The final big change is to the connector, which is likely to cause the most frustration. We were never fans of the infamous 30-pin connector, and it has been ditched in favour of a smaller, reversible connector which plugs into the "Lightning" port.
Music fans will be pleased to see Apple has upgraded the standard headphones. The newly designed EarPods are a major improvement and will be less likely to stick out of your ear. They also don't leak sound anywhere near as much as the old headphones, so you won't have to put up with that annoying person on the train who likes to inadvertently share their music collection with everyone.
Despite having to shell out 529 for the entry-level iPhone 5, Apple still doesn't provide an adaptor. This means the iPhone 5 will not work with any existing peripherals you may have such as speaker or in-car dock. An adaptor will add on an extra 25 to the cost of the device.
The Lightning adaptor will frustrate those who have accessories
Hardware
A dual-core A6 chip with a clock speed of 1.03GHz works in tadem with 1GB of RAM to run iOS 6.
Benchmarks suggest swift performance. The iPhone 5 clocked a score of 1649 in the processor and memory Geekbench test. Our review unit of the Samsung Galaxy S3 had previously managed 1347. The SunSpider benchmark test was also super quick, with the iPhone 5 rendering a webpage in a just 920m/s, compared to the S3 which clocked a time of more than 1400m/s.
These number are backed up by real-world usage. Transitions between apps, homescreens and menus are as smooth as visually possible. Press the home button or issue a command via the the device and it responds instantaneously.
Apple offers the usual choice of internal storage either 16, 32 or 64GB editions. There is still no options for removable storage, but Apple does throw in 5GB of free iCloud storage and more can be purchased as and when required.
The iPhone 5 does not feature NFC functionality, a feature which is being touted on competing Android and Windows Phone devices, such as the Galaxy S3 and forthcoming Lumia 920. However, unless you like to pay for your sandwich at Pret with your phone, you're not missing much.
iOS 6
Continuing the tradition of shipping devices with the latest update, the iPhone comes pre-installed with iOS 6. As usual Apple touts 200-odd improvements, but major changes label closer to the dozens.
Key iOS 6 features
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