Apple iPhone 5 hands-on review Last night in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook presented his third keynote in fine, relaxed form. There were announcements about iTunes, a longer iPod nano and colourful iPod touch models. But the night belonged to the iPhone, not to be dubbed the new iPhone, but the iPhone 5. Hacks in London were treated to a simultaneous …
Hey wait a minute! It's not rubbish...it has that new, faster 4g LTE chip in it!!! Imagine that...Apple FIRST with LTE in a Smartphone!
What's that? Every other Smartphone has had 4g LTE for over a year? And the phone will not work in most of Europe on LTE? Can't be. Everyone knows Apple is at the forefront of technology. The OTHERS are the ones playing catch-up.
"Fandroids always seem angry but then I guess if my favourite platform's highlights were piracy, malware and privacy invasion then I'd be upset too."
May i point you to this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/20/secret_iphone_location_tracking/
I spose it is easy to ignore things like that when you are ignorant enough to own one in the first place.
Have an android but i'd own anything that wasn't made by Apple before the fanboi cries begin. Is it possible to be a hateboi? Maybe i'm that. /care.
Yep, same old UI. That one the customers love, and know how to use, and that results in best in industry customer satisfactions scores. Best thing to do when you've an OS/UI like that is rip it up and start again. (think, Microsoft Office where as a 15+ year user of Word with Office 2010 I now struggle to find basic functions.)
"Yep, same old UI."
The Windows UI still hasn't changed much since Windows 95, still the start button at the bottom left, same bar at the bottom. Yet everybody still bought Windows machines.
What I am trying to say is that no UI change doesn't mean something is bad. Not everybody want's a custom UI, only on Linux I would 'tweak' my UI, on windows/OSX I never had a need for that.
"Yep, same old UI."
windows did a pretty big UI overhaul with Vista - that was a remarkably successful example of what a good idea it is to change the UI that everyone loves. In fact, microsoft must have been so pleased with the results because they've gone even further with win8 and totally changed all the bits that user liked about their old UI.
yep, AC @13:02 is absolutely correct, totally changing the UI is the best thing any company could do
>still the start button at the bottom left, same bar at the bottom. Yet everybody still bought Windows machines
I prefer it at the top - on Windows 7 the last few pixels of the start button are missing if you put it at the bottom and that irritates. Office monkeys living in a couple of apps with widescreen tend to push the taskbar to the sides to gain extra screen estate.
.....and of course you aren't stuck with the Explorer shell in Windows and can replace it if you prefer a different desktop entirely or for kiosks, appliances etc.
"Yep, same old UI. That one the customers love, and know how to use..."
Ignorant customers love it. Pull out an Android phone and show them homescreen widgets (such as your email inbox or your calendar) and they instantly go "wow! that would be great to have!" Sure, you can launch an App, perhaps have to wait for it to open/load depending on your iOS, but having it on the homescreen is very convenient. We'll see how long until Apple steals widgets like they did the notification pulldown...
The only valid point you give is the "know how to use." Swapping a UI in a major way (Ribbons, in your example, or the Not-Metro UI of Win8) is a major problem. However, the transition can be done, and it can sometimes be fairly painless. Look at how Android added a task manager in 3.0+. I'm not a big fan of the permanent black bar on their Tablets, but the phone execution of 4.0 tasks is flawless. Apple could do the same if they tried.
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Its about choice....
if you don’t want to use contactless payments, then don't set up payment details a phone that has this facility.
the thing about smartphones in this day and age is that the top end phones on the market should include all options. Think about when you are selecting your phone, you list features that it must have,each manufactures flagship phones should cover all of them, even if some of the features you will never use. Its up to you to decide if the price of the handset is justifiable depending on how much of it you are not going to use.
And crApple don't mention the new, smaller power connector, of course crApple will sell you an adaptor but it probably makes all docking stations obsolete.
The new SIM card is 44pc smaller and is therefore incompatible with existing phones, so you can't just stick your old SIM into an IPhoney 5 and expect it to work.
"Its about choice...."
You're right. It is about choice.
Do you like Android? Buy an Android. Prefer BlackBerry? Get one (quick, before they fold). You like Windows? Get a Windows phone. You like Apple? Get an iPhone.
Personally, I prefer iPhones. I went from an iPhone to an Android phone, I've had the Android pgone for a couple of years now, and I'm going back to iPhone. Other people may come to different conclusions. That's OK. It's about choice. Different people have different tastes.
But fer Chrissakes, quit whining like someone stepped on your puppy. It's a phone, not a Holy Chalice. You don't need to validate your wounded ego by bleating about how awful the other choice is and how only a rank idiot with the cognitive capacity of a rabid weasel on crystal meth would ever be so stupid to choose the other.
Seriously, these holy wars were tiresome back in the TRS-80 vs. Commodore-64 days.
It's weight they're prioritising, not thinness, if you're going to keep it the same width but make it taller and keep the same runtimes than you're going to have to account for the extra volume by shaving the depth or it's clearly going to be heavier.
That the runtime is actually improved* while jamming in 4G and a bigger hungrier display is pretty good.
My take, seems like a nice phone, not sold on 16:9, but I don't watch media on my 4, NFC seems like an odd ommision, TBT is long overdue. If it had a 3D display (as mentioned above), I wouldn't even consider it, IMHO 3D displays (all of them), are still as crap as they were the last two times they tried to foster them on us, I can't begin to relate to someone who would want that on a mobile device
Will wait until I have a hands on with one before I decide if its worth upgrading or cutting my contract bills instead.
Are you sure about that?
They must've had quite a few headaches (and clearly given Sharp a few as well) with that new thinner screen, the biggest benefit of which appears to be, err, thinness.
A plastic case would also save more weight.
I'm not saying weight wasn't an issue, but clearly thinness was a major goal.
The new screen is indeed thinner, but I don't think that was the driver.
Tim Cook is noted as being a wizard production process man, and has been credited with a lot of the advances Apple has made in how they build their stuff. The new screen has, as you say, the touchscreen sensors built in, eliminating an apparently tricky and occasionally failure-prone process of sticking the touchscreen to the glass front.
I suspect the reduction in thickness was just a useful byproduct.
GJC
We've had stupid form factor trends before, like when all the handset makers were trying to make the smallest phone before smartphones took off. That also made the battery smaller, the keys unusable to everyone but spider monkeys, and the screen only readable by people with mega-bifocals. Maybe the next version has a PP9 in your pocket attached by a curly cable, you know, wearable technology like the brickphone :P
Well to be honest I am not that concerned about weight either.
I think my phone is something like a third again the weight of this new iPhone and it doesn't feel heavy at all.
I quite like to have some heft to this sort of thing.
So if they were making a device for me they'd make the battery bigger (& removable, please )and the device being thicker and heavier as a result would cause me no distress at all.
Yeah, what's teh point of 'thinnest ever'? Surely there's some cutoff point where the phone just gets very awkward to handle. Also, the biggest component in the back of every phone is the battery, and the on area smartphones really suck compared to non-smartphones is battery life. I wonder what percentage of smartphone owners would happily accept a 0.5mm thicker phone for an extra hour battery life, I suspect it would be quite high.
Good job with the weight reduction though. Pre-smartphone the lightest phones were about 70-80g, so breaking back below the 100g level is a sensible target.
>Am I alone in finding thinner phones more awkward to handle?
I found my aluminium Xperia P a bit easy to fumble, so placed a strip of self-adhesive plastic down one side. I haven't been able to find a silicone case for it yet.
>Yeah, what's teh point of 'thinnest ever'? Surely there's some cutoff point where the phone just gets very awkward to handle.
Not necessarily, for example a credit card can be held by its edges fairly securely. With the first square iPod Nano (with the little scroll wheel), the polycarbonate face was deliberately made sharp, so as not to slip from the finger tips. To prevent slip you can either up the co-efficient of friction by choosing a different material, or you can increase the pressure by decreasing the surface area (like the knurling on a Maglite body)
"Am I alone in finding thinner phones more awkward to handle?"
Most iPhones I see are living in ugly thick cases because their owners spent so much on the thing they're terrified of breaking it. Makes you wonder why anyone cares what the damned things look like so rarely are they seen nude.
"Am I alone in finding thinner phones more awkward to handle?"
I don't think they've reached the point of being hard to handle - they're still perfectly comfortable in that regard (screen size is more of an issue for me). But I don't see any great benefit of having them this thin though. Like everyone else on here is saying, more battery life is a far better selling point than shaving a few milimetres off the thickness. Ditto for weight. Even my little hands can handle a phone that weighs more than this. Not that I'm not impressed by the technical progress, but I think it's more for the fashonistas than for practical purposes..
Absolutely, why not make it a few mm thicker and add an extra 1000mAh* in there? Having a battery which could simultaneously handle Wi-Fi, GPS and mobile signal drain and last more than a day without having to be left on the charger would be a genuine advantage to many people.
*Yes I know it's 1Ah, but for some reason that's the units battery capacities seem to be measured in.
Last time I suggested popcorn I got a downvote or three, so I've decided to stick with bacon sandwiches. More filling... and fulfilling whilst all the iphone fans try to convince us that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread (white, apparantly better for my bacon sandwiches - although I'd rather have a bread roll....)
Pint. Cider, one thereof, for future consuption whilst sniggering quietly.
"Last time I suggested popcorn I got a downvote or three"
one of those might have been me... I am sick of popcorn......
"so I've decided to stick with bacon sandwiches"
Another down vote, by the time this is all sorted out we will all be dying of blocked arteries with cholesterol levels through the roof.
but for suggesting a pint of cider*, overall its a up-vote !!!elevinty 11!!!!
*so long as its a scrumpy jack....
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When Samsung were ordered to show Apple a number of their upcoming phone designs, I joked that Apple would be unable to design their new phones without knowing what Samsung were going to copy from them. Now we have the iPhone 5, which apart from scale and the round home button is scarcely distinguishable from a Galaxy S3 - which is one of the phone designs Apple got to see.
Me, I'm saying nothing.
From now on I should just make all my posts anon. Every time I make an anon post, thumbs up everywhere. Moment anon goes off, thumbs down everywhere.
Anyway, I still find it hard to see how anyone could mark a samsung and an iphone as similar. I'm registered partially sighted, my vision is 6/18 on a good day (on a bad day closer to 6/36, normally rests around 6/24) and yet I can tell from a couple meters away which is an iphone and which is a samsung. From that distance I can barely make out any detail on the handsets, just the general shape.
"From now on I should just make all my posts anon. Every time I make an anon post, thumbs up everywhere. Moment anon goes off, thumbs down everywhere."
I find this as well.... but it gets worse, as soon as I post something negative about the Iphone I find that all my other non related posts posts get a down vote too !!
@Jedit: "Now we have the iPhone 5, which apart from scale and the round home button is scarcely distinguishable from a Galaxy S3"
And based on the fact that most people are complaining that Apple hasn't shifted from the iPhone 4 design, this soundly illustrates how much Samsung ape Apple phones in even recent models. Or does Apple have a time machine so they could see the S3 when they were designing the iPhone 4? Downvote all you like, but the fact remains that you're head over heels in love with a knock-off artist that hasn't released a revolutionary product in its entire existence and runs an operating system scraped from open source by a marketing firm chasing all your personal details on behalf of large corporations. And you think Apple fans are sheep...
"Downvote all you like, but the fact remains that you're head over heels in love with a knock-off artist that hasn't released a revolutionary product in its entire existence and runs an operating system scraped from open source by a marketing firm chasing all your personal details on behalf of large corporations. And you think Apple fans are sheep..."
The whole way through that I was thinking, "Wait, I thought he was pro-Apple." Wasn't 'til the last sentence I realised you were having a pop at the other guys.
>"But it means that speaker docks, third-party chargers and more will all need an adaptor"
For a lot of people it means getting a new speaker dock. I have a speaker dock where the very bottom of the phone leans against the dock, if the phone is raised up (by an adaptor), there is nothing for it to lean against.
>Yes, but even WITH the adapter there's NO ANALOG OUTPUT so your existing speaker dock will most likely not work.
Here's a thought - your old iPod Touch still works so don't buy a new one - use the money for a Kindle HD. Instead of that iPad4, get an MS Surface device - and next phone contract renewal get the telco austerity smartphone and £20 a month cashback for life.
Large numbers of people will be doing 1, 2 or all 3 in 2013......
.....................in the way they have been by some Apple unveils"
They have absolutely no need to feel that way because they haven't - at all. However, it remains to be seen what happens in the market place. This Autumn promises to be very interesting indeed.
Not just you, I could never understand why USB A only goes in one way, but is bloody tricky to determine which way that is!
Whilst micro-USB is D shaped, micro-USB 3 is just weird- can't really blame Apple for using their own solution. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-superspeed-external-enclosure,2597-2.html for a picture of a microUSB 3 plug.
"What about re-sale?"
My daughter has hung on to get the iphone 5 as an upgrade from the 3gs... and ass its been locked up in a hard-case, always had a screen protector, still got all the box and packaging, unused ear-buds and unused charger, it is in perfect "as new" condition, I am expecting to get a more than reasonable price for it.....
"Samsung Galaxy S3,16GB, sim-free: 499
iPhone 5, 16GB, sim-free: 529"
First result on Amazon.co.uk offers a Galaxy S3 for £425. Over £100 cheaper. I also expect iPhone owners will pay a premium for cables and adapter / dongles (if they have existing kit) which adds to the price. And if they don't want to run out of 16GB space they have to pay through the nose for a 32GB / 64GB with its massive markup on the equivalent memory compared to a microSD card.
Yes these phones are expensive.
a quick search also revealed that a skoda/toyota is much cheaper than a BMW/Audi/Merc , way cheaper than a ferrari.
So all you IDIOTS out there who pay more than what the EXPERTS in CONTROL on these forums say should be shot at birth, because they KNOW whats better for you then having your own opinion and choice of products.
Surely you MUST have the same taste, wants and requirements as them as they are the SUPREME examples of mankind and all should follow their obviously better ways.
or maybe they are just prats...
OK, just for fun, a car comparo, since people are always comparing phones to cars.I gave up on Ferrari because they don't do a 4WD Estate version, as far as I know, plus they are about 5 times as expensive as these mid-range ones. :P
Skoda Superb Estate Elegance 3.6 V6 260PS DSG 4x4 - £30,910 top of range. It's basically a stretched Passat.
Or slightly larger A4 - something like an A6 in size.
http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/skoda/superb/estate/36-v6-260ps-elegance-4wd_7870220/review
OK, not a diesel, but, 28mpg tops is not too bad for a 2.3tonne estate car that does 0-60 in 6.6 and 153mph!
Please El Reg can you test one, just for fun. Get it muddy and lap some roundabouts, you know you want to.
I think some police forces have them as a stealth tarmac-burner.
Closest price BMW -
BMW 5 Series 520i SE - £31,195
No, just , no. Well, it looks nice from the outside..... probably very smooth motor ;)
Closest price Audi
Audi A4 allroad quattro 2.0 TDI - £31,380
or - Audi A6 Saloon 2.0 TDI SE - £30,495 (but estate is more)
Very respectable ;)
Closest price Merc
Mercedes Benz C-Class Estate 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY Executive SE Auto - £31,125
or -Mercedes Benz E-Class Estate 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY SE - £32,005
Nice, but not as fast ... or as big inside. Skoda prob has better interior.
Expensive Toyota... Land Cruiser V8. 63,910 UKP. But also huge, unique, the rest of the range apart from lesser Land Cruisers, tops out at half the price, GT-86 is nice .... :P
£499 for a GS3?!? Try shopping around a bit. Amazon.co.uk has 'em for about £430 shipped. So, that's a £100 difference, before you think about memory.
It's about time to replace my ancient and sloooow iPhone 3G, which is falling apart. I've never owned a computer (this is going back to my first //e in 1984) which wasn't made by Apple, so I should be a massive fanboi - but I'm unenthusiastic about the iPhone 5, and sick of iOS, its lack of customisation, the lock-in, iTunes, and Apple's business practices - so I'll probably get a SIM-free GS3 and save myself £100+ while I'm at it. Just wish the grey or black versions would show up already...
For £70 you save on the GS3, I bet you'd lose that straight away (and probably more) if you wanted to sell it 2nd hand or wanted to get some money back through giving it to mobile recyclers a year later.
Anyway, why does anyone worry about the lack of customisation, lock-in, iTunes etc? I'll keep sighing until the end of time.
"Expensive?
Samsung Galaxy S3,16GB, sim-free: £499
iPhone 5, 16GB, sim-free: £529
£30 difference doesn't seem like a huge "Apple Tax" to me."
Nooooooo! Don't go saying that an iPhone is only £30 more than an S3, all the fanbois think that Android users are too poor to buy Apple kit!
Although I am no fan of Apple or the iPhone I was really hoping they would leapfrog ahead of Android and WinPho in terms of features. It is essential for the mobile revolution that is currently taking place to have a number of participants each trying to out do each other with new tech and features.
As soon as companies start resting on their laurels the march forward slows to a crawl. I guess the good thing with Android is that at least there will always be competition between manufacturers to keep the competition going, however the core Android OS upon which they are based also need to advance.
NFC however would get a significant boost if the iPhone had also adopted it like Android and Windows. The big caveat being as long their implementation wasn't proprietary and/or patented to Apple.
I hope this is just a blip and Apple can come back with something better next year.
NFC however would get a significant boost if the iPhone had also adopted it like Android and Windows. The big caveat being as long their implementation wasn't proprietary and/or patented to Apple.
The cynic in me wonder if not having a proprietary version is precisely the reason for not joining in.
Apple have never taken the "rip it up and start again" route
The entire iPhone range has always had a familiar look and feel, I guess it works for them and their customers.
It also ensures someone who can drive an IOS device can drive most, if not all IOS devices
Android is a different animal, it so reminds me of LINUX distros where the underlying technology is the same, but the look and feel may vary as well as the packages..
Each to their own I guess...
"The luxury car analogy doesn't wash, no matter how many times it's trotted out." Actually, the analogy does work, in almost every respect.
- Luxury* build quality (Lamborghini had a reputation for shoddy build quality for years, as indeed did Porsche with several models. The early 2.7l engines needed a complete rebuild at 40k miles)
- Luxury* looks (Porsche Panamera? Cayenne? 917?)
- Luxury* materials (McLaren F1s were built around a carbon-fiber 'bathtub' - great until you crashed it and it shattered)
- Luxury* price (Come on, you gotta agree with that)
- Luxury* features list (luxury cars seldom excel on outright features - they tend to focus on one or two things. And I remember well the satnav voice on the Aston Martin DB9 being compared to the warder from a women's prison as well as it's keyfob being from a 20 grand volvo)
- Luxury* usability (the Mercedes AMG Black editions. Utterly undriveable. The McLaren MP4-12; clinical, clean, precise and boring as shite. iOS anyone?)
*'Luxury' doesn't necessarily equate to 'Good' or 'More'.
You've clearly never seen Vertu's prices. No, that's not a typo: you're looking at a Symbian phone that's being sold for £10000. Ten THOUSAND pounds.
And that's not even close to being their most expensive model.
THAT is a "luxury" phone. The iPhone isn't even close.
In the purely economic sense yes, as in, people buy more the higher the price is!
Like a cheaper Vertu :P
Other items also fall into this category. I also heard once of a shop (no names no packdrill)
which was having trouble shifting of all things, lipstick. They solved this problem, by jacking the price up.
Cue hordes of status-conscious buyers..... problem solved!
Not too sure about that, unless the opposition are Nissan GT-Rs :P
Porsche replaced it with the 928 (or tried to) on the grounds that the 911 had been developed as far as it could be (limited space for more cylinders in motor?) and that they needed a clean sheet car to make it better for long distances, get bigger motors in etc.
However, seems people at the time weren't ready for a big fat V-8 Porsche that did 0-60 in 5.0 or so, neither a Grand Tourer nor a full-on sports car..... little did they know, they would have had a fit if they'd known about the Cayenne.....
so I suppose in a way Porsche got their wish by splitting the 928's abilities into stumpy and zippy (911) and fat and blobby (Cayenne) to cover all possibilities!
Also, some people think they are deliberately not giving the Cayman the top 911-type motors because the Cayman is more nearly a clean-sheet car, and therefore better than the 911, but they make less money on Caymans since they are officially lower in the range than the (possibly overpriced) 911.
Actually I would be happy with any of them. Heck, a nice Fiesta would do me, or an Aprilia Mana for summer!
"Apple have never taken the "rip it up and start again" route"
Wow, really? Like when they went from 680x0 to RISC? RISC to x86? MacOS to OS X? iPod Classic to iPod Touch? Adopting USB over ... ADB, IIRC.
Apple has, in fact, been much more willing to do this than many of the hardware and software competitors. That's part of the price of choosing Apple, just as lagging behind is the price of choosi8ng others.
NFC is and will continue to be a waste of time until point of sale terminals appear which support it. Evenu then it relies on people being happy to wave their phones around in public and for consumers / stores to be happy to be hit with yet another middleman wanting a % of the sale.
For the time being it's just feature bingo. That said I'm surprised Apple didn't pack their phone out with it given the potential revenue it could hold some day.
For the time being it's just feature bingo. That said I'm surprised Apple didn't pack their phone out with it given the potential revenue it could hold some day.
But what would they put in the 5S then? Your are right there is not much point in having NFC unless the POS terminals are in place to use it, however I can't see any retailer installing contactless POS terminals unless there are enough punters willing to use it. A real chicken and egg situation.
However I suspect that the main reason the the iPhone5 does not have NFC at the moment is that they haven't figured out how to do it with iTunes thereby allowing them to patent a propriety method, and it will become a new iShiney thing for the iSheep when the 5S is released in 10 months time. It's called product churning.
Disclaimer up front: Personal stance on the great debate - Apple products: Good; Apple company: Bad; Phone: Blackberry; Next Phone: Probably Android.
Maybe something that doesn't lead to the fanbois crowing too much, but has just about enough to stop the fandroids popping the champagne corks isn't a bad thing - at least for the Reg forums - but also for the general market.
Manufacturer and OS-maker wise, I'd imagine those happiest off all about the underwhelmingness of it must be Nokia/Microsoft.
No major Samsung release imminent, Apple release what's mostly a lick of paint, Microsoft and Nokia still have time to add reactionary tweaks before release: The door for Nokia/WinPhone 8 is surely well and truly back open now.
I hope so, because I want more than two major players.
> Samsung has only just released the Note 2, and the S 3 wasn't that long ago...
Yes, so unless your understanding of English is different to mine, they're not imminent.
> And isn't the next Nexus phone due in a month or two?
It's being talked about (i.e. hyped) very little at this point in comparison, and as far as I can see the new Lumias will be available before it is. My point stands.
> consistency of design language
New model looks just like the old model.
This is the same problem that Jag faced a number of years ago. When you already believe that you've got the best looking product on the market, and your customers are telling you the same. Its very difficult not to do the easy thing and just re-use the old design.
The problem with this approach is that one morning you wake up to find the world suddenly starts to call it dated. Fashion moves on. Safety first marketing doesn't.
Dropping THE connector, suddenly means that everyones compatible peripherals are no longer compatible. Sorry no one looks cool with a pile of adapter cables, you may as well fill your top pocket with a row of different coloured pens. So many existing customers will find that the other incentive to buying a newer model so they can continue to enjoy using all there existing stuff (read cars, TVs, BluRay players, HiFis... etc...) has gone away.
It remains to be seen whether the two effects coincide.
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The problems with the iphone are: 1. use of non-standard SIM making it difficult to swap SIM cards; 2. Lack of open file system making it difficult to back up or transfer files; 3. No possibility to increase / remove storage. If not for these deliberate limitations, it would be a viable option for the price. With these limitations, it is simply an unbearably constraining choice.
...I'm reading sentiments like yours a lot. I'm just curious as to what more someone would want from this class of phone. What would like to see included that they have left out? I don't just mean the iPhone, but from top models from Samsung and the usual suspects. I mean, the screen can only get sharper and brighter, not bigger, and the phone can only talk to every radio standard in common use, and have a processor that will do anything you would want to do on a screen that size without killing the battery TOO quickly.
What do from it want? Tell me! : D A Swiss Army knife? A fag lighter? The ability to play back MiniDiscs? Little legs so it can walk around your desk, automatically scanning all your documents for inclusion into the 'cloud'? You'd better tell me what you have in mind, because all my ideas are plainly crazy, or straying into Q-department territory. Concealed plastic explosive? Ultra-strong magnet? Device for unsnapping a beautiful Russian agent's bra strap at ten paces? Triangulating transducers at each end so that an entire desk can be used as a drum kit?
I appreciate that my comment can be read as unimaginative- I won't disagree. But without some breakthrough in flexible screen technology, or battery magic, I am having trouble imagining what you guys think is missing from these high end handsets -from any company- besides a sense of 'Wow!'.
Anyway, sorry to have singled you out. Its all meant in fun.
More battery life as opposed to thinner and lighter, no more use of exotic SIM cards, a more open file system, more upgradable storage, more use of industry standards. And as a bonus, a killer feature that nobody else thought about, even if it is relatively trivial. For instance: support for dual SIM cards.
My iPhone wish list:
- Waterproof phone - I would have LOVED if it they made the device waterproof. THAT would have been special and useful.
- InfraRed sensor/emiter - Handy so you could convert the phone into a generic remote control
- Ability to use phone as a USB stick without 3rd party software - you have up to 64GB of memory, shame you cant easily use it as a dumb memory stick.
- Contractless payment - if they had done it, more likely it would be widely adopted. I would use it for sure.
- Contactless recharge - be nice to dump the phone a tray to recharge rather than having to plug it in.
Those would compel me to upgrade from my 4G.
Magic would have been:
whole front face of phone is a screen
folding phone with flexible screen
active icons, e.g., have the clock icon show the right bloody time (not 10:15)
have a battery life measured in days
have a permanently on eInk color display, passive until needed
Not Magic:
"another row of apps"
... as working in a commoditised market. Everyone and his dog is selling almost identical phones now. There's only so much you can do with the form-factor. It's a phone. Phones have to be held up to your ear, while still being long enough to pick up your voice. Make the device too big and people complain that it won't fit in their pocket. Make it too small and they can't see the screen properly and tap on the virtual buttons.
The first iPhone pretty much nailed the physical design for a multi-touch pocket computer / PMP combo with built-in telephony and networking support from the outset. Every subsequent model has been about refinement and evolution, not revolution.
This is normal for Apple: they tend to pick a design language and stick with it for a few years. Their iMacs have looked pretty much the same since the iMac G5, released around eight years ago. They've stuck with that all-in-one "big-screen-on-a-stick" design ever since.
Apple's designers tend to wait until a new, enabling technology—something that changes the rules, or at least allows the writing of new, much better, rules—becomes readily available at viable prices before radically altering designs to take advantage of it. The iPad wasn't possible before 2010: the components were simply too expensive. Similarly, the iMac G4 wouldn't have sold many units if it had been released much earlier as LCDs were still very expensive back then, even at those sizes.
Apple were stung badly very early on by their problems with the Apple Lisa: good technology, but far, far too expensive. It barely sold. Even the first Macs were on shaky ground; their designers went too far the other way in cutting features and released a machine that was sorely in need of more RAM. They learned from both and this is why, when they do get it right, they stick with that formula until the Next Big Thing comes along.
The iPhone isn't going to change that much until some radical new technology becomes cheap enough to interest Apple's design teams.
Neither is iOS. Despite all the criticisms, iOS works. It's simple. It's easy to understand. It doesn't spam you with shovelware from operators. It doesn't shove some random GUI overlay at you. It's consistent. In the consumer electronics market, consistency is a very good thing.
Spot on.
2 year old iPhone 4 user here. Phone works fine, will be replaced when out of contract (or can persuade my employer). Why would I want to change to anything other than Apple?
Frequent change alienating users? I've been using Word for 15+ years - completely changing the interface in 2010 has NOT improved my productivity.
So this is the phone apple thinks is enough to keep up with HTC/Samsung/Nokia and the also rans (LG/Sony etc), when most of those manufacturers seem to be running a release schedule of less than 12 months for their top end products???
To me, it moves the iphone on to a level where it doesnt look quite so dated. But other than that, its certainly not putting apple ahead of where everyone else is already.
On top of that, they're expecting existing customers (their prime target surely?) to not only upgrade, but replace most of their dock related devices?? hmm, we'll see.
The iPhone 4 looks dated? I guess. I suppose it sold so well that everybody and his dog has had an iPhone 4 for the last 1-2 years and now you're tired of looking at it.
Really nothing to do with how well the product functions. It's a shame that Apple is judged by some people on how well they produce fashion accessories.
thinner? 7.1mm vs iToy5 7.6mm?
And, wasn't it released quite some time ago? And didn't it have memory card expansion? And a kevlar casing to make it robust ?
I'm sorry but the new shiny shiny has produced nothing new, all of the innovation is courtesy of the manufacturers e.g. Samsung, LG, Hitachi etc... who actually make the components.
NFC? No way until Apple get a slice of every transaction. Wireless charging? No, apparently that is too complicated.
I see they are being vague on the CPU - why not just say it's a fast dual core? Oh that's why, because quad-core is now standard on flagship phones except for Apple's.
The new screen res is interesting, now it's a 16:9 ratio, oh like most other smartphones have been for years. The aspect means most apps will have black borders until the developers sort it out - sounds like fragmentation to me.
I think you might find that everyone else has already produced 4G phones, and i believe that currently Apple is being screwed by HTC as HTC own the US patent for connecting to a 4G network.
EE has announced the first 4G devices that will be offered on the new network this year. They are the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, the HTC One XL (a 4G version of the One X) and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE.
Just what is the big hard on for wireless charging? Sure it's cool but it is slower than charging via a cable and you can't as easily pick up and use the phone as it needs to stay in contact with the charger. NFC is equally useless really, I've only ever seen it offered in Starbucks and since my bank and credit cards already have NFC chips in them I'd rather wipe them on some dirty reader than my new smartphone.
As for a quad-core CPU, what advantage would that bring exactly? iOS already flies and with the way it sleeps/tombstones background apps that don't need to be running it achieves good performance through efficiency. GPU acceleration of the UI reduces CPU workload considerably too. Don't forget also that Android devices have a small overhead running the Dalvik VM compared to iOS which runs using native code. I'm not trying to criticise Android here, but iOS just doesn't need a quad-core CPU to perform well. The Imagination GPUs that Apple use are also extremely powerful with most benchmarks showing the iPhone 4S outperforming other devices when rendering complex 3D scenes.
'we played with it for a few minutes at a PR event and took a few photos?'
Yeah, yeah - clickbait. I know.
But if the reviewer had played with it for a while, or even - here's a thought - downloaded the beta of iOS 6 and used it for a few months, they'd have had a few more substantial comments to make.
Can anyone tell me if the iPhone5 is capable of doing something noticeable better or in a usefully different way from high-end Android phones? Please note that using any of Apple's walled garden facilities does not count, nor does using an esoteric app that has only been developed for the iPhone.
I'm asking as someone who's had an HTC Incredible for 18 months and is quite satisfied with it, but is now considering an upgrade (maybe HTC One S, maybe not .....) I prefer to buy my phone unlocked and have a SIM only contract.
Let me try to understand this by asking a different question: If an iPhone 4S/5 user switched to using a Galaxy S3 (say) and got over the hurdle of setting up a Google account and installing needed apps, what would they miss about the iPhone that they could not work around?
To save you the effort of a detailed reply, can you recommend any particular iPhone user website/guide?
AirPlay? Wireless streaming to speakers or TV. Likewise now screen mirroring. Some Android apps provide limited AirPlay functionality, but it works for any app under iOS.
AirPrint? Zero config printing to networked printers (HP printers work direct, others need an AirPrint server app on a desktop/server somewhere), again for any app.
iOS 6 seems to have a plugin model for map routing, so you can pick a 3rd party app to do public transport or walking routes.
Privacy controls that allow you to revoke permissions. Don't like an app using location services? Switch off the permission.
Privacy controls that TELL you what app used a permission.
Text messaging integrated with instant massaging. The phone will automatically chose the cheapest method depending on what device the recipient is using.
Will that do to start or are you looking for something in particular.
He hit it on the head - you don't buy an iPhone for the hardware, not anymore. You buy it because the iPhone app store has more apps, and sometimes better apps. You used to buy it because the 30-pin dock connecter WAS the standard for clock radios, car audio connections, powered speakers...you could go to almost any hotel and know that you could usually plug your iPhone into the clock radio or even the audio system. Now you will need an adapter for a while, until the third parties catch up. But at least it will work. You also have almost any style of case or cover you might ever want. You buy it for the peace of mind that some Chinese hacker didn't write that cool wallpaper app just to harvest your passwords to every site you visit, because Apple QAs the AppStore. You buy it for the build quality. You buy it for the Apple customer and warrantee service, which frankly is shockingly good sometimes. You may get a 4" screen instead of a 4.5" screen, and pay 15 pounds for that 30-pin adapter that should cost 5, but Apple does seem to take care of it's customers and their devices with that extra profit margin.
And I say all of this as someone who currently carries a BB Bold 9900 - but I do have an iPad for all those apps. NOW, I know I will get a few hundred down votes for writing this, but how many factual, point by point responses will I get?
".you could go to almost any hotel and know that you could usually plug your iPhone into the clock radio or even the audio system. "
Do the research, the Apple Lightning - to - 30-pin adapters DO NOT support video or iPod out...so you will get NO AUDIO through the speakers. The new connector is all digital and will require speakers to basically have a small computer in them to perform the D/A.
As far as I can make out, the connector will contain a DAC... Apples website says something like "Have some existing kit with the old 30 pin connector? No problem, simply use a converter!* *Not suitable for all 30 pin accessories. No support for iPod Out or iPod Video"
Suggesting that audio docks will work with the connector. Since the slide at the Apple event explicitly stated this new nine pin connector is completely digital, one then assumes the converter will contain a DAC. But let's wait until iFixit rip one open to see.
iPhone5 first 4G phone, you are kidding of course.
I think you might find that everyone else has already produced 4G phones, and i believe that currently Apple is being screwed by HTC as HTC own the US patent for connecting to a 4G network.
EE has announced the first 4G devices that will be offered on the new network this year. They are the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, the HTC One XL (a 4G version of the One X) and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE.
It's a nice phone. I like the fact that they've beveled the edge so if you drop it the glass isn't always the first thing to hit the floor and shatter. Hopefully they've also fixed any signal issues once and for all, although from the pics it looks like they are still using the same antenna concept.
Going a bit bigger and 16:9 is a good idea, it matches what everyone else is doing and most of the content that people will be viewing even if it does upset a few of the fans of the 4:3 screen (if they don't backtrack and deny they ever said anything of the sort).
4G is obviously a must-have these days for a top-end phone.
NFC should have been in there, and it is always funny reading comments all over the place by Apple fans that say any feature missing is not needed! (Typing this while eating my lunch which I paid for with a wave of my phone.)
A good solid upgrade, but no spark!
The same phone running Android would be adored here. I mean, what's wrong with it? Classy case in design and material, very fast hardware, light, thin, great display, fine camera...
Nowadays I think iOS is somewhat stale, yes. The hardware is great though. Two years ago I very nearly bought a Galaxy S and then got an iPhone 4 just because it felt much better. I can't even THINK of using a Galaxy S1 today, it's very much a phone of the past and trying to sell it now would make a very disappointing experience.
Where was getting at? Anyway, nice phone, stale OS. I'm not sure I would commit to another year or two with iOS. But I'm also not buying an expensive plastic phone either. Give me a Lumia running Jelly Been already!
No, it wouldn't, not if the same design (almost literally) had been released for the previous 2 versions and the only improvements were basically the same improvements as in the previous two models (faster, more RAM). Given this one is slightly taller and has iOS6 (but isn't the 4/4S going to get iOS6 too? negating the software benefit of an upgrade.)
I just today read the new Nexus is expected to be almost the same (spec wise) as the Galaxy Nexus (which I have) to which I gave a similar 'meh' to. They too will suffer the same software indifference when the next version of Android comes out.
That said, if you're coming to the end of a contract and own a 4/4S and do want a current device, why not upgrade if money is not an issue. For myself, I'd rather keep the 4S and lower my price plan - which is what I'll be doing if the next Nexus is a meh device compared to the Galaxy Nexus. No more 2 year contract and I can buy a handset when one that grabs my attention is released.
People who pay to get out of an existing contract or buy this because it's got a 5 in the model number, we'll a fool and his money.
I love reading your opinions on the iphones, pods, laptops etc. it appears that engineers & coders love android phones, & PC's graphic designers & artists like iphones & Mac's (that should start another row lol)
All my phones have been white but I will get the second gen or "S" version only because the company pays for them, and my contract runs out when the "S" version arrives.
For years I could not get my mobile to connect with my apple computer, it was like no phone manufacturer was interested, thank you apple as i now have a phone which I can use without my laptop. I dont believe that there is a android program to connect to my mac? (funny, I've never looked as the iphone came first lol)
Why black? Thats easy, Steve Jobs is dead and it will be my tribute to him for making my life that bit better.
"I dont believe that there is a android program to connect to my mac?"
That's because Android has always been aware of this little thing called networks and the Internet and doesn't need to be connected via a physical cable to transfer data or synchronise.
You may have noticed Apple catching up in this department too with iCloud.
Engineers liked PCs over Macs from the eighties because the Macs didn't have suitable expansion ports, amongst many other reasons. Graphic designers have always been a market in which Macs have held on to to, from the outset- the GUI in Macs made WYSIWYG DTP a possibility, and then conveniences such as FireWire for scanners and the ability to colour match from screen to printer were handy, too. Using the same kit as your clients, suppliers and printing bureau is a convenience in itself.
Firewire helped Apple.... The first iPod was FireWire (and hence, more or less, Mac only) at a time most PCs only had USB1, and I was still faffing around with ZIP disks.
Phone form factors:
brick brick brick integrated antenna! brick brick slidey brick
then (courtesy of startac/moto)
clamshell clamshell move the hinge! clamshell clamshell
then (apple)
slab slab slab slab slab
Isn't it time for someone new to come along? Not to say that we aren't making progress in increments (just like, say, the blackberry was an improvement on the nokia communicator) but it's hardly disruptive. This parade of my glass slab is better than yours is so 2011.
Will someone please explain to me why Apple refuses to use a microUSB connector? Seriously, I don't get it. If you're going to change connectors and there's an established industry standard why would you not switch to it? Why build another proprietary one and then have to make adapters to be in compliance with EU requirements?
The simple fact is that the micro-USB standard was originally designed as a power adapter, not for digital audio. It can be done using it, but that is a non-standard implementation in itself. It is also a "one-way" connector, forcing you to find out which way to plug it in, where as Lightening is fine no matter which side goes where. Most importantly, the micro-USB connector is not robust enough to allow a proper standing or propped _dock_ connection - it is too flimsy to support the device. And that is what sets the iPhone apart from most Android phones - the huge array of docks, in clock radios, powered speakers, etc. Sure, the third parties will have to re-engineer for Lightening, and consumers will have to upgrade or use an adapter. But at least it should physically support the device a lot better than a micro-USB. In my last phone (a corp Blackberry), the micro-USB connector gave out in less than a year, physically bent beyond repair from my frequent plugging and unplugging. So, micro-USB is a "standard", but it isn't a good one, for a number of reasons.
At least it was the microUSB plug that failed, and not the micro USB female part of your phone... I did read that was by design, and a reasonable decision it was too. That said:
The micoUSB 3 plug is a mess - looks like it came with a Sony Ericsson phone from 2004... it is basically a microUSB 2 plug with an extra bit bolted on the side. So you can't even use a micro USB 3 plug to charge or connect to a USB 2 device... So it is bigger and less elegant than it was before, still not reversible, not backwards-compatible, still liable to scratch whatever you plug it into and also not suitable for just slotting a device onto, dock style.
Some twit has accused FutureShock of being a shill... Why? All he has done is to point out the shortcomings that we, as non-Apple users, have experienced first hand.
Apple have produced a good connector. Now, how can it be brought about that other device makers start putting some thought into the same issue, ideally as a standard? Or maybe this brave new world of near-field data and wireless charging will render the question moot within a couple of years.... your answers on a postcard, please.
COme on people.... Apple designs LIES, as well as HYPE to be at the forefront of the public. AND the press buys it. the apple 5 jesus phone is NOT in the top 5 thinest.
apple wants to have it ALL their way. STEAL XEROX IP. BLUDGEON HTC by tying up product in USA's CUSTOMS for weeks. WHY? SOme frivilous patent that was later rules invalid.
BUT!!! Apple trounces all OVER HTC's LTE patent. THEN WHINGES to the court about the way HTC uses HTC's OWN patent!!!!
WIll ALL you ANDROID OEM's EVER get together. Put together a LEGAL DREAM TEAM. TROUNCE this troubling bully, so the market can decide what we want. In a FAIR capitalist fight???? Apple... YOU are epitome of The SMART. SPOILED. UBER-RICH. BULLY!!!!! DETESTABLE
Indeed, anybody who claims that Apple products are expensive hasn't had the pleasure of reselling them later. I have bought and sold several used Apple products and lose very little money doing so. Actually I have made money reselling a couple of black plastic MacBooks.
Meanwhile I have a couple of desktop PCs that are still pretty current but I would like to sell them and am getting zero interest on Craigslist...
I gather that this phone will use the new nano size SIM
I've seen a photo which suggests this fits in a little tray for insertion into the phone
That little tray looks to be coincidentally very close to 15 x 12 mm, the size of a micro SIM
Why didn't they ditch all the rigmarole about a new size, all the time lobbying, the tooling, the networks having to order them, and just design a system in which just the SIM is pushed in without a tray holding it, like various other phone manufacturers have?
I don't see how they've saved any volume inside the phone compared to using that alternative and simpler approach with a micro SIM.
These releases are always interesting for the whining of the android fanbois. "Oh we had that 36 years ago!" etc.
For example, apparently some androids have been running 4G here in the UK on the non-existant EE 4G LTE network for quite some time. Numerous android users have been using the widely available (sarcasm intended) NFC functions of their phones for eons.
The reality is that Apple is a technology enabler. EE worked overtime to get their network ready for the iphone 5 launch and will piggyback on that success to attain customer churn from their competitors. Apple have stated that NFC is not there yet so why waste space to include it?
Obviously I stand by for flaming from the android hordes already running on LTE and using NFC to make their lige easier on a daily basis. And of course, sporting an 86" screen!
iPhone was great! Not anymore, simple as that.
Every pikey, lowlife, slutty, reject and their dog has one now.
So when I see you with an iPhone I can only assume that you to are a pikey........
The positive status boost you so craved, was satisfied with iPhone, and made you feel better. Unfortunately, that status has diminished into "you PIKEY" because every other PIKEY has one.
iPhone 5 aint gonna help any either, in fact it's goning to be worse still.
My HTC One S is only .2 of a millimetre "thicker" and has a considerably bigger screen. Plus with Android CM10 Jelly Bean it's pretty darn good. I'll be sticking with that thanks.
Oh, and to the author of the article, not sure if anyone else pointed this out but there's a picture on the front of the 30 pin dock so you know which way it goes and on every USB device in the world there's a little picture of three arrow type things on the top to show you which way up it goes. Idiot.
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