It
is the Smartphone. Apple spent plenty of
time and money acquiring the name, and for good reason. It’s the most
well-known and, often, the most desired phone. There’s a reason it’s the
“iPhone 5 review”, not “Apple iPhone 5 review”. When people who aren't up
to date on mobile technologies ask, I almost always suggest purchasing the
iPhone. And in its sixth iteration, the iPhone 5 remains the smartphone of
choice.
It’s
no longer the best smartphone in the world, but not getting one would be a big
mistake. Because even though the hardware is extremely competitive with today’s
top Android phones, the entire package makes this the best phone you can buy.
Specifications
Key Features:
4in, 640 x 1136 pixel screen; New A6 processor; 8MP
camera with 1080p video and panorama mode; New iOS6 Maps app.
Operating System- iOS 6 (6.0.2 update launched)
The iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6 as standard. But, at
this point it’s difficult to see where the unique differences are between it running
on an iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 viz. Flyover, turn-by-turn navigation,
Passbook, Photo Stream sharing, FaceTime over cellular, VIP Mailboxes, Facebook
integration, Do Not Disturb, improved Siri, pre-determined text replies to
phone calls, the list goes on. Conceivably, this could deter iPhone 4S owners
from upgrading, though if app developers take advantage of the upgraded
processor and screen and launch more iPhone 5-specific content, their arms
could be twisted. Not that the pre-sales figures suggest Apple has much to
worry about...
iPhone 5: Maps
The biggest drawback I found is the new Maps app. Apple has
replaced Google Maps with a new maps app of its own. This app has one huge
advantage over the iPhone version of Google Maps — it now offers free,
voice-prompted, turn-by-turn navigation. Google had made this available on its
Android phones, but not the iPhone. Apple’s navigation worked very well, with
clear directions displayed as large green highway signs.
But
the app is in other ways a step backward from the familiar Google app. For
instance, while Apple’s maps feature a 3-D “Flyover” view of some central
cities, they lack Google’s very useful ground-level photographic street views.
And they also lack public-transit routing. Apple will instead link you to
third-party transit apps. Also, while I found Apple’s maps accurate, they tend
to default to a more zoomed-in view than Google’s, making them look emptier
until you zoom out.
Compare screen shots of Google’s maps app and Apple’s own
maps app.
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iPhone 5 White House map (Apple Maps)
|
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iPhone 4S White House map (Google Maps)
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iPhone 5 storage
Decided to get a brand new iPhone 5 but not sure which storage capacity to
get? 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB all have their pros and cons, so it's important to
weigh all the options carefully and get the very best price/performance ratio
for you.
The current US prices for iPhone 5, with full carrier subsidies are:
·
16GB: $199 or $12.44 a GB
·
32GB: $299 or $9.34 a GB
·
64GB: $399 or $6.23 a GB
Bigger Screen
On increasing the iPhone’s screen size, Apple took a
different approach than competitors. It kept the same side-to-side width, yet
added height to grow the screen from its previous 3.5-inch size. For those who
prefer the gargantuan screens on some other phones, like the 4.8-inch display
on Samsung’s Galaxy S III, the iPhone 5’s screen likely won’t suffice. These
competing big screens are typically both taller and wider.
However, I found the new iPhone screen much easier to hold
and manipulate than its larger rivals and preferred it. In my view, Apple’s
approach makes the phone far more comfortable to use, especially one-handed.
It’s easier to carry in a pocket or purse and more natural-looking when held up
to your face for a call.And
the moment you turn it on, you notice that the new, larger, screen can display
more content—six rows of icons instead of five and more contacts, emails and
calendar entries without scrolling.
Despite
the larger size, Apple managed to retain the same number of pixels per inch on
the iPhone 5 as on earlier models, so the new model keeps the “Retina display”
effect, which allows for sharp details. The screen continues to look great.There’s a temporary downside: Many apps will fail to fill
the whole of the larger screen until they are revised. But they still work as
intended.
Hardware
While aesthetic and physical changes are
blatant, the most significant upgrade to the iPhone 5 is internal. The new A6
processor is much faster than the iPhone 4S before it, a 1.3GHz dual-core chip
with twice the speed. It even provides better overall performance — between
everyday use and graphic-heavy apps — than the iPad 3, largely considered one
of the most powerful tablets on the market. It accomplishes this thanks to an
all-new architecture designed by Apple based on the ARM Cortex A9, but
different enough to increase performance beyond similar chips.
In effect, the iPhone 5 is as good for gaming and twice as
fast as the iPad 3, and far more power efficient to boot. As you’ll read below,
the performance boost with the A6 processor is so critical that it is the best
reason for iPhone owners to upgrade to the iPhone 5. It’s the fastest
smartphone in the world. The improved processor, doubled RAM (1GB), and more
efficient software make this significant improvement. It’s remarkable.
The iPhone 5 is one of the most impressive pieces of
hardware ever built. It looks great, feels excellent, and is blazingly fast.
There are some problems, such as easy aesthetic damage and that the taller
screen is more difficult to use one-handed, but by and large the iPhone 5 is
one of the best built smartphones you can buy today.
Camera
Quality
The iPhone has always had excellent camera quality and the
same holds true with the iPhone 5. It still shoots 8MP stills like on the
iPhone 4S, though quality has improved, albeit slightly. Photos are sharper,
and pixel for pixel pictures come out clearer and they are more pleasant to
look at. Colors are more accurate, and even HDR photography has improved.
However, the improvements seem almost comparable to the
already excellent iPhone 4S camera. Photos are indeed clearer, sharper, and
provide better color, but the level of growth has stagnated compared to
previous iPhone models. That’s not to say it isn’t a good camera, quite the
opposite. I believe that Apple may have run into a technological barrier with
the camera sensor, but there is no evidence to support that theory.
Some users — not all — have found purple flaring when
shooting bright light sources due to the sapphire crystal glass cover. I
haven’t experienced it, nor have I seen it in person with any iPhone 5′s other
people own, but many have complained about the issue. Apple has not claimed
that it is a problem and offers no fix for it.
Benchmarks
& Performance
The iPhone 5 broke every benchmark record against both
competing smartphones and tablets. If that’s not impressive enough, it did
so at some pretty spectacular margins. That’s why, as mentioned above, the
latest A6 processor is the best reason to buy the iPhone 5 over the 4S. Take a
look at the benchmarks below.
In Browsermark (please note that this is based on
Browsermark 1.0, which as of this writing is no longer available; we’ll begin
including Browsermark 2.0 numbers in the near future), the iPhone 5 kills. It
nearly topples 200,000 points, and is 40,000 points better than the ASUS
Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T; a 10″ tablet that we wrote is the best Android tablet on the
market. This sort of web-browsing performance
is unprecedented. It’s easy to tell the difference Safari.
Again, the iPhone 5 dominates with the
fastest performance we’ve seen to date. The iPhone 5 completes the Sunspider
Javascript test in under a minute, and is the first device I've tested that can
muster that sort of speed.
When it comes to graphics performance, the iPhone 5 does an
exceptional job. Android devices like the LG Optimus G are catching up to the
iPhone 5 already, but by and large the iPhone 5 is the dominant smartphone when
it comes to performance. However, considering the growth of Android
hardware, I expect the iPhone to be overtaken in graphical performance sometime
in 2013, perhaps by summer, if not early spring. We’re still testing competing
devices, but for the moment the iPhone 5 is the best smartphone for gaming
performance and web browsing. The 4th generation iPad is slightly faster, but
it does utilize more GPU cores. No phone or tablet, with the exception of the
iPad 4, is faster than the iPhone 5.
Battery
I’m equally impressed by the battery life and disappointed
that Apple hasn’t increased the capacity of the iPhone’s battery. The measly
1432mAh capacity battery, compared to the 2000+ mAh batteries of competitors,
has excellent battery life but it doesn’t improve significantly over the iPhone
4S. Using multiple apps simultaneously, especially GPS-based apps, will drain
the battery within a few short hours. Battery life drops 10% every 15-20
minutes (depending on your data connection) when using Apple Maps for
navigation, streaming music, and having push email enabled. Competing Android
devices today will drop 10% every 20-30 minutes, even with larger displays.
The battery is practically identical to the iPhone 4S’s
1423mAh capacity battery, which considering the size increase of the iPhone 5
is unexpected. However, the iPhone 5 is extremely efficiency on LTE, Wi-Fi,
during calls, and during general use. It is often on-par with competing Android
devices under regular use, though it cannot last as long on standby than
competing Android models. When straining the iPhone 5, it will also buckle much
faster than most Android phones because of the lower-capacity battery.
The iPhone 5 does last a full day, but strenuous apps like
the GPS will drain the battery too quickly. Even the Reminders app, which Apple
boasted could remind users of something when they reached a destination, will
leave the iPhone powerless after just a few hours. As more apps and inherent
phone functions require more battery power, the iPhone 5 has a smarter, more
efficient battery better, but not a better one.
The bottom line
The iPhone 5 may not be the work of art that the iPhone
4/4S was, but it is certainly one of the best smartphones in existence. The
iPhone 5 is a diagonal step forward, improving the overall quality of
the phone but not at the same pace as the competition. While Apple has
consistently remained ahead, this year was the first time we saw a smartphone
better than the iPhone 4S, and in terms of hardware and design the iPhone 5
isn’t necessarily the best smartphone in the world.
But if there’s anything that the iPhone is known for, it’s
as a multi-function device, a jack-of-all-trades smartphone that does
everything users need and more. Competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and
Motorola Droid Razr HD Maxx offer similar designs — the former as a combination
tablet-smartphone, the latter as a long-lasting phone for 2-3 days of use — the
iPhone 5 is nearly perfect for multimedia. The new widescreen display and
excellent screen are great for watching movies. The thin and light frames, as
well as the vastly improved processor are excellent for playing games. And when
it comes to apps, there is no competition to the iPhone.
The iPhone 5 does leave a lot to be desired, and in many
ways does not improve much over last year’s iPhone 4S. Yet the iPhone 5 is
brutishly powerful and still very refined. It’s far more elegant than the
massive, overly-masculine Android smartphone that come out with kevlar and are
bigger and always brick-shaped. Even with its flaws the iPhone 5 is the most
desirable smartphone in the world, one I can’t recommend enough. It’s a great
device. You won’t be disappointed.
Rating:
4/5
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