Five days of iPhone 5

by: Josh Spencer - Sales Associate I, like thousands of others, waited in line for most of the night into the next morning on September 20^th, 2012. I did so at a corporate AT&T location at the home front in Fort Smith, AR. I arrived at about 8:30 PM on the 20^th to get 6^th place in line with my partner Daniel. His place in line was only to get two iPhones, seeing as the policy was “One iPhone per person.” That night was a long night, in which I was on a budget. No coffee, no energy drinks, just water and Cheetos, courtesy of a coworker of mine, Jarrod. Coincidentally, September 21^st, the release date of the iPhone 5 is also my birthday. So of course I convinced myself that instead of selling both iPhones (which I would be making about $550 on each) I would keep one of them. In the end, I sold both iPhones. It’s hard to justify owning a phone you can sell for such a hefty profit. Here is my review based on five days of use.

iPhone 5 Repair in Fort Smith Arkansas

The first time I saw the iPhone 5, I fell in love. Not the romantic love the word is associated with, but that of the “nerd” variety. Being somewhat a fan of architecture and design, I was astonished by its beauty. From its flat aluminum back, to the polished edges on the bezel. Every part of this phone was thought through at least a hundred times. Reviewed, trashed, remodeled. Looking at the phone I could tell this quality was unrivaled. The pure simplicity and sophistication of its design is not matched by any other phone PERIOD. Holding the phone, its weight didn’t feel nearly as powerful as it really is. The first time I powered it on and started using it, it almost felt as if it were an extension of me. The fluid user interface and the speedy response just felt natural. Siri quickly became a tool I used on a regular basis. From something as simple as “Siri, what’s the weather like this week?” To things as complex as “Take me to the nearest Wal-Mart.” Siri as a tool runs beautifully on the iPhone 5, with LTE speeds making her response time almost instant. When I arrived home and finished opening the box, I had three items in the bottom of the box. I had my USB cable, wall adapter for charging the phone, and the Lightning Port cord. This cord is a blessing and a curse. Being a strong little plug was a huge bonus. The lightning port is a nice aluminum and is very sturdy in comparison with yesteryears 30-pin connector. When plugged in it does not move around like the older connectors did. In fact, I didn’t even really worry about putting pressure on it, where with my 4S I always charged it on a flat surface in fear that I’d damage my charge port. The charger also was considerably faster, in both data transfer speed and charge time. The curses being no matter where I looked I couldn’t find a charger for the life of me. They simply do not exist yet. Not that I need more than one, but it’s always helpful to have a few chargers around so you don’t have to hunt one down. The next thing in the box was probably the best in-ear headphones I’ve ever used. I actually preferred these over my Dr. Dre Solo headphones. The design of these headphones was phenomenal. Not aesthetically, they are pretty ugly. But for utility, these headphones get five out of five stars. You have basically a two-speaker assembly in both headphones. One speaker goes into the ear canal directly, blasting clear sounds of whatever beats you’re playing. The other speaker is actually pointed directly at your skull, This one provides deep bass and high treble. Really you have to try these to believe the sound that they produce. On the right earpiece, they also enlarged the controls and the microphone is improved dramatically. Gone are the days you have to search for that control to pause your music or answer a call.

Probably the most interesting part of the iPhone 5 is the new OS it comes loaded with. (Which is also available on the 3GS onward.) IOS 6 adds a plethora of new features. My favorite new feature is the Panorama feature. Even though there are dozens of third-party apps with panorama capabilities, the native panorama feature is incredibly smooth and provides perfect instructions to “slow down” or “move camera up/down” as you are gliding across whatever landscape you’re capturing. The next favorite feature is the “do not disturb” feature, which is one I have needed severely in my line of work. Being a sales representative at a tech repair shop means I constantly have to show customers that I have the latest and greatest smart phone, and  what features it offers. Getting a text or call in the middle of that can ruin a conversation and loose a customer’s attention. To break it down, while “do not disturb” is active, you can only receive a call if the person has tried calling three times in the last ten minutes. Text are received but no alert is sent until the feature is turned off. This way, you can still pull service and check your email/open apps but will not be bothered by your roommate looking for the remote or a friend wanting to grab a bite to eat. Maps has also seen a huge improvement. With Apple's rivalry with Google, they have decided to say goodbye to Google Maps and say hello to a vector-based 3D map. This map so far has a pretty slow render-rate in 3D mode, but is butter smooth with its voice turn by turn directions. I used it quite a few times when getting lost in my travels. Siri also has the ability to use this new map application, which works great if you’re in the middle of transit and can’t enter your destination manually. Now for the juicy stuff. I decided to let my tech Alex (AKA Gordo) tear it down. Of course I took photos to let you see. It wouldn’t be fair of me not to ;). In the iPhone 5, you see something from the iPhone 3g/3gs era. The screen if the first part that comes off. This is a blessing however also a curse. Repairs on the screen will be extremely easy, considering it’s the first part that comes off. Over all replacing it even for a novice like myself would only take ten minutes at the slowest. However, since apple implemented a similar technology Samsung and Motorola have, part cost is NOT cheap. In the Screen, you have the LCD (which displays photos/videos), the Digitizer (which registers touches on the screen) and the lens (which protects the LCD/Digi from abuse.) In the iPhone 5, the LCD/Digi/lens are all one piece. They are NOT fused like the 4/4S but they are all ONE PART. Meaning the manufacturing process of them is far more complex. Here is a photo of what that LCD/DIGI assembly looks like coming off and separated.

The next part that comes off is the battery. For whatever reason apple decided to go with a 3.8 volt battery. Possibly the reason is because of a high-powered processor. Other than that, there is nothing spectacular with the new battery.

Everything is seems pretty standard. You have your charge port assembly (which is actually completely dis-assemble friendly.) that being said you can replace just the loud speaker, or just the lightning port if needed.

The most interesting part of the teardown has to be the mysterious A6 processor. This chipset is rumored to be the most powerful ever on a smartphone. That being said, AMD has on their site that the processor can range from 1.4GHZ-2.3GHZ with a 400GHZ RADEON GPU built in. To most people this means nothing, but to a keen nerd such as myself, it puts pep in my step. This processor actually has hyper threading, which means each core can run two processes at a time. So for two cores, you can run four task at a time. In IOS that means not only butter smooth interface, but seamless transition from app to app even with tethering, Pandora, and angry birds all running. This phone is a juggernaut, and nothing I could throw at it would even slow it down.   The iPhone 5 is a mystery. Right down to the way it looks, Apple is a company of wizards. Their magic being everything they make is not only beautiful but works flawlessly. They are one of the few companies where what you pay for is what you get, and the iPhone 5 is definitely worth a 2 year contract. In my opinion, it is the best phone to hit the market. I applaud Apple and lay in wait to how they are going to make an already-perfect phone any better.