Apple Launches the New iPhone 5

Image comment: iPhone 5 banner Image credits: Apple

Tim Cook and his troops took the stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts today and introduced the new generation Apple smartphone - the iPhone 5.

Touted as the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, the iPhone 5 is redesigned with a unibody aluminum case, a 4-inch Retina display, an Apple-designed A6 chip, fast wireless technology, better battery life, and iOS 6, “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features."

“iPhone 5 is the most beautiful consumer device that we’ve ever created,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

/>“We’ve packed an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thin and light, jewel-like device with a stunning 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast A6 chip, ultrafast wireless, even longer battery life; and we think customers are going to love it.”

For a full rundown of the technicalities, eager readers can visit Apple’s tech specs page right here.

Many soon-to-be iPhone 5 buyers will be interested in the design. Apple says it’s got an all-new 7.6 mm anodized aluminum body that is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone 4S.

“Designed with an unprecedented level of precision, iPhone 5 combines an anodized aluminum body with diamond cut chamfered edges and glass inlays for a truly incredible fit and finish,” says the company.

After design, comes performance. The new A6 chip is said to maximize performance and power efficiency with up to twice the CPU and graphics performance of its predecessor.

According to the Cupertino giant, “almost everything you do on iPhone 5 is blazing fast for launching apps, loading web pages and downloading email attachments.”

It’s also got an 8-megapixel camera and the new panorama feature that lets you capture images of up to 28 megapixels by simply moving the camera across a scene.

iPhone 5 will be available in either white & silver or black & slate on September 21 in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK.

The international rollout is slated for September 28, with countries like Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Pricing begins at $199 / 154 EUR for the 16GB model. You can learn more about the new iPhone on Apple's site.