Packaging, Initial Impressions and Setup

Because we have a new device this time, I was able to snap some pictures of the box, and unopened goodies inside. As you can see from the picture below, the iPhone 5 box looks nice, with a picture of the iPhone 5 sitting on its side.

The side of the box just displays "iPhone 5".

And finally, the bottom of the box lists off some specifications and the usual details of the device.

Opening the box, we find the usual manual, the little metal pin to open the SIM card slot with, the charger (depending on country this will be different), the new Lightning cable, and the new Ear Buds.

A closer look at the new Lightning connector.

A comparison of a microUSB and Lightning cable - the Lightning cable is magnificently thin.

Once the phone is out of the box, turning it on will prompt you with the setup screen. You'll have to set your phone up from here, which I found to be quite a few more steps than I expected. You'll be walked through things like iCloud, so if you're coming from an older iPhone with iCloud, you'll feel right at home.

I will stop here to state something: I couldn't even get to this point without inserting a SIM card. I think this is completely ridiculous, coming from an Android phone - which I can turn on, enter in my Google account details (or not) and use the device right away as a Wi-Fi-only device. With the iPhone 5, you require a SIM to activate the device itself.

I didn't expect this, and had to find a local retailer that sold a pre-paid Nano SIM. Luckily, I found one, or else this review wouldn't be coming from me at all. This was the first of many times during my time with the iPhone 5 where I was less than impressed. Onto the unpackaging!

You get to opt into Siri, which is a nice choice.

Diagnostics and Usage can be automatically sent, or not.

We're complete and ready to go, how exciting!

Here's the first shot of the iPhone 5 in action.

The iPhone 5 feels just like any other iPhone running iOS when you first look at it. The home screen is different as there's a fifth row of icons, but at the end of the day - you will not tell a difference.