Introduction
The iPhone 5. As in five million units sold over
the course of a … weekend. Can't say no to that. This is the latest installment
in the smartphone series that changed the mobile phone industry and we can
understand people couldn't wait. Now, what is it they couldn't wait for?
The Apple iPhone 5 brings the long anticipated
larger screen and more capable internals that we already know are ready to
trade blows with the most powerful chipsets out there.
There's also the new slender, slimmer body that
no photos really do justice to. If all of Apple's claims are true then the
iPhone 5 is a real engineering masterpiece - double the performance in a more
compact package without sacrificing anything in terms of battery life.
They could've done worse. A lot worse. But this
is Apple telling you to prepare to be wowed. So you have every right to play
hard-to-please.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support with 14.4 Mbps
HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
LTE support where carriers support it and CDMA support
when sold by CDMA carriers
4" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive
touchscreen of 640 x 1136px resolution
Scratch-resistant screen glass, fingerprint-resistant
coating
1.2GHz
dual-core custom-designed CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU, 1GB of RAM,
Apple A6 SoC
iOS 6 and iCloud integration
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
1080p video recording at 30fps
1.2MP secondary front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
16/32/64GB storage options
Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro
sensor
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary
microphone
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v4.0
Excellent audio output quality (though worse than 4S)
Apple Maps with free voice-guided navigation in 56
countries
Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
Supports HD Voice (needs carrier support too)
FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular
Impressively slim and light
Great battery life
Main disadvantages
Aluminum body looks cool but is easy to scratch
Proprietary connector, incompatible with previous-gen
accessories (needs adapter)
The new display is not proportionally bigger, but only
taller
Unadapted apps run letterboxed due to the unusual
resolution
nano-SIM support only
Apple Maps app not up to scratch
No USB Mass Storage mode
No FM radio
No stereo speakers
No microSD card slot
No NFC connectivity (though that may be nitpicking)
Stuck with iTunes for loading content
Mono audio recording in videos