iPhone 5 is clearly the big brother of 4th version (Image credit: CNet)

Finally the day arrived on September 12, when Apple Inc during a presentation ceremony in San Francisco presented its much awaited new flagship smartphone called the iPhone 5.

Let’s straightway get to the specifications. Its casing, according to Vice-president Phil Schiller, is made only of glass and aluminum. The smartphone is thinner and lighter than its predecessors, and has a thickness of 7.6 mm and weighs 112 grams.

The device is equipped with 4 inch Retina display, due to which the iPhone 5 looks like a big brother of iPhone 4S. Display resolution is 1136 by 640 pixels.

Many applications, including mail, calendar, iWork and GarageBand, will be redrawn under the new screen. In remaining apps, black borders will be displayed along the edges.

The new smartphone, unlike iPhone 4S, supports LTE. iPhone 5 is powered by Apple’s A6 processor. During the presentation, Phil Schiller claimed that compared to the previous model, CPU and graphics performance of the smartphone have doubled.

The unit in standby mode lasts for 225 hours on a single charge, for video playback – ten hours, and talk time in 3G – eight hours.

Resolution of the main camera of iPhone 5 is eight megapixels with focal ratio 2.4. User can also take panorama pictures using this smartphone.

Another feature of the phone is its new dock connector. 30 pin connector used in Apple’s mobile devices since 2003 has been replaced with a smaller one called Lightning. To retain the compatibility with peripherals, Apple will release an adapter.

In the U.S., price of the device ranges from 199 to 399 dollars under different contract plans. Apple today announced that in connection with the announcement of iPhone 5 it stops the selling of iPhone 3GS and has reduced the prices on iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Company starts taking pre-orders for iPhone 5 on September 14, and phones will start shipping in the hands of customers in the U.S. and eight other countries on September 21. In total, the unit will be sold in one hundred countries and the company has tied up with 240 operators around the world.

Fact that the smartphone will be named iPhone 5 was confirmed just a few hours before the presentation. Name of the device was found in the search results on Apple’s site. Some had suggested that the company will call the device “The New iPhone” like in the case of the third-generation iPad tablet PC.

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