There’s been more than enough hype online, and everyone seems to be weighing in and trying to determine exactly what Apple is trying to do with the new iPhone. From the outside appearance, it seems as though not very much has changed, and that could frankly be disappointing to people looking for quite a big change from the previous incarnations of the iPhone. There has been a big clamor for this new phone.
This is never more evident than when the iPhone proved itself to be a highly popular and reliable personal and business phone, owing to the extensive range of features and Apps within the iStore that work with it. These applications make these devices flexible and highly efficient in terms of improving productivity and receiving information. So it should come as no surprise that people are eagerly anticipating word of the latest incarnation’s improvements over the last one.
Mixed Feelings
Of course, while companies cannot expect to satisfy each and every customer with their products, there was a great deal of mixed reactions in the wake of the iPhone 5 reveal. There are people who laud it, and people who dismiss it, finding too few changes for it to be worth the upgrade.
There have been multiple online complaints about the iPhone 5’s “changesâ€:
Up: The new iPhone is larger; to accommodate five rows of apps on the screen, as opposed to the previous four.
Down: This isn’t considered by users as a big change, considering that the old interface seemed good enough in the first place. Secondly, they feel that it might become unwieldy, should the phone become any larger than it already is.
Up: The display is impressive, as the iPhone 5 now has the crystal clear retina display that had first been admired in the iPad 3 released earlier this year.
Down: The change in the screen, the retina display, may be very attractive to users who crave very sharp and crisp screens, but for non-discerning users, there really is not that huge a change compared to the excellence of the previous screen.
Up: The new iPhone now has a new port: the Lightning Connector. It is supposedly an “eight-signal, all-digital†design. This improves speed and reliability of data transfer. It is also more durable, since a common weak point in the old 30-point cables seems to be the connection between cable to port, which tend to break.
Down: While this sounds impressive compared USB 2.0, the improvement is not very impressive compared to data transfer speeds of USB 3.0 and the Thunderbolt. Secondly, this eight-pin port effectively makes iPhone 5s incompatible with all the other 30-pin ports and 30-pin docks which Apple product accessories from all over the place are selling.
Down: In contrast with other frontrunning models of smartphone, the iPhone 5 was revealed without NFC capabilities. Strange, considering that the competitor models are boasting of this ability as a convenience for consumers, allowing them to pay for purchases through it.
Up: Apparently the lack of NFC won’t hurt the iPhone all that much; Payments via NFC aren’t the norm as of yet. While it would be a convenience for some consumers who would like to use NFC-based payments, not all outlets or stores support NFC payments anyway.
Down: Another thing that the iPhone 5 seems to have missing is the fact that it is not capable of wireless charging. Competing models like the Nokia Lumia 920 have this ability. As a rather lauded innovation, it seems off that the iPhone5 does not have this feature, when 120 companies are already compliant with the standard.
Up: What people tend to overlook is that this ability to charge wirelessly doesn’t come without giving up some things: and that includes using it while charging. You cannot charge wirelessly while using your device, something that the iPhone doesn’t seem to want to give up. Also, models with wireless charging ability seem to be thicker (or have larger chargers) than usual, and the sleek iPhone is fighting against bulkiness from the very beginning.
There are other concerns that users have voiced over the iPhone 5 and its seeming lack of change as opposed to the major overhauls done on other Apple products revealed in the same Apple event in which the iPhone 5 was revealed. For Apple fans, the new iPhone definitely is the phone to get, but for other users, the question of whether or not the changes are substantial enough for them to make the upgrade is still being considered.