09 December 2012

Apple iPhone 5 Review

Apple iPhone 5 Review

For all the hype about the bigger display and the taller form factor, the iPhone 5 feels brilliant in the hand. The basic design remains pretty much like the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, with the slightly elongated form factor. We really mean it when we say that photographs don’t do it justice, and you need to hold it in all its real glory to understand all the excitement about it. The shape is exactly the same, just slimmer, with the four rounded edges and the metal strip running around the sides as a frame.

Features & Specifications
The biggest issue I have with the iPhone 5 is the switch to the nano-SIM. As if the micro-SIM was anyways too big, this switch doesn’t make any logical sense. Compounding to the problem are our hapless mobile operators who either have no idea what a nano-SIM is, or do not help. For example, the Airtel customer care on the phone has no idea about this SIM. Walk into an Airtel Store, and they tell you straightaway that they’ll cut a nano-SIM for us, but will be only available on a post-paid connection. They also refused to chop the SIM of an existing Airtel prepaid connection as well.
Finally, to test the iPhone 5, I had to resort to ordering a nano-SIM cutter on ebay.in and chopped down one of the existing test SIM cards we had. Just to clarify, we used a Vodafone SIM card when the dust settled. This is quite a pain to implement. But, as pointed out by one consumer, what happens if my SIM card suddenly malfunctions when I am travelling to some city within India, where you may not necessarily get a nano-SIM? And we have to agree with that logic, considering these SIMs are not easily available even in the metro cities! Apple should consider the global scenario before deploying any new ideas. They may be able to ensure the operators in the U.S. offer the necessary services, but what about the rest of the world? Surely this is something to ponder for the wizards in Cupertino. And the mobile service operators in India surely need to do some introspection, with shame writ large on their faces.

The hardware on the iPhone 5 is one of the bright points, which ensure that the nano-SIM related gloom feels worth it at the end! The processor is an Apple A6 dual-core clocking at 1.2GHz and is paired with 1GB of RAM. The storage capacity options are 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. We tested the 16GB one, in white colour.
Apple increased the display size on the iPhone 5 to 4-inches with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels. Compared to the iPhone 4S, this is a rather considerable upgrade. The 4S had a 3.5-inch display with a 640 x 960 pixel display. The display quality does look considerably better on the iPhone 5, in a side-by-side comparison with the 4S. The colour looks more vivid, the blacks look deeper and the overall picture looks more lifelike. The iPhone 4S’s display was the best at its time, but the latest iteration of the iPhone display is quite far ahead of the predecessor. With the 16:9 aspect ratio, this phone is better for multimedia consumption. There will be no black bars at the top and the bottom of the widescreen format videos. The crispness of the display and the sharpness of the text is pretty much the same as the 4S. Also, the iPhone 5’s display is certainly reflecting ambient light, and offers slightly better viewing angles. Also, the 4S’s display seems less bright than the iPhone 5, at the exact same brightness levels.
People had often claimed that Apple will not increase the display size of the iPhone, and that 3.5-inches were optimum. However, the increased display size on the iPhone is actually making the experience more comfortable, at least when you are consuming data. On a web page, there is more information in one screen, and you scroll through the pages quicker. Unfortunately, since the iOS has not been tweaked to use the extra screen space for any additional features, which is pretty much about the apps getting more real estate. Hopefully, this will change with the next iOS update. 

Processor: Apple A6 dual core 1.2GHz
RAM: 1GB
Display: 4-inch (1136 x 640 pixels)
Graphics: PowerVR SGX543MP3
Storage: 16GB (also available in 32GB and 64GB)
Camera: 8MP iSight
Battery: 1440mAh
Platform: Apple iOS 6







 

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