The Good and Bad About iPhone 5

It didn't take me much time to decide to get an iPhone 5 after the frustration that Android has brought me: system is laggy and irresponsive, battery is draining fast, and the Android apps just don't work well. 

I got my iPhone 5 on Monday, as soon as I came back in Singapore. Having been using the phone for the past 5 days, all I want to say is that it is simply amazing and such a delight to use. But nothing is perfect, here are some things I listed that might be useful for you to consider buying an iPhone 5. For all the relevant specifications, I am sure you'll be able to find them online easily.

Good things:

• Thanks to Apple's world-leading product design, the build quality of iPhone 5 is as great compared to its predecessor. But it managed to be even slimmer and lighter and yet it doesn't feel flimsy at all.
• iPhone 5's retina screen is outstanding as always: bright, sharp and colour is even more vibrant. 4 inch screen though is not that competitive in the market, it is some improvement that is nice to see.
• It still remains one of the most user-friendly phone in the market, stable and easy to use. Android phones are just not on par with this.
• The new EarPod is a nice addition. Though it's no way near professional earphones, it's good enough to meet daily use.

Bad things:

• Improvements in iOS 6 are rather incremental despite some great features such as Facebook integration. The appearance of the system does not change much as well. For many long-term iPhone users, it may cause some fatigues.
• The new Maps app, as a replacement for Google Maps, has been causing frustration among many users. It used to be one of the favourite apps on my iPhone, but now it's simply not helpful at all: The locations are not correctly marked. Public routing is not available and 3D seems not that fascinating at all with distorted surface and only a few big cities covered. Google is working on the Google Map app right now and hopefully it will be something as elegant as before. 
• The removal of YouTube app is absolutely ridiculous. It would make much more sense if Apple has provided some similar service as an alternative. However, it doesn't. The only reason I could think of is the rivalry with Google. So Apple strategically removed the App. Still, that is a very unwise decision by putting user experience behind its strategy.

One last complaint from me is the battery drainage, it has been an issue since iPhone 4 as battery capacity is much limited by the phone volume. LTE does seem to consume more power and it doesn't take too long to hit the low battery warning if you keep surfing on the LTE network.

Hope this mini personal review is useful and I'll post more reviews when I get to play with it more. 

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