iPhone 5: Hands on preview!
The iPhone 5 has landed. apple’s brand new, bigger and faster smartphone was unveiled last night, and though it’s not out until a week tomorrow, we got a chance to get hands on with it already. Ready on for the video, photos and impressions.
Make no bones about it, the iPhone 5 is beautiful. It’s as incredibly well engineered as its predecessors, but the larger screen is a revelation.
Sure, there are plenty of smartphones with much bigger screens: but rolling through Safari on it still felt like a breath of fresh air. Apple’s mobile browser is one of the best there is: to see it let loose from the confines of a small 3.5-inch screen is fantastic. The display is as bright and sharp as ever: we love that sticker-ish effect as though it’s almost painted on top of the device.
Check out our video preview of the iPhone 5 now
With both black and white models, the back plate of the iPhone 5 has changed: it’s now aluminium rather than glass with thumb prints. It’s not one complete carved block like a MacBook, but you can barely see or feel the joints, and the whole affair is shockingly light.
What it isn’t however, is perhaps the huge revamp Apple made it out to be. Don’t get us wrong: it’s incredible that Apple made the iPhone 5 thinner and still managed to squeeze in a bigger battery and a 4G connection. But if you didn’t like the glass and metal vibe of the iPhone 4 and 4S, the bigger display and thinner frame here aren’t likely to change your mind.
We got a chance to have a whizz through iOS 6 on the iPhone 5, and so far we like what we see. There aren’t any surprises we didn’t know about (other than an extra row of icons for your apps on each homescreen) but it’s blazingly quick. We’re particularly intrigued about Passbook, Apple’s new app for collecting all your e-tickets in one place – fingers crossed this can take paperless ticketing mainstream.
We were also demoed the new first party Maps app: the 3D effects are incredible, and it’s great fun swooping down and looking at the Houses of Parliament from every angle. Whether the maps will have enough detail to reliably get us from A to Z as they did when the iPhone was powered by Google Maps remains to be seen however.
All in all, the iPhone 5 is shaping up to be the killer upgrade we were hoping for, even if it won’t convert too many Android and Windows Phone owners. But do you agree? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
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User comments (10)
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JeremyBenn13 September 2012
I'm starting to get the feel of this now and have waitied for the launch before upgrading to anything else from my 4 does anything really compete from the other players
Report as inappropriateDrewster13 September 2012
I think the 5 is a great step up but for me with ido 6 release on 19 I think the 4s 64gb will do and it's cheaper now the 5is out
Report as inappropriatelee13 September 2012
@jeremybean. I hope that comment was supposed to be sarcastic? Of course there are phones that can compete. Samsung and HTC etc make a bunch of upper midrange phones that can compete. However their top range offerings like the galaxy s3 and HTC one x blow this out the water! The S3 has a quad core 1.4ghz processor while the iPhone 5 has a dual core 1ghz processor. Plus the s3 has a bigger screen with better battery life and nfc.
Report as inappropriateDerek14 September 2012
@lee but the S3 just looks and feels so cheap...and it actually bends! Unless you are jumping to 4G, I can't see the reason to upgrade yet though. A bit of an anticlimax tbh.
Report as inappropriateandy14 September 2012
IT SEEMS NO DIFFERENT TO THE IPHONE 4s EXACTLY THE SAME SHAPE JUST A LITTLE THINNER WOW!
Report as inappropriateJohn Allison14 September 2012
I'm still in love with my 3GS...it never let's me down, would actually buy another one..! Tech is moving so quickly, I buy the product that best matches my 'needs'...What will they stick in the Mobile Phone next..? surely you can only take a 'medium' so far...I prefer the Apple experience, build quality and reliability...if I don't like the feel of a phone I just stick it in a leather case... Problem Solved..!
Report as inappropriateRavster14 September 2012
Well disappointed with Apple. Expected so much more from the iPhone5. Tim Cook is just not capable to give over expectational results like Steve Jobs. No iPad mini either. Good job with iPod nano but what's the market share. Anyone with iPhone would be silly to waste money on iPod. I would give 5 stars for quality and finish bit only 2 star for hardware and software. Com'on are we not sick of looking at the same old UI. After swipe unlock same buttons on screen as we're in the 1st iPhone 3G. Where is the innovative brains lost in Apple.
Report as inappropriateAimar14 September 2012
Errmm...whats different? to me it looks like a samsung haha.. kidding. However, I don't think it's worth it if you already have the 4s, can't really see much different in this model, ok thinner and bigger screen, and then the internals will be different, but all in all, you will have to fork out a big wad of cash and still have a phone that looks pretty much the same as the iPhone 4. So all these rumours about a curved back etc were just finger lickers.. and not sure about the ports either. top phone, but not enough to fork out £500 at least!!
Report as inappropriateAnonymous16 September 2012
Wait 'till Microsoft wipe the market. Don't believe me? Wait and see....Everyone owned a Nokia once. LOL
Report as inappropriateEl Rinze21 September 2012
I'm a big Fan of Apple although I don't own a product of theirs (price)! I think the iPhone 5 really does not meet expectations. With Apple we expect the future, the feel of being far ahead of the people using other phones, but the iPhone has fail to deliver that! I think the fact that it looks like its predecessor is sort of boring and doesn't have that futuristic feel anymore, I mean there should have been massive difference between the iPhone 4s and 5! I would rather go for the iPad and a windows phone, or Andriod until Apple gets their act back together.
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