The revised 2012 edition sports a taller (or indeed wider, depending on how you hold it) 4 inch display, faster processor, better audio, quicker internet connection options and a smarter, higher resolution camera.
The iPhone, no longer quite the ubiquitous brand it once was, might not quite excite as much as it once did when a new model arrives, but the iPhone 5 is a solid new piece of hardware, ticking pretty much every box I could think of.
Compared to last year’s 4S, the 5 is 18% thinner and 20% lighter, and boasts much richer colour saturation (as the latest iPad offers) but one of the main advantages over older models is LTE internet (where available of course) and 802.11n for when Wi-fi is available.
The new A6 chip is apparently capable of throwing things around at up to twice the speed of the one in the 4S, and the new camera (with panorama mode) will be a welcome boost from my current 4 model. The two-tone case is gorgeous too, made entirely of glass and aluminium.
The iPhone 5 will make full use of iOS6 when it’s released next week, with redesigned apps, Apple’s own point-to-point navigation and a boosted Siri. Pre-orders kick off in a day or two and I’m already sold, but let me know how you feel about this latest design.
jimmy-google
Nothing there to tempt me away from my galaxy note. I couldn’t ever go back to a screen that small with no keypad.
Making it thinner is a waste when that space could have beefed up the battery even more. Apples obsession with thinness is like Nokia had with phones being small. There is a point where phones get too small or too thin
jondavis53
Do you use your note to make phone calls? I work with a lad who has one and he looks ridiculous when he rings people, reminds me of that Dom Jolly sketch.
Ossy
Never really felt the need for a brand new phone I had a £20 Samsung phone for years until I got a free iPhone 3GS about a year ago. It is however quite slow and occasionally plays up so I think I might finally get a new phone.
indigo19
I was expecting more from Apple with the 5.
Taller screen, saw that coming as market trends prove that consumers wanted it.
Styling wise, more of the same from Apple, a very good looking bit of tech.
Still nothing bold enough to drag me away from my third Android device.
CR8ZYH0RSE
Sorry for sounding ignorant but what is ” LTE internet”?
indigo19
LTE is a 4G mobile data network.
Essentially faster mobile networks.
CR8ZYH0RSE
Thanks bud,i never knew.I only found out the other day on the news that manufacturer’s are going start rolling out 4G soon.I could be wrong but from what i gathered it’s faster than some people’s home broadband.
TheDeathAvenger
Yeah LTE stands for Long Term Evolution. It’s technically not ‘true’ 4G, like LTE Advanced is. The two are compatible though, so whether you have an LTE or LTE-A device you can use a network that utilises either tech.
mcphatty
Lots of arguing, I’m going to sidestep it entirely. I think this is a nice looking, sensible and impressive evolution in the iPhone brand. If you haven’t already, watch the Apple video and try to think about the design and engineering side of the presentation.
The bit about selecting the best fitting part for each individual phone to the nearest micron seems incredible to me, without being hippies it they’re trying to tell us about environmental considerations, quality and cost control. Fingers crossed for some ‘fair-trade’ and socially responsible manufacturing talk in the future.
The design of the phone and the new iPods are a step away from Steve Jobs’s vision of beautiful minimalism and that’s a really sad thing. I loved his design philosophy, but minimalism is going out of fashion anyway so I suppose the new design is just a result of new brains in charge trying to strike out with a new image.
My favourite aspect is that they’re trying to make the thing fast and smooth. No one in Avatar or Star Trek has to wait for anything to load, I think Apple have chosen to slow their pace of increasing features and instead give the old features some polish and stacks more power behind them, itching a little bit closer to instant processing.
I’d love one, but I don’t have the spare cash, my 3GS is still doing wonderfully and I think I’ll hang onto it for another year or so :)
Sympozium
Should be good upgrade from the ipod touch 4thgen, hopefully a device that doesn’t run out of memory a lot thus slowing the system down. Not really sure about the new ipod though even if it probably be more stable but for how long?
Tuffcub
Thank you Apple for finally curing my Sheeple husband.
“They stretched it a bit.. not impressed.. wont be upgrading”
Huzzah! The path of recovery begins today!
jeccross
I have a 3GS and was waiting for this to upgrade. Now I’m not so sure and migh go for a Galaxy note 2 (although it’s a bit ridiculously huge).
Just feels like Apple have lost their way post jobs now, the competition are always going to beat them on power (think nintendo v everyone else), but Apple won on innovation, now it seems they’re short on ideas.
I’m pretty underwhelmed, and this is now the second launch that’s not felt like a big update. If this is how things are going to continue I may make the switch to android now and not spend any more on iapps. It’s always bugged me how locked down the iphone is, if they’re not going to be ahead of the curve in innovation then I might as well switch and pay £100-£200 less for the competition.
KeRaSh
Not impressed by the reveal but I kind of expected that much. I chuckled when I read the part about panorama pictures…
What I did like about the lineup refresh was the new IPod nanos. I really loved my 1st gen nano and would probably buy the new one but owning a smartphone with 32gb of storage makes a dedicated mp3 player pretty obsolete. I could see it being useful for joggers but I dont jog…
lotrek
I’ll be sticking with my Lumia phones from now on I’ve fallen in love with the live titles they really do bring your phone to life, the Lumia 920 sounds and looks much better then the Iphone 5 on paper but won’t sell nowhere near as many.