"the Iphone 5 Is A Miracle"

[nikster]

I just have to post this - a lot of the tech press, and techies who read the tech press, really don't get Apple products. They're eternally wondering why people "fall for it". Most of them don't own an Apple product or would consider one based on specs, open-ness, or price, or general resentment of the brand.

Farhad Manjoo was one of these tech writers, wrote a review how boring the new iPhone was (but still got one).

Then he suddenly got it and went wayyyyy the other way:

When I pick up the iPhone 5 and examine it closely, I find it difficult to believe that this device actually exists. The iPhone 5 does not feel like a product that was mass produced. In a strange way, it doesn’t feel like it was built at all. This is a gadget that seems as if it fell into the box fully formed. If you run your hands around its face, you scarcely feel any seams or other points of connection; there’s little evidence that this thing is a highly complex device made from lots of smaller things. Instead it just feels like a single, solid, exquisitely crafted piece of machinery, and once you pick it up you never want to put it down.

from "Marveling at the existence of the greatest phone ever made"

In my opinion, materials and craftsmanship have been Jon Ive's (and by extension Apple's) passion for a while. With each new product, they go to greater extremes. I've come to expect this by now... don't judge a new Apple product until you hold it in your hands.

[kurnell]

Medication time

[lomatopo]

I had a chance to play with an iPhone 5 during a recent visit to the U.S. and I found the iPhone 5 quite heavy and it has an unusual, but perhaps patented, shape but I am not an iPhone user. I honestly didn't notice the finish all that much but based on the recent Foxconn issues Apple has definitely cranked up the QC requirements on finished goods, which may be resulting in near perfect appearances?

[negreanu]

iPhone 5 quite heavy

Thats a first never ever heard anyone say that about the iPhone 5.

Its really really light compared to previous versions and competitor's phones.

[Yme]

It obviously doesn't take a lot to excite some people.

[Somtamnication]

Still a small phone compared to my one year old SGS2. Once you go big screen, you never look back!

[uptheos]

Can they put a sensor on it, to detect that you're going to walk into someone?

[lomatopo]

It obviously doesn't take a lot to excite some people.

Tell that to the workers making the iPhone 5. Supposedly there was a pretty big brawl between Foxconn QC inspectors and assemblers when new, more strict cosmetic requirements were put in place, making it challenging for workers to meet their quotas.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/08/foxconn-workers-go-on-second-strike-in-two-weeks-over-strict-apple-quality-demands/

[robblok]

Still a small phone compared to my one year old SGS2. Once you go big screen, you never look back!

I agree had a iphone 4s and sold it and got an S3. As i now have experience with both phones i will never go back to Apple. I am happy to get rid of itunes and can access my phone as a drive, can change its battery and can add extra memory not at idiot apple prices. I just love the bigger size.

Anyway the Apple is not all bad because its still a nice piece of kit but more for people who are not that good about computers. You can configure the s3 much more and maybe better. Looks a bit more complicated to start but once you get the hang of it its great (except for the contact manager)

[Somtamnication]

I love my Ipad 1 and will get a new one, as I have spent a ton of money on apps and do not want to lose them.

But, it incenses me to no end, that Apple half heartedly approved the Bluetooth standards, yet you can only do Bluetooth transfers between Apple devices. <deleted> adopt the standard if you cannot transfer files between an ipad and a non Apple device?

Anyway, sorry to hijack thread. All their products are beautiful and some people love the "walled garden". I love my ipad but.........

[thaicbr]

I have to admit. Never liked the iphone... macbooks etc great. Iphone nada.

http://m.cnet.com/news/iphone-5-honeymoon-over-already/57522042?ds=1

Makes for an interesting read.

sent from my ..................#

[nikster]

Quite funny even after this post nobody here mentions materials or craftsmanship. I get it though - if you spent an iPhone-like amount of money on that piece of plastic you obviously don't care about that.

Fine with me. And BTW I am very happy Android has come this far, especially JB 4.1, and that Samsung keeps kicking out new devices.

Now if one of the device makers could get themselves to create hardware that can compete with Apple's, I'd get even more excited. As for now though when it comes to build quality, they seem to have given up, and are content with making the same old plastic shells like they always have. I guess by "they" I mean Samsung, as the others have just given up in general. Motorola is losing money (and making crap phones)... Nokia is betting on dead horses... HTC is barely breaking even...

[nikster]

Still a small phone compared to my one year old SGS2. Once you go big screen, you never look back!

SGS2 has 800x480 pixels vs. the iPhone 4's 960x640 pixels Each to their own but your argument makes no sense. Unless you for some reason love big pixels. That retro look, perhaps?

The SGS3 is humongous but at least it has more pixels than an iPhone, too.

Edited October 11, 2012 by nikster

[ExpatJ]

Apple treat their customers with disrespect in my opinion (e.g. 1) removing youtube, and map apps from ios in order to diss another company even though it actually is bad/inconvenient for actual apple customers who love both google apps 2) Not allowing USBs to connect to ipads which would make them much more useful for work purposes (transferring word documents,m excel etc), and would allow attaching dvd drives to watch dvds which would be very useful for actual apple customers but....

Its like when a husband beats his wife, and yet the wife loves him and keeps coming back for more.

[robblok]

Quite funny even after this post nobody here mentions materials or craftsmanship. I get it though - if you spent an iPhone-like amount of money on that piece of plastic you obviously don't care about that.

Fine with me. And BTW I am very happy Android has come this far, especially JB 4.1, and that Samsung keeps kicking out new devices.

Now if one of the device makers could get themselves to create hardware that can compete with Apple's, I'd get even more excited. As for now though when it comes to build quality, they seem to have given up, and are content with making the same old plastic shells like they always have. I guess by "they" I mean Samsung, as the others have just given up in general. Motorola is losing money (and making crap phones)... Nokia is betting on dead horses... HTC is barely breaking even...

Maybe because the craftsmanship is not that great. The iphone and the S3 IMHO dont differ much. Iphone feels a bit more solid.. to each his her own. Id say the s3 beat the Iphone 4s hands down, and the S4 will beat the iphone 5 for sure. If apple let go of Itunes and makes it easier to use the phone as a drive and lifts it restrictions.. then id consider it again. But for now i love the bigger screen of my s3. But that is a personal preference.

[negreanu]

When you handle the iphone 5 it truly feels like the best built phone I have ever had. It is so well constructed miles ahead of HTC one X and S3 in construction feel (And I have owned both). Apart from Maps I am very very happy with my iPhone 5's

The speed is also way up there and the browsing seems twice as fast as previous models and the S3.

Edited October 11, 2012 by negreanu

[PoorSucker]

[sammycic]

When you handle the iphone 5 it truly feels like the best built phone I have ever had. It is so well constructed miles ahead of HTC one X and S3 in construction feel (And I have owned both). Apart from Maps I am very very happy with my iPhone 5's

The speed is also way up there and the browsing seems twice as fast as previous models and the S3.

It would want to for the extra 15,000 bht over the S3

[negreanu]

It would want to for the extra 15,000 bht over the S3

What are you talking about? The Iphone 5 will be the same price as the S3 more or less.

The S3 is officially launched in Thailand the iphone 5 is not yet.

Edited October 11, 2012 by negreanu

[sammycic]

It would want to for the extra 15,000 bht over the S3

What are you talking about? The Iphone 5 will be the same price as the S3 more or less.

The S3 is officially launched in Thailand the iphone 5 is not yet.

They have them for sale at sunee tower in ubon for 37,000bht 16gb, which i assume must be copies or grey imports..

Edited October 11, 2012 by sammycic

[negreanu]

They have them for sale at sunee tower in ubon for 37,000bht 16gb, which i assume must be copies or grey imports..

Of course grey imports. The s3 when it was first released like the Iphone 5 is now, grey import S3 was 33,000THB.

The official price of the iphone 5 when its released will be around 23,000THB same as the S3 official release price.

Edited October 11, 2012 by negreanu

[nikster]

Apple treat their customers with disrespect in my opinion (e.g. 1) removing youtube, and map apps from ios in order to diss another company even though it actually is bad/inconvenient for actual apple customers who love both google apps 2) Not allowing USBs to connect to ipads which would make them much more useful for work purposes (transferring word documents,m excel etc), and would allow attaching dvd drives to watch dvds which would be very useful for actual apple customers but....

Its like when a husband beats his wife, and yet the wife loves him and keeps coming back for more.

No, it's more like a wife suspecting infidelity when there is no reason to

Apple wants to provide the best customer experience - that's the company philosophy and has always been. It makes sense too - people who are happy come back to buy your product. Not a co-incidence that the iPhone always scores top in customer satisfaction ratings.

Maps had become untenable - in case you have not noticed, iOS maps had not changed basically since day one, while Google maps on Android added features like turn by turn navigation and offline maps. Since Google owns the maps, and also Android, they clearly wanted to keep that competitive advantage to themselves. Apple had no choice but to go through the rather expensive and painful process of building their own maps. They've spent upwards of $500M on that. Also, next year, their license for Google maps would expire so there was a real possibility that their main competitor in the mobile space would not license them maps (or would ask for absurd amounts of money - same thing), and they'd have nothing. Long story short, Apple owning their own maps is the only way they can improve them.

YouTube is probably covered by a similar license agreement; Google owns YouTube and - understandably - wanted to profit by showing ads. The current YouTube app on iPhones is ad-free. As Google is in the business of selling ads, that's not to their liking at all. I am pretty sure Apple would love to keep their ad-free app around. But anyway it's no big deal just get Google's YouTube app from the app store, it's free.

As for USB, USB does actually connect to the iPad via the camera connection kit. Why it's not a first class citizen in iPad land I am not sure - I assume technical reasons. Powering a DVD drive, for example, would use a lot of battery - an iPad battery just isn't big enough to make this a good experience.

Lastly - data transfer is a bit of a sore point with iOS. I was hoping they'd copy Android's approach - a shared folder that all apps can see and those apps that can handle certain document types can open them. That hasn't happened. Point taken. Copying documents into individual apps sucks. There's iCloud to kind of get around it - that's a shared folder in the cloud, even better than one on the device. But in my experience it's not yet working very well.

[ianwuk]

I also thought it felt 'heavier' when I played around with one. Maybe because you equate a larger screen with a little more weight also. I am happy with my normal iPhone 4 as it is.

Edited October 11, 2012 by ianwuk

[skippybangkok]

Still a small phone compared to my one year old SGS2. Once you go big screen, you never look back!

I did..... Dumped my android based Galaxy Note w a bigger screen and back to iPhone 4S. Did not appreciate that simple thing of one hand operation until using a bigger screen...... I understand now ( not a few weeks back ) why apple stuck to a screen the same width.

Android suck as an OS, and I am happily dictating messages, emails and appointments again. ( yes yes, I know android can dictate too, but not the same )

[Gary A]

My main problem with smart phones is that the screens are too small. My first one was 3.7 inches. That was REALLY too small. The 4.3 was better but still small. I now have a Galaxy S3 and it is much better. A even bigger screen would be better but then it wouldn't fit in my pocket. I am of the opinion that these phones are amazing but that they are still high tech toys. Even my 10 inch net book screen is too small but better than any phone. My desk top is the ultimate.

[skippybangkok]

My main problem with smart phones is that the screens are too small. My first one was 3.7 inches. That was REALLY too small. The 4.3 was better but still small. I now have a Galaxy S3 and it is much better. A even bigger screen would be better but then it wouldn't fit in my pocket. I am of the opinion that these phones are amazing but that they are still high tech toys. Even my 10 inch net book screen is too small but better than any phone. My desk top is the ultimate.

Time to visit Top Charoen

[nikster]

My main problem with smart phones is that the screens are too small. My first one was 3.7 inches. That was REALLY too small. The 4.3 was better but still small. I now have a Galaxy S3 and it is much better. A even bigger screen would be better but then it wouldn't fit in my pocket. ......

You could get a murse.

I recently saw a guy talking on his 7" Samsung tablet which he had pressed to the side of his head. It looked even more ridiculous than it sounds.

[lomatopo]

iPhone 5 quite heavy

Thats a first never ever heard anyone say that about the iPhone 5.

Its really really light compared to previous versions and competitor's phones.

Maybe it is because it seems so tiny? For children and women with small hands I can see the appeal of the small form factors on the iPhones.

[Gary A]

I readily admit that I'm almost to the point that I have to carry around reading glasses. I can still get by with the Galaxy S3 screen and the zoom for most things.

[nikster]

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/12/changewave-forget-maps-iphone-5-is-still-a-major-attraction-with-demand-at-record-rates-wp-8-and-nokia-still-challenged/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

This is kind of crazy: 19% of Americans say they're "very likely" to buy an iPhone 5. 13% say they are somewhat likely to. 19% is almost double the iPhone 4S which had the same survey at 10%.

The thing that limits phone size for me is my front pocket. A Galaxy S3 is certainly taking that to its limits, for a Note 2 I'd need a man purse (or murse).

Looked at both today I don't see the appeal - what can the S3 do that an iPhone can't? Its UI is a little more awkward and a little uglier thanks to Android - I guess not many people would notice this but all the transition animations on Android look like crap compared to those on iOS. They're smooth now - but they're not well designed. They look like they were designed by programmers, similar to the various 3D Linux desktops. A lot of technical know-how and GPU horsepower, but very little knowledge about animation and UI design. The animation is a gimmick, rather than a feature: It doesn't make the user interface better.

The S3 screen size is bigger but not substantially so IMO - it won't make much of a difference in looking at web pages. And let's not even talk about apps, where Android is just a mess thanks to fragmentation. Apps don't take advantage of the screen size, and if they do, they don't do it well. Except the built in apps of course, but for me it's about 100s of thousands of 3rd party apps.

The Note 2 is more interesting IMO, even though it's absurdly large. But thanks to that huge screen, it actually differentiates itself from an iPhone. It can do things the iPhone can't. If it wasn't for the issue of having to carry it, that screen size would be really nice to have.