Hello Mac and PC users.
Welcome to our full review on the iPhone 5. First we'd like to thank the relevant stores involved for helping us to oversee the product and provide feedback to our clients with the testing model.
This review was conducted with an international iPhone 5, working with the local network there. Due to the point iPhone's work on different speed settings dependent on carrier, we tested the upgrade features and not LTE as it's not fully available worldwide. Long Term Evolution is a standard of 4G. The current iPhone is equipped with LTE which is a faster networking standard than 3G's HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA. All of these networking standards are available on the new iPhone.
Overview
The iPhone 5 is the next iteration of product from Apple Inc. The phone was officially announced on September 21st 2012. And will be released to countries worldwide. The iPhone is a smartphone that encompasses many features which contribute to Apple's variety of solutions. This is iOS, iTunes and iCloud. This review will mainly be based on the iPhone and iOS.
Design
The iPhone 5's design is remarkably aesthetic. Apple's approach to design has meant a solitude of refinement that is met throughout the phone's build. The iPhone is made of glass and aluminium. The precision in engineering has meant only the best product has been made, with a quality that is only reserved for this particular phone.
The exterior of the phone utilises a glass and aluminium finish. There is a black and slate model, or a white and silver model. Dependent on the model, the white iPhone 5 has a ceramic glass inlay and the black, pigmented glass. Unlike the iPhone 4 and 4S, the iPhone 5 has an aluminium steel band around. The front utilises glass, the back full aluminium enclosure which is the same as the unibody Apple notebooks. The chamfers are fine tuned with a diamond tool to provide a clear display. The surface of the camera is sapphire crystal, industrial strength. The iPhone 5's screen has integrated touch technology. A layer was removed in reference to the capacitative touch sensor, the pixels are more efficient and hence is closer to the user with the overall display. The iPhone 5 is 20% lighter and 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S. When using it, it feels substantially lighter. The overall finish of the product feels of a luxury product. The iPhone may be light but it also fits comfortably and is easy to hold. The phone is just taller and not wider.
The iPhone also utilises a new connector named Lightning. This is placed at the bottom of the phone to connect the iPhone via USB to a computer or portable adaptor for sync and charge. With this addition there is more space on the phone to achieve it's overall quality. Due to the fact this is a new connector, it's not completely compatible with old accessories. A new adaptor will be available for purchase to connect to older accessories that do not work directly with the lightning connector. This will prove useful for speaker docks. Although some accessories will not work with the Apple device.
Display
The iPhone 5's display looks better. The display has the same retina display of 326 pixels per inch, however the resolution of the iPhone is 1136 by 640. This provides 18% better colour quality than the iPhone 4S. The overall colour saturation has also improved by 44%. When viewing the iPhone's home screen, the colours seem more substantial, the apparent look of each app seems more realistic, with the front more precise in colour and the clarity of colour is the main aspect that is present.
The overall display is taller. At first, this may seem like a task to use apps, however with the usual notion of opening applications such as Music, Photos, the timing of reaching these applications is exactly the same. With the help of the same width, the phone itself feels the same. However it does take a moment to get used to. Initially, you also notice another row on the home screen for apps, this makes it more useful to navigate and find what you need in a more practical method.
Viewing content is much better. The picture quality of photos with the retina display is great. Compared to the 3GS there is a magnitude of difference. And the widescreen video use also proves beneficial. Viewing the calendar in widescreen format is task efficient.
Cameras
The camera on the iPhone 5 compared to the previous iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 is noticeable. The iPhone 4S is very similar to the iPhone 5 in that the megapixel quality and the camera features are similar. Both iPhone 5 and 4S have an iSight 8 Megapixel camera. Both have Autofocus, tap to focus, LED flash, backside illuminator, Five - element lens, Face Detection, Hybrid IR filter, f/Aperture 2.4 and with iOS 6 panorama view. Where the iPhone 5 is more efficient is with 40% faster camera capture,better low - light performance and improved noise reduction. The iPhone 4 has a five megapixel camera, 4 element lens, no face detection, no hybrid IR filter, the aperture is smaller of f/2.8 and does not support panorama view. The panorama view is a cool feature. This utilises the gyroscope, processor and camera with assistance for a a panoramic picture. The overall quality of images offer a much required improvement.
The video recording on the iPhone 5 is 1080P, with 30 fps, tap to focus whilst recording, LED light. The iPhone 5 compared to the 4S has improved video stabilisation, take still photos whilst recording video and Face detection. The iPhone 4 has no video stabilisation.
The video recording on the iPhone 5 is 1080P, with 30 fps, tap to focus whilst recording, LED light. The iPhone 5 compared to the 4S has improved video stabilisation, take still photos whilst recording video and Face detection. The iPhone 4 has no video stabilisation.
The FaceTime camera unlike the iPhone 4S and 4 which are VGA utilises a 720P camera. With a 1.2 megapixel camera and a backside illumination sensor.
Processor
The iPhone 5 has an A6 processor. Subsequently each prior iPhone has a number less. iPhone 4S has the A5 and the iPhone 4 has the A4. Tasks seem to run very fast. From opening apps. In our test, when we opened some apps, the speed difference was visible. In addition, some applications appeared to run better overall on the iPhone 5. The graphics is also twice as fast. With this custom processor from Apple, the efficiency has improved. The latent time is almost not there compared to the 4S. Call clarity has substantially improved with the improved wideband technology.
The battery on the iPhone 5 has improved. We tested the phone for most of the day, general music, browsing, taking calls, sending e-mails, writing notes, the battery still had some left. It seems better than the 4S so far. Overall 3G talk time has improved on the iPhone 5 from 6 to 8 hours, like the iPhone 4. With up to 10 hours on Wi-fi like the iPhone 4. Overall standby time is lower than the iPhone 4 yet more than the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 standby time 225 hours. The iPhone 4S is 200 hours. And the iPhone 4 is 300 hours. iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 runs overall better and more swift than the iPhone 4S and 4.
Earpods
The iPhone 5 comes with a new headset. EarPods. Since the first iPod was announced, the Apple earphones have become popular. The shape of the headphones have been changed in addition to a substantial upgrade in sound quality that almost compete with professional headphones. The headphones have a rich bass, more clarity, better acoustics overall a much more consistent sound that is a practical add on to the iPhone 5. The EarPods have three microphones. One on the front, one on the back and on on the bottom. The one on the front and back work together to provide a better detail to sound.
UAE
The iPhone 5 is not officially launched from Apple in the UAE. The iPhone could arrives anytime between September 28th with a list of countries mentioned, to late December as propositioned by Apple's 100 countries announcement. The UAE Apple online store mentions coming soon.
Based on this, Etisalat and Du which are the UAE's two cellular network providers also, do not have any official announcements for this region. If an iPhone is purchased not from the UAE, the nano sim card format is required. This is a new sim connector and is not easily available. The iPhone 5 currently is being imported to the UAE. Some users are relying on methods to trim the sim card to fit the nano sim standard. Some users that have the iPhone 5 cannot use it. Also, Etisalat and Du are the two networks that provide data download services for mobile devices. The iPhone 5 supports LTE. As the phone is not officially launched in the UAE by Apple online or to local retailers, there is no official setup or support for LTE. In addition, some of the new features and current features of iPhone are not supported for UAE. These are Siri, FaceTime and some iOS 6 features. This means the features on the iPhone 5 and hence the purchase do not become of the same product abroad/ We've contacted TRA which is a network authority in the UAE and they mentioned a license needs to be present, which is a network provider such as Etisalat and Du. After contacting a network provider they mentioned Apple blocks these particular features. We are currently contacting Apple for additional information to our clients and Apple UAE customers.
Conclusion
Overall with the iPhone 5's design, ease of use with software, camera quality, processor and new headphones the product is a worthwhile purchase. The phone could prove a good upgrade to the iPhone 4S, a somewhat substantial upgrade from the iPhone 4 and an almost necessary upgrade from the 3GS. The downsides are that although Apple has introduced a new connector, it may not work necessarily with some accessories. Due to upgrading technologies, the lightning connector was important. Some iOS software is not fully working such as Maps. Although Apple did mention this will be improved. The main factor is the availability of the phone in the UAE. The iPhone will soon become available in the UAE.
Thank you for reading our review. Only from Consult Mac.
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