The iPhone 5 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on October 16, 2012 11:33 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone 5
The last significant redesign of the iPhone platform came in 2010 with the iPhone 4. It was an update that literally touched all aspects of the device, from SoC to display to baseband and of course, chassis. Last month’s launch of the iPhone 5 is no different in magnitude. The sixth generation iPhone makes some of the biggest changes to the platform since its introduction in 2007.
Visually the device begins by evolving the design language of the iPhone 4/4S chassis. From the launch of the iPhone 4 it was quite obvious that Apple had picked a design it was quite proud of. Thus it’s not too surprising that, from a distance, the iPhone 5 resembles the previous two iPhone models. We’ll get into material differences shortly, but what make the iPhone 5 design such a radical departure is its larger display.
All previous iPhones have maintained the same 3.5-inch, 3:2 aspect ratio display. With the rest of the world quickly moving to much larger displays, and with 16:9 the clear aspect ratio of choice, when faced with the decision of modernizing the iPhone platform the choice was obvious.
The iPhone 5 embraces a taller, 4-inch, 16:9 1136 x 640 display opting to lengthen the device instead of increasing its area in both dimensions. The result is a device that is distinctly an iPhone, albeit a modern one. The taller display doesn’t do much to make desktop web pages any easier to read as a result of the width staying the same. Those longing for an HTC One X or Galaxy S 3 sized device running iOS are out of luck. Reading emails and typing are both improved though as there’s now more room for lists and the keyboard no longer occupies as much of the display. The taller device can be more awkward to use if you have smaller hands, but the added screen real estate is honestly worth it. Once you get used to the iPhone 5’s display, going back to the older models is tough.
The taller chassis went on a diet as well. The iPhone 5 is now considerably thinner and lighter than its predecessor, which is yet another factor that contributes to it feeling more modern.
Internally the device changes are just as significant, if not more, than those on the outside. The iPhone 5 includes LTE support, which in areas where LTE networks are deployed can be enough reason alone to warrant an upgrade.
The iPhone 5 also includes a brand new SoC from Apple: the A6. For the first time since the introduction of the iPad, Apple has introduced a major branded SoC on an iPhone first. The iPhone 4 used the A4 after it debuted on the iPad, and the 4S picked up the A5 months after the iPad 2 launched with it. The A6 however arrives first on the iPhone 5, and with it comes two of Apple’s first, custom designed CPU cores. We’ve always known Apple as a vertically integrated device and software vendor, but getting into CPU design takes that to a new level.
| Physical Comparison | ||||
| Apple iPhone 4S | Samsung Galaxy S 3 (USA) | HTC One S | Apple iPhone 5 | |
| Height | 115.2 mm (4.5") | 136.6 mm (5.38" ) | 130.9 mm (5.15" ) | 123.8 mm (4.87") |
| Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 70.6 mm (2.78") | 65 mm (2.56") | 58.6 mm (2.31") |
| Depth | 9.3 mm ( 0.37") | 8.6 mm (0.34") | 7.8 mm (0.31") | 7.6 mm (0.30") |
| Weight | 140 g (4.9 oz) | 133g (4.7 oz) | 119.5g (4.21 oz) | 112 g (3.95 oz) |
| CPU | Apple A5 @ ~800MHz Dual Core Cortex A9 | 1.5 GHz MSM8960 Dual Core Krait | 1.5 GHz MSM8260A Dual Core Krait | 1.3 GHz Apple A6 (Dual Core Apple Swift) |
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 543MP2 | Adreno 225 | Adreno 225 | PowerVR SGX 543MP3 |
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR2-800 | 2 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 |
| NAND | 16GB, 32GB or 64GB integrated | 16/32 GB NAND with up to 64 GB microSDXC | 16 GB NAND | 16, 32, or 64 GB integrated |
| Camera | 8 MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 8 MP with LED Flash + 1.9 MP front facing | 8 MP with LED Flash + VGA front facing | 8 MP with LED Flash + 1.2MP front facing |
| Screen | 3.5" 960 x 640 LED backlit LCD | 4.8" 1280x720 HD SAMOLED | 4.3" 960x540 Super AMOLED | 4" 1136 x 640 LED backlit LCD |
| Battery | Internal 5.3 Whr | Removable 7.98 Whr | Removable 6.1 Whr | Internal 5.45 Whr |
There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to the new iPhone. Whether it is understanding the architecture of the A6 SoC or investigating the improved low light performance of the iPhone 5’s rear facing camera, we’ve got it here in what is easily our most in-depth iPhone review to date. Let’s get started.
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themossie - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
The manufacturer's charger uses a set of pull-up resistors connected between the various USB lines, to indicate that the phone can pull maximum current. Unfortunately, every manufacturer (and sometimes different phones) use different resistances.See http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/144... for a brief writeup.
For what it's worth, I've only had this problem with iDevices and the HP Touchpad. I own circa-2011+ HTC, Motorola and Samsung phones, and they all work fine with every charger. My Droid 2 Global was my primary work phone until a few months ago, and works great with every charger. Not sure why your wife is having problems there.
crankerchick - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
"The non-LTE phones see a sharp drop in battery life. At least at 28nm the slower air interfaces simply have to remain active (and drawing power) for longer, which results in measurably worse battery life. Again, the thing to be careful of here is there's usually a correlation between network speed and how aggressive you use the device. With a workload that scaled with network speed you might see closer numbers between 3G and 4G LTE."Perhaps you all could devise a test for this? Something like, change your LTE and 3G tests, where you decrease the time between page loads for the LTE test, to simulate doing more browsing since the pages load faster? One data point on this, with a reasonably selected change in page load duration, would be very helpful now that we have this very interesting dynamic clearly visible.
That said, as always, I appreciate the reviews presented here. Always thorough with lots of information to chew on beyond specs and "user opinion on user experience."
Just wish the reviews didn't take so long, but they are always worth it in the end.
TofDriver - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Thanks for this awesome article. Gigantic work, we'll worth the wait.I've learnt so much.
Would still appreciate it as an ebook, even after the web reading!
Seems like you're perfectionists who love to push limits... To me it does resonate with the team who designed the reviewed product.
name99 - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
"Another potential explanation is that the 3-wide front end allowed for better utilization of the existing two ALUs, although it's also unlikely that we see better than perfect scaling simply due to the addition of an extra decoder."Remember the standard numbers. On this type of integer code:
1/6 instructions are branch
1/6 instructions are store
1/3 instructions are load
1/3 instructions are ALU
This means the usual first throttling point i cache access, if you can only do one load/store cycle.
If you limit your cache to one op/cycle, it's generally not worth going beyond 2-wide --- too often you're waiting on the cache.
Once you widen your cache (usually, at this stage, by allowing simultaneous read and write per cycle) three-wide makes sense.
Each cycle now (on ideal and some sort of "average" idealized code) you can now do some sort of combination of half a branch, 1.5 load/stores, and 1 ALU. Meaning that 2 ALUs (as long as they are not overloaded and also handling some aspect of the load/store) is enough for now.
[Of course things never work out quite this ideal --- you have burstiness in operation types, not to mention delays. But the compiler should try to schedule instructions to get this sort of average, and likewise the re-order queues will do what they can to shuffle things to this sort of average. 2ALUs helps with the bursts, 3ALUs is overkill.]
So I would say the primary important change made to go to three-wide in a way that is not a waste of time was to convert the L1 cache to dual-ported, supporting simultaneous load & store per cycle.
jiffylube1024 - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I have to commend the Anandtech team for the great review! It was a long wait, but well worth it. The info on anodizing, the "Swift" CPU @ 1.3 GHz, camera performance, etc. was worth waiting for. This article, in my eyes, is a culmination of the Anandtech team's knowledge in the tech industry - deconstructing A6 to figure out what it's made of, discussing Apple's manufacturing capabilities, etc. Very informative and well written!I am always amazed at how many complaints (and petty platform wars) get exposed on the comment board. I certainly appreciate them when an article is poorly written, contains false information or outright lies, but with an article like this, the comments section seems shy of the effusive praise it deserves!
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On a slight tangent, I've enjoyed the first 8 Anandtech podcasts as well, and I have to say that I look forward to more non-iPhone related disucssion on future podcasts. The information was much appreciated, but for a tech site as broad as Anandtech, the first 8 podcasts have been VERY iPhone heavy in their content! Keep up the good work.
jamyryals - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link
I think you're right, it has been iPhone heavy, but the start of the podcast kind of lined up with the launch/review process. Let's be honest, it is a huge selling high quality device and it's treated as such. I have a feeling Brian and Anand will have a lot to say about all of the impending Nexii/WP8 when they come out this quarter.krumme - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Good to see reviewers apreciation of low light capabilities for the BSI sensor, reflecting real world usage. Oposite to a lot of uninformed stupid reviews on the net.Its exactly the same practical difference between s2 and s3 cameras. Big difference for real usage.
All the mpix race must stop now. 8M is way to much for the quality anyway.
Zanegray - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I love the level of analysis and attention to detail. Keep it up!mrdude - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Wow, what an article. Really fantastic read. The lengths you guys have gone to in this review is stunning, frankly. Well done. Although I'm no Apple fanatic, I must say that this is one of the better articles I've read on AT :)Dennis Travis - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Totally outstanding review. You guys covered everything. Thanks so much!