12 Sep 2012

Apple Launches iPhone 5

Apple has launched the next version of its iPhone at a launch in San Francisco. Designated the iPhone 5 it adds a whole new level of functionality and it puts to rest months of speculation about what the new phone would be like.

The iPhone 5 is being described as the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever. Apple is saying it is 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 has been, completely redesigned to feature a new 4-inch display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for fast performance and the possibility of 4G cellular technology. It should also have even longer battery life, assuming the comparisons ae made using the same cellular technology is used. The iPhone 5 comes with the new iOS 6 operating system. This features over 200 new features including: the all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography and turn-by-turn navigation; Facebook integration; Passbook organization; and even more Siri features and languages.

Commenting on the launch, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said: “iPhone 5 is the most beautiful consumer device that we’ve ever created. We’ve packed an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thin and light, jewel-like device with a stunning 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast A6 chip, ultrafast wireless, even longer battery life; and we think customers are going to love it.”

The iPhone 5 supports a variety or cellular standards including LTE and DC-HSDPA, although LTE is not available in all regions initially. To achieve this, Apple has adopted a single-radio LTE solution that enables the much faster speeds of LTE while still fitting into the overall form factor of the new thin design. With LTE requiring much greater levels of power consumption to accommodate the new LTE OFDMA modulation format, this is a considerable achievement. However it remains to be seen exactly what battery life the iPhone 5 will have when used with LTE.

Most popular news in Cellular telecoms