Apple’s A6-powered iPhone 5 gets the Techoo World treatment as
we benchmark its twin processing cores, its triple-core graphics engine,
and its more vibrant display. Battery life testing and Wi-Fi
performance measurements round out our analysis
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and Apple hitting
you up for another several hundred dollars to upgrade your cell phone.
It’s an event we’ve all come to expect, and it’s always accompanied by
speculation before and analysis after the company lifts its kimono.
The iPhone’s technological progression has been fairly evolutionary.
Over the past three years, the device hasn’t really changed
dramatically. Perhaps that makes the iPhone 5 more interesting than
models past.
Comparison |
Size (H x W x D) |
Weight |
Apple iPhone 4S |
115.2 mm x 58.66 mm x 9.3 mm |
140 g |
Apple iPhone 5 |
123.8 mm x 58.6 mm x 7.6 mm |
112 g |
Samsung Galaxy S3 |
136.6 mm x 70.6 mm x 8.6 mm |
133 g |
HTC One X |
134.4 mm x 69.9 mm x 8.9 mm |
130 g |
It is different inside and out. Perhaps that’s just the nature of the
smartphone business. We expect our phones to get smaller, thinner, and
lighter. We haven’t seen an iPhone do those things since the iPhone 4.
Even then, though, Apple didn’t make any dramatic changes.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vcivZX0DPki45sW0YlIqmBGd4WZvU6tT9Q62aoLH6Uv1F52hVdnSAakRAAJrPhbCUBavEat1IPyt0DglAnULzJgdvHsGfMK_DL6KTlrkikW8q7z7fRnUe-i5GIa-m3gshqiif03iBYa7KK-Lf9=s0-d) |
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The iPhone 5, on the other hand, actually looks like a different
product. It’s still unmistakably an iPhone. But while the power and
volume buttons, along with the vibrate toggle, are in their familiar
locations, the iPhone 5 is taller than the iPhone 4S, along with thinner
and lighter. The change in dimensions was made to accommodate a larger
4″ LCD screen, up from 3.5″. As a result, this is Apple’s first phone
with a native 16:9 aspect ratio. Its 1136×640 resolution is higher than
the previous generation’s 960×640.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tocls4zFhRWQiHycfukxTX327u-VKJ7D03DVVc7VRsfDL4qRVeVg8K9SrpKv8pHtjkHyB2EdZzO4cxKVEQhrZqA_VOazj-KTG499a6_6xAj-rjgZztHg98pJmmc9U8cHTn76ZSWucPIrw=s0-d) |
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What you really feel when you pick the iPhone 5 up, however, is the
device’s lighter weight. At only 112 g, Apple shaved off 20% of the
iPhone 4S’s bulk. In and of itself, that’s not really a reason to buy a
new phone, of course, but it’s a significant achievement nevertheless.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sCORwm1npXGvjlz3pDLDD1vjy9nRGULj533BlOyXmb78u0Eijmvmq2j7fIQBRNhXj5oY0-UMeigG-Z-aE_y503OEx__mScOpviyJhAl-eMBgFHaGbI63DWQD6vw3PRD9VaJ-d8wiTiJQr2=s0-d) |
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The iPhone 4S sandwiches its internals between two aluminosilicate
glass panels. The iPhone 5 achieves its thinner and lighter
specifications, at least in part, through the use of an aluminum body.
In the days following the iPhone 5′s retail introduction, though,
many customers complained about how easy it is to chip the aluminum
chassis’ paint. According to Apple’s senior vice president of marketing,
Phil Schiller, “Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use,
exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.” Truly, only Apple
would have the stones to try calling its chipping paint normal wear.
Proving how much more fragile the iPhone 5′s body really is, our friends
at iFixit even did a video where a two-year-old helped scrape quite a bit of paint from the device’s back panel.
![Source: DesignMind Source: DesignMind](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vJjfoLd0uVsN0bslidM5dP6fwPd_mfD1vJYPuyegRkIe1FO3_AqCk_eweOVBJ7a4kOIRf1flbnGdhnV0vcZ5ULa8S1JsqOFIVtph9GqapwS6gaS8D79Y9nX4TWQ8EfFdrBwZCB-udobk4=s0-d) |
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A few years ago, Steve Jobs remarked that “I think stainless steel looks beautiful when it wears.”
Presumably, he was referring to patina, the tell-tale sign of use or
oxidation that accumulates on certain metals. Silverware, for example,
starts out really shiny, but takes on a warm, muted appearance over
time. If you’re shopping for antiques, this is something that actually
valued. If you still own a first-generation iPhone, it probably looks
something like the picture above. The hard-anodized surface may have
worn off, but fine surface scratches create a patina finish.
It takes years for this to happen, though, requiring repeated daily
use. If you replace your phone every time you’re eligible for an
upgrade, you’ll never see it. So, while Apple’s decision to paint its
aluminum body is theoretically sound, we’re concerned about how easily
the iPhone 5 is scratched. Obviously, the solution is going to be to buy
a case, though taking that step wasn’t nearly as necessary before as it
is now.
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