It’s not as big a difference at the 3G was to the 4 but it is significantly faster.
Since I had a 4 before, I hadn’t used Siri. When I was driving back to work, I called a friend and had her text me. Siri read me the test and who sent it. It gave me the option to send a text back. Very cool.
Wow. I love this phone.
The first thing I noticed (and my jealous friends as well) is that it is super thin and very light. The design is sleek, and the taller screen looks fantastic. It really feels like they gave me more screen real estate where I needed it the most. About the only thing I don’t like about this phone is how it feels in my grip, but a reviewer I trust confirms that within a week, it will feel more natural in my hand.
The camera blew me away. The first shot I took, a candid photo in a dimly lit kitchen, with no effort to hold the iPhone still, looked amazing. I might actually take pictures with this thing! They say the best camera is the one you have with you.
Siri is quite useful. She helped me download the Pandora app while in the car and unable to type
I like my new phone too except ( and a big fat except) I never felt the need to upgrade my laptop to Mountain Lion or whatever years ago, now I have been left behind in Apples dust and my phone is not supported on my OS. So I have a working phone I cannot sync. Apparently my only recourse is to CALL some number at Apple and see if I can find someone to sell and ship me the OS I need. So all this waiting, preordering…and now I get an empty $300 phone. My computer has been working fine so I never thought of it as obsolete even though I knew it was so I never considered I’d buy a product that wouldn’t work with it. Grr.
I’m assuming you mean Snow Leopard, because Mountain Lion was released like three months ago. I am also assuming that the reason you need to get it instead of one of the newer OSes is because you have a fairly old laptop. You can buy a copy of Snow Leopard from Amazon; just search for Snow Leopard and they come right up. (PS: This is assuming your laptop is new enough to be able to run Snow Leopard. You may want to check that out. A Google search will probably do you.)
What OS do you have? Mountain Lion is known for upgrading several of the earlier versions, and at $20, it’s not like it’ll break the bank. I’ve successfully upgraded from Snow Leopard and Lion with no issues.
PM me if you have the version prior to Snow Leopard (10.6?)
Unlike Microsoft, Apple really doesn’t care to get the upgrade tax out of you.
The photo quality was the big reason I upgraded from my 3gs when the 4s came out. I freeking LOVE that camera.
Panorama mode is basically worth the upgrade all by itself, IMO. (Considering that I was coming from a 4 - Panorama is also available on the 4s, I think.) I do love the size and weight – I was worried that I wouldn’t like the increased length, but it seems to fit really well into my hand. But the camera is really blowing me away.
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/09/iphone-5-fastest-smartphone.html
Real results are finally in. For now, the iPhone 5 is fastest smart phone in the world and by far the fastest on available in the US.
Picked it up this morning and love it so far. I’m most impressed with the speed of the thing. I had it on LTE and ran a speed test this morning that got me 12.6 down / 7.8 up. Wow! Faster than my Wifi.
I’m near Indianapolis at the moment and did a speedtest that showed 41 down/9 up. Not even kidding.
Even on AT&T’s lame not-really-4G HSPA+ thing I am faster than WiFi. I can’t wait until we get LTE here.
Got to play with mine more today. I’m a heavy music, data, and text user, with phone use pretty much in last place, so I’m focusing more on non-phone aspects. I upgraded from a 4 to this, skipping the 4S so some things I’m happy to see may be things introduced last year.
[ul]
[li]I like the taller height of the phone itself. It’s not a huge difference, but I find that it’s a more natural “handset” feel for my hand, with my thumb gripping the case on the side rather than folding over a bit on the top like with the 3GS and 4/4S. The thinner design also makes it easier to hold. I’ve also never been a fan of the wider Androids, so this is the best-feeling non-landline phone I’ve gotten to use yet.[/li][li]The taller screen seems like no great shakes so far. If movie watching was my primary concern, I think I’d sacrifice hand comfort and go for a larger Android.[/li][li]No antenna problems thus far.[/li][li]Camera is nice, haven’t used panoramic yet. Haven’t taken any indoor shots yet, going to be interested to see if they fixed the “yellow tint” problem the 4 had in indoor lighting.[/li][li]The thinness and lightness make “typing” feel a bit weird so far.[/li][li]Speeds of upload/download on normal 4G is great, 4G LTE way better. Really glad I am grandfathered in on AT&T’s unlimited data plan as I already find myself using more data-intensive applications like Netflix than I did before (which may make me regret my comment about the screen size being no great shakes!). Combined with faster processor speed, it also makes some things I learned to avoid – like opening someone’s Facebook photo album – pleasant to use. Downloads pics fat, displays them fast. Nice. Compared Facebook access side-by-side with friends’ high-end Androids. With the same 4G LTE access, the 5 was far faster. Internet access in general is a joy (until the networks start getting hogged I suppose); speed of access and display of web pages is almost comparable to a desktop on broadband.[/li][li]There’s no excuse for the Lightning adaptor to be USB 2.0. Why not USB 3.0? Syncing a 64 gig phone is a huge pain in the ass… let’s see if iCloud over wi-fi makes a difference. I’d never set it up on my 4, but the sync time for this was ridiculous.[/li][li]A2DP is broken. I have my previous Apple products paired with my car stereo (Touch 3rd gen, iPhones 3GS and 4) and liked the fact that I could keep them in my pocket, have the radio automatically start playing songs, and be able to change tracks with the radio controls. Can’t do that with the 5; playback and track changes must be done with the phone itself. Disappointing. It’s not the radio’s firmware either; it’s broken across all the Bluetooth radios I’ve tried thus far (my Pioneer, a friend’s Kenwood, and several coworker’s OEM radios). In addition, plugging into USB or using a Lightning-to-30-pin adaptor doesn’t work at all on car radios that are licensed to be compatible with iPhone. So no using in-car mics for hands-free phone usage. Hope Apple corrects at least A2DP in an update.[/li][li]Still disappointed at lack of microSD support, IMO the biggest advantage the Androids have. My music library is about 100 gigs. If I could toss another 64 gig at mine (the 64 gig model), I could carry my entire music library. As it is, I have to be choosy about whatever I think I might like to listen to, then wait for the slow sync to be done. I imagine Apple does this so that people don’t opt for a 16 gig model then “upgrade” with microSD to > 64 gig, saving $150 or so in the process, but it sucks for me.[/li][li]Cosmetically, I’m worried about the aluminum back. Seems like it will be more prone to scratches and dents. I’d like to not use a case with this thing – the only reason I had one for the 4 was because of the antenna, as the glass proved impervious to scratching over its two years of use – but don’t want this to get as dinged up as the metal case on my Touch. My 4 is still in mint condition, which means I’m getting the most bang for the buck on resale (current potential buyer is offering me more for my 4 than the upgrade cost to this 5, which is nice).[/li][li]Built-in speakers are more robust, which is great. A ring or text notification is now loud enough to wake me up, and I can show a YouTube clip to friends without having to cup my hands around the speakers to “aim” the sound to the viewer.[/li][/ul]
I meant that I needed Snow Leopard. I kept getting confused by all the damn cats and I wrote that before I had coffee 
I already called Apple this morning and got it sorted out, a $20 copy of what I need is on its way to me now. My laptop is late 2008 MacBook. I am currently on 10.5.8 Leopard. I just kinda ignored all of the upgrades because I was mostly done with school by the time they came out and my laptop was just for iTunes and browsing and it worked just fine for that.
You can’t just buy Snow Leopard anywhere, Apple quit selling it online and in stores this summer. Therefore, places like Amazon are no longer a valid option really because they either don’t sell it anymore either or the price is jacked up high. A call to Apple got it to me for $20 and the person checked my laptop’s specs and confirmed everything would work. Amazon:
$80
No thanks. I also went to the Apple store (one down the street), Microcenter (one down the street) and checked around online all last night. Amazon was about the only place where I could click and buy it, but it’s $80+. But problem is solved, or will be in a few days.
I decided to go ahead and play with the phone anyway even though it’s all empty…damn this thing is fast. Upgraded from the 4 and we have LTE here. Feels like everything is mostly instant. And the panoramic camera is super fun. Waiting on my case to arrive though - phone is so light and thin I keep feeling like I am going to drop it, have a rubbery case coming from X-Doria in the mail, should be here shortly.
[quote=“Student_Driver, post:232, topic:634544”]
[li]The taller screen seems like no great shakes so far. If movie watching was my primary concern, I think I’d sacrifice hand comfort and go for a larger Android.[/li][/QUOTE]
I thought that the wider screen would stretch things out in landscape mode but what it means is the same information but larger text in landscape mode (which is great for message boards) and more information in standard mode.
Sweet merciful crap, that’s fast. I just ran another and only got 10 down, so I don’t see myself approaching anywhere near your speed.
Have you considered iTunes Match? Sounds like it would be ideal for you, especially if you have unlimited data. I only have a 16GB iPhone 4 but Match means I effectively have my whole 40GB+ library available. iOS 6 has changed the way it works so it is more of a streaming service - less good for me as I only have 500MB a month data, but should be fine for you.
Forgot that existed. 
The cost is reasonable, too, and considering my music library will eventually exceed 128 gigs, probably better in the long run than just wishing for more onboard memory.
A couple of words of warning though: one, its limited to 25,000 songs (excluding those bought from iTunes), and two, with a big library it takes forever to do the initial match - including several crashes of iTunes for me, but I do have a 10-year-old PC running XP!
I got 1 too. I think people have covered my impressions so I won’t add more. But I would like to ask what apps that use the full screen you guys know of. So far I only know of Facebook, twitter, kindle and a few others - http://m.engadget.com/2012/09/21/iphone-5-ios-6-app-update-roundup-new-versions-for-a-taller-world/?icid=eng_latest_art
I’m waiting for tapatalk and a video player.
The internet won’t scam you if you use apple 5!