iPhone 5

AsSiMiLaTeD

OK first off, all you Apple haters just move on along, nothing to see here (I'm half kidding of course, you can obviously post what you want but would be great if this could NOT turn into another Apple vs whatever thread).

I picked up a white 32GB model this morning and will post my thoughts on it later when I have some more time on my hands and time to test it more, but I will post a couple quick thoughts.

- This phone is dead sexy (which is total personal opinion and not really important) and feels great in the hand (which is still personal opinion and IS very important, at least to me)
- The screen is gorgeous
- The phone is quick
- LTE is super fast on AT&T
- The quality of the included has improved from absolutely abysmal to poor
- I do not like the placement of the headphone jack on the bottom of the phone vs the top where its always been

That's it for now, more thoughts later.

jon s

On Verizon and Sprint, the iPhone 5 does not allow data and voice simultaneously... which kinda sucks.
On AT&T, Facetime over LTE is an extra charge, which kinda sucks.

nspindel

Facetime over LTE is not an extra charge on AT&T if you're on shared data.

evhudsons

How does it compare to the older version of iphone, such as 4 or 4s?

AsSiMiLaTeD

It's basically everything that people have been talking about: larger screen, thinner, lighter, faster, and with faster connectivity.

There's nothing fundamentally different about this phone, it's just 'better'

zingo

I have an iPhone 4 and like it, but I don't think I'll get the 5; I just don't see a reason too as I don't see it as a big change. I now have iOS6 so that won't be different. Screen detail will be a little better and one row of icons taller, but that doesn't move me. I'm on Verizon, so I won't be able to talk and use data, and I can see a good reason to switch to the lightening connector when EVERY other phone on the market, including the European iPhone 5 use the micro USB.

If/when I move phones, I'll probably go with something like the Galaxy Note II because it's completely different.

Fireman32

I do want to get the 5 but I am stuck in my contract until next year. So I guess I will wait for the 6 to come out. I look forward to your full review of the 5. I am quite happy with my 4s and with iOS6 on it I like it even better.

AsSiMiLaTeD

So I've spent the day with the new iPhone and will share some thoughts:

Setup
The first thing I want to comment on is the process for setting up the phone to begin with. I turn on and activate the phone, and the first screen I'm presented with asks me if I want to set this thing up as a new phone or restore a backup from iCloud. Well I have the 4S doing full backups to iCloud, so decided to just do a restore of that backup vs configuring this phone and installing all apps from scratch. It doesn't get any easier than this, tap a button and the phone restores from that back with all your settings and apps. It keeps EVERYTHING (contacts, pictures, emails, voicemails, documents, settings, it even remembers where all my apps were on the screens which isn't all that helpful now since I have 5 rows but you get the idea). I was expecting Apple's servers to be crashing and burning today given the release, and they may very well be, but I had no issues or hiccups. I assume other guys like Samsung and HTC now also have something similar, the only thing I can say is that it works beautifully on the iOS devices.

Design and Build
We'll start with the size, it's perfect for me. The screen is a little longer but not wider so it still fits in my hand as well as the 4 and 4S before it. It's a very nice looking phone, but more importantly it FEELS great in my hands. The size, weight and balance are perfect to me, and the materials have a very 'premium' feel to them. You can tell that alot of work into the design and build of this phone, they obviously care just as much about how it looks as they do about performance. That being said, it's not going to stand up to drops very well because of the glass. If you're prone to dropping your phone then you'll need a good case for , and IMO that takes away from the feel.

Display
Simply put, this display is gorgeous. It's obviously not the biggest display available, but I'd argue that right now it's the best display on a smartphone. It's very sharp, blacks are black and colors are very accurate. There's not really much else I can say about it, you just have to see it. I want to say it's slightly better than the 4S, but they're very close except for the size.

UI
There are no changes here other than another row of icons and the face that not every app has been updated for the bigger screen yet so some things will run in letterbox mode.

Camera
The camera is also very similar to the 4S. I have not played with the new low light stuff yet and that is supposedly better, but have no direct knowledge of that. Panorama is very cool. There have been apps that have done that for a while, the functionality built into the camera works better and produces better results than any of those that I've used. There is no burst mode like on the Samsung or HTC though, would have liked to see them include that. IMO the iPhone takes better pictures than the other phones I tested, but some of that comes down to color preference, like what always comes up in the Canon vs Nikon debates.

Call quality and data speeds
Call quality is actually a little better than on previous iphones, especially when I'm outside. Data speeds are the same as on the HTC over LTE, just outstanding!

Performance
You can find benchmarks and stuff online, I have not looked into those yet. What I can tell you is that it is FAST. It blows away the 4, and is faster than the 4S although the difference isn't as significant, I can tell you that Geekbench score on my 4S is 650 and on the 5 is 1614, for whatever that's worth.

Features
This is where I'd say the iPhone falls short of some of the competition. Remember all that cool stuff that I mentioned on the Samsung? Yeah the iPhone doesn't have any of that. The 'features' are what lured me over to Android in the first place a couple years ago, and they're still ahead of Apple in that department. If you want all the latest features like all that cool **** Samsung has, then the iPhone is not for you. What ultimately lured me BACK to iPhone though is the stability of the platform. It doesn't do everything, but what it does do it does very well IMO.

Maps
I really like the look of the new maps app, but there are complaints about it online. I did some testing around here and it's working fine, but I will not make a final determination as I just haven't used it enough. I've read that it's incomplete and has some issues. Apple's new to the maps game, hopefully they'll get it all figured out.

The Connector
OK, so I think people are overreacting just a bit on this. Does it suck that people are going to have to buy an adapter? Yes it does. But they've been using the same adapter for 5 years on the iPhone and 10 on the iPod, find me another company who's used the same adapter on all their products for that length of time. The fact is, things change, ESPECIALLY in the realm of technology. The new adapter is much smaller and when you see the iPhone 5 you'll understand why they had to make it that way. People want lighter and thinner, well you're going to have to give up some of that legacy technology to get that. I 'get' the argument that Apple should use the Micro USB like everyone else, the only issue with that is that I don't believe that connection has the capability to control peripheral devices like the Apple connector does. Samsung sells more smartphones than Apple, why aren't there as many accessories and peripheral devices for their phones?

Overall I really love the phone. I'm not going to make the claim that's it's absolutely better than the other options out there like alot of reviewers do, but it's the best smartphone I've ever used, to me.

PerfectCreature

I have the iPhone 4. I am on the edge of upgrading. I personally like the iPhones because of the lack of failure they have. I have had zero problems since I switched to iPhone, whereas I had tons of them with my Droid.
The biggest factor is the whole LTE, I am worried on data. How much data plan does it suck up using facebook and email and what not? With my 3G, I use it everyday, and I go about 1.5GB-2GB per months.

Sherardp

Is this added screen size worth the upgrade over the Iphone 4? I'm going to order today if the pricing is right.

polkatese

so, how big or small the microSIM? I am still on 4 and might be upgrading once the line shorten.

mantis

Congrads on the new phone. I plan on getting one soon. I gotta get my wife one first as she is still rocking a Iphone 4.

Upstatemax

I played around with a coworkers iphone 5 today and it was fast and felt great in the hand. I have a 4s and I have no doubt that I'll upgrade in a few months.

polkatese

Lasareath wrote: »

What do you mean how big it is?, It's smaller than the sim of the 4

That's what I meant - how big compared to 4..

AsSiMiLaTeD

PerfectCreature wrote: »

I have the iPhone 4. I am on the edge of upgrading. I personally like the iPhones because of the lack of failure they have. I have had zero problems since I switched to iPhone, whereas I had tons of them with my Droid.
The biggest factor is the whole LTE, I am worried on data. How much data plan does it suck up using facebook and email and what not? With my 3G, I use it everyday, and I go about 1.5GB-2GB per months.

As far as I understand, you don't use any MORE data on LTE, you just get the data that you do faster. Now that may turn into you using more data if you can do more, but that's not the technology so much as the user.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Lasareath wrote: »

The AT&T one is an iPhone 4 and the main button is hardly usable, it has no more warranty and so I've been just dealing with it. The Verizon one is a 4S. Both are 32GB. the New iPhone is 64GB and I bought the Apple Care.

My wife's 4 had the exact same issue, also out of warranty, and the Apple store guys fixed it for free, they basically just swapped in a new button which was probably a 10 cent part and took them all of half an hour. I'm not saying you'll have the same luck, but it's at least an indication that it CAN"T be too hard to replace.

Syndil

jon s wrote: »

On Verizon and Sprint, the iPhone 5 does not allow data and voice simultaneously... which kinda sucks.
On AT&T, Facetime over LTE is an extra charge, which kinda sucks.

To be fair, that's not just an iPhone thing, but a limitation of the CDMA technology behind VZW's and Sprint's networks. When everything moves to LTE it will no longer be an issue, however long that takes.

nspindel

Same here Sal. I wish I hadn't preordered. By yesterday afternoon the lines were gone at the apple store and they had plenty of phones.

badchad

Wow, I've called a few places around the DC area and none are to be found. I wonder if units/stock are arriving on a daily basis, or if they're coming on a weekly shipment or something.

nspindel

Can't speak for the at&t or verizon shops, but I know apple stores are getting stocked daily. My local apple store received multiple shipments yesterday.

badchad

Thats good to know. Maybe I'll undergo some urban camping today and try and track one down this afternoon...

AsSiMiLaTeD

Here are a few quick pics a snapped of the iPhone 5 while I was doing photos of the 4S for sale, the last pic is a good one for screen size comparison.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61358752@N03/sets/72157631595689298/

AsSiMiLaTeD

The iPhone 5 does very well with the drop tests, much better than previous models. In fact it even does better than the galaxy s3 which is surprising since the lighter plastic housings typically hold up better to drops.

These tests are very impressive for the iPhone...

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/21/iphone-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-s3-drop-tests-show-very-durable-device-and-screen/

Keep in mind that first test is conducted by an android website

AsSiMiLaTeD

Here's a speed comparison between the iPhone and galaxy S3, and basically mirrors what I'm finding with the HTC One X

http://youtu.be/MqK8vBcU7Sk

Disc Jockey

Wrong thread

cstmar01

I had the 3GS, went to a Samsung GS2 Skyrocket and then back to a 4S.

I will be probably getting the 5 soon, as I love the size and the feel of the phone.

I can say that after I went to an android I hated it. The thing crash all the time. I would be on the web for maybe about 5 mins and it would force close. I didn't have the memory near full or anything that should cause it.

Oh and my battery indicator wouldn't show any usage unless I turned the phone off and then back on, so it would die all the time without me knowing.

I can say the apple just works. Also the Samsung didn't like to work with my MacBook at all. Half the time it wouldn't connect and just problems. Yes Android is more customized to the user, however apple just works and is easy to use with other apple devices.

Lot of people give me crap, but I really don't care. Apple works and to me is worth it, so when I'm needing to make sure I get to a meeting on time, or get an important email or call its there working, not worrying if my battery is going to die next minute or not.

BlueFox

It seems the plans for the iPhone require data, so what are your monthly bill for these phones? Around $100? When I can get unlimited voice and data for $30 a month I might consider getting one.

Syndil

BlueFox wrote: »

It seems the plans for the iPhone require data, so what are your monthly bill for these phones? Around $100? When I can get unlimited voice and data for $30 a month I might consider getting one.

If that's really what you want then you have two options: A) Work for a major company that sells cellular service and get on a 3rd-party reseller plan, or Work for the cellphone company itself.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Syndil wrote: »

If that's really what you want then you have two options: A) Work for a major company that sells cellular service and get on a 3rd-party reseller plan, or Work for the cellphone company itself.

Agreed

I'm outraged at the price of electricity, so until they come out with an unlimited plan I'm just gonna live in a cave somewhere.

Ok obviously that's absurd and clearly you're drawing a much more reasonable line in the sand, I'm just sayin'...

badchad

So I bit the bullet and snagged a black, 32GB from Best buy mobile yesterday.

I knew I'd be easy to impress considering my poor experience with the Nexus S, but nonetheless, I'm still delightfully surprised. The handset is smooth and does everything I need it to.

I'm still getting the hand of the interface and itunes world though. I wish I could just "drag n drop" all my old crap onto the iphone. Hopefully the transition will be pretty smooth though...

BlueFox

Lasareath wrote: »

I think you'll be long dead when the plans costs $30 for voice & data so I guess you're stuck with that flip phone.

Yes, you are probably right, although these plans by the various carriers certainly have the smell of price fixing and gouging. It is interesting how we can have so many plans, and so little competition. Fortunately, unlike electricity which is both a necessity and provided by a monopoly, phones are a not quite a necessity and provided by various vendors. At some point capitalism will kick in, and the price plummet to a more reasonable level.