theVooner.com

After weeks of speculation, the official iPhone 5 specs are out.  Most of the early rumors were right.  A 4″ Retina display is the most obvious improvement.  I’m sort of disappointed with that.  I do wish Apple went larger.  Most of us are using larger Android screens and I would have liked to have seen at least a 4.3″ screen.

iPhone 5 screen

This is driven by a new A6 chip.  Let’s see how fast that is.  An 8MP camera is fairly comparable to others  and Apple adds the panoramic picture taking, which many of us already use on Android.

iPhone 5 camera

The new “Lightning” connector is sure to be the most contentious of design changes as it means we’ll need lots of adapters and new accessories for this iPhone.  iOS 6 throws out Google Maps and replaces it with Apple’s own.  Let’s see how well that does, notably for non-US maps.  I do like the new “ear pods” – the redesign of the earphones.

Earpods

Overall, the iPhone 5 looks really good but falls short on a number of levels for me.  Apple fans will tout all the upgrades, but I do wish it pushed the technology bar much higher.  The screen is the biggest disappointment for me.  Anyone used to a larger screen will find it uncomfortable to downgrade to this.  Anyone with an S3 for example won’t really want to downgrade to a smaller screen.  Perhaps Apple didn’t want to appear too much like a S3!  It comes in the usual Black and White offering. I can’t wait to see it live and then I’ll have a better idea of what it’s really like.

But for me, it seems clear, if you are a Blackberry or existing iPhone user, its an upgrade for you.  If you are an Android user, particularly someone who’s gotten one recently, it almost seems like a downgrade.  For me, the key factor here is the screen.  Sure the iPhone is LTE ready and with an improved chip, but most people not be too happy to downgrade to a smaller 4″ screen.  I certainly don’t want to.

theVooner