My impressions so far, after spending an evening with the iPhone 5: (I'll be critical here)
1. I am getting a weird chromatic aberration in my photos. It's more of a chromatic flare. It's not all the time, and it's not at all angles, but a handful of my photos have it. Happens in both daylight and at nighttime. Sample photo, look at the lower right:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/z1SxJac8
2. I am having focus issues. Sample photo:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/xy7tFlhi
3. Autofocus is faster.
4. Stupidly light. Feels like an Ikea prop. This is a big departure from the 4S, which always felt heavy to me.
5. The new lightning connector must be made out of unobtanium from Avatar. I can't bend it. It's not a weak connector. I really like the fact that it goes in both ways, and that it has a nice push-to-click to let you know that it's in. And also that you don't have to squeeze the sides to pull out it. Kind of wish it was magnetic like the laptop connectors though, just for added convenience.
6. I do not mind the black bars on the top and bottom of apps that haven't been converted to the new resolution yet. Don't even notice.
7. Video looks more grainy. Haven't imported yet, so I'm not sure if it's the screen or the actual video. Sharpness is better on the lens - I did some side-by-side shooting with my 4S, and while it's still noisy in some circumstances even for stills, the 5 produces a noticeably sharper picture.
8. Battery life seems good so far. Lasted all evening on half a charge.
9. Having really bad 4G/3G reception issues. Getting the "o" symbol that it can't connect to data all the time. I tooled around Hartford county last night and got LTE in a lot of places, but if I tried to use it, a lot of times it'd drop to 3G and then to "o" (no data reception). Not sure if it's just because everyone on the planet is activating a new phone or what. I used to get great 3G reception on my 4S. Network may have just been overloaded last night, but it's not super crowded around here so I dunno.
10. I am getting hand cramps from the new size. For real.
11. Screen is brighter. Slightly more vivid than the 4S.
12. I like the overall look of the design of the taller phone. It feels a bit more up to par with the new Droids coming out - the tallness.
13. The NAND does not seem any faster, which is unfortunate. I did some photo editing and it burned through applying effects noticeably quicker, but when I went to save, it took the same amount of time (i.e. forever).
14. 2D mode on the new Maps is kinda hard to read. Haven't used it for navigation yet. 3D in satellite view is a tad slow to load...wait, wait, wait.
15. Low-light is pretty good. Better than the 4S. The grain is easy to hide with an app that does film grain. This ball was really dark in person and came out viewable on the phone:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/lF5X2iEt
16. A lot of my apps don't work right yet (Camera+ produces banding when taking photos, Filmic Pro seems to have some focus issues, black bars on the top & bottom of apps), so I'll have to wait for things to get updated. Also a significant lack of cases & accessories, as to be expected. Waiting on an extended battery case from Boost, Gomite Tripod Mobile, Olloclip lens, HDMI cable, cheap Lightning USB cables, etc.
17. The exposure can be weird. I chased my kiddo around outside and snapped some photos - sometimes it'd expose correct and his shirt would be red, and other times it'd get a bit more blown out and become a very light orange, while the majority of the rest of the image would have good colors. Seems far more finicky that way than my 4S.
18. I know it has the same single-channel NAND or whatever, but I'm really bummed it's not USB 3.0. I offload a ton of photos/videos from my phone and really wanted a faster method for data offload. Or if they had added 802.11ac or something. Now that I have the 64GB model, I can shoot 4+ hours of HD at a time, and that will take forever and a day to transfer to my computer lol.
19. When you take a photo using the Camera app, it fills the screen. When you look at the photo, there are extra pixels (more image) on the top & bottom that you didn't see when you took the picture. This annoys me. The screen displays a crop of the final image while you are shooting. So you are not taking the photo you are seeing, you are taking more than the photo you are seeing and will have to crop it later to get that same photo. I don't see an option to put black bars on the sides to get a 1:1 viewfinder. Kind of dumb when you are composing an image and then it doesn't look the same when you preview the shot after capturing it.
20. Honestly, it doesn't feel like a huge upgrade at all. Yeah, it's faster, but not ridiculously faster, and the NAND is still the same for saving edited photos. It's a bit taller, it's a bit lighter, the 4G is a bit faster (I don't really notice a difference from 3G yet, honestly), camera is a little better but has some hiccups so far, etc. Very iterative. I almost wish they had named this the 4S+, lol. I primarily upgraded for the camera and to go from 32gb to 64gb for my photography & video hobby. If the camera issues keep up, I may have to downgrade to the 4S haha. I'll give it a week or two though!
21. Front-facing camera is much clearer, but still super prone to noise. I thought they might have been using the 720p camera from the 4, but it's still wicked grainy at times.
I'm coming from a black 32gb 4S to a black 64gb 5. I mostly use my phone for photos & videos, so the camera is a really big deal for me. I'll be out shooting today with it. I took about 100 photos yesterday, mostly decent but with some mixed results - there seems to be a focus issue, and there seems to be a chromatic flare issue at times, as well as a slightly odd exposure issue. There is still some noise even for pictures with a decent amount of indoor light...I wish they had gone with a slightly faster lens like maybe an f/2.0 or something.
1. I am getting a weird chromatic aberration in my photos. It's more of a chromatic flare. It's not all the time, and it's not at all angles, but a handful of my photos have it. Happens in both daylight and at nighttime. Sample photo, look at the lower right:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/z1SxJac8
2. I am having focus issues. Sample photo:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/xy7tFlhi
3. Autofocus is faster.
4. Stupidly light. Feels like an Ikea prop. This is a big departure from the 4S, which always felt heavy to me.
5. The new lightning connector must be made out of unobtanium from Avatar. I can't bend it. It's not a weak connector. I really like the fact that it goes in both ways, and that it has a nice push-to-click to let you know that it's in. And also that you don't have to squeeze the sides to pull out it. Kind of wish it was magnetic like the laptop connectors though, just for added convenience.
6. I do not mind the black bars on the top and bottom of apps that haven't been converted to the new resolution yet. Don't even notice.
7. Video looks more grainy. Haven't imported yet, so I'm not sure if it's the screen or the actual video. Sharpness is better on the lens - I did some side-by-side shooting with my 4S, and while it's still noisy in some circumstances even for stills, the 5 produces a noticeably sharper picture.
8. Battery life seems good so far. Lasted all evening on half a charge.
9. Having really bad 4G/3G reception issues. Getting the "o" symbol that it can't connect to data all the time. I tooled around Hartford county last night and got LTE in a lot of places, but if I tried to use it, a lot of times it'd drop to 3G and then to "o" (no data reception). Not sure if it's just because everyone on the planet is activating a new phone or what. I used to get great 3G reception on my 4S. Network may have just been overloaded last night, but it's not super crowded around here so I dunno.
10. I am getting hand cramps from the new size. For real.
11. Screen is brighter. Slightly more vivid than the 4S.
12. I like the overall look of the design of the taller phone. It feels a bit more up to par with the new Droids coming out - the tallness.
13. The NAND does not seem any faster, which is unfortunate. I did some photo editing and it burned through applying effects noticeably quicker, but when I went to save, it took the same amount of time (i.e. forever).
14. 2D mode on the new Maps is kinda hard to read. Haven't used it for navigation yet. 3D in satellite view is a tad slow to load...wait, wait, wait.
15. Low-light is pretty good. Better than the 4S. The grain is easy to hide with an app that does film grain. This ball was really dark in person and came out viewable on the phone:
https://twitter.com/i/#!/weaksauce12/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/lF5X2iEt
16. A lot of my apps don't work right yet (Camera+ produces banding when taking photos, Filmic Pro seems to have some focus issues, black bars on the top & bottom of apps), so I'll have to wait for things to get updated. Also a significant lack of cases & accessories, as to be expected. Waiting on an extended battery case from Boost, Gomite Tripod Mobile, Olloclip lens, HDMI cable, cheap Lightning USB cables, etc.
17. The exposure can be weird. I chased my kiddo around outside and snapped some photos - sometimes it'd expose correct and his shirt would be red, and other times it'd get a bit more blown out and become a very light orange, while the majority of the rest of the image would have good colors. Seems far more finicky that way than my 4S.
18. I know it has the same single-channel NAND or whatever, but I'm really bummed it's not USB 3.0. I offload a ton of photos/videos from my phone and really wanted a faster method for data offload. Or if they had added 802.11ac or something. Now that I have the 64GB model, I can shoot 4+ hours of HD at a time, and that will take forever and a day to transfer to my computer lol.
19. When you take a photo using the Camera app, it fills the screen. When you look at the photo, there are extra pixels (more image) on the top & bottom that you didn't see when you took the picture. This annoys me. The screen displays a crop of the final image while you are shooting. So you are not taking the photo you are seeing, you are taking more than the photo you are seeing and will have to crop it later to get that same photo. I don't see an option to put black bars on the sides to get a 1:1 viewfinder. Kind of dumb when you are composing an image and then it doesn't look the same when you preview the shot after capturing it.
20. Honestly, it doesn't feel like a huge upgrade at all. Yeah, it's faster, but not ridiculously faster, and the NAND is still the same for saving edited photos. It's a bit taller, it's a bit lighter, the 4G is a bit faster (I don't really notice a difference from 3G yet, honestly), camera is a little better but has some hiccups so far, etc. Very iterative. I almost wish they had named this the 4S+, lol. I primarily upgraded for the camera and to go from 32gb to 64gb for my photography & video hobby. If the camera issues keep up, I may have to downgrade to the 4S haha. I'll give it a week or two though!
21. Front-facing camera is much clearer, but still super prone to noise. I thought they might have been using the 720p camera from the 4, but it's still wicked grainy at times.
I'm coming from a black 32gb 4S to a black 64gb 5. I mostly use my phone for photos & videos, so the camera is a really big deal for me. I'll be out shooting today with it. I took about 100 photos yesterday, mostly decent but with some mixed results - there seems to be a focus issue, and there seems to be a chromatic flare issue at times, as well as a slightly odd exposure issue. There is still some noise even for pictures with a decent amount of indoor light...I wish they had gone with a slightly faster lens like maybe an f/2.0 or something.
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