Last week Apple finally lifted the curtain and made the iPhone 5 official! During their media event held in San Francisco they announced the iPhone 5 as well as a couple of other updated products. During this post we’re going to take a look through everything there is to know about the iPhone 5.
Taller, Slimmer, Smaller Dock
Size is something that we expect to improve with each new iPhone we see, and this one is no exception. This year Apple have made the device taller, and slimmer; it’s only slightly taller, making a bit of extra space on the screen – enough space for an extra row of apps, and it’s 18% slimmer than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S – so it’s a nice shape.
The dock has also been vastly improved, it’s been reduced in size by 80% and is now all digital and can be plugged in either way up. This new 8-pin connector is replacing the 30-pin connector across all Apple products that use it.
New Improved Screen
The new screen is taller than the screen on the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 comes with a 4-inch 16:9 screen which delivers 44% more colour saturation than the iPhone 4S does. This new screen runs on a 1136 x 640 resolution, making more space on the screen for your apps to run, and even enough space to house an extra row of apps on your home screen.
4G LTE Networking
There’s not much to say about this really, you’ve probably heard all of the talk going on globally at the moment anyway regarding LTE and 4G capabilities – it’s fast, really, really fast, and it’s available on the iPhone 5!
Not all network service providers have 4G capabilities at the moment, but Apple say they are working with a number of providers globally to get 4G mainstream as quickly as possible. For now it looks like there are at least one network in each country that will have 4G capabilities – that’s going to be a big selling point for them over their competitors who can’t provide 4G to iPhone 5 users.
Processing Power & Battery
The iPhone 5 brings us the new A6 processor; double the speed of the A5 and twice the graphics power, and somehow 22% smaller than the A5 chip too! This should make for an impressive and somewhat noticeable difference in the running speed and smoothness of the iOS.
The battery has been improved on too, being able to provide 8 hours of 3G talk time and 4G LTE browsing or 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, or even an impressive 225 hours on standby!
iSight Camera
There are not as many changes to the camera as you would expect, but still worth a mention. The camera is still 8MP, and takes pictures at a resolution of 3264 x 2448. It can shoot video in 1080p full HD. There is a new panorama feature which looks very cool, and the iPhone 5’s camera can snap shots 40% faster than the iPhone 4S could.
The front facing FaceTime camera has been improved on too, it’s now capable of filming 720p HD videos which is a great step-up from the shockingly low quality VGA camera we had there before.
That’s not all. The new iPhone is coming with iOS 6 which is a huge update in itself which will bring us all kinds of updates, new features and even a couple of all new Apps to play with. The one app which I am looking forward to the most is the new Maps App – featuring live turn-by-turn GPS navigation, it looks awesome! Time to through away your TomTom’s and replace it with your iPhone!
When can you get it?
The iPhone 5 is available to pre-order now and will start shipping on September 21st.
The iOS 6 update will be available to download on the iPhone 4S, 4, 3Gs, iPad 3, iPad 2 and 4th Gen iPod Touch from September 19th.
What will it cost?
The iPhone 5 comes in three different versions, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB priced at $199, $299 and $399 respectively when purchased on a two year contract. So it’s the typical high price stuff we have come to expect from Apple.
So, there’s not long to go now until we can go and buy the new iPhone and have a play on it ourselves! What are you most looking forward to about the new device? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!