A couple of days ago on September 12th, Apple held their iPhone 5 Media Event – during which they finally made the iPhone 5 Official by revealing it in all its glory to the public.
Unfortunately, nothing we saw at the event came as a surprise – thanks to all the leaked photographs, parts and information, we had already seen exactly what the iPhone 5 looked like, and already knew about the majority of the new features!
Still, it doesn’t make the device any less exciting, but it would have been nice for there to have been at least one big surprise left for Apple to unveil with the device.
During this post we’re going to go over all the details Apple confirmed about the iPhone 5, including its release date and pricing options. So let’s get going:
Changes to Design
The iPhone 5 brought us more changes to the design than we have seen in any iPhone update before. For starters, the iPhone 5 is 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S, it’s the same width but slightly taller than the 4S, making it a nice shape – Apple say it still feels the same in your hand (due to being the same width) but you have the extra space on the screen thanks to the extra height. At 112g its 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S too.
The dock has also been upgraded, the old 30-pin dock connector has been replaced with an all new digital 8-pin connector, and it’s smaller and quicker than the old connector.
Thanks to the reduced size on the dock connector there is now space on the bottom of the device for the headphone jack, so that has been relocated from the top of the device to the bottom.
Changes to Hardware
The iPhone 4S had the A5 processor, and the iPhone 5 has the A6. It’s smaller than its predecessor, and packs twice the processing and graphics power as the A5 chip. That means we should be able to notice a difference in speed compared to the iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 5 is also bringing us a new improved battery, giving 8 hours of 4G LTE talk time and up to 225 hours on standby.
Changes to Screen
The iPhone 5 is the first iPhone to come with a bigger screen size, it’s been increased to 4-Inches, it’s 16:9 and runs a resolution of 1136 x 640.
It’s still the same retina technology that we saw with the iPhone 4S. The new screen being used supposedly requires less energy to run – helping to save battery life, and the screen boasts up to 44-percent more colour saturation and improved touch sensors.
Changes to Camera
The camera has been upgraded to an 8MP sensor, five element lens and a f/2.4 aperture – we haven’t seen any sample photographs taken on the iPhone 5 yet, but they should be of better quality than the iPhone 4S (which was great quality anyway).
The camera can record 1080p video, and the front facing video camera has been upgraded from a VGA camera to a 720p capable camera.
4G LTE Networking
Super-fast 4G LTE networking is coming with the iPhone 5. Apple is working hard with service providers around the globe to ensure that 4G is available to everyone.
It will not be available on all network providers though, so it’s a great selling point for those who do have 4G availability.
Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 5 will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB sizes priced at $199, $299 and $399 when bought on a two year contract.
Pre-orders start on the 14th September, and then they will start shipping the iPhone 5 on 21st September.
So, there are just a few days left now until you can go out and buy an iPhone 5 for yourself – will you be buying one? What do you think of the iPhone 5? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Apple iPhone 5 – Full phone specifications
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – GSM A1428 |
|---|---|---|
| CDMA 800 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 – CDMA A1429 | ||
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 – GSM A1428 | |
| CDMA2000 1xEV-DO – CDMA A1429 | ||
| 4G Network | LTE 700 MHz Class 17 / 1700 / 2100 – GSM A1428 or LTE 850 / 1800 / 2100 – GSM A1429 | |
| LTE 700 / 850 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 – CDMA A1429 | ||
| Announced | 2012, September | |
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, September 21st |
| Body | Dimensions | 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 112 g |
| Display | Type | LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 640 x 1136 pixels, 4.0 inches (~326 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass, oleophobic coating |
| Sound | Alert types | Vibration, propriety ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| Memory | Card slot | No |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 16/32/64 GB storage, 1 GB RAM |
| Data | GPRS | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | Yes | |
| Speed | DC-HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, LTE, 100 Mbps; Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Plus Cellular | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v4.0 with A2DP | |
| USB | Yes, v2.0 |
| Camera | Primary | 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR | |
| Video | Yes, 1080p@30fps, LED video light, video stabilization, geo-tagging | |
| Secondary | Yes, 1.2 MP, 720p@30fps, video calling over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G |
| Features | OS | iOS 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Apple A6 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass | |
| Messaging | iMessage, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email | |
| Browser | HTML (Safari) | |
| Radio | No | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS | |
| Java | No | |
| Colors | Black/Slate, White/Silver | |
| - nano-SIM card support only - Active noise cancellation with dedicated dual mics - Siri natural language commands and dictation - iCloud cloud service - Twitter and Facebook integration - TV-out - Maps - iBooks PDF reader - Audio/video player and editor - Image editor - Voice memo/command/dial |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Po | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 225 h (2G) / Up to 225 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 8 h (2G) / Up to 8 h (3G) | |
| Music play | Up to 40 h |
Image Credits [Apple.com] | Specs [GSMArena]
