The new iPhone 5 is here. It's thinner and faster than ever, with a new form factor that uses a gorgeous panoramic screen with more resolutions and less consumption. It also surfs the web much faster, thanks to its new LTE capabilities. And, just as we knew, it has a new smaller dock connector called
Lightning.
Overall, it seems they have incrementally improved every single aspect of the iPhone. It's not a revolutionary phone, but it is a very nice release.
Physical specifications
The iPhone 5 looks exactly as the leaked images: an unibody aluminum body with a glass screen. "It's thinner than the previous generation: 18 percent thinner, which puts it at 0.29 inches (7.6 millimeter). They are claiming this is the world's thinnest smartphone. It's actually the world's thinnest LTE smartphone.
It's also 20 percent lighter than the current iPhone, just 3.95 ounces (112 grams). It comes in black and white models.
Their new manufacturing method seems quite extraordinary. According to Jon Ive, they "have never built a product with this extraordinary level of fit and finish." They claim that the "variances from product to product is now measured in microns."
The screen
Apple claims that the new 16:9 4-inch panoramic screen has 44 percent more saturation than the iPhone, which makes the display full sRGB. The display has its touchscreen sensor built-in.
How does it work? Instead of having two layers, the pixels of the display and the touch sensors, Apple affirms that here "the pixels do double duty—acting as touch-sensing electrodes while displaying the image at the same time." Apple says that no other phone in the market has this, which Apple says is crucial to the iPhone 5's thinness, lower weight and—more importantly—its image quality. Since there's nothing between the glass and the pixels, the say the image is much clearer than before.
Connectivity
As expected, it uses LTE connectivity, so it will be much faster that the current iPhone 4S. It supports all the standards needed for all carriers: HSPA+, DC-HSDPA and LTE. Apple says that their single-chip solution works everywhere.
The iPhone 5 also has dual-channel 5GHz Wi-Fi—aka 802.11N. That means a 150Mbps maximum connectivity speed.
Brains
It also has a new CPU, the A6—which Apple claims is 2 times faster than the current iPhone 4S both in CPU and graphics. In real life, they claim it loads web pages 2.1 times as fast.
Battery life
If true, this is impressive: 8 hours of 3G talk time, 8 hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 30 hours of video and 225 hours of standby.
Camera features
They have also updated the camera. On paper, it's better than the one in iPhone 4S, with a five-element lens and a 8 megapixel sensor (3264 x 2448 pixel), backside illumination, a new hybrid infrared filter, and a nice f/2.4 aperture.
It has a new dynamic low light mode too (I wonder how it compares to Nokia's IOS) and a sapphire crystal. Knowing how scratched the glass on my iPhone is—making the photos not as crisp as when it was new—that's good news. Shapphire crystal is the hardest thing you can get this side of a diamond.
The new image processing chip has spatial noise reduction, with a system to analyze which parts of the image needs to be noise reduced and which should be left alone. As a result of all this, they claim low light photography is now much better than before.
Here's an image taken with the new iPhone, which Apple claims it's completely unretouched:
The image capture is also faster: 40 percent, they say. The iPhone 4S camera is now quite fast, so it will be interesting to see how this feels. Certainly, there's not such a thing as fast enough when it comes to taking photos.
Panorama mode
They have also added a new capture mode called panorama. It doesn't require you to stitch photos one by one: just pan the phone and it will automatically capture a panorama for you. Even if you can't hold it steady, iPhone 5 is smart, using its gyroscope to correct for any variation in motion and make a perfect panorama. It also gets rid of any moving objects, they say.
The final result covers 240 degrees.
Video face detection
Like the previous iPhone, this one has 1080p FullHD capture. They claim they have improved the image stabilization in this version, added face detection (so it will be able to tag people automatically in videos) and, this is good, it will allow you to take full still photos while recording video.
Front FaceTime camera
They have also make the 720p front camera better. It also has Face detection and—at last—the operating system will enable FaceTime over cellular.
Audio
Apple has also upgraded all the audio: the microphones, the built-in speakers and the earbuds, now called EarPods.
It now has three microphones—on the front, back and bottom. These will improve the quality of your voice calls—whoever calls anymore—and sound recordings. More importantly, they have include noise canceling without the need for external specialized headphones. Apple says that their technology cancels the noise from the place in which you are in, so you hear "the voice on the other end" more clearly.
The speakers have much better quality now, going from three to five magnet transducers, which will result in a clearer, richer sound. Any improvement over the cricket boxes of previous versions is welcome.
They have also improved the quality of voice calls. According to Phil Schiller, the new iPhone 5 can use something called wideband audio. If supported by the carrier, the phone will use more of the spectrum bandwidth to send much better and high-fidelity version of your voice over the network.
New Dock connector: Lightning
As predicted, the dock connector has changed. It's now much smaller. Apple calls it Lightning (a name play of their other connector technology: Thunderbolt). It's all digital and has 8 connectors. It also has an adaptive interface, which I guess means that the connector will send different signals according to the kind of features you need in your connection.
They best thing about the new connector, however, is that it is reversible. This may seem stupid, but being able to connect your cable no matter of the orientation will protect humanity against the 529th Article of Murphy's Law: "Thou will always try to connect your iPhone cable on the wrong side."
Does that mean that you would have to trash your old dock accessory? No, they are giving us an adapter that will turn the old connector into the new Lightning. Phil Schiller says that they are working with peripheral manufacturers to include Lightning in their next batch of products, which will arrive this Holiday Season.
Price and availability
They are keeping exactly the same prices as the previous generation. The iPhone 5 16GB is $199, the 32GB is $299 and the 64GB is $399, all with a two-year contract.
In the United States, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore you will be able to pre-order it this Friday and get it the next, September 21 The other countries will have it on September 28.
Oh, and if that's still too expensive for you: the iPhone 4S is now $99 with a two-year contract. The iPhone 4 will be free with the same contract.
New iPod Nanos Look Like Gorgeous Tiny iPhones
Brand new iPod Nanos also joined Apple's
iPhone 5 party at the Moscone Center today. The totally redesigned junior MP3 players have a larger display, and come in seven beautiful candy-hued colors.
The new iPods also have Bluetooth for the first time as well as the brand new lightning connector and the longest battery life the device has ever had. The new Nano is $150 for 16GB and will be available in October. Anticipate this on your kid's Christmas list.
There’s (Finally!) a New Ultra-Skinny iPod Touch
Remember iPods? The things that switched Apple from a computer company to the electronics company, the most valuable in company in company history? There hasn't been a new one in two years. Today, it's back, upgraded, widescreen-ed, and super skinny.
Unlike previous models, the new iPod Touch looks more like the new iPod Nano than the new iPhone—but that's awesome, as it weighs in at 88 grams and is only 6.1 mm thick.
The new Touch will, however, pack the iPhone 4S' supefast A5 processor for mobile gaming prowess, an upgraded rear-facing 5 MP camera, the new tiny Lightning connector, Siri, and, more importantly, the iPhone 5's 4-inch widescreen retina display. This thing will be lovely for pocketable movies. These new guts will still get you 40 hours of music playback, and eight hours of video. You'll even be able to use it to power your home theater, with built-in 1080p mirroring to your TV via AirPlay.
It'll also come in five colors, and, for some reasons, sports a little knob for a wrist strap if you feel like being laughed at as you walk down the street. You'll be able to dangle it from your hand like the little fop you are when it ships this October, starting at $300 for a 32 GB version, which is too expensive. But let's be clear though: this is easily one of the best gadgets Apple's ever dropped. Amazingly thin, gorgeous screen, iOS 6's software sophistication, a decent camera, fantastic games,
The Internet, all able to slide into your skinny jeans. A fantastic pocket computer. This iPod is just as impressive as the iPhone today was dedicated to.
iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S: what's changed?
By Daniel Cooper 
posted Sep 12th 2012 2:01PM
Its name is enough to send CEOs into cold sweats, which is why the rest of the mobile world spent
last week announcing their hardware back-to-back to steal a march on this handset. Now, after all of the
rumor,
speculation and
leaks, Apple's
sixth iPhone has finally been unveiled in San Francisco. We've got around 45 minutes before the world begins idly speculating about next year's iteration, so let's spend what little time we have delving into what's changed between now and the last time
we were here.
Check out our liveblog of Apple's event to get the latest news as it happens!
Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 2012 event hub!
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| Price (on contract) | $199 16GB, $299 32GB, $399 64GB | $199 16GB, $299 32GB, $399 64GB |
| Processor | Apple A6 | Dual-core Apple A5 |
| Memory | 1GB (tbc) | 1GB (tbc) |
| Display | 4-inch IPS 1,136 x 640 | 3.5-inch IPS 960 x 640 |
| Pixel Density | 326 ppi | 326 ppi |
| Storage | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB |
| Primary camera |
8 megapixel AF with flash and f/2.4 aperture
|
8 megapixel AF with flash and f/2.4 aperture
|
| Secondary camera | 1.2 megapixel at 30fps | VGA at 30fps |
| Video recording | 1080p at 30fps | 1080p at 30fps |
| Cellular/ |
GSM Model A1428: GSM / LTE
CDMA Model A1429: CDMA / LTE
GSM Model A1429: GSM / LTE
| Hybrid GSM / CDMA "World Phone" |
| WiFi | Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n | 802.11 b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Orientation | Accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope | Accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope |
| Navigation | A-GPS, GLONASS | A-GPS, GLONASS |
| FaceTime | WiFi and Cellular | WiFi-only (iOS 5) |
| SIM standard | nanoSIM | microSIM |
| Battery life | Up to 8 hours talk time on 3G
Up to 8 hours data on 3G
Up to 8 hours data on LTE
Up to 10 hours data on WiFi
Up to 40 hours audio
Up to 10 hours video
Up to 225 hours on standby | Up to 8 hours talk time on
3G
Up to 14 hours talk time on 2G
Up to 6 hours data on 3G
Up to 9 hours data on WiFi
Up to 40 hours audio
Up to 10 hours video
Up to 200 hours on standby |
| Weight | 112 grams / 3.9 oz | 140 grams / 4.9 oz |
| Dimensions | 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm | 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm |
| Colors | Black and Slate / White and Silver | Black / White |
| Details accurate as of launch. |
