iPhone 5

iPhone 5

iphone

The iPhone 5 is a touchscreen smartphone designed and manufactured by Apple. It succeeds the iPhone 4S, and is the 6th generation of the iPhone. It was released in the United States on September 21st, 2012. It is made by Apple Inc., which is the world’s 3rd largest mobile phone maker and second-largest information technology company (ranked by revenue). It is best known for iPhone smartphones, iPod music players, Mac computers, and iPad tablets.

Key Information

The iPhone 5 can play music, television shows, movies, podcasts, ebooks, and audiobooks, and can sort its media library by artists, songs, albums, playlists, videos, genres, podcasts, composers, and audiobooks. Like the iPhone 4S, it has Siri, which allows users to use the phone with spoken commands. Siri has the ability to launch apps, dictate Twitter and Facebook updates, make restaurant reservations, provide sports statistics and schedules, and retrieve movie reviews. Siri can also send text messages, or users can use the voice assistant which converts speech to text. The voice control feature can also be used to play songs in a playlist, identify a track, or find specific artists. The iPhone 5 also offers a Do Not Disturb Feature, which allows users to set what calls and alerts get through while you are sleeping or in a meeting. There are many different ways to purchase an iPhone 5. The first way is through the Apple store. Users can purchase an unlocked iPhone 5 and pick a cell phone carrier afterwards. The unlocked iPhone 5 is very expensive: the 16 GB model costs $699.00, the 32 GB model costs $799.00, and the 64 GB model costs $899.00. The second way is to go through a cell phone carrier, like AT&T. AT&T offers the iPhone 5 at a significantly cheaper price, but they lock you into a contract (typically 2 years) meaning you will not be eligible to upgrade to the next generation iPhone until your contract is over.

 

Tech Specs

The iPhone 5 is offered in two different colors: White & Silver or Black & Slate. It has 3 different capacities: 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB. As the capacity increases, so does the phone. The dimensions of the iPhone 5 are as followed: height – 4.87 inches, width – 2.31 inches, depth – 0.30 inches, weight – 3.95 ounces. The iPhone 5 features a 4-inch diagonal widescreen with a multi-touch display. It supports multiple languages and characters. It has a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which allows for the following: 8 hours of talk time, 225 hours of standby time, 8 hours of internet use on 3G and LTE, and 10 hours of Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video playback, and 40 hours of audio playback. To synch with iTunes, the iPhone 5 requires a Mac: OS X v10.6.8 or later, PC: Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP Home, and iTunes 10.7 or later.

 

Pros

  • The iPhone 5 is extremely fast – significantly faster than the iPhone 4S and the 3rd generation iPad
  • It is very light (3.95 ounces) and fits great in your pocket
  • The FaceTime HD camera and the rear camera are more refined and clearer
  • The speaker is louder and phone calls sound much better
  • Battery life is significantly improved
  • It has a larger screen than previous generations, which allows for more icons on the home screen, better viewing for movies, and more navigation options
  • It also offers 4G LTE connectivity, which delivers data extremely fast

 

Cons

  • The biggest con is the price – an unlocked iPhone 5 is required to avoid being locked into a contract with AT&T or Verizon or another carrier, but it will cost over $600
  • The iPhone 5 has a different lightning port than its predecessors; this change will require you to purchase new iPhone docks and car chargers, which costs money and in general is annoying
  • Although the screen is larger, Android and Google phones still have bigger screens and have software benefits that Apple is meeting for the first time with the iPhone 5 (not an upgrade on the newest Android phones)
  • The aluminum backing is susceptible to scratches (a case is strongly recommended, which costs more money)
  • Some apps are not upgraded to fit the new screen increase, making them inaccessible