Performance

Performance is something Apple have in the bag with the iPhone 5. Pure performance when you need it, switching between apps and opening apps up is a breeze, opening them virtually instantaneously.

Phone call quality is great on the iPhone 5, as you would expect from a flagship phone from the most valuable tech company on Earth. Speaker phone quality is actually impressive, too, something I didn't expect to be that good.

The on-screen keyboard, after using SwiftKey 3 for so long on Android, is pathetic. I found myself having to really tap the screen with the absolute tip of my finger - and even then, it wouldn't register my input some of the time. The inability to throw on a third-party keyboard really kills iOS for me, as typing is one of the cornerstones of using a smartphone.

Why can't I put a third-party keyboard on it? Let me put SwiftKey on my iPhone, Apple. It's stupid that they think they have the best thing out - and won't let someone else try something better. Use our stuff - or nothing at all, this attitude needs to stop.

The stock web browser, Safari, after using Chrome for so long is really basic. There's a separate Google bar next to the address bar which takes up too much screen space for an already cramped screen. I find Chrome much easier, and better to use, even on the iPhone 5. Here's some shots of our website in both portrait, and landscape.

Battery life was good, but not great - I expected better from Apple. I think this comes down to the bigger screen, and LTE. LTE is a battery life killer, and Apple would know this. I expect firmware updates to roll out over the coming months to address this, but I really expect more from Apple. I expected them to really push the bar up so high on the iPhone 5, especially because it's being built from the ground up, so that the competition has to work overtime to even begin to catch up - but, we didn't get that unfortunately.

I tested the iPhone 5 for just a couple of days, and I only charged it three times. Testing LTE really killed the battery life, but normal use seemed to be okay if I was connected to a Wi-Fi network.

The camera on the iPhone 5 is nothing short of incredible, picking up the smallest details. I took some amazing shots with the iPhone 5. I've included a few here, and I've taken a bunch more which will be at the gallery at the end of the review. Here are some of the stand outs.

The iPhone 5's camera has a new Panoramic mode which is actually impressive - and I took some great panoramic shots with it, here's some photos.

If you've heard, the iPhone 5's camera gives off a purple haze in photos with a light source in the photo on a specific angle - this came up during our testing and while it's not something that you wouldn't buy the phone for the fault, it is something worth noting. Apple Support have also said that this is normal, meaning it might not be fixed as they don't consider it a fault with the device.

You can see the purple haze in the pictures below:

I did find a big issues with the iPhone 5's camera is its flash. I was at a friends' house over the weekend and we were playing a board game and decided to take a picture of the game we were playing. This is a shot, with the flash ON:

Shocking. I have no idea how Apple could have this happen on the iPhone 5, so for as impressed I was with its very capable camera - this is a huge downside for the iPhone 5's camera.

Video quality is great on the iPhone 5, capturing video at 1920x1080. The quality is great, and there's some great motion quality when moving it around, too. I went to the park with my daughter and took some video of her going down the slippery slide - which she loved. I noticed that the video on my PC seems zoomed in, but didn't feel like that when shooting it. Still, it is great quality.