# The iPhone 5



## CaptainCool (Sep 12, 2012)

Well, it's offical: It's gonna suck :V

In all seriousness though, it really doesn't seem to be that innovative compared to the 4S and especially not compared to it's competitors. LTE? Already got that. 4 inch screen? We got even bigger displays on other phones.
They really didn't bring anything new to the table... For Apple fans who have a 4S it will be a nice upgrade but it really doesn't offer a whole lot for those who own a Galaxy S II or something like that.
And that screen... 1136x640? Really? It's a 16:9 display, why not bump it up to 1280x720? You know so that you can actually watch the HD videos that you took with your phone without having them scaled down?

They tried to catch up and failed. At least that's my opinion.

Also, and this is gonna be a big issue here in Germany, the phone supports 1800 mHz LTE connections only. Here in Germany we have three carriers that support LTE, but only one of them actually uses 1800 mHz. Awesome. Instant iPhone monopoly...

Oh well, enjoy your new 5th row of Icons on your homescreens, Apple fans! :V


----------



## kaskae (Sep 12, 2012)

CaptainCool said:


> Oh well, enjoy your new 5th row of Icons on your homescreens, Apple fans! :V



I WILL damn it!

I already sold my iPhone 4 earlier last month so I could pay for bills, and I get a free upgrade here in September... I'm sure I can hold off until this is released.

EDIT: Looked more into it, and a lot of things were added in iOS6 that I've been waiting for like Facetime over cell networks, snapshots while recording video, a better navigation program (the previous one was terrible), and a plethora of new call features that I know I'll take advantage of. Granted, a lot of these could be done through a software update on an iPhone 4 or 4S, but I love the new design of the 5. I'd like to have that extra screen space that I'm used to from my HTC Incredible.

What are everybody else's thoughts on it? It might just be the Apple fanboy in me dying for anything they put out. I'll admit it.


----------



## Runefox (Sep 12, 2012)

Actually, I thought the 4S was a flop compared to the major step forward the 4 was over the 3GS, and I think the iPhone 5, at least in some respects, is a big leap again.

For one, there's the processing power and battery life. The battery life is key here, since I regularly have to charge my Galaxy Nexus twice a day with about 3 hours of total screen-on time per charge (and no, nothing's running in the background; I had similar experiences with the Galaxy S II). Though I do have Jelly Bean, it also doesn't feel as responsive as my old iPhone 4 did, even overclocked. So having a much faster CPU with better battery life? Yes, please.

There's also the weight and size of it, which isn't terribly exciting except that the materials are rather quality compared to the plastic you get with most Android phones (the current flagship Galaxy S III included). The design is elegant, and it just plain looks good.

LTE has up until recently been more or less difficult to properly support, since there are a number of LTE standards (as you've found out the hard way in Germany) and carriers haven't been rolling it out at quite the rate you'd think. Though LTE phones have been available here for roughly a year, for example, we haven't had an LTE-capable network until around Christmas time last year (Well, Rogers had one a little earlier, but it was VERY restricted in area). Honestly, LTE up until recently was just a bullet point; Most phones were still using HSPA.

As for the screen, for the screen size, it's still 326 PPI, which is higher than most others on the market (actually, only a few LG phones and some others meet or exceed it). The physical dimensions of the screen obviate the need to run at a higher resolution simply because it's already higher in terms of PPI/DPI than most print. The difference between 1280x720 and 1136x640 would be virtually indistinguishable at this physical size, _especially_ for movie playback, since motion video is far easier to make 'look good' per a given resolution than a still image. (besides all that, console gamers still think their consoles are capable of doing 1080p, when in reality, most games run at equal to or less than 720p. They don't seem to notice, and that's on the big screen.)

And a little more about the screen - It's full sRGB this time around. Accurate colours and a wide gamut. You won't be getting that with pretty much any Android phone; AMOLED phones tend to be oversaturated and need to be tweaked by kernel parameter voodoo in order to be accurate, while most LCD Android phones have issues with colour banding and other wonderful issues (LG Optimus is an example). If you're taking pictures and videos, the iPhone has an advantage screen-wise.

Here's my biggest thing though: The phone is powerful, and the phone will be directly supported by every app developer who develop for iOS, and that'll be true for at least another couple years. The same is not true of ANY Android device. The level of fragmentation on the Android Play Store as far as compatibility goes is appalling, and so too is the fragmentation in the users of the OS. I'm running Jelly Bean, the latest version, on my Galaxy Nexus. Along with ICS users, I'm a *minority*. Most people are still running Gingerbread, and because of manufacturer differences, it may stay that way for some time. Even the latest and greatest Galaxy S III won't get Jelly Bean for several months at least. Combined with the retention of value that Apple devices have over time (my iPhone 4 16GB from a few years ago is _still_ worth not much less than the 1 year-old Galaxy Nexus I have on eBay), the iPhone is an awesome choice.


----------



## kaskae (Sep 12, 2012)

/claps

Pretty good post. I can agree with a lot of it. The battery life, from what I've experienced as both an iPhone and Android user, has been stellar in comparison to Android devices. My old HTC Incredible required two charge cycles a day, while my iPhone could handle the same strain and last at least two days on a single charge. That being said, I'm definitely a power user who pretty much relies on a phone for everything I do.

The phone's design is much better than the 4, in point I refer to the complete glass backing of the 4 compared to the newer, easier to maintain 5. I'll feel better about it's sturdiness, even though it will remain in it's case the moment I buy it, much like my old iPhone. The new display is definitely in competition with others in the market, and I noticed that about my iPhone 4 when I first got it: the screen wasn't much to brag about, even if it was a Retina display.

The only thing that really put me off about the iPhone has to be the new USB hookup method. They've dropped direct compatibility for the older 30-pin models (you can still buy an adapter to use them), and I guess it's going to take some getting used to.


----------



## Aden (Sep 12, 2012)

Not that excited. Awkward-looking form factor, no hardware features that haven't been done on other phones two years ago, and I'm not too big on having to buy adapters for everything. This seems like one of those releases where they get the uncomfortable changes out of the way to pave the road for some actual innovation later on.


----------



## Runefox (Sep 12, 2012)

I'll agree that there's not much innovation going on this time around, but it's a solid phone nonetheless. I don't really think the form factor will be awkward, though I do wish it were a bit bigger horizontally as well (others would disagree and wish it were smaller, which I guess is why they did it the way they did - With such a huge and scrutinizing consumer base, they can't really make too many changes without stepping on toes and driving customers away).


----------



## Captain Howdy (Sep 12, 2012)

It's underwhelming to say the least, and really doesn't feel like they tried that hard on it while messing up a lot of things. 

The few bonuses are cheaper pricing (sort-of), but that's due to not really upgrading the phone compared to the 4 or 4S, and they finally decided to make it out of a less-breakable material. 

It's stupidly long with a queer aspect ratio for its size, which still makes it a very tiny and underpowered phone compared to many others. It's going to be slower than the next wave of phones, and if the next wave does take on all its cores, then the '5' will be left in the dust. I'm also worried about the metal backing heating up, since iPhones have been known to _do_ that. 

I had no intentions of getting an iPhone, and if that's how they're going to play the game, then I feel sorry for those that do. The iPhone 5S (or whatever) will be out in less than 5 months I'm betting, and it'll probably have the upgraded hardware people were expecting the 5 to have.


----------



## kaskae (Sep 13, 2012)

ohmygod u guiz are jus mad cauz u don have 1!

All valid points. In terms of power in relation to the new wave of smartphones, Android-powered phones are going to surpass it fairly quick, but I've always preferred the UI of iOS over the others. It hasn't done me wrong before, and I've always enjoyed the performance of an iPhone over an Android: It's lasted me longer than any other phone I've owned, and I'll take longevity. That, and it's shiny. I like that.


----------



## Ley (Sep 13, 2012)

Mhm.. mhm... I know some of these words.


----------



## Aden (Sep 13, 2012)

Lastdirewolf said:


> The iPhone 5S (or whatever) will be out in less than 5 months I'm betting



They've always been more or less a year apart, even the 'update' models


----------



## Captain Howdy (Sep 13, 2012)

kaskae said:


> All valid points. In terms of power in relation to the new wave of smartphones, Android-powered phones are going to surpass it fairly quick, but I've always preferred the UI of iOS over the others. It hasn't done me wrong before, and I've always enjoyed the performance of an iPhone over an Android: It's lasted me longer than any other phone I've owned, and I'll take longevity. That, and it's shiny. I like that.



I'm still using my 2009 Droid (the original) and it works as great as it did back then. I'll be upgrading this year if the Maxx HD's come out. The iOS UI is alright, though without going into specifics, it is more or less the same as Android - So I've never been quite sure as to why people hate the Android interface so much.


----------



## kaskae (Sep 13, 2012)

Lastdirewolf said:


> I'm still using my 2009 Droid (the original) and it works as great as it did back then. I'll be upgrading this year if the Maxx HD's come out. The iOS UI is alright, though without going into specifics, it is more or less the same as Android - So I've never been quite sure as to why people hate the Android interface so much.



I'm a sucker for their fancy "web 2.0" styled gloss. It's so shiny.


----------



## Captain Howdy (Sep 13, 2012)

kaskae said:


> I'm a sucker for their fancy "web 2.0" styled gloss. It's so shiny.



You troll me well, and/or make me sick.


----------



## zachhart12 (Sep 13, 2012)

Don't have a smartphone.  Don't need a FOURTH computer kthxbye


----------



## Hinalle K. (Sep 13, 2012)

Just buy one and stiiiick with it

I've seen some people buying a new one every time a new version of it is released

Whyyyy?


----------



## drekian (Sep 13, 2012)

I find it quite funny, reading the comments on some of the Cnet articles about the iPhone, how many people feel the need to justify their liking of iOS by saying something along the lines of "I've tried Andriod and it sucks!" or "I've tried windows mobile and it sucks!"... instead of saying actual reasons why iOS is better. To me it feels like iPhone is starting to fall behind in terms of the features it offers for the cost. However, that will not stop them from selling nor change the fact that they're well built devices.

I'm an android user though, mostly because it was within my price range and it offered the features I wanted- including some things which iphone doesn't have.


----------



## zachhart12 (Sep 13, 2012)

Hinalle K. said:


> Just buy one and stiiiick with it
> 
> I've seen some people buying a new one every time a new version of it is released
> 
> Whyyyy?



Cuz they are morons


----------



## kaskae (Sep 13, 2012)

Lastdirewolf said:


> You troll me well, and/or make me sick.



I will sleep well tonight.



			
				zachhart12 said:
			
		

> Cuz they are morons



Hah.


----------



## drekian (Sep 13, 2012)

zachhart12 said:


> Cuz they are morons



...give them something called "credit" and the people will buy even if they don't actually have the money for it.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 13, 2012)

Runefox said:


> I'll agree that there's not much innovation going on this time around, but it's a solid phone nonetheless. I don't really think the form factor will be awkward, though I do wish it were a bit bigger horizontally as well (others would disagree and wish it were smaller, which I guess is why they did it the way they did - With such a huge and scrutinizing consumer base, they can't really make too many changes without stepping on toes and driving customers away).



That's why you sue everyone else 

It looks ok, it has the updates to be a competitive phone. I think while it's nice it has an LCD and sRGB gamut it seems a bit pointless in a sense since we're talking about a phone (course you don't want wild gamut) 

The thing I definitely agree about and my frustration with Android in general are the different flavors of OS and lack of updates for many phones. Imagine having a computer that wouldn't allow you to get updates until you wait for 2 things: Your carrier and phone manufacturer.

Windows 7 in this analogy wouldn't update, because you have to wait for Dell and Your ISP to give you the updates to your computer while people just figure out how to exploit your computer for everything. 


Phones have become very personal devices so it would be nice that they work on making updates easier. I know that's harder because well the damn phone makers keep making different form factors.


----------



## Aquin (Sep 14, 2012)

iphone 5 is gonna be such a flop that they will look into sueing another company to make the revenue they lost from the phone sales being weak and next to none. At least with Android you get a wide variety and its easy to make apps for it. A shame so many companies viciously develop for the worthless piles of junk that are apple phones and not as much for Android devices.


----------



## Runefox (Sep 14, 2012)

Aquin said:


> iphone 5 is gonna be such a flop that they will look into sueing another company to make the revenue they lost from the phone sales being weak and next to none. At least with Android you get a wide variety and its easy to make apps for it. A shame so many companies viciously develop for the worthless piles of junk that are apple phones and not as much for Android devices.


What world have you been living in? Apple didn't sue Samsung because their phones don't sell. You don't become one of the world's most valuable companies in history by having a product that doesn't sell; Otherwise, patent trolls would be the kings of the business world.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of Android, mainly because of the fractured ecosystem. If you were an Android developer, what would you develop for? The latest Android 4.1? 4.0? 3.x? Nope! Your biggest installed user base (and there are still "high end" devices being sold with it) is the 2 year old 2.3 Gingerbread. And it's not moving anywhere quickly. On top of that, you have platforms like Tegra (all 3 of them), Exynos, TI OMAP, and others with different quirks and rendering/processing capabilities, again severely limiting your audience depending on which you decide to develop for. A vast majority of Android devices are low-end feature phones, and most of them aren't going to be able to handle "iPhone-style" high end apps very well. Their beefier cousins handle them fine, but again, in different ways. Some handsets have bugs that others don't, some have bugs in certain versions of the OS that others don't in others. Some handsets have 720p screens. Others have 800x480 screens. Others still have wacky screen resolutions that don't really make much sense. Some handsets have two cores. Some have four. Some have one. Some have 512MB of RAM. Some have 1GB. Some say they have 1GB but actually have 768MB. Some phones have fast internal storage. Some phones have almost no internal storage and rely on SD cards that are a whole other kettle of fish as far as speed goes, and furthermore need special programming to work from the SD card. It's a big huge clusterfuck.

On iOS? You have to support one platform. One screen resolution (the iPhone 3->4 / iPad 2->3 change was a 2x jump; The iPhone 4->5 change is just a few lines of pixels) One series of chips. Three lines of devices to test on. One operating system version to worry about. Consistent storage speed. That makes for easier app development, better app quality and quality testing, and overall better apps. The UI is consistent across most apps, and the experience is just better.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 15, 2012)

The form factor is one of the reasons. If phones had a similar resolution to iPhone of course thee would be more lawsuits. There may be a fanbase with iPhone but there is a lot of customers that simply want a smartphone. So for the longest time you had low end phones for places like Boost mobile etc. Keep in mind iPhone for quite a while was an AT&T exclusive phone. During that time the market exploded with smartphones. 

The patent wars were part of the reason for the fractured ecosystem.


----------



## ADF (Sep 15, 2012)

Mobile phone companies these days seem to have traded innovation for "sue the competition so they cannot compete" like we are seeing between Samsung and Apple a lot. Even Motorola has been hit by the "compete by suing over patents" mentality, having their new products banned from Germany.

The whole market is tip toeing around, afraid to do anything interesting lest they infringe on some obscure patent.

I prefer to upgrade infrequently, so this current generation of phones are of little interest to me. The next perhaps.


----------



## Runefox (Sep 15, 2012)

Arshes: While that's true, the problem mainly lies in that there's no coherence in the way Android manufacturers produce phones. Google doesn't give any guidelines to OEM's for a minimum of spec or a certain minimum screen resolution or even aspect ratio. There's no impetus for manufacturers to upgrade their phones from their archaic versions of Android, and users suffer because of it.

Patent wars aren't confined to the smartphone arena, and Motorola and Google both hold a lot of patents that are likely going to be used to sling mud in the other direction. There are also non-mobile companies starting to poach the Android app market with patent suits (Laminar Research's X-Plane and Mojang's Minecraft Pocket Edition are both examples of having been sued by Uniloc, a patent troll).


----------



## CaptainCool (Sep 19, 2012)

Got my hands on a demo unit today.
And you know what? It's an amazing device. Ultra smooth UI, the size is freaking perfect and it looks really classy as well.
It's definitely overpriced compared to other phones like the S III but it's definitely a great phone.


----------



## zachhart12 (Sep 19, 2012)

CaptainCool said:


> Got my hands on a demo unit today.
> And you know what? It's an amazing device. Ultra smooth UI, the size is freaking perfect and it looks really classy as well.
> It's definitely overpriced compared to other phones like the S III but it's definitely a great phone.



As the polish grocery store gets sued into the ground.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 19, 2012)

That's why Apple has a lot of cash reserves...


----------



## Batty Krueger (Sep 19, 2012)

You can't use adobe flash on apple products.  That's one hell of a turn off for a lot of people.
Ill stick to my galaxy3 thanks. It blows the iPhone5 out of the water.


----------



## zachhart12 (Sep 19, 2012)

d.batty said:


> You can't use adobe flash on apple products.  That's one hell of a turn off for a lot of people.
> Ill stick to my galaxy3 thanks. It blows the iPhone5 out of the water.



*is pissed he got an Ipad...*


----------



## Batty Krueger (Sep 19, 2012)

Oops forgot the S.


----------



## Judge Spear (Sep 19, 2012)

Meh, I stay away from Apple products for the most part. I'd get an iPad, but only because of DoDonPachi. Yes, I would blow $300+ for a single game.
iPhone 5 doesn't seem to do much else from it's predecessors so it's not a big deal to me. Now that Galaxy III S was amazing when my friend showed me his unit. Fits my preferences perfectly for modern smart phones


----------



## Batty Krueger (Sep 19, 2012)

Yeah I just got my galaxyS3 a week ago.  Soooo amazing considering I was using the first motarola droid since it first came out.


----------



## NewYork (Sep 19, 2012)

Still rocking my iPhone 1st generation. I mean why not? For people who look at the slightly bigger/thinner iPhone 5 and are all "Dang, the cover to my iPhone 1-4 won't fit this one." Apple will just be all "EXACTLY!"

When I buy an electronic, I tend to get one that will last me and not buy a newer version. For all we know the iPhone 6 will feature a taser app with a Swiss Army knife extension.


----------



## Runefox (Sep 19, 2012)

d.batty said:


> You can't use adobe flash on apple products.  That's one hell of a turn off for a lot of people.
> Ill stick to my galaxy3 thanks. It blows the iPhone5 out of the water.


Adobe dropped Flash. Android isn't getting any more updates, and 4.1 Jelly Bean users already haven't got access to it. When your Galaxy S3 (finally, if ever) gets access to Jelly Bean, you'll lose Flash as soon as you do a factory reset after upgrading.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 19, 2012)

HTML5 is better anyways


----------



## Judge Spear (Sep 19, 2012)

NewYork said:


> Still rocking my iPhone 1st generation. I mean why not? For people who look at the slightly bigger/thinner iPhone 5 and are all "Dang, the cover to my iPhone 1-4 won't fit this one." Apple will just be all "EXACTLY!"
> 
> When I buy an electronic, I tend to get one that will last me and not buy a newer version. For all we know the iPhone 6 will feature a taser app with a Swiss Army knife extension.



Actually, you're WAY off. Haven't you heard about the new iPhone 20?


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 19, 2012)

I know it's "Android vs iOS" but man, I feel sorry for people losing the Google Maps in latest iOS. Google Maps is probably one of the most useful features I get, specially since it's kind enough to provide even transit information when I'm out and about.


----------



## greg-the-fox (Sep 20, 2012)

I would get an iPhone just because I'm too attached to iTunes to switch to something else. (even though it annoys the crap out of me sometimes) Whenever the 4s is free maybe I'll get it. I really like the camera on that one. I don't care about getting the latest version and at least you can update the OS the day it comes out unlike Android, where if you have an older phone you're stuck with the old OS until they get around to updating it (eventually). I would really like any smartphone at all but the plans are all just too ridiculously expensive, and that should be the real debate, not Apple vs Android.


----------



## CannonFodder (Sep 20, 2012)

XoPachi said:


> Actually, you're WAY off. Haven't you heard about the new iPhone 20?


I'm waiting for the new Iphone 101-


----------



## greg-the-fox (Sep 20, 2012)

I don't get these jokes, they would only make sense if Apple released an iPhone 6 that was even _longer_ than this one. That's how patterns work people. You can't establish a pattern with just two things (one change), you need at least 3 (two changes)

And anyway, people always complained that the iPhone didn't have a 16:9 aspect ratio, and now it does and people complain that it's longer. Make up your damn minds.


----------



## Arshes Nei (Sep 20, 2012)

I still love Samsung's camera even more. Beating out my friend's iPhones easily and they own the 4's
I don't see the problem with the update of the screen. It was needed. I did laugh though at the longcat one.


----------



## CaptainCool (Sep 20, 2012)

Arshes Nei said:


> I know it's "Android vs iOS" but man, I feel sorry for people losing the Google Maps in latest iOS. Google Maps is probably one of the most useful features I get, specially since it's kind enough to provide even transit information when I'm out and about.



Yeah, that is a fair point. Google maps is awesome and as fast as Apples own new thing is it simply doesn't offer you all the street view info. On ZDNet some people were reporting that their own town isn't even on the map


----------



## Captain Howdy (Sep 20, 2012)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/ios-6-maps-arent-just-bad-theyre-dangerous

So it looks like the new map-thing is even less useful/powerful than the previous out-dated Google Maps app that the iPhones had.


----------

