Is the iphone 5 better or could it been much better ?

Tim Cook has launched the iphone 5 on 12 May and this time the “hue and ha” was substantially missing. It was not surprising considering the actual phone was very close to all the leaked info abound in the web about a week to two before the official launch. Personally I find it strange that such leaks are around considering how tight Apple has a strong reign on its secrecy. Time for Tim Cook to investigate and plug all such loopholes in his apparently weakened security system ? Or could it be purposely leaked to keep up with the anticipation leading to the launch ??

In the iPhone 4s launch, we could hear groans about the unimpressive features of the iphone 4s against the iphone 4. But than people always forget about the ” unimpressive features”  and still flock to buy the iphone 4s which recorded 93 million units in 2011. Similarly reading the various websites and iphone forums the past 2 days,  I see the same trend. Seriously , users are never satisfied. As Chinese saying goes, give them an inch they want a foot. I view whatever improvements in the iphone 5 is noticeable/great and from a marketing point of view , more improved and newer features will be in the next upcoming version iphone 5S or iphone 6 !! If not, how else can Apple keep up the momentum to entice buyers to continue to upgrade ? Many analysts had forecasted  sales forecasts of the latest iPhone 5 to be easily doubled that of the iPhone 4s in the opening week at 6 million units.

As far as i see it, the iPhone 5 has substantial improvements to the current iPhone 4S :

– a bigger 4 inch display  which will offer 44% better color saturation compared to the old Retina display of IPhone 4s. It is now 1136 x 640 pixel resolution on the iPhone 5, compared to 960-by-640 resolution on the iPhone4S but with similar 326 ppi.  You can now  have 5 rows of icons vs 4 previously

– it is thinner by 18% and lighter by 20 %

– build quality and materials is reported to be finer and classier

– a faster and more efficient dual core A6 processor , 22% smaller but twice as fast as the older A5

– 1 GB or RAM vs 512 MB previously

– availability of 4G capability

– better camera though still remaining at 8-megapixel camera, but it’s 25 percent smaller and has better low-light performance, high-res panoramas (up to 28 megapixels), and improved noise reduction not offered on the 4S. It also takes pictures 40 percent faster

– claimed to have better battery life : on 4G, 10 hours web browsing vs 8 hours previously. Standby power of 225 hours versus 200 hours on the iPhone4s

– better audio quality with three microphones—front, back, and bottom—compared with just one on the bottom of the iPhone 4S

The only grouse of the iPhone 5 would be,  I’d say in the change of its connectivity option from the standard 30 pin port to a smaller 9 pin port ( now called Lightning) and to a smaller sim card – nano sim. One can buy an adapter for the connector for S$41 ( as found in Spore Apple Online site). However the nano sim is of a different construction in its gold connectors and is thinner , so cutting down to size from the micro sim card is not possible

In conclusion, I find the iPhone 5 do has substantial improvements . It will be a great substantial upgrade from present iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 users but still a good upgrade for iPhone 4S users. It could even be better but why offer it now – we will see it in later versions iPhone 5S or probably iPhone 6.

 

Tagged: iphone 5, iPhone5 vs iPhone 4s

Posted in: Apple iPhone