Apple iPhone 5: What We Got vs. What We Wanted

Apple's big day finally came and went, and we're left with some impressive new products. The star of the show, of course, is the , which largely conformed to many of the more recent leaked photos and videos.

But how does it measure up to what we wanted? Note that this isn't quite a rumor validation story; so many rumors flew back and forth that it would be almost impossible to hit them all anyway. Instead, let's look at , and then compare it with what we actually got.

Larger screen: This was the big one; we wanted it and got it. After five generations of the iPhone, Apple has finally changed up the size of the touch-screen panel, moving from 3.5 to 4 inches. That's still nowhere near the size of today's gargantuan smartphones like the and the . But it's telling that Apple kept the width the same as the earlier models, and instead just made the phone a bit taller, giving the iPhone 5 a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of 4:3 like the iPhone 4S.

Higher screen resolution: In order to accomodate the unusual screen panel size, Apple introduced an unusual screen resolution (1,136-by-640-pixel), which perfectly preserves the iPhone 4S's 326ppi pixel density, and therefore, its Retina display designation. This also conformed to what we expected, although the exact resolution was up for debate. As we said the other day, this shouldn't put much extra pressure on third-party app developers, who using today's advanced APIs shouldn't have much trouble accomodating the new resolution. And any improvements in the A6 processor should help compensate for pushing around the additional pixels, which brings us to...

Faster processor: Although details remain scant at this point, the new A6 processor looks to be exactly what the iPhone 5 needed to keep up with the times. Tellingly, Apple didn't say anything about quad-core graphics, meaning that the A6 SoC likely remains a dual-core CPU and a dual-core GPU. It didn't get the A5x from the iPad, but that's actually not a surprise, because the A5x doesn't have the right size or power consumption specifications for the iPhone to begin with.

New form factor: This was actually our biggest surprise. We expected the larger screen, but we weren't expecting to see a dramatic weight reduction or a much thinner phone. Yet we were wrong, as that's exactly what Apple has accomplished. The new iPhone 5, at 3.95 ounces, is almost a full ounce lighter than the iPhone 4S, and at 0.30 inches deep, it's several tenths thinner than even recent ultra-slim Android handsets like the Galaxy S III. It's still not quite as thin as last year's , which remains king at 0.28 inches deep. We can't wait to put the iPhone 5 through its paces and see if keeping the width the same was worth the trade-off in possible extra screen resolution.

New dock connector: We expected it, we got it, but we didn't particularly want it. Nonetheless, we understand the rationale behind revamping the connector; Apple had essentially hit the limit in terms of squeezing the old one into thinner and thinner phones. We're still not happy about it, though, as the new connector remains proprietary and doesn't conform to the much more universal microUSB standard.

A more durable design: We obviously won't know this for several months, as various reports begin to trickle in about how the iPhone 5 is holding up for everyone. But as we had hoped, it's pretty clear that the iPhone 5 will do better in this regard than the iPhone 4, thanks to the switch to a metal rear panel instead of the all-glass one on the iPhone 4S. Glass is beautiful, but we'll be happy to see less cracked iPhone 5s over the years. Otherwise, the jury is still out.

4G LTE: Widely expected, and Apple delivered. The iPhone was running on 3G for far too long. Apple talked up a big game in the keynote about power consumption, small size, and light weight, so it will be interesting to pit the iPhone 5's 4G LTE radio against comparable smartphones to see how well it performs, and whether the phone lives up to Apple's claims about battery life. Note that the iPhone 5 also now supports HSPA+ 42 and HSPA+ 21 on AT&T, giving it plenty of room to roll back if it can't find AT&T LTE signal and yet still deliver fast data speeds; the previous iPhone 4S topped out at just HSPA+ 14.4.

New earbuds: We wanted them, we expected them, and we got 'em. The new Apple EarPods look to address the deficiencies of Apple's trademark, venerable white earbuds—which wouldn't be that difficult, since Apple's old earbuds sound terrible. The new EarPods come with the latest iPhone 5 and are also available separately for $29; stay tuned for our full review.

An even better camera: Apple delivered here as we had hoped, even despite the iPhone 4S's already top-notch camera. Of course there's still no optical zoom, because that would be impossible to fit in a 0.30-inch thick phone given today's technology. But the new iPhone 5 includes a panorama mode, improved image stabilization, improved low-light performance and noise reduction, and faster shutter and save speeds. We also finally got the 720p HD FaceTime front camera we've been pining for, although we'll admittedly use it more for self-portraits than anything else.

NFC: We weren't expecting it, and we didn't get it. We've been debating the merits of near-field communication in the office here a lot lately, and it's not particularly surprising that Apple decided to punt on this given the lack of take-up and universal standards here in the States. For now, next year will be the year of mobile payments in the U.S.—just as it has been for the past five years.

A T-Mobile version: Sadly, we knew we wouldn't get one, and we didn't. We still want one.

For more, see and the slideshow above.

For more from Jamie, follow him on Twitter @jlendino.