iPhone 5 — Taller Screen, LTE, Lightning

The iPhone 5 was announced on 12 September 2012 and released on Friday 21 September 2012. Pre-orders opened on 14 September. Apple's press release named nine first-day countries — the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK — so Japan got it on the same day as the US. A second wave of 22 countries, mostly in Europe plus New Zealand, followed on 28 September.

With a two-year contract, US prices were $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB, the same three tiers as before. What changed was the shape of the phone, the network it could use, and — the part people argued about — the hole in the bottom.

What was new in the iPhone 5

Apple's own comparison with the iPhone 4S was that the body was 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter, and that the A6 offered up to twice the CPU and graphics performance. Those are Apple's figures.

A taller screen, not a wider one

The iPhone 4S had a 3.5-inch, 960 × 640 screen. The iPhone 5 went to four inches but kept the 640-pixel width: the panel grew only in height, to 1136 × 640, an aspect ratio of almost exactly 16:9. On the home screen that bought one extra row of icons — six rows of four instead of five.

Keeping the width kept the phone narrow. The iPhone 6 gave that up in 2014.

The first iPhone with LTE

The iPhone 5 was the first iPhone to support LTE. Apple's release listed LTE and DC-HSDPA as well as dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi at up to 150 Mbps. The iPhone 4S had no LTE; its fastest mode was HSPA+ at up to 14.4 Mbps.

Lightning: the end of the 30-pin connector

The change that defined the model is in its name on this site. Since the third-generation iPod, introduced in April 2003 together with a dock, Apple's portable devices had used the wide 30-pin Dock connector. Nine years of speakers, alarm clocks, car kits and hotel-room docks were built around it.

The iPhone 5 replaced it with Lightning, which Apple described as smaller, smarter and more durable than the previous connector. It has eight contacts and an adaptive interface, and it is reversible: there is no wrong way up. A smaller port also left more room inside a thinner body.

The cost of the change fell on accessories. Apple's answer was an adapter, not a free one:

• Lightning to 30-pin Adapter: $29, with a cable version at $39. According to AppleInsider's report from the day of the announcement, Apple's own documentation said video out and iPod out were not supported through it
• Lightning to USB Cable: $19
• The adapter was advertised as shipping in October, after the phone itself

So on launch day, a new iPhone 5 owner could not plug into most existing docks at all, and with the adapter many but not all 30-pin accessories worked. The Lightning port itself would last eleven years, until the iPhone 15 moved to USB-C in 2023 under pressure from EU rules.

EarPods

The box held a new pair of headphones, EarPods, which Apple said had a design for a more natural fit and greater durability. They were sold separately for $29. In 2012 they plugged into a 3.5 mm jack on the bottom of the phone — the jack that the iPhone 7 would remove four years later.

Sales: two million pre-orders, five million in three days

Apple reported on 17 September 2012 that pre-orders had topped two million in 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million set by the iPhone 4S. On 24 September it reported more than five million iPhone 5 units sold in the three days after launch, and said demand had exceeded the initial supply; many pre-orders would not ship until October. Both figures are Apple's own and were published without a regional breakdown.

The Maps problem was iOS 6, not the phone

The iPhone 5 shipped with iOS 6, which replaced the Google-based Maps app with Apple's own. The new app was widely criticised for misplaced landmarks and missing detail. On 28 September 2012, a week after launch, Tim Cook published an open letter of apology. Computerworld quoted him as writing that "we fell short on this commitment", and the letter pointed users to rival apps such as Bing, MapQuest and Waze in the meantime.

Strictly this was a software failure that also affected older iPhones updated to iOS 6. But it arrived with the iPhone 5, and for many buyers the two were the same event.

Where the iPhone 5 sits

Apple discontinued it on 10 September 2013, the day it announced its successors, the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c.

For the earlier screen jump, see the iPhone 4 and its Retina display. The whole line is on the iPhone timeline, and the company on Apple.