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[ascii42]

The app store came with the 3G, not the 3GS. In each of those upgrades, there was a significant hardware and/or software component. It's easily arguable what we've been given this time doesn't stack up against what they've given in the past.

Adding LTE is right about exactly as significant of an upgrade as adding 3G.

 

[Jacobi]

Just fyi, you will have the latest update in 2 years but it will run like absolute horseshit. This is coming from an iPhone 3G owner where it took almost a full minute to load Facebook and close to 30 seconds to open a text message. Not to mention my iPad 1 which is starting to become a jittery, useless mess (and is exempt from iOS 6).

you also miss certain features if you update ios and don't buy the newest product...

 

[noah111]

I want that new iTunes now.

Also a dark skin version.

It really is awesome. iTunes is the best thing to come out of the keynote imo. That and the new iPod touch.

 

[Zeth]

A6 is pretty huge. Anandtech was really impressed with the all-around speed. They said the fluidity of 3D maps looks like 60fps compared to the jerky beta on the 4S. If the alleged increase in performance is accurate, I can't imagine there's anywhere to go from here. The speedy fluidity and 1:1 response are why I love iOS.

sRGB + color saturation are well appreciated.

At the end of the day it's the phone itself that's most impressive to me. Sleek, precise design in a lightweight and thin package. Should be a joy to hold in the hand.

 

[Bgamer90]

Between the time of the original to 4, iPhones in both software and hardware is much further ahead than the competition now. Many people agree that 4 is still the best design yet so the jump from 3GS to 4 can be said to be pretty big. A number of people were disappointed with the 4S, but they got Siri and it was just a smaller jump as indicated by 4S so most people was fine with it.

It's true that iPhone was more innovative back 2-3 years ago but right now, Apple is trying to perfect the iPhone experience instead of revamping it just for the sake of doing so. The competition has caught up but overall all companies are focusing on tweaking the experience to make things as fast/smooth as possible. From here on out, I would rather have companies focus on faster speed and better battery life ("dumbphone like" battery life) than constantly trying to do something new that might not work out as planned.

But now you get a jump to 5 and it seems to has less new things than the iterations before it and the competition has mostly caught up by now.

Surely if you think more about it you can come to that conclusion.

No, I'm sorry but I don't understand how a person could view a bigger screen, LTE, A6, new build quality, and an improved camera as being a minor "S-like" upgrade.

If the 5 is a minor jump, than the 4 was "meh" and the 4S wasn't an improvement at all.

 

[f0lken]

Siri's very useful to me. Use it a lot when I'm driving in particular.

As an spanish native speaker it was awful, and the first thing ever in an iPhone that I couldn't use fully because of that limitation, even Apple said that it was a beta and more languages would come, so that was what i was refering when I answered, not everything Apple push is fully baked, and not everything they push is prevalent at the moment of release, so the argument that Apple only does things when everyone already did it is not convincing to me.

And don't get me wrong, I think the iPhone 5 is a good piece of tech, I just disagree with that point of view

 

[shinobi602]

Was there a live thread of revealing the iPhone 4 here? I'd love to read through that.

 

[SUPREME1]

So A6, 4" screen, and LTE is minor?

What makes any of those offerings special in today's market?

LTE?

4" screen?

A6 is unique in that it'll be the only phone to have that exact chipset, but as far as performance goes... is it special in any way?



1. Dozens of phones have had LTE for a while

2. 4" screen is probably below average for top tier phones now

3. Galaxy Note is quad core



Again, what's special about any of those offerings?

 

[Penguins&PolarBears]

It works for other thing than payments.



With that speaker you only put your phone there and it starts playing the music from your phone without pairing or any configuration, and I showed that speaker because it has wireless charging incorporated, so that Lumia is charging the battery as well as using its NFC capabilities in a gimmicky but awesome form just by putting it on the top of the speaker.

My favorite feature of NFC with the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy S III is the ability to automatically launch apps.

So the standing dock for the Lumia has NFC built in and you can program it to automatically launch an app like an alarm clock or music player when you dock the phone. It's also really cool if you have a car dock with NFC and you just set the phone down and it launch the GPS navigation automatically.

 

[border]

You make it sound as if it is the consumer's role to come up with the new ideas and innovation. People want something new and exciting and of course they don't know exactly what they want. Or else Apple wouldn't be the biggest company around today.

But I'm not sure what the message you're trying to convey here is. Is it Apple will just be like everyone else coming out with uninspired products?

My point is that it's just going to be more and more difficult and rare to really have a game-changing innovation.

When Apple or Dell or HP unveils new laptaps, nobody cries because the new machines didn't revolutionize the industry in some completely unknown and unforeseeable way. They are mostly happy with spec bumps, better screens, longer battery life and nice body design. The smartphone world will mature in much the same way that computers have.

But now you get a jump to 5 and it seems to has less new things than the iterations before it and the competition has mostly caught up by now.

The jump to the iPhone 5 is certainly as great or greater as any other number of iterations. Only the 3GS to the 4 is arguably bigger. The 5 has a wireless speed upgrade, a resolution upgrade, body upgrade, screen size upgrade.

Do you think Jobs really cared that much about how much ahead or behind he was with cutting edge tech? The iPhone launched without 3G......without an App Store.....without Copy/Paste. Jobs was far more concerned with proper and user-friendly implementation of technology than he was with always having the latest and greatest chips in the machine.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

I've called three AT&T stores, and can't get the same answer.

Here's the deal:

- I have a 4S, it is not eligible to get upgrade pricing. It has grandfathered unlimited data.
- My mother is on the same family plan as me. She has a dumbphone and no data. She is eligible for an upgrade.
- Can I upgrade her line to get the iPhone 5 for $199? I would have to select a data plan - I should just choose the cheapest or whatever, correct, as it doesn't matter?
-Take both phones (the new 5 and her dumbphone) to an AT&T store.
-They cancel the data plan on her line, and re-activate her old dumb phone
- I take over the new iPhone 5 on my line
- I can KEEP my unlimited data using the iPhone 5; she continues using NO data on her dumbphone


Correct?

Thank you for anyone who can give me a definite answer.

 

[chickdigger802]

What makes any of those offerings special in today's market?

LTE?

4" screen?

A6 is unique in that it'll be the only phone to have that exact chipset, but as far as performance goes... is it special in any way?



1. Dozens of phones have had LTE for a while

2. 4" screen is probably below average for top tier phones now

3. Galaxy Note is quad core



Again, what's special about any of those offerings?

well... for iphone users, it's pretty big.

Do people really hop between phone platforms that often now that app stores are tying one down?

 

[dwebo]

I've called three AT&T stores, and can't get the same answer.

Here's the deal:

- I have a 4S, it is not eligible to get upgrade pricing. It has grandfathered unlimited data.
- My mother is on the same family plan as me. She has a dumbphone and no data. She is eligible for an upgrade.
- Can I upgrade her line to get the iPhone 5 for $199? I would have to select a data plan - I should just choose the cheapest or whatever, correct, as it doesn't matter?
-Take both phones (the new 5 and her dumbphone) to an AT&T store.
-They cancel the data plan on her line, and re-activate her old dumb phone
- I take over the new iPhone 5 on my line
- I can KEEP my unlimited data using the iPhone 5; she continues using NO data on her dumbphone


Correct?

Thank you for anyone who can give me a definite answer.

not even going to give your mom your old 4S? terrible son

I have no idea, but it sounds complicated. you can't just wait a year?

 

[Bgamer90]

What makes any of those offerings special in today's market?

LTE?

4" screen?

A6 is unique in that it'll be the only phone to have that exact chipset, but as far as performance goes... is it special in any way?



1. Dozens of phones have had LTE for a while

2. 4" screen is probably below average for top tier phones now

3. Galaxy Note is quad core



Again, what's special about any of those offerings?

lol, the discussion was never about being "special"; it's about improvement period.

iPhone didn't have it before so it's an improvement that will work well with the already great performing iOS (that's already smoother than phones with better specs).

I swear, for basically most of 2012 people have been screaming "LTE... bigger screen" and now it's like the same ones are saying "pffft... whatever". So funny to me.

The iPhone has reached the point of popularity in which people will complain no matter what the improvements are.

 

[knitoe]

I've called three AT&T stores, and can't get the same answer.

Here's the deal:

- I have a 4S, it is not eligible to get upgrade pricing. It has grandfathered unlimited data.
- My mother is on the same family plan as me. She has a dumbphone and no data. She is eligible for an upgrade.
- Can I upgrade her line to get the iPhone 5 for $199? I would have to select a data plan - I should just choose the cheapest or whatever, correct, as it doesn't matter?
-Take both phones (the new 5 and her dumbphone) to an AT&T store.
-They cancel the data plan on her line, and re-activate her old dumb phone
- I take over the new iPhone 5 on my line
- I can KEEP my unlimited data using the iPhone 5; she continues using NO data on her dumbphone


Correct?

Thank you for anyone who can give me a definite answer.

Pretty sure, your grandma will have to keep a iPhone data plan for the 2 year subscription. Otherwise, you will have to pay the early termination fee.

 

[border]

Seriously dude? I'm a hipster because I don't buy capacitive screen friendly gloves? That Nokia tech is very awesome, something we should have had long ago, its a clear improvement in mobile tech, and you can rest assured that as long as they didn't patent it and/or dont intend to license it, that 2 years from now that feature will be a STANDARD on smartphones.....

I said you'd have to be hip or stylish. I said nothing about hipsters. They would probably have no problem with touchscreen gloves, though.

I think the tech may become standard too, but it's hardly revolutionary and it's not at all the sexy, futuristic whizzbang feature that people are looking for in a smartphone announcement. Only people that really objected to the current selection of touchscreen gloves are going to care.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

not even going to give your mom your old 4S? terrible son

I have no idea, but it sounds complicated. you can't just wait a year?

I offered it to her; she doesn't want to pay for a data plan.

Honestly, it's not a HUGE deal - as my work covers up to $250 off a phone each year; and they cover my bill each month. So figuring I do off contract at $650:

$650
+ $36 activation fee
+ $100 AppleCare +
- $250 from my job
- $287 from Gazelle for my 4S

= $249 for an iPhone 5 and 2 years of Applecare Plus; plus upgrade eligibality next year

That said, if I can pocket some money; that'd be fantastic!

 

[Marty Chinn]

Adding LTE is right about exactly as significant of an upgrade as adding 3G.

People felt 3G added to the 3G was long overdue and should have been in the original iPhone. Even then, I'm not pointing out 3G in the 3G. I think the app store was the huge feature for the iPhone 3G. I'd even go as far as say as LTE is weakened because of how carriers limit it to the end user with their caps. What's the point of all that speed if you don't really get to use it? So you can hit your cap faster? Even with all that in mind, LTE is certainly a nice feature to have but at this point in time, every phone has LTE so it comes to no surprise that they were going to include it here. This shouldn't be a shocker at all. The shocker would have been if they didn't include it.

It's true that iPhone was more innovative back 2-3 years ago but right now, Apple is trying to perfect the iPhone experience instead of revamping it just for the sake of doing so. The competition has caught up but overall all companies are focusing on tweaking the experience to make things as fast/smooth as possible. From here on out, I would rather have companies focus on faster speed and better battery life ("dumbphone like" battery life) than constantly trying to do something new that might not work out as planned.

Like Siri? =)

No, I'm sorry but I don't understand how a person could view a bigger screen, LTE, A6, new build quality, and an improved camera as being a minor "S-like" upgrade.

If the 5 is a minor jump, than the 4 was "meh" and the 4S wasn't an improvement at all.

I think Siri and the huge camera improvements in the S were much more substantial than the announcement of the 5 personally. A6? Meaningless unless you care about the numbers game. LTE? It had better be there at this point in time of the market. Bigger screen? Probably the biggest deal, and I like many others feel it was a wasted opportunity even though I understand Apple's reasoning for the route that they went. I feel the extra real estate given is being under utilized at the moment and really wish some of the surprises from Apple at this event was how iOS6 would take advantage of that extra space.

well... for iphone users, it's pretty big.

Do people really hop between phone platforms that often now that app stores are tying one down?

How much have you spent on apps that you feel so tied down to one platform at 99 cents an app?

 

[ShabbadooJr]

What makes any of those offerings special in today's market?

LTE?

4" screen?

A6 is unique in that it'll be the only phone to have that exact chipset, but as far as performance goes... is it special in any way?



1. Dozens of phones have had LTE for a while

2. 4" screen is probably below average for top tier phones now

3. Galaxy Note is quad core



Again, what's special about any of those offerings?

1. Dozens of phones also have terrible LTE battery life.

2. Size of a screen is not indicative of quality. Just because android slaps the largest screen on a phone they can find, doesn't mean below average for the iPhone.

3. And is enormous and won't fit in most pockets.

 

[PaulLFC]

I have a question primarily for 4 and 4S owners: as a 3GS owner looking to upgrade to the 5, what model should I be looking at, GB wise?

I had a 16GB 3GS, and that seemed fine, but obviously the resolution is much higher now, so presumably apps are bigger. Has a 16GB phone in the retina days been manageable without too much deleting of apps, or do you really have to watch space?

I could get the 32GB, but that's over £600 before I've even factored in the monthly costs (I don't want to get a contract if I can help it, don't like being locked into one for 2 years for various reasons).

 

[Penguins&PolarBears]

Is using gloves with a phone really that big of a deal? Is that the sort of thing that would have improved the iPhone 5's showing?

They already sell gloves that can be used with capacitive screens, so it's not as if they've overcome some huge issue with touchscreen technology.

I actually do think Synaptics overcame a huge issue actually. This technology that Synaptics invented should be standard on all smartphones from now on.

I don't claim to speak for everyone, but as someone who lives in a cold climate being able to use my phone without having to buy some special pair of gloves is a big deal to me. I've tried sewing capacitive fabric into my gloves with mixed results and the options for pre-made capacitive touch gloves are pretty terrible (not thick enough to be useful to me). I also like being able to use my Lumia at the beach and in direct sunlight which Nokia has worked hard on. These are real world practical problems that Nokia is solving. Same goes for the optical image stabilization hopefully fixing my nauseating shakey cam videos and my horrible indoor photos.

I actually think these are pretty major advancements that would have been treated as a much bigger deal if Apple had marketed them to the public. I think we're a little spoiled now by Apple's amazing marketing, these other companies don't have a clue how to really get people excited about their innovations. At this point though I honestly feel like Apple is not even trying to be innovative. iPhone 5 to me represents doing the bare minimum (adding LTE) to stay competitive.

If any other hardware company had turned in a phone with the specs of the iPhone 5 it would be labeled a "mid-range" phone and not taken seriously as a flagship. An Android or WinPhone with a 4" sub-HD screen and no NFC is automatically disqualified from being called a "flagship" phone on those platforms.

 

[Crateman]

Just out of interest, what phone do you have and what stability problems are you having?

Motorola Cliq (Currently used by my GF): Surprisingly still running stable Cyanogenmod 7.2, and all problems are hardware issues.

HTC Inspire 4G: Because HTC decision of not releasing the source for that phone, every ROM out there with ICS or JB is running out of hacks and patches. Abismal battery life, Bluetooth is broken every two updates. I downgraded to Cyanogenmod 7.2 Stable and, even undervolting and using sparingly , 8 ours later my battery is almost gone. Calibration doesn't do anything... and I bought the phone 1 year ago.

Asus Transformer TF101: You know when Tim Cook said that something along the lines of "Android tablets must be in someone's drawer", just hit to close to home. After trying several roms, pretty much all suffer from the same: weak performance, lockups, random reboots out of the blue WITH bootloops (I would wake up to find the tablet rebooting itself every 15 seconds in the middle of the night), "sleep of death", a broken recovery that I have to ADB-force-my-way-out-of-it after an update...

 

[Bgamer90]

I think Siri and the huge camera improvements in the S were much more substantial than the announcement of the 5 personally.

A6? Meaningless unless you care about the numbers game.

Heh meaningless? So improved speed through apps is meaningless?

LTE? It had better be there at this point in time of the market.

Yeah, but again, the iPhone never had it before and it's a major improvement over 3G.

Man, really amazing how people are treating it like it's nothing when the iPhone has never had it.

Bigger screen? Probably the biggest deal, and I like many others feel it was a wasted opportunity even though I understand Apple's reasoning for the route that they went. I feel the extra real estate given is being under utilized at the moment and really wish some of the surprises from Apple at this event was how iOS6 would take advantage of that extra space.

The screen definitely could be used in better ways and I think we'll see it soon. Right now the bigger screen will be a good improvement for browsing as well as watching media.

 

[cnizzle06]

S had a better camera?

 

[Filth]

i have a question. will watching youtube videos over cellular data drop the quality in the video? or will it play it at the highest resolution? this is one thing about the iphones that always bothered me.

 

[Freezie KO]

As an iPhone 4 user, honestly, it would've been nice if they bumped up the basic amount of storage at each price point. Like 50 gigs, 100 gigs, and 300 gigs.

How expensive is storage really if I can get an SD card for cheap as dirt? That'd mean more to me than FaceTime over 3G.

It looks nice, though. When I have to re-up my contract, I'll get a new phone. But I don't like the new power source. Now I've gotta get a bunch of new cables or accessories?

 

[jerry1594]

Just add an SD card slot already for fucks sake. I'll even buy some propriety crap.

 

[CrankyKong]

So is it possible to cut my micro sim down?

 

[Aurongel]

i have a question. will watching youtube videos over cellular data drop the quality in the video? or will it play it at the highest resolution? this is one thing about the iphones that always bothered me.

I'm pretty sure you can adjust your preferred playback resolution default in the settings app.

 

[Bgamer90]

As an iPhone 4 user, honestly, it would've been nice if they bumped up the basic amount of storage at each price point. Like 50 gigs, 100 gigs, and 300 gigs.

How expensive is storage really if I can get an SD card for cheap as dirt? That'd mean more to me than FaceTime over 3G.

It looks nice, though. When I have to re-up my contract, I'll get a new phone. But I don't like the new power source. Now I've gotta get a bunch of new cables or accessories?

I really wish they had a 128 GB model with the 32 GB being the cheapest and 64 GB being in the middle.

 

[Lamiafusion]

I don't know if anyone here has done this but I am looking to get the iPhone 5 off contract from Verizon. My dad (who is on the same account) took my upgrade for my line when his phone broke a couple months ago. Scumbag move but I have unlimited data and would like to keep it if possible. So on Friday, can i go to Verizon's site to buy it off contract or do I have to wait a month (I am not looking for an unlocked phone, just off contract pricing.) If anyone did this for the 4S or something lemme know.

 

[knitoe]

i have a question. will watching youtube videos over cellular data drop the quality in the video? or will it play it at the highest resolution? this is one thing about the iphones that always bothered me.

I assume video quality will be higher on LTE, but if not, just JB and enjoy the high video quality.

I really wish they had a 128 GB model with the 32 GB being the cheapest and 64 GB being in the middle.

Space is the big limitation in adding more 8GB chips, and that's why it took a long time just for Apple to release iphone 64GB version.

 

[Nori Chan]

So I'm new to the whole upgrading from iphone to iphone.

Is there a way I can put my info from my iPhone 4 to the 5? Just curious

 

[Marty Chinn]

Heh meaningless? So improved speed through apps is meaningless?

How many apps really take advantage of this though? "Hello World" doesn't get more amazing or noticeably faster on an A6. It's a bullet point and a numbers game on paper. Most apps don't take advantage of the latest processor because they're aiming at a wider audience. The 4S got a spec update, and we haven't really seen apps take advantage of that. I won't say that there aren't any apps, and those that do are likely some games, but by and large, it's a processor upgrade that won't really affect most apps. So yes, mostly meaningless.

Yeah, but again, the iPhone never had it before and it's a major improvement over 3G.

Man, really amazing how people are treating it like it's nothing when the iPhone has never had it.

Not everyone lives in a bubble or reality distortion field. LTE is an upgrade that should be standard on any phone released this year and beyond. There are no surprises here. Everyone expects it so it's easy to gloss over. This is Apple playing catch up, not doing anything surprising, new, or pushing the envelope. Some had hoped they would have done it with the 4S so when it didn't happen then, everyone knew it was happening now.

 

[border]

I don't claim to speak for everyone, but as someone who lives in a cold climate being able to use my phone without having to buy some special pair of gloves is a big deal to me.

I live in Florida so maybe I just don't understand.

Touchscreen cashmere-knit gloves are like $5 on Amazon. People that want fancy gloves can buy some that are fleece lined or even made of leather. I bought a pair of them for each of my sisters that live in NYC/Boston.

People probably would have been happier if Apple had introduced a screen like this, since it's currently exclusive to a Windows Phone and not many people really want a Windows Phone. I don't think it would have really turned the tide of disappointment on the iPhone 5 though.

 

[Freezie KO]

I really wish they had a 128 GB model with the 32 GB being the cheapest and 64 GB being in the middle.

I find it a bit ridiculous that my phone can talk back to me and tell me the weather, but I still can't fit all my music on it. (I realize how entitled that sounds, but in the context of the development of smartphones, it's less obnoxious.)

 

[ascii42]

People felt 3G added to the 3G was long overdue and should have been in the original iPhone. Even then, I'm not pointing out 3G in the 3G. I think the app store was the huge feature for the iPhone 3G.

Although the app store was introduced with iPhone OS2, it wasn't exclusive to the iPhone 3G. So whether or not it counts is up for debate. I agree it was huge though.

Not everyone lives in a bubble or reality distortion field. LTE is an upgrade that should be standard on any phone released this year and beyond.

That's probably true, but those of us who live outside of areas with LTE aren't really concerned.

 

[dream]

So I'm new to the whole upgrading from iphone to iphone.

Is there a way I can put my info from my iPhone 4 to the 5? Just curious

Hi Noni.

Just back up your iPhone 4 to iCloud and, when you set up your iPhone 5, have it restore from that backup.

<3

 

[Spinluck]

lol, the discussion was never about being "special"; it's about improvement period.

I swear, for basically most of 2012 people have been screaming "LTE... bigger screen" and now it's like the same ones are saying "pffft... whatever". So funny to me.

Some people can easily flip this, and use it because it's also convenient for their argument of why they wouldn't be all that interested in the iPhone 5, just sayin.

 

[DrFunk]

So is it possible to cut my micro sim down?

No, and I wouldn't recommend trying: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/09/micro-sim-cannot-be-cut-into-nano-sim/

Just buy an nano-sim adapter: http://microsim-shop.com/nanosim.html

 

[Filth]

I assume video quality will be higher on LTE, but if not, just JB and enjoy the high video quality.


Space is the big limitation in adding more 8GB chips, and that's why it took a long time just to get a iphone 64GB version.

well that's what i did on my 4 but with 3g being not that fast the videos took forever to load. i had my friend show me his s3 and the video quality was perfect and the videos loaded instantaneously over 4g. im just hoping for the same quality.

 

[Flo_Evans]

So I'm new to the whole upgrading from iphone to iphone.

Is there a way I can put my info from my iPhone 4 to the 5? Just curious

Backup to iCloud > buy new phone > enter apple ID > boom

 

[sleeping_dragon]

LOL at camera being the same as 4s.

 

[neojubei]

1. Dozens of phones also have terrible LTE battery life.

2. Size of a screen is not indicative of quality. Just because android slaps the largest screen on a phone they can find, doesn't mean below average for the iPhone.

3. And is enormous and won't fit in most pockets.

My friend complains about his HTC thunderbolt battery life so much. One thing about Android phones are that they jump on new tech very fast but do not realize the downsize like battery life and consumers are the ones who feel the burn of it while stuck in our 2 year contracts the next new android phone with better battery life is released 6 months later.

There are so many downsides i see for buying an android phone that i would never buy one.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Although the app store was introduced with iPhone OS2, it wasn't exclusive to the iPhone 3G. So whether or not it counts is up for debate. I agree it was huge though.

Well ya, but when it launched though, the 3G was the current phone, plus add in the subsidized pricing and that package alone made skipping an iPhone and jumping in at a 3G very compelling.

 

[Spinluck]

S had a better camera?

Well, the 4S still has one of the best cameras a year after release. So it wouldn't surprise me too much.

 

[knitoe]

I don't know if anyone here has done this but I am looking to get the iPhone 5 off contract from Verizon. My dad (who is on the same account) took my upgrade for my line when his phone broke a couple months ago. Scumbag move but I have unlimited data and would like to keep it if possible. So on Friday, can i go to Verizon's site to buy it off contract or do I have to wait a month (I am not looking for an unlocked phone, just off contract pricing.) If anyone did this for the 4S or something lemme know.

Off contract = full price iphones are all factory unlock. I read that 4S was sold at full price at launch so there's a high chance it would be the same. Try Apple store if you can't get one at Verizon.

 

[Troll]

LOL at camera being the same as 4s.

How is this true?

 

[planar1280]

Hands on

http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-5-hands-on-12247082/

In short, it’s a beautifully constructed, cohesive combination of design and materials: even if you’re not an iOS fan, you’ll have to appreciate the package Apple has put together. If, though, you are an iOS lover – and there are plenty of them around – then the iPhone 5 is easily the best model yet. It’s the significant refresh many were hoping of the iPhone 4S, and it’s going to sell like wildfire.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6283/iphone-5-hands-on-pics-and-video

Overall after our short time with the iPhone 5 I'm very positive about the end result. The combination of new silicon and LTE alongside display and camera improvements craft a very positive outlook for Apple's iPhone line. 

http://blog.laptopmag.com/iphone-5-hands-on-crazy-light-great-screen-super-powerful

Overall, though, the iPhone 5 looks like a winner. It crams a lot of powerful new features into a first-class design that people will be clamoring for.

http://www.cnet.com/<br/>http://www.cnet.com/smartphones/apple-iphone-5/4505-6452_7-35022502.html

Is this the iPhone you've been looking for?
During very brief hands-on time with the iPhone 5, this much is clear: it's the weight you'll remember more than its thinner profile. The iPhone 4S is already a svelte device: most people probably won't spot the difference if they see the new iPhone from the side.

The screen size, also, is more of a subtle improvement. This isn't a jaw-dropping leap from the iPhone 4S: it's a gradual increase, done almost so cleverly that the front face of the iPhone 5 might, with the screen turned off, look very much like the iPhone 4S. The proof will be in the pudding for how app developers and iOS 6 take full advantage of that extra screen real estate, but the bottom line is this: more screen size and more pixels are good things.

The real killer app on this phone -- no surprise -- might be the iPhone's 4G LTE, as well as the promised battery life. If data speeds and battery life can live up to the promises, those alone will make many want to upgrade.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/iphone-5-hands-on-video-details/

At long last, the iPhone 5. We just got our hands on Apple's latest smartphone following its unveiling in San Francisco, and suffice it to say, it's a beautiful thing. Some might say we've been waiting for this moment since October 4th of last year, but another crowd may say that the real next-gen iPhone has been on the burner for much longer. Indeed, this is the first iPhone since June of 2010 to showcase an entirely new design, but it's obvious that Apple's not going to deviate far when it comes to aesthetics.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/12/3321628/iphone-5-hands-on

It's obvious that the iPhone 5 shares the same design language as the iPhone 4 and 4S before it, and it's clear that Apple was very careful when it came to modifying that chassis. Jony Ive said so himself during the event. There are plenty of improvements, but there are also a lot of similarities.

 

[entremet]

LOL at camera being the same as 4s.

the camera is better. Did you follow the coverage?