iPhone 5: Faster, thinner, lighter, bigger - Toronto Star

Like clockwork, a new iPhone has arrived in Canada, and with it comes massive buzz, record-setting pre-orders and line-ups that snake around Apple stores—even days before launch.

With this amount of hype for a smartphone, the most obvious question remains: Is it really worth it?

While I won't judge those who camp out – they want to be part of this "event" with peers equally as excited about a new iGadget – iPhone 5 (from $179.95 on 3-year term) gets it mostly right. It's a beautifully designed, powerful and versatile smartphone that, while not flawless, is easily the best iPhone to date.

Better than Android, you ask? That's another discussion altogether. Samsung's flagship phone, the Galaxy S III, does outperform iPhone 5 in a few areas, but the two operating systems are very different, and as such, appeal to very different crowds.

Here's what you need to know, after spending some hands-on time with Apple's tastiest iPhone to date.

Design

The first thing you'll notice when unboxing iPhone 5 is its new look.

iPhone 5 now has a two-toned finish – available in black & slate or white & silver – with an anodized aluminum body that feels like a MacBook laptop. iPhone 4S had glass on the back of the device, which made it more prone to damage, so the new material is a welcome change.

At 7.6 mm thick, it's the thinnest smartphone in the world, says Apple, but not by much when held up against an iPhone 4S. What you will notice is how light the phone is in your hand (about 20 per cent lighter than iPhone 4S).

As you've likely heard by now, iPhone 5 sports a larger screen than its predecessors, now measuring 4-inches diagonally. But it's taller rather than wider, as Apple wanted one-hand navigation to remain possible. Making the screen taller adds a fifth row of apps, a 5-day calendar and true widescreen video presentation (16:9 aspect ratio) when held sideways.

It's still a "Retina" screen, which refers to the fact the human eye can't distinguish the millions of individual dots (pixels) that make up the text and images.

The headphone jack is now at the bottom of iPhone 5, beside the new 8-pin, oval-shaped "Lightning" connector. Apple is getting some heat for changing its connector from the wide 30-pin dock because it renders older accessories obsolete without an adaptor (sold separately). I wouldn't mind the change to the smaller connector as much if Apple bumped up the speed of data transfer to USB 3.0 – meaning video shot on the iPhone could be transferred to a computer in seconds—but alas, it's still USB 2.0 (despite its "Lightning" name).

Performance

iPhone 5 performs much faster, both in its wireless speeds as well as it raw computation power.

With the former, iPhone 5 is the first to support Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks by Canada's top three carriers: Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus. In case you haven't used an LTE-enabled smartphone, tablet or 4G Internet stick snapped into a laptop, LTE speeds rival or even exceed your home's broadband Internet connection. This means everything that requires data – downloading apps or email attachments, streaming media, browsing the web or uploading files – is all very, very fast.

Tested in Toronto, one of the many North American cities that support LTE, iPhone 5 delivered the goods with a Bell nanoSIM installed in my review unit. (Streaming video from Bell Mobile TV was as fast, clear and smooth as my HDTV.)

Powering the iPhone 5 is Apple's new A6 chip, which is said to deliver twice the CPU and graphics performance compared to last year's phone – and it shows. Games like Kingdom Rush and My Singing Monsters launched the second I touched the app and ran quickly and smoothly; ditto for other tasks, such as using the new Maps app (more on this in a moment), opening Facebook or flicking through photos.

Speaking of photos, new optics power the rear-facing 8-megapixel camera, resulting in clearer pictures, better image stabilization and other features such as a panorama mode for ultra-wide landscape shots and the ability to snap pics while shooting top-of-the-line 1080p video at the same time. Used for video calling via Skype or FaceTime, the front-facing camera is now HD, too (720p quality).

Similar to last year's phone, battery life on iPhone 5 is decent but not spectacular. Even with some wireless radios turned off (such as Bluetooth and GPS), disabling "push mail" and dimming the screen somewhat, don't expect all-day performance like you can with many other smartphones. Battery performance is still the iPhone's Achilles' heel, in my opinion, but iPhone 5 seems to last longer than iPhone 4S, at least. Be aware, however, the back of the phone does get warm to the touch, similar to the new (third-generation) iPad.

Finally, for those who still make calls on a phone (!), new audio technologies are in iPhone 5, including a new "beam-forming" directional microphone system for higher quality sound and noise reduction – supported by all major Canadian carriers (but both parties need to have an iPhone 5). A pair of "EarPods" are in the box, Apple's redesigned headphones with better sound quality, a more comfortable fit and increased durability.

Software

Finally, iPhone 5 ships with iOS 6, Apple's newest operating system and its 200-odd new features.

Also available as a free download for some older iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, iOS 6 adds an all-new Maps app, with turn-by-turn navigation (like a GPS unit) and 3D cityscapes for most major cities. Some journalists claim the Maps app isn't as accurate as Google Maps, but I haven't run into any issues in Canada and the U.S. (I've been testing iOS 6 for six weeks on an iPhone 4S). That said, Apple's new Maps app doesn't support transit routes yet, nor does it have Google's awesome Street View feature, where you see actual photos of where you're going to. There's room for improvement here.

iOS 6 also adds a Passbook app to organize boarding passes, movie tickets, gift cards and digital coupons; built-in Facebook support; and better Siri integration including Canadian maps and business search (finally). iPhone users will love asking Siri, Apple's voice-activated personal assistant, for live sports scores, restaurant reservations (through OpenTable), movie trailers, and more.

Speaking of software, it would be remiss not to mention iPhone 5 still benefits from Apple's intuitive and slick interface, more than 700,000 apps (many of which are free or close to it) and support for exclusive services like iTunes and iCloud (online storage and synchronization between devices). These are some of the key differentiators between iPhone and other smartphone platforms.

Summary

While there isn't one "magical" thing to gush about with iPhone 5 – like FaceTime on iPhone 4 or Siri on iPhone 4S – it's hard not to fall for its charm.

Aside from a few above mentioned issues, iPhone 5 lives up to the hype. And it sure is pretty.

But no, iPhone 5 is not radically different than last year's offering because, well, it doesn't have to be. Apple takes an iterative approach to its products—baby steps instead of giant leaps, if you will—but the company refines all its features year after year, and iPhone 5 is no exception.