Apple iPhone 5 – Officially Unveiled

In a move to set itself apart from the typical Apple product presentations, CEO Tim Cook went to the “juicy” portion almost right off the bat this morning at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. After Cook’s brief opening speech, Phil Schiller got on stage in no time and unveiled the new Apple iPhone 5.

Quite surprisingly, almost all the rumors and leaks were true. Quipped with the new A6 dual-core processor, the iPhone 5 registered twice as fast as the current iPhone 4. Now, “taller” and thinner, its 1,136 x 640 4-inch Retina Display produces an even better resolution with 40% more color saturation. Battery life is better too, at 225 standby hours and 8 operational hours even when browsing with LTE connectivity. Oh, and officially, the iPhone 5 will have 4G connectivity as well as 2.4ghZ and 5gHz 802.11n WiFi connection. In an effort to “bring the world to you”, Apple re-designed the iSight camera. Still with a f/2.4 aperture five-lens element 8 megapixel CMOS image sensor but now with a sapphire crystal construct, the iSight is able to capture Panorama size images too. The front facing FaceTime camera also got an update, now record in 720p HD video.

The most talked about upgrade, however, was the “Lightning” 9-pin dock connector. A replacement to the 30-pin connector, an ubiquitous design on iOS devices since 10 years ago, the 9-pin Lightning is all-digital and capable of handling eight-signal. Plus, its reversible so no need to worry about plugging it the wrong way.

At 18% thinner, 20% lighter, and twice as fast than its predecessor, the fastest, lightest, thinnest iPhone yet will cost the same as the iPhone 4, with price $199 for 16GB model, $299 for 32GB, and finally $399 for 64GB. Available in black or white, all will be ready for pre-order this coming Friday, September 14th. Orders begin to ship next Friday, September 21st.