Early this morning my UPS delivery man congratulated me on the arrival of my iPhone 5. My first thought as soon as the box was open was just how light the iPhone 5 is. It’s only surprising because while it’s obviously taller in size than what we’re used to, it’s expected to come off hefty. Delightfully however it’s much lighter than you think. And the growth spurt that it seems to have had is very surprisingly completely forgotten within minutes but so noticeable when using an app that’s been updated to take advantage of the extra screen real estate.

After anxiously waiting for about 90 minutes for it to restore from backup in iTunes I was finally able to give it a whirl. Obviously the taller screen jumps out first and foremost with most of the popular apps already updated to take advantage. Speed is blazingly fast and the extra row of icons that is now available allowed me to go down to just 3 screens worth of icons.

Aesthetically my black iPhone 5 is probably one of the slickest of the iPhones I’ve owned (and I’ve owned them all). Everything is black… even the buttons. There’s not one spot of silver metallic finish on it and it’s a very dramatic look.

Once you get over the obviousness of the weight, height, looks and speed it’s the smaller things that become even more apparent. First off was the clarity and loudness of the speakers. A HUGE upgrade in my opinion. For the first time ever on an iPhone I found myself not ratching up the volume to maximum while on speaker phone and not straining to make out the voice at the other end since it’s much clearer and crisper.

Ever since camera’s became ubiquitous on phones I was waiting for the day where I could actually be comfortable using my camera phone as the sole capture device while on a trip. I can finally now say that the iPhone 5 is that phone. The photo quality is terrific. Low light scenarios come out amazingly good and the new panorama mode is the first time I’ve seen this feature on a mobile device done right. Panorama pics come out very nice and thanks to the speed of the new A6 chip, are stitched together in real time. The camera is probably worth the upgrade alone. Yes even if you currently own a 4S.

The iPhone 5 is the first iPhone that support the newer LTE network that cellular networks have been providing for some time now. On AT&T in the Boston suburb area I’m constantly getting 20 Mbps down and 13 Mbps up. Yes that’s a 20 as in Twenty. Once I actually got as high as 27 Mbps. Amazing. Sometimes I think that browsing on LTE is even faster than when I’m on my home WiFi. It’s just that fast. This really will change the way you use the device granted you’re in a good coverage area.

Maps. OK so there’s a lot of controversy on the new maps since Apple ditched Google and decided to go in house for map data. All I have to say is that it’s a coin toss. If you’re in a good area then you’re fine. If not you’re screwed. What the $#%^ is a good area? Exactly. All depends on how good the data set is Apple has for where you are. Is it as good as Google’s? No. Will it get better? Yes. Is it going to be frustrating at times? Absolutely. Is the new 3D images and flyovers cool? Guaranteed 🙂

Like every new iPhone release obviously this is the best iPhone Apple has ever come out with. From a hardware perspective it’s better in every single way. Speed, form factor, weight, network speed, speaker quality, camera. It’s another solid step in making the mobile device be our primary form of computing and it’s just going to get better.

An absolute home run.