As what we normally do, we buy most of the highly-anticipated gadgets so we can give you a more in-depth coverage and help you decide along the way. That includes the iPhone 5 which we got for an outrageous sum of money. Check out our unboxing and first impressions after the break.
We’ve been very eager to unbox this phone since yesterday morning but since I was still on a summit in Cebu, this just has to wait. The unit came from Singapore and hand-carried to Manila right after its release in Singapore last September 21.
Photo of the iPhone 5 box right beside the older iPhone 4S. Same material, just a bit taller/longer than the old one.
We got the white model with silver backplate at the back. The unit feels lighter on the hands despite its larger size (I kind of miss that bit of heft from the old iPhones).
The EarPods now comes in a small plastic box of its own which gives it a more premium look compared to the old earphones that come with the iPhone (as if the earpods were bought separately actually).
We can also (slightly) feel that the iPhone 5 is slimmer, the controls are buttons are in their usual places. The nano-SIM cradle on the right side is much smaller. The speaker grills at the bottom are much more prominent and the proprietary cable and data port reminds me of the ones in the Macbook Air, only smaller.
We managed to cut a microSIM to fit the nano SIM cradle on the iPhone 5 and we also had to download iTunes 10.7 in order to activate the phone (we will update once all that has been done).
From afar, the iPhone 5 doesn’t seem to be any different from the older iPhones (4/4s) but once you’ve held it in your hands, you will definitely notice the oddly taller (or elongated) size of the phone. I feel it’s a bit out of proportion.
More photos and video to come once we break in the iPhone 5 along the way. We felt a bit underwhelmed after the unboxing, not sure if there’s something we’re missing here.
Apple iPhone 5 specs:
4.0-inch IPS LCD display @ 640×1136 pixels, 326ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass
Apple A6 1.2GHz dual-core processor
PowerVR SGX543MP3 (triple-core)
16GB, 32GB, 64GB internal storage
1GB RAM
DC-HSDPA 42Mbps, LTE 100Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
Bluetooth 4.0
8MP autofocus camera, LED flash
180p video recording
1.2MP front-facing camera, 720p @ 30fps
GPS w/ aGPS support, GLONASS
iOS 6
You can also read our full overview of iOS 6 here.
We reported earlier that the iPhone 5 will probably be released by Smart and Globe some time in November. This gives the grey market sellers ample time to offer the phone at a much higher price. Initial reports on the ground saw prices of the 16GB iPhone 5 shooting up to Php50,000 a pop.
IP5 is how much in SGD?