IPhone 5 Review - Habrahabr Edition

A special review of the Apple iPhone 5 White for Habrahabr.
Attention! There are many photos under the screen.

So:

• scratching with a nail;
• a fall from a two-meter height;
• falling on a hard coating of the front, back, side faces;
• check for resistance to high temperatures;
• moisture test;
• the test for immersion in water to a depth of 30 cm;

')

... I was not allowed to do this with the test device, so I suggest you read the iPhone 5 review, from the user who used the following devices "live": Motorola T192 → Siemens A65 → Nokia 6822i → Palm Zire 71 → Motorola MPX200 → SonyEricsson K750i → HTC Wizard → HTC TyTN → Toshiba G900 → SonyEricsson K810i → iPhone → iPhone 3GS → iPhone 4 → HTC HD7 → Samsung Galaxy Spica → Nokia N79 → Motorola Defy → iPhone 4S → Google Nexus S → Samsung Galaxy SII → Samsung Galaxy Note → Nokia N9 → iPhone 5 to answer the following questions:

• Do the pre-orders of this model beat all records?
• is it much different from previous generations of the iPhone;
• what is good and what is bad in this model;
• what flaws and defects I was able to detect.

Before turning to the review, two words about sales. A week has passed since the presentation and launch of pre-orders. Sales began four days ago. Sold - 5 million devices. Is it a lot or a little?

Look at the iPhone sales chart for the first week:



Looks promising, right? But this, oddly enough, is not quite so. Last year, sales of the “first wave” started in six countries, and this year in eight. While sales of the iPhone 4S showed a 135% increase every week compared to sales of the iPhone 4 for the same period, sales of the iPhone 5 "should" reach a figure of 6 to 10 million in the first week of sales.
So 5 million per week is even lower than the expectations of WSJ analysts. In absolute terms, this is an impressive result, but for the first time in terms of iPhone sales, in the role of “catch-up” -

IPhone 5 comes in a traditional rectangular cardboard box, the color of which depends on the color of the model.
But the colors of the models of the new iPhone are not at all white and black. Now it is Black & Slate and White & Silver. We have on the review - White & Silver, white and silver version. The reason for this separation is obvious - ceramic glass and aluminum are used in the case of the “white” model, pigmented (colored) glass and all the same aluminum are in the “black” case. Anodized aluminum in the iPhone 5, as indicated by Apple on its own website - the same as in Unibody-cases Macbook.



In addition to the aluminum back panel itself, a sapphire covered camera and an LED flash, you can also find a hole for the third microphone on the back. In addition to the usual microphone at the bottom of the phone (for voice communication and sound recording) and the second microphone at the top (for the noise cancellation system), a third microphone is added to support high-quality sound transmission technology - wideband audio, aka HD voice, also Wideband Audio . Wideband audio eliminates some of the bandwidth limitations and transmits audio in the range of 50 to 7,000 hertz and higher, which allows you to transmit human speech in a “cleaner” form, with minimal distortion.

Ironically, in the USA this function is not supported by any of the major operators that started selling the iPhone 5. There are 41 mobile networks in the world (in 33 countries) that allow using HD Audio, while MegaFon provides this service in Russia. Earlier in Russia, the service was provided only in Moscow and Sochi, in 2012 appeared in Novosibirsk. Since September 6, 2012, its support has been announced throughout the Siberian branch of MegaFon (the Republic of Tuva, the Republic of Khakassia, the Altai Republic, the Altai Territory, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Kemerovo Region, the Omsk Region, the Tomsk Region, the Novosibirsk Region).

Judging by the calculations of The Verge, approximately 20 Apple partner operators support this feature, so the meaning of its implementation in the iPhone 5 was definitely.

As for the length of the new iPhone 5, only the lazy one was not joking - but in fact, there is no effect at all on the “long-string” effect. Of course, it is longer than the previous iPhone by as much as a centimeter, and exactly the same centimeter below its Android competitors.

Compare its length with another smartphone (with a screen similar to the diagonal 4 "):





As you can see, nothing catastrophic. But with the thickness and weight of the new iPhone everything is fine - firstly, the device avoided the “curse of plastic cases” when the weight of the device seems disproportionate to its size. And secondly, the weight with an increased size and a reduced thickness is less than its predecessor.
The iPhone 5 weighs 112 grams, against 140 for the iPhone 4S.



iPod Touch 4G versus iPhone 5 (7.2 and 7.6 mm). To reduce the thickness allowed not only the rejection of the glass coating, but in the first place - the use of the screen In-Cell technology made by IPS. The image quality on it is excellent. To the naked eye, its advantage over the TFT on the iPod Touch 4G is noticeable.
Even in comparison with the Retina-screen New iPad, I can note more "bright" and "rich" colors on the iPhone 5, as well as a higher level of maximum screen brightness.

What can be said about the new screen resolution - 640 x 1136 pixels? Let's face it - in standard applications (phone, calendar, clock, note book, weather, music player, notification bar, etc.), there were no particular advantages compared to 640 x 960. Separately, I note - I did not notice improvements in ergonomics, even where the "extra space" does not hurt - in the "Photo" applications and the photo gallery. Even the keyboard in landscape mode was expanded somehow stupidly:



Another conversation is Safari and video downloader. In the browser, the extra width benefited:



The standard video player can already play widescreen 16: 9 video without black bars. A little surprise from Google - the freshly released YouTube application works fine on iOS and does not support iPhone 5. The bottom line? If you watch a video from the YouTube application, it is still limited to a resolution of 640 x 960. In this case, the black bars are not only above and below, but also to the right and left of the video :)

Full size screenshot:



An example of a widescreen video with a full set of frames:



To honor Google, his Chrome for iOS browser has already received iPhone 5 support (yesterday). I am sure that the YouTube update for iOS is just around the corner. In the test for HTML5 support, the browser scores 360 points. Other devices on iOS6 - too.

Non-optimized for iPhone 5 applications look like this:



However, updates for almost all popular programs are now either under consideration by the censors or are already available in the AppStore. For example, the example IM + will get iPhone 5 support already with the next update.

What can you say about the speed and smoothness of the new iPhone? Surprisingly, but almost nothing :)
I will explain - yes, it launches applications faster than 4S. Yes, new games and applications work great.
Yes, it heats up when continuously downloading over Wi-Fi 350+ photos (thanks to the iCloud photo stream) and multi-gigabyte games from the AppStore (thanks to Gameloft). How strong? Exactly smaller than New iPad :) Hardly warm.

Here are the data on RAM in the "working" state:



The amount of RAM - 1GB. This is four times more than the first-generation iPad. I admit, I don’t remember the problems with the lack of RAM since I used the iPhone 3G. Although many manufacturers of "heavy" games still ask to restart the device (unload other programs) before launching. I can not give an example - perhaps such requests are already in motion.

About the camera. On Habrahabr, there was already a comparative review of the cameras of the iPhone 5 and Nokia 808 - I think the reader will not tolerate more than one review of the camera exhausted “Apple Week on Habré”.

I will leave here only one photo, especially for Habrahabr. Shooting conditions - in complete darkness, without backlight. He pointed at a dark wall in the dark and pressed the trigger. Result:



About panoramas. Now iPhone 5 can shoot panoramas with the help of a “native” camera. There are already more than enough examples of 29Mp of panoramas in the network - like dozens of programs in the AppStore that allowed doing the same with varying degrees of success on all iPhone models. Impressions: yes - quickly, no - not very impressive.

In the same way, with the permission of a respected habrapublibki, I will ignore the maps in iOS6. I’ve been watching them since iOS6 Beta 1-4, and on iPhone 5 they work just like on the new iPad. They are still "sawed and sawed" and we all know about it.

A little more about the hardware, cursed the new Lighting connector, I was very surprised. First, it is very small. I don’t really understand why in the photos it looks so big, but it’s even smaller than a micro-usb! Personal impressions - it is much more practical than micro-usb. It is easily inserted (with a characteristic click), firmly held inside, two-sided.



Connecting and disconnecting the iPhone 5 to a new cable, I was annoyed to think about the micro-usb connector on the Nokia N9, which I plug in every evening. Lighting is definitely more convenient. I also cannot logically explain the hysteria about the incompatibility of accessories - is it really that there are so many audio stations for the iPhone at home? Hard to believe.

And now about the interesting! What defects and deficiencies I was able to detect. Here are some:



The naked eye is visible "strip" on the keyboard input. The same bug on Habrakhabr has already been demonstrated in a compilation of a video about problems with the screen of the iPhone 5. Why a “bug” rather than a “hardware defect”? Because it manifests itself only in one single (!) Case. Namely, when working with the AppStore, and only when typing from the keyboard, and to top it all off - and not always. For all the testing time, I could not reproduce this effect again in any other places on the screen.
If someone knows hardware defects that can manifest themselves only when similar conditions coincide - I would like to know more about them :)

But the second defect, alas, can only talk about a huge rush or in the manufacture or packaging of the device. The new “out of the box” iPhone 5 on the switch silent mode was a defect:



As they say, a trifle - but unpleasant.

What else am I keeping silent about? New EarPod headphones. They look like this:



They lie in a separate plastic box. They look unusual. The remote control volume and tracks slightly increased, it became more convenient. Headphones do not fall out of the ears. I have no ear for music. And no - I do not feel a revolutionary sound: (Music lovers - I'm sorry. But what I noticed is the changed volume indicator, now it has got a “yellow” and “red” volume zone in headphones (but in the comments to the post they noted that This function in the iPhone was before):



To say something new about nanoSIM is decidedly difficult. Cutting it from the “old” microSIM is relatively easy. Cut from the “old-old” ordinary SIM card nanoSIM is almost impossible. I could not activate iPhone 5 without nanoSIM inserted.

Results What can I say about the new iPhone 5?

• Was he a success? He was definitely a success. Yes, in modern times, fortunately for users there is a choice and there is competition - all the manufacturers this fall got all their trump cards from their sleeves, showed their flagships and set up their networks. Will they meet a worthy opponent in the face of the iPhone 5? And how.
• Should I buy it immediately for bad money? Of course not.
• The author, admit it, you are the hidden apple! 11 Fortunately not;)

I will be happy to answer questions or talk about things that did not fall into this review, but what else would you like to ask me.