Finally it’s official! After months of speculation, Apple has finally unveiled the latest iPhone – the iPhone 5. The main noticeable thing is the bigger screen – the new iPhone boasts of a 4 inch screen. iPhone 5 is made entirely of glass and aluminum. According to Apple, it is the world’s thinnest smartphone. It is 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S and 20% lighter too. The 4 inch screen on the iPhone 5 has a 1136 x 640 screen resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio and a 326 PPI Retina display. The display is not just good on paper, it actually looks better and has 44% more colour saturation and better shades and reflections. Since the new iPhone has a bigger and longer display, it has 5 rows of icons instead of 4. Apple has updated all their apps for the new display. A 3rd party app that has not been updated, will be displayed with borders on each side, thus retaining it’s graphics.
Talking about the processor, the iPhone 5 will come with an Apple A6 chip which will be 2 times faster than the A5 chip. That means 2X faster CPU and 2X faster graphics. As regards to the wireless connectivity, there’s LTE on board now. Apple has also added HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA. There is now a single chip for voice and data.
The iPhone 5 has an 8 megapixel camera with the ability to capture at 3264X2448. There is a dynamic low light mode, precision lens alignment and a new Sapphire crystal lens.The camera captures photographs 40% faster! Apple has also added a Panorama mode which lets you create seamless transitions between photos. There’s 1080p video capture now, plus the FaceTime camera is HD as well (720p).
The audio system has also been enhanced. Now there are 3 microphones – bottom, front, and back. The speaker design has also been improved and is now 20% smaller. Noise cancellation is also pretty effective.
The 30 pin connector that’s been there for such a long time has finally been replaced with a new connector, called Lightning. It has an all- digital, 8 signal design. What makes it better is that it’s reversible and easier to use and is 80% smaller. Worried about all your accessories going waste? Don’t worry as Apple has an adapter for you that’ll let you connect all your old accessories to the Lighning port.
With all these improvements, Apple claims that the battery life is even better than the iPhone 4S. At the software end, iPhone 5 will obviously come with iOS 6. One of the main attractions is the new map service. It has turn by turn navigation, there’s a cinematic camera angle to fly you around. There’s a very impressive 3D mode as well. Another enhancement in iOS 6 is that you can tap in the notification center to tweet or post to FaceBook. Safari will come with a full screen mode in iOS 6. Getting to Siri, it now possess knowledge about movies too. So you can ask Siri to recommend you a movie. You can find restaurants with the help of Siri and even post to your FaceBook wall.
The iPhone 5 will come in both black and white. Incredibly, the price for the iPhone 5 is the same as that for the iPhone 4S – $199 $299, $399 (on contract). Preorders start September 14th and shipment starts September 21st. Ships to more contries on the 28th. iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, new iPad, and iPad 2 owners will be able to upgrade to iOS 6 on September 19th.
Apple has proved it yet again – the iPhone 5 is a marvellous piece of engineering. Apple has beefed up the specs and has still somehow managed to reduce the thickness and has made it lighter. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to why they say that – “If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have an iPhone”.
