You have probably walked past the queues on the way into the office this morning – yes the iPhone 5 in finally here! Elysium Magazine gives you everything you need to know on the new iPhone on the block!

 

 

Under the hood

 

iPhone 5 has a new Apple A6 processor — Apple claims that it is twice as fast as the A5 processor on the iPhone 4S. It is is also more power efficient providing up to 8 hours of browsing/talk-time on cellular network and 10 hours of video playback. Not officially confirmed, but the iPhone 5 is expected to have 1GB RAM — up from the 512MB RAM on the iPhone 4S. Storage stays the same at 16/32/64GB. Wireless connectivity now includes 4G/LTE in addition to 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

 

iSight

 

On paper, the iPhone 5 has the same camera specifications as the iPhone 4S — an 8 megapixel, back illuminated sensor, hybrid IR filter, five-element lens and f/2.4 aperture with full HD video recording. In addition, the iPhone 5 camera has a dynamic low light mode along with a spatial noise reduction that gives improved low light pictures.

 

 

A new panorama mode takes 28MP panoramic images and automatically compensates for shaky hands. You can also shoot still images simultaneously while recording a video.  Additionally, with the new A6 processor, Apple has included a new image signal processor that makes the camera 40% faster.

 

Screen

 

In response to market demand, the iPhone 5 now has a 4-inch touchscreen. To offer the same retina quality display as the 4S, Apple has increased the screen resolution to 1136 x 640 pixels. This results in the same 326 pixel per inch as the iPhone 4S. The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio with 44% improved colour saturation — great for videos and browsing websites. Importantly, the width is the same as the iPhone 4S so that it can still be used comfortably with one hand.

 

 

Design

 

With the iPhone 5, Apple has redesigned the entire phone to be slimmer (7.6mm) and lighter (112 grams). The new design has a glass front with an anodized aluminium back — the same material used in Apple’s Macbooks — while the rear inlays are made of ceramic/pigmented glass. Not only does this make the phone look stylish but also makes it sturdier. The new smaller lightning port is present on the bottom along with the 3.5mm audio port and the loudspeaker.

 

Time to throw away the spare cables

 

Possibly the biggest issue that many existing Apple users will face is because of the new Lightning connector. In one shot, it alienates thousands of accessories like bed stands, speaker docks and charging accessories. Apple will be selling a Lightning to 30-pin adapter to enable some backwards compatibility.

 

 

Some may also complain about the lack of NFC, wireless charging or that there is no significant battery improvement compared to the iPhone 4S. Finally, the increased screen resolution means that apps will run in its original resolution, the phone will centre the app with black bars on either side until the developers update the apps.

 

Deal or no deal?

 

 

While there will be cries that the iPhone 5 is ‘just a longer iPhone’, it remains a significant hardware change for the phone that hasn’t really had a good going over for a couple of years. Apple has worked wonders to reduce the overall size and weight while upping the power.

 

It comes with a raft of cool new features (mostly via iOS6), but fans of Samsung and HTC smartphones will cry that many of the features are already available on their devices. Regardless, it’s a significant update for an already super smartphone. We can’t wait to pick one up later…. Is anyone going to let us queue jump?

 

iPhone 5 release date: 8am, 21 September 2012.