议，而使用iPhone 5S两周之后，我甚至找不到任何理由来这样做。iPhone 5S是目前市场上最好的多功能智能手机。

Yes, that’s a statement that’s going to raise a lot of eyebrows (and I can imagine the comments are already being mentally composed). There is a lot of choice in the smartphone market right now, and there is no right answer to the question of ‘which is the best phone to buy.’ Every handset and every operating system is a collection of compromises, and the iPhone is compromised in a different way to an Android, Windows Phone, or BlackBerry handset.

是的，这样说一定会让很多人扬起眉毛吧（我可以想象，许多评论正在酝酿之中了）。现在市场上有许多智能手机型号可供选择，关于“哪一款是值得购买的最佳手机”这个问题，没有正确答案。每一部手持设备、每一个操作系统都是一系列妥协和折中的结果，而iPhone的妥协折中方式与安卓、Windows Phone或是黑莓手机有所不同。

The iPhone 5S puts much more focus on ease of use and simple choices than an Android handset such as the Samsung Galaxy S4. Where Android opens up a world of choice in settings, layouts, launchers, and options, the iPhone 5S provides a standard platform for everyone using the handset.

相较于三星Galaxy S4等安卓手持设备，iPhone 5S更加注重于易用性和选择的简单性。安卓将整个设置、布局、启动器和选项的世界开放给用户，而iPhone 5S则为使用该设备的所有人提供了一个标准平台。

That reduces the appeal of the the iOS platform to the vocal power-users and hacker community who want a platform to play with, but it also makes the handset much more appealing to the general public. For many, smartphones are still complicated little beasts, which is where Apple’s whole ethos for the iPhone and iOS comes in to play. The iPhone 5S is designed for everyday use and to just work, not something that needs to be tweaked and maintained.

这一特点降低了iOS平台对影响力较大的超级用户和那些想要有一个平台“玩耍”的黑客社区的吸引力，但却也使其对普罗大众的吸引力增加了。对许多人来说，智能手机依然是难以驯服的小野兽，而这正是苹果iPhone和iOS背后整个核心理念发挥作用的地方。iPhone 5S是以日常使用和“够用就好”为目的而设计的，它不是某种需要花心思设置并加以维护的东西。

The iPhone 5S is unashamedly aimed at the mainstream user, and it achieves that goal with ease.

iPhone 5S的目标受众直指主流用户，而它也轻松达到了这个目标。

The focus of the application model used (go into an app, do something, move back to the launch screen, go into another app) is uncluttered, which makes it approachable and understandable. Without a home screen for icons and widgets, or external launchers, you know where to find everything, but this trade-off for minimalism does reduce the configurability that many Android fans enjoy.

苹果所专注的应用使用模式（进入一个应用，做点什么，回到启动屏幕，再进入另一个应用）整齐划一，令人感觉亲切，也简单易懂。主屏幕没有图标或小插件或外部启动器，你也知道怎么样去找到需要的东西，但这种极简主义的负面就是减少了许多安卓粉丝喜欢的可配置性。

The iPhone switches effortlessly between 3G, 4G LTE, and Wi-fi data, keeping the bills down and the speed as high as possible. The mobile version of Safari is smooth and quick to render pages. I’ve not come across any issues in using it for my regular browsing.

iPhone能在3G、4G LTE和Wi-fi数据模式之间轻松切换，使上网费用尽可能低，同时又兼顾了上网速度。Safari浏览器的移动版本流畅无比，打开页面十分迅速。在日常网页浏览中，我从未碰到过任何问题。

Connecting to my computer remains one of the joys of the Apple system, if you are happy to buy into the iOS ecosystem. While there are various application suites and connectivity packages on other platforms, there is still no easier way to move a managed music collection from a desktop computer over to a smartphone than iTunes. There’s no need to worry about directory structures, location and copying files on your deskbound computer, or play around with DRM issues. iTunes just works, both for local and purchased media.

将其和我的电脑连接依然是苹果系统的一大乐趣之一，如果你乐于接受iOS生态系统的话。尽管其他平台上有各种不同的应用程序套件和连接包，可是仍然没有比iTunes更便于将整理好的音乐合辑从台式机复制到智能手机的方法了。你无需担忧文件夹结构、存储位置、在你的台式机上复制文件，或是处理数字版权管理问题。iTunes自己会搞定一切，无论是本地媒体还是你所购买的媒体文件。

The iPhone 5S builds on the design of the iPhone 5, adding in the new 64-bit A7 processor, and introducing the M7 motion co-processor. Both of these are very much on the bleeding edge, with only a handful of applications set up to make use of them at the moment. Going forwards though, these two chips and their architecture are going to be keystones of the platform, which makes the 5S as future proof a smartphone as you could hope to buy.

iPhone 5S基于iPhone 5打造，增加了全新的64位A7处理器，并引进了M7动态协作处理器。这两项都处于技术前沿地位，目前仅有少数几款应用程序能利用它们的优势。不过，随着时间的推移，这两款芯片及其架构将成为苹果平台的基石，这也证明了5S将会是你未来所想要购买的智能手机。

While the 5S is geared towards being a mainstream phone with appeal, it’s not perfect. Much of that is down to the software, specifically iOS 7. The reworking of Apple’s mobile operating system has been critiqued from some areas as reducing the functionality of the device, looking like a ‘My First Smartphone’ OS, and reducing the flexibility of the handset.

尽管5S的设计意图是成为拥有吸引力的主流手机，但它不是完美的。不足之处主要在于其软件，特别是iOS 7操作系统。苹果移动操作系统的改动中，有些地方被大家诟病：减少了该设备的功能性，看起来像“我第一部智能手机”的操作系统，以及降低了这款手持设备的灵活性。

I think a lot of the noise around the look of iOS 7 is more to do with the familiarity of iOS 6 rather than an appreciation of iOS 7. When things change, it’s rare for the existing user base to be anything other than vocal about a change. While I could point out the countless changes as a cosmetic level, the loss of highlighting on selectable text options, and the abundance of the white backgrounds and spindly text, this is the almost modernist look that Apple’s Jony Ive has chosen.

我认为，围绕着iOS 7 外观的种种噪音更多地在于大众对iOS 6的熟悉度，而不是与iOS 7的欣赏程度有关。当事物发生变化时，现有用户群对某种变化表示抗议是常有的事。我能够指出美观层面上发生的无数变化，但没有高亮显示的可选择文本选项，以及数量众多的白色背景和细长型文字——这近乎是苹果的乔尼?艾维（Jony Ive）所选择的现代派外观。

That’s not to say there are areas that should have been examined. The look of iOS 7, and therefore the look of the iPhone 5S is not quite consistent. Apple’s strength is keeping everything simple and easy to understand, and that requires a laser-like focus, so it’s just a shame that there are a number of areas that make me do a double take on the OS. Case in point the keyboard. For whatever reason, there are three different styles of keyboard that could show up – a modern dark style, a modern white style, and the old grey and black keyboard. There may be technical reasons why these are still available to first and third party developers, but it’s an area I would have expected Apple to be a lot more professional.

这并不是在说，有些地方苹果应该事先核查。iOS 7的外观和iPhone 5S的外观并不十分一致。苹果的强项在于让所有事物保持简单易懂，而这要求有极高的专注度，然而，这一新版操作系统中有不少让我花点时间才能搞懂的地方，不得不说是个遗憾。以键盘为例。不知出于什么原因，手机会出现三种不同风格的键盘——现代深色风格、现代白色风格，以及旧有的灰黑键盘。第一方及第三方开发人员依然可获得这些选择，这当中或许有技术原因，但我原本期望苹果能在这上面更为专业一些的。

I found the various options and locations in the Settings app to be a mixed bag as well. There’s a certain logic to grouping settings by function (such as notifications), but you also have individual apps names for other settings . Splitting these out over multiple locations means a lot of hunting for a specific option in an app, with the settings for alerts, retrieval, and updates in different locations.

我发现，“设置”里的各种选项和位置设定也有些混乱。按照功能（如通知）将设置选项分组的做法背后有一定的逻辑，但其他设置中也出现了每个应用的名称。将这些信息分散在多个不同的位置意味着在一个应用中寻找特定选项的搜索量很大——提醒、检索和更新等设置都处于各个不同的位置。