I’m a bit let down by the phone but am begrudgingly updating to this from my iPhone 4. 4G is good (though caps are bad for most providers), bigger, lighter, longer lasting is all good things, but very conservative. The iPhone is no longer the leader of the pack in my mind, though it’s hard to say that any one phone is. It’s sad the amount of features that the competition offers and Apple still does not bring to the table. I’d like widgets, nfc, oled, better voice recognition with faster and more robust search capabilities (Give me Google Now), better camera, better notifications. Very bummed that they are using yet another proprietary connection, lightning, so now every radio, car, etc needs an adapter (and even then hope that it works).
Still, I’m due for an upgrade and my phone has a broken speaker mic, can stay grandfathered into the unlimited AT&T plan on 4G, and I do like the new phone. I hope iOS6 and the new iTunes turn out ok.
Pro-tip for those who pre-ordered the iPhone 5 to have it shipped, you can track your phone by typing in your phone number in the “Track By Reference” section: http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/track?loc=en_US
I’ve had the 3GS, 4, and 4S, and this is the first upgrade I’m skipping since I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. I upgraded to the 4S last year because my wife’s 3GS was falling apart and she uses the camera so much that she’d really benefit from the better-built/better camera 4. And this year, I might have upgraded to the 5 to get the marginal improvements, if they’d kept the connector the same.
But by changing the connector, I now would have to get a new car dock (their adapter is too long to make it practical in that scenario), a new HDMI adapter once they finally ship them, and a few new charging cables. Adding all that to the process, it becomes more hassle and expense than the marginal improvements justify.
Instead, I’m going to skip an upgrade cycle. Then, in 2013, my AT&T contract will be up and I’ll be free to choose both a phone and a carrier. And I can either go for an iPhone 6 or 5S or whatever they ship next year, or I may well make the jump to Win Phone 8 if the primary apps I use are available then.
I probably would have bit the bullet on the 5 if the screen had been larger overall instead of just taller. But no, you people with your tiny Dooneese hands made Apple do the weird stretchy thing instead. :)
There’s that too. :) But it’s kinda free–still gotta renew your phone company contract. That’s why I didn’t go to WP7 when they did the similar thing two years ago; I didn’t want to renew my contract at the time.
Just got mine yesterday, and I’m really liking it so far. The extra height made it feel a bit weird at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
The maps thing hasn’t been an issue for me yet - my area seems to be unaffected by poor directions, but that’s only after a day or so.
I’m torn between keeping this phone and looking at WP8. This is a solid effort, but I am starting to get a bit frustrated at the inability to do simple UI tweaks that other phones have had for years.
Good news no glass cover anymore so no more need for back covers oh wait it scratchs really easy, if only there were a material that was durable, resistant and light but no one makes jewels out of plastic. This is what you get for over emphasizing the look of the phone over the function, my Iphone 4 is great device the looks have nothing to do with it and it sits safely, within reason, behind a cover.
That was way cuter than your typical “Will It Blend?” episode.
And to be fair, it’s not like Apple has a history going all the way back to the original iPod of metallic rear surfaces scratching easily or anything…
FWIW, this is my original gen 1 iPod Touch after almost exactly 5 years of normal use. Not put in a pocket with keys, not given to a two-year-old, just used at the gym, around the house, and for the past couple of years, by an 8/9-year-old.
You guys are nuts. Go play with a 5 in the store and stop listening to pundits whine on the internet for page views. I get that for a few of you super serious business people the maps are totally crucial to your way of life, or whatever, but the level of hand-wringing and skepticism in this thread is totally out of whack for what is, in reality, a really amazing phone. Seriously, got a 4S? Don’t upgrade. I’m not. But if you’ve got a 4, and DEFINITELY if you’ve got a 3GS, you should be giving this phone some serious consideration. Don’t listen to a bunch of jaded technophiles.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Denny’s phone looks awesome. Pretty soon they’ll be selling them pre-scratched acid wash so that people can act like they’ve had theirs for a long time.
I already have a Google Maps shortcut on the first page of my apps; it works great for times when “Nike” fails to find “Niketown” in downtown SF using the native Maps app. If they make a native version I’ll install that, but so far so good with the HTML5 version.
It’s a big improvement over my old 4S, and noticeably faster than the One X I’ve been using lately.
I’m a bit let down by the phone but am begrudgingly updating to this from my iPhone 4. 4G is good (though caps are bad for most providers), bigger, lighter, longer lasting is all good things, but very conservative. The iPhone is no longer the leader of the pack in my mind, though it’s hard to say that any one phone is. It’s sad the amount of features that the competition offers and Apple still does not bring to the table. I’d like widgets, nfc, oled, better voice recognition with faster and more robust search capabilities (Give me Google Now), better camera, better notifications. Very bummed that they are using yet another proprietary connection, lightning, so now every radio, car, etc needs an adapter (and even then hope that it works).
Uh, why don’t you just get an Android phone, if you want all the stuff that comes with Android phones?
I stupidly got a 16GB iphone 5 (from a 32 4S), because with all the extra costs associated with it, I couldn’t justify the extra money.
I think I should be ok, because I don’t put any media on the phone. The only place I listened to music was in the car and I put gigs of data on my car’s HD. Photos I download to PC right away, so that just leaves apps and the OS. Worst case scenario, I go to the cloud since I have an unlimited data plan through work.
Well, the maps thing is unfortunate, because it’s pretty sweet that you can just ask Siri to get you to someone’s house and the turn by turn kicks in. Believe it or not I did get perfect directions to a friend’s new house from the new app while another friend who had not upgraded to iOS 6 yet got lost three times on the way there because the old app couldn’t find the house. So, uh, point for iOS 6 maps I guess. That probably won’t get posted on macrumors, though.
Anyway, when it works it’s pretty cool? I should do marketing.
It is indeed pretty cool when it works. Also, on a cellular-model third gen iPad (i.e. one with GPS), I asked for directions from home (on wi-fi), and turn by turn started and kept going for my whole two hour drive without an active data connection.
I even left the route for a while, at which point it informed me that recalculating required a data connection, but once I joined back up with the original route it picked right back up with the directions. I was afraid it might lose it when it was unable to recalculate, so that was cool that it worked.
