iPhone 5 complete guide

By Flora Graham

We're certain that by summer time we'll be basking in the glow of a brand-new iPhone 5. To manage our gadget tan, we've stirred all the freshest iPhone 5 news into an easy to apply fact sunscreen.

These are all rumours at the moment, but we can make some educated guesses about the iPhone 5's features -- guesses so highly educated, in fact, they have a PhD in phone rumours from Cupertino University. But we'll be updating this story as the facts arrive, so bookmark it to find the buffest, bronzest news on features and prices for the fifth coming of the Jesus phone.

Beauty
Based on leaked pictures, it looks as though the iPhone 5 won't look much different to the iPhone 4. That sounds about right to us, considering Apple packed some epic hardware innovations into the iPhone 4. The company also tends to stick with its favourite designs for years, from the identical twin iPhone 3G and 3GS to the enduring MacBook Pro.

There have been rumours that the iPhone 5 will have an aluminium back cover, rather than a glass one. This change could help make the phone tougher, after it reportedly suffered problems cracking when using a slide-on cover. We have a soft spot for the metallic case on the original iPhone, and the new iPad 2 is also rocking the metal look. But we think Apple is too married to its innovative glass design to go for this change.

We are hoping for a slightly larger screen, however, as shown in the leaked mould photos. The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch screen, which is starting to feel teeny compared to its Android competition, despite its spectacular resolution. If Apple can up the screen size and keep that eye-wateringly beautiful clarity, we'll be thrilled, especially if it does it by shrinking the bezel around the screen, keeping the phone small. For a phone of the same size, it'd be hard-pressed to fit in a 4-inch screen, so we're on the lookout for something closer to 3.7 inches.

If you like your tech with a wintery dusting of white, we expect to see black and white versions of the iPhone 5, leapfrogging the black-only iPhone 4 thanks to paint improvements that brought us the iPad 2 in white.

Brains
We're expecting a new version of Apple's operating system, iOS, to arrive along with the iPhone 5. We can't promise it will be iOS 5, or that it will have any of our most-wanted features.

We'd love the ability to sync the iPhone 5 with multiple computers, but it's unlikely Apple will muddy the iTunes waters by allowing that. We live in hope that wireless syncing could be in the cards, though, so we don't have to plug the iPhone 5 into our computer with a USB cable.

Alternatively, we might get a revamped version of Apple's cloud-based service, MobileMe. Rumour has it MobileMe could drop its subscription fee and shift its focus from email to online storage of photos, music and video.

Flash in the Web browser is out of the question, although the iPhone 5's browser will probably be even faster at rendering pages. iOS 4.3 speeded up one of the best browsers in the business, but there's always room for improvement, especially if the iPhone 5 adds a GPU for dedicated graphics processing.

We'd also like to see major improvements to AirPlay and AirPrint, both of which only work if you've invested in bundles of expensive Apple-compatible kit. AirPlay streams your media to an Apple TV or AirPlay-enabled speakers, but it would be great if it worked with non-Apple DLNA televisions.

AirPrint only prints to a handful of printers, but should have launched with the option to print to any printer via a networked computer. Hopefully Apple will resurrect that feature for the iPhone 5.

Brawn
Apple calls its dual-core processor the A5, as seen in the iPad 2. We call it so speedy it eats the company's previous CPU, the A4, for breakfast. Expect the iPhone 5 to use the A5, which has a processor, GPU and RAM all on one die, joining the ranks of dashing dual-core smart phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and the LG Optimus 2X.

Another internal gizmo rumoured for the iPhone 5 has been near-field communication (NFC), which allows you to do things wirelessly with the phone such as tapping a reader to pay for your sandwich. But now we're hearing that Apple could work out its own, proprietary version of the contactless system. Which means it will either vanish off the face of the Earth, or force us all to buy iPhones immediately. Sigh.

One thing Apple had better sort out for the iPhone 5 is its antenna. Previous iPhones were terrible at making and receiving calls, but the iPhone 4 took the cake with antennagate. The Cupertino kids redesigned the iPhone 4's antenna for the version of the phone that recently came out for the US's Verizon network, but it still had problems, according to Consumer Reports.

Previous iPhones sold like hotcakes without having decent reception, so Apple may feel it can leave it alone. But we have high hopes for some improvement in the next model.

The camera in the iPhone 5 is also likely to be revamped. The iPhone 4 has 5 megapixels and an LED photo light, along with high dynamic range software to help with exposure. In our tests, the iPhone 4 took decent shots, but it's still not as good as Nokia's 12-megapixel efforts on the N8.

Rather than simply bumping up the megapixels, the iPhone 5 could add some sensor innovation such as the Exmor R CMOS sensor that's coming soon on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. This type of back-illuminated sensor takes smoother, less noisy shots in low light.

Mini-me
We don't have the details on iPhone 5 deals yet, but it's bound to be expensive. If it's out of your price range, you'll be happy to hear rumours are flying faster than an eagle with a jetpack about a cheaper version of the phone.

We've heard about a wee iPhone -- an iPhone nano, if you will -- that's either a third smaller, or half the size, of its big brother. Although we'd love to squee over a tiny iPhone, we lean towards the competing speculation that rather than a smaller phone, which could have usability issues, Apple could create a cheaper iPhone by cutting costs on components. A lower resolution screen and camera, for example, could make for a bargain iPhone.

iPhone 5 deals
Apple has a history of releasing each new iPhone in June, so it's very likely we'll see the iPhone 5 in the shops around the same time this year.

At this stage, we don't know which of the networks will sell the iPhone 5, or how much it will cost. But we'll be updating this story with the news as it breaks, so bookmark this page to find all the deals in one handy place.
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