Thinner form factor/design – iPhone 5 measures 7.6 millimeters thin and weighs just 112 grams. That’s 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone 4S. The phone is made entirely of aluminum and glass.
4-inch Retina Display – iPhone 5 features a 4-inch display: it’s bigger, but it’s the same width as iPhone 4S. It’s a larger Retina display. At 326 pixels per inch, it has a high pixel density not directly visibly to the naked high. The resolution is 1136-by-640. Colors get a boost, too, with color saturation that’s 44 percent greater than before.
iSight Camera – Same 8mp but now takes high-resolution panorama up to 28 megapixels. The rear camera records 1080p videos, the front 720p. It has faster photo capture, uses a sapphire crystal lens, f/2.4 aperture and a five-element lens. It also employs backside illumination, hybrid IR filter, spatial noise reduction and a dynamic low-light mode.
4G/LTE Network Connectivity – iPhone 5 supports numerous networks around the world that includes advanced networks such as HSPA, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA. LTE can reach speeds of up 100mbps. Dual-band 802.11n wireless connectivity accelerates the Wi-Fi speed — up to 150 Mbps.
A6 Chip – Up to two times faster when compared with the A5 chip. So apps launch, web pages load, and email attachments appear almost instantly. The A6 chip also offers graphics performance that’s up to twice as fast as the A5. The battery lasts up to 8 hours of browsing on a cellular connection, up to 8 hours of talk time, and up to 10 hours of video playback time.
Lightning dock connector – It features an all-digital, eight-signal design that’s significantly more durable than the 30-pin connector. Another brilliant feature of Lightning: It’s reversible, which means there’s no wrong way to plug in the cable.
New Apple Maps – Map elements are vector based, which means graphics and text are incredibly sharp, even when you zoom in. The new map has a voiced turn-by-turn navigation system. Maps also offer real-time traffic information and reroutes to avoid delays. You also switch to Flyover and explore major metro areas from above with photo-realistic, interactive 3D views.
iOS 6 – The new operating system comes a number of new apps and redesigned ones. The Maps app is new, iTunes and App Store are redone, there is no more native YouTube app, Facebook is more integrated (accessible through the notification center along with Twitter), a new app to handle coupons/gift cards and tickets called Passbook and more. There used to be just four rows of apps, now it is five.