The long-awaited crown jewel of Apple is out, and it’s causing much excitement and mass hysteria amongst fans (not really). But to a market that has been waiting on tenterhooks for the release of a new iPhone, more over a year, the iPhone 5 is a reason to celebrate.
Apple is quite proud of its creation, touting it as “jewel-like”, jam-packed with “amazing” features, and operating with “blazing fast performance”.
It features the new iOS 6, runs on 4G (not available yet in NZ), is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage, and also has Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
The most obvious difference to anyone who’s been paying the slightest attention is that the iPhone 5 is 20% slimmer than the iPhone 4S, and a bit longer. It weighs in at 112g and is 7.6mm thick, (which should look better tucked into your back pocket).
The body of the iPhone 5 is made out of aluminium and glass, with the touchpad integrated into the screen itself. The screen has increased in size to 4”, with a 326ppi Retina display, but now with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Graphics and computing are also meant to show an improvement with the Apple A6 chip. It has twice the CPU speed and graphics power as the iPhone 4S, and is a better image processor. Users can take photos faster, and at a better quality resolution than before. The 8 megapixel camera is smaller, and is a 720p version, however, is still quite similar the one on the iPhone 4S.
Application-wise, everyone’s favourite voice-assistant, Siri, is still there, but it’s been expanded to include duties like making dinner reservations via OpenTable, and pulling up information on sports and news. Social media-bugs will be happy: Facebook has been integrated into the system, so now Siri can be used to send status updates, and songs on the iTunes library will have the classic ‘like’ button.
Little odds and ends have been upgraded, too, like the smaller, thinner, Lightning port, and longer battery life.
The iPhone 5 goes on sale on September 28, in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Sales are predicted to hit 6 million units in the opening weekend.
All the hype over the iPhone 5 has overshadowed Apple’s other two releases: the new iPod Touch, and iPod Nano.
Weightloss appears to be Apple’s mantra, as, like the iPhone 5, these devices are lighter and slimmer than their predecessors.
The iPod Touch has an enlarged 4-inch Retina display, and a 5 megapixel iSight camera which captures full 1080p HD video. It also runs on iOS 6, features the voice-assistant, Siri, and is available in 5 colours: black, white, pink, yellow, and blue.
The iPod Nano has been given a bigger screen, making it easier to navigate between apps. Home button, built-in Bluetooth, pedometre, and support for Nike+.
Both iPods come with the new Lightning port, and Apple’s new Earpods.
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