iPhone 5 review
It now detects faces and auto-focuses in video and allows you to capture stills while taking video. The video-compression algorithm has also improved, reducing the file-size of footage without any discernible reduction in quality, and making for friendlier email attachments.
Low-light image capture improvement was also discussed in the Keynote but we still experienced a fair bit of grain in our testing. The major improvement is with the front camera, which has been upgraded to 720p video, making FaceTime and Skype chats much clearer. Still shots are captured at 1.2MP, so not exactly archive-worthy.
The new Panorama mode is intuitive and produces great results. It doesn’t capture in landscape orientation, which feels counter-intuitive, but the speed at which it processes and pops out a pretty, panoramic shot is impressive.
Though, even with the wider screen, you still have to zoom right in to see what you’ve captured. And while competing phones have had this feature for a while, if anything’s going to be the new Instagram over the coming months, this is it.
Flyover, turn-by-turn navigation, Passbook, PhotoStream sharing, FaceTime over cellular, VIP Mailboxes, Facebook integration, Do Not Disturb, improved Siri, pre-determined text replies to phone calls, the list goes on.
With the improved A6 processor now powering the visuals, our finger points straight at it, but it’s with new apps that we’ll really see the power of the chip take hold. Real Racing 3 (or any other A6-optimised game) wasn’t available when penning this review, so we’ll have to wait for developers to do their thing before witnessing any major power increase.
Build
The chassis because that is the only distinct visible change to
differentiate it from its two previous family members. In hand the first thing
you’ll notice is the weight, it’s the lightest iPhone ever.
First off, you're going to be shocked at how light this phone is. It's the lightest iPhone, even though it's longer and has a bigger screen. After a few days with it, the iPhone 4S will feel as dense as lead. At 112g, it’s 20% daintier than the iPhone 4S, 16% less butch than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and 14% lighter than the HTC One X. Reducing the SIM to weency, or ‘nano’, size has helped, minutely, as has making the shell out of anodised aluminium.
The brace of glass strips adorning the top and bottom of the rear give both the black/slate and white/silver models a premium feel but are actually employed to allow an uninterrupted phone signal.
First off, you're going to be shocked at how light this phone is. It's the lightest iPhone, even though it's longer and has a bigger screen. After a few days with it, the iPhone 4S will feel as dense as lead. At 112g, it’s 20% daintier than the iPhone 4S, 16% less butch than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and 14% lighter than the HTC One X. Reducing the SIM to weency, or ‘nano’, size has helped, minutely, as has making the shell out of anodised aluminium.
The brace of glass strips adorning the top and bottom of the rear give both the black/slate and white/silver models a premium feel but are actually employed to allow an uninterrupted phone signal.
Despite Keynote claims, the 7.6mm-deep iPhone 5
isn’t the thinnest smartphone in the world – the Huawei Ascend P1 S, Oppo Finder and ZTE Athena are all sub
7mm – but when the depth is combined with the weight, it feels sufficiently
waif-like in the hand.
Of course we want our mobile tech to be light and lithe, but what some people would now say that” we’ve loved about previous iGenerations is the weighty, industrial feel, the security of feeling something solid in your pocket” (no jokes) and knowing that, if it takes a knock, it’s not going to shatter into a billion plastic pieces.
Of course we want our mobile tech to be light and lithe, but what some people would now say that” we’ve loved about previous iGenerations is the weighty, industrial feel, the security of feeling something solid in your pocket” (no jokes) and knowing that, if it takes a knock, it’s not going to shatter into a billion plastic pieces.
Screen: The four-inch screen, is Apple’s belated nod to the industry trend
for bigger displays, and means the iPhone 5 now stands a proud 123.8mm tall –
width remains the same at 58.6mm. The extra screen real-estate is welcome, though smaller-handed iPhone users
might struggle to reach the standby button with a forefinger while holding it
in a natural position and the power button was still be a little out of reach .
The screen size lengthening is subtle, but, like the Retina Display, you're
going to have a hard time going back once you've used it. The extra space adds
a lot to document viewing areas above the keyboard, landscape-oriented video
playback (larger size and less letterboxing), and home-page organizing (an
extra row of icons/folders). Who knows what game developers will dream up, but
odds are that extra space on the sides in landscape mode will be handily used
by virtual buttons and controls.
Camera
The rear iSight camera remains impressive, taking great pictures in bright conditions. There’s a bigger virtual camera capture button and video stabilisation seems to have improved.It now detects faces and auto-focuses in video and allows you to capture stills while taking video. The video-compression algorithm has also improved, reducing the file-size of footage without any discernible reduction in quality, and making for friendlier email attachments.
Low-light image capture improvement was also discussed in the Keynote but we still experienced a fair bit of grain in our testing. The major improvement is with the front camera, which has been upgraded to 720p video, making FaceTime and Skype chats much clearer. Still shots are captured at 1.2MP, so not exactly archive-worthy.
The new Panorama mode is intuitive and produces great results. It doesn’t capture in landscape orientation, which feels counter-intuitive, but the speed at which it processes and pops out a pretty, panoramic shot is impressive.
Though, even with the wider screen, you still have to zoom right in to see what you’ve captured. And while competing phones have had this feature for a while, if anything’s going to be the new Instagram over the coming months, this is it.
iOS 6
The iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6 as standard. But, at this point it’s difficult to see where the unique differences are between it running on an iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.Flyover, turn-by-turn navigation, Passbook, PhotoStream sharing, FaceTime over cellular, VIP Mailboxes, Facebook integration, Do Not Disturb, improved Siri, pre-determined text replies to phone calls, the list goes on.
Performance
Everything feels slightly slicker when navigating the phone. Apps appear to load quicker, video feels a touch smoother, video and image processing is definitely faster.With the improved A6 processor now powering the visuals, our finger points straight at it, but it’s with new apps that we’ll really see the power of the chip take hold. Real Racing 3 (or any other A6-optimised game) wasn’t available when penning this review, so we’ll have to wait for developers to do their thing before witnessing any major power increase.
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| from anandtech.com |
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