We came to the iPhone 5 fresh from testing out a range of other devices, from the bulky, plodding Xperia Play to the powerful Samsung Galaxy S3 and the small but beautifully formed iPhone 4S. The new Apple product is remarkable in comparison to all of them: it’s by far the lightest of the lot, to the point where you can slip it into your shirt pocket and almost forget that it’s there.
With the existing 4S, there’s an element of weight combined with the feel of the cold metal surround in the palm of your hand – it gives an impression of power, quality and refinement in one tiny, deluxe case and somehow this reassuring feeling is missing from the new product. iPhone 5 feels almost anonymous in comparison, light almost to the point of weightlessness and with little in the way of real physical feedback from the materials – an engineering accomplishment that defies preconceptions somewhat: you’ll turn the unit over in your hands pondering over how this much power is contained in so slight a chassis.
iPhone 5 Specs
With a new emphasis on both power and efficiency, Apple has managed to double processing power and improve battery life at the same time. There’s also support for 4G LTE – which unfortunately we could not test in the UK – along with improved WiFi support. Central to the new design is a brand new 16:9 Retina display which offers a remarkable boost in colour reproduction over the existing 4S.
- Processor: Apple A6
- CPU: Dual-core custom ARM Cortex A9 at 1GHz (unconfirmed)
- Graphics Core: Tri-core PowerVR SGX543 MP3 at 266MHz (unconfirmed)
- Display: 4-inch Retina display, 1136×640 resolution, 800:1 contrast ratio, 500 cd/m2 max brightness
- Dimensions: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.66mm (height/width/depth)
- Weight: 112 grams
- Cellular Support: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5)
- Wireless Support: 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
- Cameras: Front-facing 1.2-megapixel with 720p30 video support, rear 8-megapixel with 1080p30 video support and LED flash
- Sensors: Three-axis gyro, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
On a more basic level, we’re also happy to report that the home button appears to be significantly sturdier than it is on the 4 and 4S – a very useful improvement bearing in mind the problems experienced by many here in terms of wear and tear.
Despite featuring a larger screen, the new iPhone 5 is significantly thinner and especially lighter when compared to the iPhone 4S – packing this much power into so small a chassis is a truly remarkable technical achievement.
The decision to expand the screen vertically while retaining the same width pays off nicely. The screen remains easily navigable, and despite the increase in real estate the phone still manages to feel as small and handy as the 4S before it, thanks in part to the reduction in thickness and weight. Display quality itself is simply immense: the 44 per cent increase in colour gamut represents a massive improvement over the screen embedded in the 4S. We actually found that this seemed to work best when using the photographic elements of the new phone: the on-screen preview and review of captured imagery seemed to give us the most noticeable improvements compared to the preceding iPhone 4S but in all areas, the deeper blacks and more vibrant colours truly set this apart from the older display.
Changes have been made elsewhere too: the 3.5mm stereo jack headphone socket moves from the top to the bottom of the device, while the old 30-pin dock connector is jettisoned in favour of the new all-digital Lightning socket – smaller, reversible, but featuring no real speed or functionality improvements over the out-going interface. Of far more note are the new earbuds – Apple has finally given its signature poor earphones the elbow, and while the replacements won’t wow audiophiles, the improvement – particularly to bass – is instantly apparent and it’s a highly worthwhile upgrade overall.
Also impressive are the optics within the new iPhone, making this is a decent if not spectacular 8-megapixel point-and-shoot camera. There’s no revelatory increase in overall quality compared to the 4S, but it’s still a highly capable performer for a smartphone, able to hand in some good results in decent lighting conditions. Results from the 1080p30 video camera were also surprisingly good bearing in mind the amount of compression required to keep file-sizes manageable.