On September 12th, 2012 Apple took to the stage to unveil their long anticipated iPhone 5. They announced the best iPhone ever but when compared to most Android phones in the market it was very outdated. New features included 4G LTE, 4-inch display, 8 megapixel 1080p HD camera, HD front-facing camera, A6 processor that is two times faster than the A5X, Apple’s own maps to replace Google Maps and more

  • The world’s first LTE phone was the HTC Thunderbolt released in March 2011. Apple is finally playing catch up releasing a LTE phone 1.5 years late.
  • The original Galaxy S came out with a 4 inch screen in June 2010. Samsung has followed with the Galaxy S2 at 4.3 inches and Galaxy S3 4.7 inches.
  • A “revolutionary” 8 megapixel 1080p camera that has become standard in all Android phones since June 2010 following the HTC EVO 4G release and Panorama mode following just months after. The HD front facing camera became standard in April 2011 with the release of the LG Nitro HD.
  • Now with their new processor they actually did some magic. Benchmark scores rank it to be the 2nd fastest phone currently in the market (not including the LG Optimus G, HTC One X+, Motorola Razr I, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and other phones that have been announced but not released). The only phone to beat the iPhone 5 in benchmarks. The iPhone 5 scored 1601 and the S3 scored 1628. Now this is a really small difference however when the S3 was benchmarked using the Beta Android 4.1.1 instead of the current version 4.0 it destroyed the iPhone 5 by over 100. The few phones that have been announced but not yet released like the Galaxy Note 2 are poised to destroy even the S3 benchmarks sending the iPhone 5 out of the top 10 by November at the latest.
  • Now Apple Maps is just a disaster waiting to happen. After relying on Google Maps since the first iPhone Apple decided to ditch everything that is Google except search. They even dropped YouTube. The reason they dropped Google Maps was because the Android version of Google Maps was much more advance then the iOS version (duh! Android=Google). Apple partnered with TomTom the weakest player in the GPS market, I use to have a TomTom GPS not only would it take forever to lock but it would take me the longer way, more time consuming way when compared to any other GPS (including Google and Windows Phone Maps). Google Maps with Navigation was released in 2009, 3 years later Apple is finally playing catch-up.
  • Other things the new iPhone 5 includes is a new lightning adapter which is Apple’s version of the Micro USB that every smart phone on the market has been using for many years and recently (last year) have started using USB 3.0 on the other side while Apple stuck with the old USB 2.0. The new iCloud tabs which sync with Safari on your computer. Google Chrome has been doing that with Android since November 2011.
  • Still the iPhone 5 is missing new things like NFC and widgets.

Now how does the iPhone 5 get 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours… read on in part 2