There seems to be a lot of disappointed people here, but considering the expectations I had before the event following the the large amount of leaks, I have to say the iPhone 5 easily surpassed them in terms of hardware.
We already knew about the design, form factor, screen resolution, two-tone color, LTE compatibility, and lack of NFC. The only things we didn't know about was the camera, battery life and SoC details.
Most people (including myself) realistically expected a 8Mpx-10Mpx camera, similar battery life (given the marginally higher capacity battery and the use of a bigger screen and LTE), and an A6 SoC that was simply a 32nm die shrink of the A5, simply clocked higher, similar to the transition between the iPhone 3GS's SoC and the A4 in the iPhone 4.
We got a lot better than that.
I didn't expect the use of a new, more efficient CPU architecture. Apple didn't mention its name but I think it's safe to assume it's Cortex A15 since no other architecture could give them this kind of performance increase while having the "much better efficiency" they claim. This is the absolute best we could have gotten in terms of performance and battery life, and is much better than an overclocked die shrink or quad-core version of the A5.
The only other thing we didn't know about was the camera, and while the fact that there's no significant hardware upgrade is a bit disappointing, it's nowhere near as big of a deal as the choice of SoC for me.
I think iOS 6 could have been a better upgrade, but on the hardware side, I'm seriously impressed by the iPhone 5. It's crazy to think we'll have that much CPU and GPU power in such a small and thin package without compromising battery life.
As for the screen, while optimal screen size is more of a personal preference and some people would have preferred an even bigger screen, screen quality is not and the iPhone 5 has amongst the best smartphone display ever made and will still be ahead of most of the competition using PenTile OLED screens, with only the One X and Lumia 920 offering similar image quality.
To sum it up, we have:
- The absolute best CPU on the market
- The absolute best GPU on the market
- The fastest wireless standards (LTE and dual-band Wi-Fi)
- The most internal storage any smartphone has ever had
- One of the thinnest smartphones ever made
- The best screen image quality on the market to date (Until the Lumia 920 comes out)
- The first smartphone to use an in-cell touch panel
- Still one of the best camera on any smartphone
- Very decent battery life
So, what is left to desire on the specs side? I'm trying to understand what people were expecting following all the leaks. Would have NFC been that much of a big deal for you?
We already knew about the design, form factor, screen resolution, two-tone color, LTE compatibility, and lack of NFC. The only things we didn't know about was the camera, battery life and SoC details.
Most people (including myself) realistically expected a 8Mpx-10Mpx camera, similar battery life (given the marginally higher capacity battery and the use of a bigger screen and LTE), and an A6 SoC that was simply a 32nm die shrink of the A5, simply clocked higher, similar to the transition between the iPhone 3GS's SoC and the A4 in the iPhone 4.
We got a lot better than that.
I didn't expect the use of a new, more efficient CPU architecture. Apple didn't mention its name but I think it's safe to assume it's Cortex A15 since no other architecture could give them this kind of performance increase while having the "much better efficiency" they claim. This is the absolute best we could have gotten in terms of performance and battery life, and is much better than an overclocked die shrink or quad-core version of the A5.
The only other thing we didn't know about was the camera, and while the fact that there's no significant hardware upgrade is a bit disappointing, it's nowhere near as big of a deal as the choice of SoC for me.
I think iOS 6 could have been a better upgrade, but on the hardware side, I'm seriously impressed by the iPhone 5. It's crazy to think we'll have that much CPU and GPU power in such a small and thin package without compromising battery life.
As for the screen, while optimal screen size is more of a personal preference and some people would have preferred an even bigger screen, screen quality is not and the iPhone 5 has amongst the best smartphone display ever made and will still be ahead of most of the competition using PenTile OLED screens, with only the One X and Lumia 920 offering similar image quality.
To sum it up, we have:
- The absolute best CPU on the market
- The absolute best GPU on the market
- The fastest wireless standards (LTE and dual-band Wi-Fi)
- The most internal storage any smartphone has ever had
- One of the thinnest smartphones ever made
- The best screen image quality on the market to date (Until the Lumia 920 comes out)
- The first smartphone to use an in-cell touch panel
- Still one of the best camera on any smartphone
- Very decent battery life
So, what is left to desire on the specs side? I'm trying to understand what people were expecting following all the leaks. Would have NFC been that much of a big deal for you?