Apple unveils the iPhone 5

Today in California, Apple CEO Tim Cook turned the stage over to Phil Schiller who wasted no time in announcing the expected iPhone 5.

Our first impression is that it looks an awful lot like the leaked images, sporting a 4" screen that supports a native resolution of 1136 x 640 with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The case of the iPhone 5 is constructed completely out of glass and aluminum, which helps support its thin (7.6mm) and light (112g) form factor.

That makes it 18 per cent thinner than the iPhone 4S by the way, and 20 per cent lighter as well.

Powering the iPhone 5 is the Apple A6 chip that promises to be twice as fast in terms of graphic rendering and raw processing power.

Everything about the iPhone 5 is smaller and more streamlined: including its connector cable.

The iPhone 5 will be the first Apple device to skip the 30-pin connector in favour of the newly unveiled Lightning connector, which is an 8 signal design that is 80 per cent smaller than the traditional connector.

Thankfully, there's no need to fret about replacing all of your cables as adapters from Lighting to 30-pin will be available.

The battery life on the iPhone 5 exceeds that of the iPhone 4S, as it supports 225 hours of standby time, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, and 8 hours of talk time.

The Lightning connector also powers a new Wi-Fi chip for the iPhone 5, which will support speeds of up to 150 Mbps. while allowing it to support HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, and LTE connections.

The iPhone's larger 4" screen will allow for more real estate, giving you a fifth row of icons on the home screen, for example.

Older apps that have not been optimised to run on the larger screen will have a letter-box effect added, with black borders appearing above and below the centered image.

This means that there's no worry about your favourite games being unplayable on the new iPhone 5 if they haven't been optimised to work on the larger screen.

Apple also upgraded the camera on the iPhone 5 to a new iSight model, that is 25 per cent smaller than the camera on the iPhone 4S.

The iSight is an 8-megapixel camera that features a dynamic low light mode and precision lens alignment, all under a sapphire crystal.

Thanks to the A6 chip, the iSight camera will be 40 per cent faster on the photo capture. It will also support 1080p video capture, while adding improved video stability and face detection.

Also new on the camera front is a built-in panorama mode that will allow users to snap a full-scale panoramic picture without the need for a third-party app. These rich panoramic photos range up to 28 megapixels in size, allowing no detail to be missed.

Lest the front-facing FaceTime camera feel left out, it has been upgraded to HD (720p) as well.

On the audio side, the iPhone 5 will sport 3 microphone (front, back, and bottom) along with improved speaker design.

Unlike the iPhone 4, the iPhone 5 will be available in black and white at launch ensuring that it will match the aesthetic of all your other Apple gadgets.

The iPhone 5 will be available in three pricepoints: 16 GB for $199, 32 GB for $299, and 64 GB for $399 (all on a 2-year contract). Pre-orders begin on September 14th, with the phone shipping in most major countries on September 21st.

With the iPhone 5's release, Apple has made some other changes to its lineup. The iPhone 4 will be available on-contract in 8 GB for the price of 'free', while the 4S will begin on-contract at $99 for the 16 GB model. The 3GS, however, is dead. RIP.