iPhone 5 Review

There is simultaneously a lot of excitement and disappointment surrounding the launch of the iPhone 5 but hasn't this always been the case with the iPhone? The 4S was disappointing because it wasn't the 5 and the 4 had antenna issues. None of them have been perfect yet they have all proved immensely popular. I'll attempt to dissect the highs and lows of the 5. Let's start with the issues.

The maps are terrible, they don't know where anything is and when I asked it for driving directions to Perth, it told me I had to walk the last part of the 3,772 kilometre journey! There are plenty of alternatives but I think it best to stick with the supplied app, why? Because I don't want to have another app filling up precious space on my flash drive. The maps need people to add to them, they are in exactly the same state google maps began at and it was dedicated users that made the maps so smart. So flick the corner of the map up, hit report a problem and add a location to the map. It's the only way they are going to get fixed and I predict that in 6 months or so this will not be an issue.

The next is the camera, whilst in general it takes quite good photos there is an issue with the sapphire protecting the lens. When bright light shines through the sapphire at certain angles it causes a purple colour to show up on screen. I have captured an example of this on my phone but there are plenty more extreme examples available out there on the web. Overall the camera performs quite well. It is easy to use even when creating panorama shots but the purpling makes it harder to take the shot you want.

Mild purpling can be seen in the top right corner.

The biggest issue people seem to have with it is that it is not amazing. It is true that there is no one feature that is mind blowing in the 5. It does not have the biggest screen, nor the highest resolution, nor the highest number of megapixels in it's camera. What it does have however is some pretty amazing engineering. The size and weight feel great in your hand and it is not bulky like the Galaxy S3, plus the iPhones are still the prettiest looking phones on the market. Although it is not quad core it is perhaps the most powerful smartphone currently on the market thanks to it's custom design and tri-core gpu. Check out these benchmarks to see how it performs but the short version is, if it isn't number one on the charts it is only just behind.

Moving on, there are plenty of small improvements. The speaker is now loud enough to hear, even in my busy workplace and I work in a kiosk in a shopping centre. The new speaker is so loud I find myself turning it to around mid volume, whereas on my iPhone 4 I always had it cranked to full. The headphones seem to give a small improvement in quality of sound and I find them comfortable whilst standing and walking around but if I use them in bed they seem to get squashed into my ear canal. Like all in ear headphones they are only going to be comfortable for a certain amount of time. Siri has improved and now understands Australian accents and we finally have full Facebook integration.

The best feature of the iPhone 5 has to be the software, especially if you are into gaming. It is so easy to program for the iPhones because each model is so well defined unlike Android, which has a huge complicated range of models. This means that games and software often come out on iOS first or perhaps exclusively.

Nowadays purchasing a smartphone is almost not about the phone per se as much as it is about the entire package that you get with it.  Every phone has a whole background of software and the iPhone has probably the strongest. With a huge range of apps to use on your phone, plus all kinds of software to use on your computer it is hard to beat. Having said that though if you don't like iTunes you had best steer clear of the iPhone as it is your main port of call. There is no real killer phone out on the market at the moment, each one has it's strong and weak points. However from a gamers perspective the iPhone 5 is the one to beat for now 9/10.