I've spent the past 3 days putting my new iPhone 5 through its paces
and I can honestly say that this new device feels even more useful to
me day-to-day.
I've always felt that the iPhone was a powerhouse of features crammed
into an almost unbelievably small form, but this new version takes it
to a whole new level because of one thing. Speed.
LTE
Though it isn't the most talked-about feature, in real-world use, the
addition of LTE for data is a game changer. Although LTE has been
available on other phones in other markets for a few months, the
network was just turned on last Thursday here in Portland. I am able
to get download and upload speeds while I'm downtown near my office
that are superior to the best connection I've ever had on my Comcast
Broadband connection at home over wifi. Dude. There literally isn't
a wifi connection that I will likely come across that is faster than
my data connection.
Hardware Speed
Though it would be easy to assume that data is the main difference,
I'm noticing that the hardware is also significantly more capable.
This morning before leaving the house, it crossed my mind that I
didn't have a lot of music as I hadn't ever plugged into my Mac. I
pulled up the iTunes store, and selected around 100 tracks to download
from my purchased list. I figures that whatever didn't get loaded
over wifi would trickle in over the day over data. I was wrong. All
of those songs were loaded and ready to go within 7 minutes. Keep in
mind that this is the same wifi router and know that I expected it to
take 30 minutes or so because of the limitations of the hardware.
I really love the speed. I don't even consider whether my iPhone will
actually open the video, or site because of its size or bandwidth
requirements. Done.
One side effect- My battery is draining a bit faster than I'm used to
because I'm doing things that just weren't possible before. Better
get another Lightning cable.
