The iPhone 5: What You Should Know

Earlier today all eyes were on Apple as they unveiled their latest iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 5. The event left many people wondering is this enough to keep Apple and the iPhone as the “must have” smartphone of today. The iPhone 5 was pretty much everything we expected, almost all of the major rumors were confirmed today. Are you a current iPhone 3GS, 4, or 4S owner? This article will go over the new iPhone 5 and let you know if it is worth upgrading or even purchasing the iPhone 5 as your first iOS device.

Thinner, Lighter, Longer
One of my major changes you will see from your iPhone 4S is that the iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter and longer. I think the thing that many people will notice right away is the length of the phone. Apple has added a 8.6mm to the length of the phone over the 4S. They have also made the phone thinner, at 7.6mm it is the thinnest iPhone yet. Finally apple has made the iPhone 5 lighter too, at 112 grams it is 28 grams lighter than the iPhone 4S. The entire phone is made of glass and aluminum. It will comes in 2 color schemes: black and slate and white and silver.

1

A New Screen
The screen has be updated on the iPhone 5. The new 4-inch IPS display has a 1136 x 640 resolution (hrmmm still not HD). That is a nice upgrade over the 960 x 640 screen on the iPhone 4S. I think the larger screen was something Apple needed to do. If you look at the other major players in the smartphone space they all offer larger screens, most of them HD.

2

The A6 Processor
The iPhone 5 is powered by Apple’s new A6 processor. This is the first Apple product that will use this new processor. Now much is known about this processor at this time, but we are assuming it is using a smaller transistor size as it is 22 percent smaller than the previous Apple A5 chip. This small size should make it more energy efficient and increase battery life. Apple said this new processor will give you twice the CPU and GPU power over the 4S.

3

LTE Finally!
The iPhone finally supports LTE! If you do not know LTE is the next generation of high speed phone networks. All 3 carriers of the iPhone (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) offer LTE although some are still rolling it out in select locations. LTE is normally around 8-10 times faster than the normal 3G. LTE is normally deployed in 2 separate chips in mobile devices, one for data and one for voice, but Apple has combined them into a single chip.

The Cameras
The camera on the back of the phone is pretty much the same one that is on the iPhone 4S (8-megapixels with a 3264 x 2448 backside-illuminated sensor, five-element lens, and f/2.4 aperture), except that it is thinner to fit the new form factor of the iPhone 5. 25% thinner to be exact. Other features of the main camera on the iPhone 5 is a new low light mode, faster capture and photo capture while taking video. Also added is a panorama mode, but we are not sure if this is going to be a part of the iOS 6 package.

4

The front facing camera has been upgraded to a 1.2 megapixel camera so you can now do 720p video rather than VGA video. Also now that you have LTE you can now do FaceTime over both WiFi and LTE, not just WiFi.

Lightning Connector
The iPhone 5 features a much smaller connector that we will be seeing on all future Apple devices. They are calling it Lightning (how many Thunderbolt and Lightning jokes are we going to come up with?). The smaller connector is now all digital and should make connecting your device much easier. You are going to start to see many iPhone 5 accessories use this new connection, but if you already have money invested in accessories Apple will be selling an adapter…for a whopping $29!

5

So those are the major changes you are going to see in the new iPhone 5. It will be the same price is the iPhone 4S: $199 for 16GB. $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB of course those prices are with contract or eligible upgrade. Apple will start taking orders Friday September 14th and will start shipping on September 21st. Will you be ordering one?

About Author