You Can Never Be Too Thin, But Can You Be Too Narrow?
My benevolent and generous employer provides me with a mobile phone. This gives them a way to contact me anywhere at any time, and is cheaper than chaining me to the desk. (Slaves require food and shelter.)
I was in line for an upgrade, and it arrived today: a shiny new iPhone 5. (Which should either be called the iPhone 4 because it's the fourth case design, or the iPhone 6 because it's the sixth iteration.)
Let's get one thing straight: it is a miracle and a wonder and a joy to behold. It is unbelievably fast here in Boston, in which AT&T has plenty of 4G LTE coverage. It's the best telephone Apple has ever made. The very first thing the Unindicted Co-Conspirator remarked on, before she'd even seen it, was how much clearer my voice was when I called her on the way home.
WiFi is also faster, especially if you have a 5 GHz 802.11n network. I don't at work, but I do at home, and I can see the difference.
It's blazingly fast. Every operation is faster and more responsive. Unlike older iPhones, you can actually feel a bit of warmth on the back when you've been running for a bit. Not hot, not uncomfortably warm, but you can feel it. The iPhone 4S had an A5 chip running at 800 MHz; this is the A6 running at 1.2 GHz. The 4S never felt pokey, but the bar has now been raised.
The fit and finish are worthy of Apple or maybe a fine Swiss watch. We're talking a perfect slab of aluminum and glass here. One nice thing is that the aluminum back is less slippery than the previous two models' glass back - it's not rubberized, but it feels just a bit more grippy.
The cameras are fantastic. It shoots faster and handles low light better than previous versions. There's also this really neat panorama capability that just works.
Siri seems more responsive, but that may just be a function of the faster network speeds.
Battery life doesn’t seem to have changed - it’s still solid. The new Lightning charger is a definite improvement from the old 30-pin connector, and once you see it, you realize why they needed to shrink the connector. The new headphones are … interesting - I haven’t used them enough report on them. They come in a nice handy plastic box so you never have to untangle the cord again.
All told, it's a miracle and a wonder and a joy to behold. Except… why does it feel so narrow? It's the exact same width as the iPhone 4 and the 4S, but it's 13.6 mm taller. It's 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter. Yet somehow it feels more narrow. It's not the screen - that's bright, sharp and clear even to my aged eyes.
My tired orbs also appreciate the extra real estate when flipped sideways. I won't be watching many movies on this, but I do read a lot of websites. The extra 176 pixels come in handy.
So there you have it. It's faster, better, and an all-around miracle. I just have a feeling that I would have liked it a little better if it were wider. Maybe the iPhone 6...
I was in line for an upgrade, and it arrived today: a shiny new iPhone 5. (Which should either be called the iPhone 4 because it's the fourth case design, or the iPhone 6 because it's the sixth iteration.)
Let's get one thing straight: it is a miracle and a wonder and a joy to behold. It is unbelievably fast here in Boston, in which AT&T has plenty of 4G LTE coverage. It's the best telephone Apple has ever made. The very first thing the Unindicted Co-Conspirator remarked on, before she'd even seen it, was how much clearer my voice was when I called her on the way home.
WiFi is also faster, especially if you have a 5 GHz 802.11n network. I don't at work, but I do at home, and I can see the difference.
It's blazingly fast. Every operation is faster and more responsive. Unlike older iPhones, you can actually feel a bit of warmth on the back when you've been running for a bit. Not hot, not uncomfortably warm, but you can feel it. The iPhone 4S had an A5 chip running at 800 MHz; this is the A6 running at 1.2 GHz. The 4S never felt pokey, but the bar has now been raised.
The fit and finish are worthy of Apple or maybe a fine Swiss watch. We're talking a perfect slab of aluminum and glass here. One nice thing is that the aluminum back is less slippery than the previous two models' glass back - it's not rubberized, but it feels just a bit more grippy.
The cameras are fantastic. It shoots faster and handles low light better than previous versions. There's also this really neat panorama capability that just works.
Siri seems more responsive, but that may just be a function of the faster network speeds.
Battery life doesn’t seem to have changed - it’s still solid. The new Lightning charger is a definite improvement from the old 30-pin connector, and once you see it, you realize why they needed to shrink the connector. The new headphones are … interesting - I haven’t used them enough report on them. They come in a nice handy plastic box so you never have to untangle the cord again.
All told, it's a miracle and a wonder and a joy to behold. Except… why does it feel so narrow? It's the exact same width as the iPhone 4 and the 4S, but it's 13.6 mm taller. It's 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter. Yet somehow it feels more narrow. It's not the screen - that's bright, sharp and clear even to my aged eyes.
My tired orbs also appreciate the extra real estate when flipped sideways. I won't be watching many movies on this, but I do read a lot of websites. The extra 176 pixels come in handy.
So there you have it. It's faster, better, and an all-around miracle. I just have a feeling that I would have liked it a little better if it were wider. Maybe the iPhone 6...