September 12, 2012 – At a special event in San Francisco, Apple unveiled the much-anticipated iPhone 5, the thinnest and lightest iPhone to date. With a completely redesigned unibody exterior made of aluminium and glass, it features the stunning new 4-inch Retina display.
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The iPhone 5 is the thinnest smartphone in the world, claims Apple, now only 7.6mm thin, its anodised aluminium body is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 weighs just 112 grams. Amazing miniaturisation feats with the internal components.
In true Apple style, the design displays incredible level of precision, fit and finish.
The elongated body, now houses a brand new 4-inch Retina display, packing even more pixels than its predecessor (1136 x 640 pixel resolution at 326ppi). Apple made the iPhone 5 taller not wider in line with its belief that it is easier to use with one hand.
The new display is now 16:9 ratio with a 800:1 contrast ratio. The familiar Corning Gorilla Glass has a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating, just as the previous iPhones did.
In the processor department, Apple surprised with the inclusion of the all-new Apple-design A6 processor. The A6 chip is 22 percent smaller, hence takes up less power but offers twice the CPU and graphics performance of the A5 found on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4.
Apple did not disclose what’s packed into the A6 processor but Anandtech seems to think it uses ARM Cortex A15 cores (dual). An impressive chip with a 128-bf FPU engine like the Qualcomm S4 (Krait) that beats higher clocked quad-core chips. The A6 is manufactured by Samsung. Specs to be confirmed though.
iPhone 5 supports ultrafast wireless standards including LTE* and DC-HSDPA. Apple has pioneered a unique single-radio LTE solution that provides blazing 4G speeds while fitting perfectly into the new remarkably thin design. iPhone 5 features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support for a wireless experience up to 150 Mbps. iPhone 5 also comes with Bluetooth 4.0.
The iSight camera in the iPhone 4S was one of Apple’s most touted features. While retaining its megapixel rating of 8, the new camera is completely redesigned with better optical performance. The camera is also 25 percent smaller than the one in the iPhone 4S. It features a new sapphire crystal lens cover that is thinner and more durable than standard glass. Crystal clear images.
Apple didn’t just bring hardware enhancements to the iSight camera but also introduced new features. Firstly the new panorama feature lets you capture panorama features of images up to 28 megapixels. Oh yes. Not sure how long the A6 takes to process this, but impressive indeed.
New videos features include improved stabilisation, video face detection of up to 10 faces. And for the first time, the new camera allows for still photos to be taken while video is being recorded. Awesome.
The front facing FaceTime HD camera makes FaceTime captures high res images and records 720p HD video. Nice.
As seen in leaked images and specs, the iPhone 5 features the all-new Lightning connector – a smaller, all-digital 30-pin connector with an adaptive interface. Adaptive because it’s smart enough to detect the type of accessory you plug in only uses the required signals.
For those worried about connectivity to legacy devices, Apple has a Lightning-to-30-pin adapter for $29 (RM100 approx)
The new iPhone 5 has enhanced audio features with new tri-microphones with new noise-cancelling technology. And, as seen in leaked pictures, the all-new Apple EarPods, 3-years in the making. Apple claims it is a breakthrough in fit, durability and acoustic quality. Looks good I must say, but I’ll just on acoustics when I get my hands on a pair.
And most importantly, the iPhone 5 will come with iOS 6, the latest and greatest iOS release ever, with over 200 new user features. iOS 6 software will be available on Wednesday, September 19 as a free software update.
Pricing & Availability
iPhone 5 comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model. iPhone 5 will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 5 will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 21, and customers can pre-order their iPhone 5 beginning Friday, September 14. iPhone 4S will also be available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 4 will be available for free with a two-year contract.iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
We expect the iPhone 5 to be available in Malaysia through all major carriers in late October, just like the iPhone 4S. With each iteration of iPhones, Apple has really pushed availability much, much quicker than yesteryears.* LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks.
