With the New iPad 3 already announced and giving us a couple of hints as to what we may expect from Apple iOS products in 2012, all eyes are now on the debut of the iPhone 5. Given last year’s delayed release of the iPhone 4S, there is now also the odd chance that the iPhone 5 will follow the late fall schedule with its launches.
Buy an iPhone 4S or wait for the iPhone 5?
This puts a good 8 months between now and October when the iPhone 5 could launch. So the big question here for buyers is should they hold out for the iPhone 5 until then or go with the iPhone 4S which is doing extremely well in the market and still at its peak of the game. To answer this, let’s look at the iPad 3 first for some clues as to what new features we can expect from the iPhone 5.
The New iPad 3 boasts a higher-resolution Retina Display, improved camera sensor, 4G LTE, and quad-core graphics but not processor. Now given that the quad-core processors we’ve seen employed on smartphones to date aren’t compatible with 4G LTE, it is more than likely that the iPhone 5 will not feature a quad-core processor but go with LTE only just like the New iPad. Next, the iPhone 4S already boasts a beautiful Retina Display which means that any improved display resolution that the iPhone 5 could bring may not be distinguishable by all users.
Moving on, an improved camera sensor has been rumored for the iPhone 5 for sometime now, with the most common rumors pointing to the iPhone 5 being equipped with a Sony 12-megapixel camera sensor. Lastly, a recently found paragraph from the Steve Jobs biography hinted on Apple working on an iPhone made out of glass only and without a metallic rim (story here). So what we could be seeing is a glass iPhone 5 once again but possibly without the metallic rim that caused reception issues when the design was first released back in the iPhone 4. In terms of thickness, the iPhone 5 would unlikely be thinner than the iPhone 4S given the fact that it will need to fit in LTE radios as well as a 12-megapixel sensor, but Apple might amaze us there.
So what we are likely looking at is a next-generation iPhone with a faster processor, 4G LTE connectivity, improved camera and a different form factor. Would this be enough to make you wait another 8 months? Sound off in the comments below and do tell us if we may have missed something else from the grapevine about the iPhone 5 that may be of importance.
