Apple’s iPhone 5 reviewed

Sounds good

The iPhone 5 comes with a new set of headphones, which provides improved sound over the original earbuds, especially for low and mid-frequency sounds.

Also, the iPhone has some extra smarts built in to improve in-call clarity.These include a three-microphone system with beam-forming, as well as noise cancelling technology. In use, calls sounded clear and sharp, even on a busy Sydney street with buses passing by.

Otherwise,  there is a main speaker at the bottom of the phone, next to the Lightning connector and bottom-mic. This is covered over with a new grille design, and has about the same volume, although a little more low-end depth, than the 4S.

 

Apple’s replacement to the ubiquitous 30-pin connector has drawn criticism, but it’s an obvious next step for a market that wants thinner, lighter phones. The new Lightning has allowed Apple to offer just this, and the connector certainly has a smarter design, is robust and can even support the phone’s weight when dangling from the cable.

The challenge is making the iPhone 5 play nicely with the huge accessory market that exists, including speaker docks, car connectors and the like. An adaptor will be available soon, which looks to be fairly long and narrow, and may mean that the iPhone could sit precariously in some 30-pin docks – even fall over – or be too long to fit into a confined space, such as with in-car connectors.

Until the 30-pin, and micro-USB adaptors are available, we’ll just need to wait and see.

Battery time

Apple claims that the iPhone 5 has improved battery life when compared to the iPhone 4S.

This is impressive considering that the new phone has a larger display, a faster processor and more power-hungry LTE compatibility – and is thinner and lighter. Apple expects the phone to deliver up to 8 hours of browsing on a cellular connection, up to 8 hours of talk time, and up to 10 hours of video playback time.

In the real-world, however, there are so many combinations of things that the phone could be doing that it’s difficult to know for sure what the battery’s limits are.

During our testing, and when used for LTE web browsing, viewing maps via the GPS, taking photos, downloading and playing an hour long HD video, plus a combination of voice calls and a few SMS messages, the 5 managed to last well over a day from a full charge, and ran out of puff at 11AM the following day.

iOS 6 on board

The iPhone 5 comes equipped with iOS 6, Apple’s latest update to its mobile operating system.

There are a number of improvements and new features, the most notable being a switch to Apple’s mapping system, a more ‘knowledgable’ Siri Personal Assistant, shared photo-streams, Passbook, Facebook integration and updates to Mail, Safari and other system applications. Many apps have been modified to support the longer 4 inch display, fitting more information on the screen than before.

Apple’s Maps are vector based, meaning they zoom and re-draw quickly and are easy to read. The Flyover feature, which provides a 3D view of major city centres around the globe, is deadset amazing, allowing you to look at buildings from nearly any angle, and give you a real sense of what it might look like if you were hovering over it with a helicopter. Turn by turn navigation is not available yet but Apple has confirmed that it will be available to Australians in October.

Another handy feature is the ability to automatically text a quick “I’m busy, I’ll call you back” message to callers that you don’t want to speak to, and the Do Not Disturb feature will dispatch all calls when you’re too busy to talk.

One feature that should be included in the new Safari, however, is a combined URL/Search pane, rather than keeping them separate. This would put Safari in line with the desktop version, and is available in the iOS version of Google Chrome.

Siri has also undergone some improvements, most notably she has access to restaurant reviews and locations, movie reviews and showings, and American sports scores. I did ask her about Australian footy scores, but Siri said “…sorry I don’t know about Australian football.”

Asking her where the nearest café is certainly works, but she could not give me show times for movies in my area.

Final thoughts

It’s true that this is an impressive phone. It does what you would expect a cutting edge smartphone to do.

Apple has done a magnificent job on the build, and delivers on its promises. But how does it compare to smartphones from HTC, Samsung, Nokia and Sony, all of which have many of the latest features including LTE, large displays, big brains and clever software?

The answer is that while these phones offer similar features, they deliver them in different ways. It’s like comparing Japanese cars with German cars – both offer similar features, engineering and performance, but deliver the driving experience differently, and which you prefer is up to your personal tastes.

The iPhone 5 is most certainly one of the best smartphones on the market, but whether it’s best for you, is a matter of personal choice. The iPhone 5 should not be considered in isolation however, and the combination of iOS6, iCloud, iTunes and the App Store should be taken into account.

With this in mind, Apple does offer the most consistent and comprehensive ecosystem available today – in terms of interface design as well as app and content partners. Add it all up, the iPhone is once again the phone to beat.