Apple iPhone 5 (Verizon Wireless)

The iPhone 5 ($199/16GB, $299/32GB, $399/64GB with contract; $649-$849 without contract) is the best iPhone ever. It takes the iPhone's traditional advantages, like the well-designed consistent hardware and interface, amazing apps, and robust retail support, and literally extends them.?If you have an older iPhone and you've been wondering, "should I upgrade?," the answer is a clear yes. Everything is better here. Better body, better screen, better camera, better mind. Compared with the iPhone 4S?, it's faster, less frustrating, and less fragile. And with even-older iPhones, there's no comparison.

In this review, we're focusing on the Verizon Wireless iPhone 5 (64GB) . We'll test the other carrier's models as we get them. For a perspective on potential differences and what the other carriers have to offer, see, "Which iPhone 5 Carrier Should You Choose?"

If you're a Verizon customer who's smartphone shopping with an open mind, I can confidently say, the iPhone 5 is a very good phone, but it's not always the best phone. The Samsung Galaxy S III and the Motorola Razr M, our other top choices on Verizon, make better in-car GPS units, for instance. I'll get to that decision at the end, but it isn't all clear-cut.

And if you just want bragging rights, well, this isn't Highlander. There can be more than one.

Physical Features
The iPhone 5 ditches the glass-sandwich design that Apple has used for two years in exchange for a lighter, slimmer quasi-unibody form. At 4.9 by 2.3 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 4 ounces, it's notably lighter than the last iPhone and one of the slimmest phones on the market, rivaled by the T-Mobile?HTC One S. The front panel is still mostly screen: a 4-inch, 1,136-by-640 (326 ppi) display as opposed to the old 3.5-inch, 960-by-640 (326 ppi) panel. That makes the whole phone longer, but no wider. As a result, it's very easy for people with small hands and short thumbs to touch every part of the screen without stretching.

I found the new screen to be most important when playing games. Sure, it allows more room for everything?more Facebook updates, more Web page text, more calendar entries. But it really shines for games, where I've felt previous iPhones to be almost unbearably cramped and squinty. You're going to be staring at your smartphone's screen a lot; another 20 percent or so of information, with no additional hand fatigue, should be a no-brainer.

The headphone jack has moved down to the bottom of the phone, which is a slight disappointment. It means when you pull your phone out of your pocket by following the headphone cable, it'll always be upside down. Also on the bottom panel are the fairly loud speaker and the controversial Lightning connector.

The pitch of iPhone owners whining about the new Lightning port has become deafening, mostly because of Apple's blockheaded decision to charge $30 for its Lightning-to-30-pin adapter. While Lightning continues Apple's irritating policy of using non-standard connectors so it can profit from licensing, the 30-pin dock connector was nearly a decade old. It was time to go.

The sides and back of the new iPhone are considerably more handsome than they used to be. The matte black, beveled edge of the black iPhone we tested blends smoothly into the black anodized aluminum back; relatively subtle glass panels at the top and bottom of the phone cover the invisible antennas. There's also a snazzy white/silver version.?Compared with this nearly unibody design, the 4S looks clunky. The new iPhone looks more durable, too, without that big pane of glass on the back to crack.?

Other buttons and controls are where they usually are. The iPhone's raised, separated volume controls have always been a nice feature, as they're very easy to locate blindly.

RF Reception and Phone Calls
Dispel all memories of the "death grip." RF reception here was excellent in my tests, and the iPhone 5 managed to nail two calls in a weak-signal area where the Galaxy S III couldn't connect. With antennas behind glass panels at the top and bottom of the phone, it's nearly impossible to cover both of them with your hand.

The iPhone 5 isn't the world's best voice phone, but it's good enough. The earpiece is loud enough for most situations, and the sidetone adapts to background noise so you don't end up yelling. Voice quality in quiet areas is well-defined. The noise cancellation isn't nearly as good as the Audience-powered noise canceling in the Galaxy S III?some background noise leaks through, which can create problems for automated response systems, and the iPhone 5 will clip your voice a bit when it's trying to dampen heavy noise. But my voice was clear and audible over the background noise in test calls. The speakerphone is of thoroughly average volume. Just as with the mouthpiece, it does a decent, but not perfect job, of lowering background noise.

My Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset worked just fine with Siri once I figured out the rhythm; you have to wait a few seconds after pressing the voice dialing button, and then wait for the beep before issuing your command. Music, video, and game audio had no trouble making it over Bluetooth in sync, so this phone should work fine with your Bluetooth headsets and speakers.

The Verizon iPhone 5 works on a wide range of networks: according to Apple, it supports CDMA EV-DO Rev A and Rev. B (800/1900/2100MHz), UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850/900/1900/2100MHz), GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and LTE (Bands 1/3/5/13/25). That's more networks than I've ever seen on a single phone. By default it will roam globally on the fastest 3G networks it can find. Verizon unlocks the SIM card slots after 60 days if your account is in good standing, so you can pop in a foreign SIM card. That is, if you can find the so-far-obscure Nano-SIM format. Nobody else uses it yet, but since Apple's a behemoth, I'm sure it will catch on.

One thing you can't do is move a Verizon iPhone to Sprint or AT&T's LTE network. (It might work with T-Mobile, though.) Sprint has (and uses) the ability to reject other carriers' phones on its CDMA network, and this model lacks AT&T's LTE bands.

3G talk time was even better than Apple promised, with nine hours, 44 minutes of talk time. That's not quite as long as the Galaxy S III's 10 hours, 43 minutes, but it's still very good.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/RRXOjXMUQCg/0,2817,2409999,00.asp

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