Should you buy the iPhone 5? It depends
As we’ve all been expecting for months, Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 on Wednesday.
And with preorders set to begin Friday, the question is: Should you buy the new device? It depends.
Comparison: iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S III
The iPhone 5 is a vast improvement over the iPhone 4S and it’s sure to be another great and reliable Apple product. However, it is no longer the most technologically advanced phone.
Other devices have screens bigger than Apple’s with picture quality that’s just as good if not arguably better. Motorola even came out with a phone called the RAZR M that’s the size of the iPhone 4S yet has a screen bigger than the iPhone 5.
As for the iPhone 5’s other headline feature -- its 4G LTE connectivity -- that’s been available on Android phones for a couple of years now, so there’s nothing groundbreaking there.
But like I said, the answer to whether you should get the iPhone 5 is complicated, so here are two bullet-point lists to help you out.
You should buy the iPhone 5 if....
- You already own an iPhone. If you do, you’ve probably bought a bunch of apps and other items, and they’ll transfer over to your new device with ease.
- You own a bunch of Apple products: If there’s one thing Apple is still the best at, it’s its ecosystem. No other company has built an environment that lets you jump from laptop to phone to tablet the way Apple has with its Mac, the iPad and the iPhone.
- You want the best operating system: Google’s Android has gotten a lot better recently, but Apple’s IOS is still the best.
- You want style points: The iPhone is still the most stylish phone and with the new device being lighter and possibly the thinnest smartphone ever, it’s still the sexiest smartphone.
You shouldn’t buy the iPhone 5 if...
- You want to save money: There are other phones available cheaper than the iPhone 5 that are on par if not better than Apple’s smartphone. The HTC One X, one of the best Android, costs half the price of the iPhone 5.
- You want a big screen: The iPhone 5’s 4-inch looks very nice, but nowadays, a lot of phone have screens larger than 4.5 inches. Samsung alone has the Galaxy S III with a 4.8-inch screen and the Galaxy Note phone that has a screen that’s more than 5 inches.
- You want the most technologically advanced phone: The iPhone 5’s technology was improved Wednesday, but it’s not the best. Other phones have longer-lasting battery times and more features, such as Near-Field Communication. If you want to own the most technologically superior phone, that won’t be the iPhone 5.
- You don’t own Apple products: If you use Windows or other operating systems for your computers or tablets, then don’t bother getting the iPhone 5. There’ll be other phones that will work better with your setup, such as the Nokia Lumia 920, which is the flagship Windows Phone 8 device.
So there you have it. The iPhone 5 looks like another great Apple phone, but its days as the clear-cut best option are over.
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