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iPhone 5 – A Quick Review
Last Updated: 13-02-2013 – Patch version 6.1
Just last week when Maxis announced that they would be releasing the new iPhone 5 (new by so-called Malaysian standards), I was ecstatic and I quickly signed up my interest on their website. What I didn’t expect that the sign-up rate was so great (30,000 sign ups) that Maxis closed it down the following day.
When I was confirmed that I would be eligible to get the iPhone 5, I was quite happy to state that I would line up for the first time in my life to get the iPhone 5 on the launch night. This meant that I would need to start queuing up at night and await for the official launch at 12 midnight 15th December. I guess another excuse I wanted was to get interviewed by my friend Melissa who was a TV presenter at NTV7. Talk about ulterior motives.
The night arrived and I was extremely excited. I was definitely lacking sleep as I had to wake up early for an 8am teleconference call, run around KL for meetings and then finally back to PJ to collect my car from the service center. After taking a short nap from 8pm-9pm, I headed to CAPSQUARE and started queuing at 10pm. That was a bad idea because I was already greeted by hundreds of other people.
It was a good thing that Maxis gave out free donuts and apples as well as hot milo, white coffee and water to the folks queuing up. After queueing for about 2 hours, I managed to get my few seconds of fame on NTV7. After watching it, I think I sounded like a crazed geek (prior to my interview, they also interviewed the guy who was first in queue who had started lining up since 10am that day and it was also his birthday).
So to cut the long story short, it took me over 4 hours to queue up and get my phone and finally back at home into bed.
Now after having lived with the iPhone 5 for the past couple of days, here are some of the things I loved about it as well as the things that I hate about it.
Love:
- It’s beautiful form factor
- How light the phone is (comparing with my current iPhone 4)
- How fast it is and how apps respond so quickly
- The extra space on the screen (being able to see more icons on the 1st screen)
Hate:
- Battery life. In short, it sucks! Sucks battery juice that is. I have to charge it at least up to twice a day. Lots of complaints about it here at the Apple forums (here, here, here and here). With the iOS 6.1 update as well as trying out several tips such as deleting general settings and network settings, the battery life has improved but I still have to charge my iPhone twice a day (pre 6.1 I used to charge around 1pm and post 6.1, I usually charge around 4pm).
- Maps, still always an issue and I know Apple is in the midst of getting it fixed. Until they do, it still sucks.
- Having to use the new lightning connector (the cable is RM69 whilst the adapter is >RM100). Now I have two set of cables lying around and to carry around, one for my iPad and one for the iPhone.
There were some issues regarding the phone as well but it seemed more from a carrier perspective. Here are some of the issues that has been reported.
- Able to make calls but not able to receive them (Maxis issue which has now been resolved)
- Showing wrong data usage and data available for each user (affecting iValue 2 users)
- Losing 3G, Edge and GPRS signal and not recovering back from it again. Post iOS 6.1 patch, this issue seemed to have started up again. Several folks mentioned it was a Maxis problem but it does occur for other networks as well. A tip which I followed was to reset my iPhone’s Network Settings and it did manage to resolve it.
I will definitely update this post as I go along. At the time of writing, these love hate relationship points were based on the iPhone 5 running on iOS 6.0.1. There is a new patch that was just released but I haven’t tried it out yet.
If you know of any other issues, do post it here in the comments section and I shall add it up.
Updates – 13-02-2013 (iOS 6.1)
- Battery life has improved a little bit (lasts around 2-3 hours longer)
- Dropping of 3G signal seem to have reappeared but now it doesn’t happen anymore. Some people have reported that Maxis was upgrading their network hence the cause of it but I followed a tip which was to reset the phone’s network settings and it did seem to work.
Updates – 21-12-2012 (iOS 6.0.2)
- Cases have been reported that the new patch does indeed drain the iPhone 5′s battery life. Read in a couple of forums including the Apple Support forums and found that one of the solutions is to reset your phone settings, Settings>General>Reset> Reset All Settings
- This does not wipe out your media and data
- Currently testing this method now and so far, after almost 2 hours, I have only used 6% of battery. This is with service locations on for certain apps, mails set to fetch, wifi and bluetooth on.
How I Almost Swapped to a Samsung Note 2
Yes that’s right! According to my colleagues and some of my friends, I have been deemed an Apple fanboy in their eyes. Little do they know that I just favour convenience over style (of course style matters a lot). Anyway, who says I am an Apple fan boy? I use an iPhone 4 on a daily basis, I have my iPad 3 with me which I absolutely adore because I watch movies on it when I travel, I connect to my PLEX server at home and I read all my Manga on it. I also have a 2008 Macbook Pro which is sort of dying and soon to become a permanent home server for me and a couple of iPods which I won last time. Who says I am an Apple fan boy?
So when I managed to convince my friend (he was currently using the Note 1) to get the new Samsung Note 2 after catching Tiger Woods at the CIMB Classics last weekend (Maxis had a booth offering the Note 2 for RM999 for Maxis One Club members), I only managed to get my hands dirty with it a couple of days ago (sorry mate, my hands wasn’t exactly dirty and I know you put your phone next to your face). And boy, was I completely blown away. Mostly with the beautiful size of the screen, as much as a retina display supporter I am, the larger screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was just awesome.
Of course there were certain drawbacks. The phone was huge! Could barely fit into my tight work pants but definitely in my casual shorts. The phone was surprisingly light! But the OS interface seems a little messy and I feel that there are just way too many features which I think clutters up the whole screen. But that is just an initial feel, I felt the same way when I moved over to iOS.
I was quite convinced, the few apps which I use quite often are available there (mostly mainstream ones such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LINE, etc,etc,etc). Other than the cheaper price, I know the iPhone 5 would cost a lot more when it launches as well as not having a larger screen (compared to the Note 2), the pull of the dark side was really really strong! But seriously guys, why do you call yourselves the dark side anyway? Apple seems like the empire to me right now and since Disney bought over the Star Wars franchise, I can just imagine Storm troopers breaking out in song just before firing upon the rebels.
Anyway, back to my current itch. It was the 31st of October, the very last day of the offer by Maxis, I was still contemplating whether or not should I go for the Note 2. I am currently not bound on any Maxis contract and the last phone I purchased from Maxis was the iPhone 3Gs. Whilst sitting at my desk in my office located at KLCC, the Maxis store beneath Menara Maxis was but a 5 minute walk and I was comparing the current plans that I had versus the new 2 year plan I would need to sign up.
About 80% convinced, I shared this with some of my colleagues who kept on pushing me to go for it (especially those who are currently using the Android platform). Of course those who were true to Apple would still tell me to wait for the iPhone 5 which hasn’t had had any indication on when it will be released in Malaysia.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it is currently my project’s cutover period. Cutover is a word used to articulate how busy an IT person might be and is constantly one of the key and most stressful times of an IT project. Hopefully that gives an idea of how hectic it has been here at work where I was running from multiple meetings and discussions until I noticed my watch and it was already 9.00pm and I have missed out on the offer.
Oh well, I think my iPhone 4 (which I am officially borrowing from my mum) still rocks. Somewhat.
I feel like I am opening up a large can of worms here.
BMW 3-Series F30 320i Test Drive
I was moving back and forth between Quill BMW located at Section 14 lately as I was installing my powerkit and had to send the car in for it’s 30,000km service. It was during this period where I had a courtesy car to use over the week, which was the face-lifted BMW X3. During this week of travelling between home and KL as well as occasional trips to Bangi to visit certain clients and a wedding to attend at Cheras, I had my first taste of BMW’s new 2.0 litre power plant with it’s twin scroll turbo technology.
As I returned the X3, I spied the recently launched BMW F30 320i. Being the curious person I was, I wanted to try it out and have a go at it. Immediately after getting into the car, the few differences between the E90 and F30 can easily be noticed.
- Key-less stop start system – This was one of the things which irritated me whilst I was driving the X3 as the engine would stop running every time I was at the traffic lights or stuck in traffic.
- New steering wheel design – BMW has moved the cruise control functionality to the steering wheel rather than having an additional stalk compared to the E90.
- No paddle shifters – Like the F30 320d, the F30 320i doesn’t come with paddle shifters
- 6.5″ screen with no satellite navigation and DVD playback
- 8-speed automatic transmission
Transmission
Personally I really do like the newer 8-speed automatic transmission, it feels a lot smoother versus the older 6-speed variant. It took me a lot of adjusting when I moved from a double clutch gearbox where shifts were extremely seamless and smooth to a 6-speed automatic. All I can say that the newer 8-speed feels very closely to the double clutch gearbox.
Power Plant
The BMW TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder petrol engine which combines twin-scroll turbocharger with Valvetronic, Double VANOS and High Precision Injection really does live up to all it’s marketing hype. Those familiar with BMW’s engines from the MINI series will be familiar with their latest engine in the F30 320i. Power delivery was fast thanks to the turbo and 270Nm of torque. I was very impressed with it’s acceleration and couple that together with quick gear shifts, the F30 320i really did impress me. Definitely we will see people getting the 320i and then having a simple remap on the ECU should unleash even more horses from the car.
The car comes with the sports mode functionality whereby your throttle response is improved, your gear shifts are aggressive and your steering, a little heavier. In technical terms it means a gentle tap to the accelerator can be easily felt, you swap gears at higher RPM’s and you get less help from the power steering making the wheel (steering) heavier.
Handling
The steering is definitely lighter than my car, the feel of it is nice and smooth and once you go into sports mode the steering gets heavier which is a feature I do like. But what you do lack in terms of steering is the feedback from the front tyres. You don’t get to feel the groove the of the roads. This is a preference for different people, especially people who just want a car that is nice and comfortable, the steering on the F30 320i doesn’t disappoint. But for those hardcore fanatics then they will be wondering what is it that is missing. It’s like when Porsche recently included in an electric steering rack to their 911 which a lot of critics said that the car has lost it’s soul. In this case, it really doesn’t matter because the 320i is meant to be a comfort saloon car and not one would expect to turn it into a performance monster.
The suspension was soft on the model I have driven but that’s because it wasn’t the M-Sport model. So far, no tentative dates yet are available on when the F30 M-Sport models would be hitting our shores.
Priced at RM238,800 (recommended OTR), I would say it’s main rivals would be the Audi A4 as well as the Volkswagen CC. Both the VAG cars have a 1.8 litre power plant but the A4 and the 320i are closely matched in terms of power although the A4 has a bit more torque (320Nm vs 270Nm) compared to the 320i but loses out in horsepower (170hp vs 184).
iOS 6 Feature Availability
With the recent launch of the new iPhone 5, here’s a look of what isn’t available with iOS 6 here in Malaysia.
We DO NOT have:
- Maps: Turn by Turn Navigation
- Maps: 3D Buildings
- Maps: Traffic (I rely on Google Maps’ traffic updates a lot)
- Maps: Business Reviews and Photos
- Siri: Sports
- Siri: Twitter Integration
- Siri: Facebook Integration
- Siri: Restaurant Information
- Siri: Restaurant review
- Siri: Restaurant reservations
- Siri: Movie Information
- Siri: Movie Reviews
- iTunes Store: TV Shows
- Dictations
From the looks of things, its no wonder that the Android OS is proliferating around Malaysian smartphone users.
