Despite some complaints that the iPhone 5 was a “boring” update, early reviews for the phone are overwhelmingly positive, praising its thin and light design, fast processor and LTE 4G speeds, and larger 4-inch display.
The glowing reviews aren’t too surprising — heck, reviewers (including this one) generally loved last years iPhone 4S, which didn’t have any exterior improvements over its predecessor. If anything is boring about a new iPhone, it’s the usual back and forth between gadgethounds expecting something better and Apple fans shouting “I told you so!” when positive reviews hit.
One of the biggest iPhone 5 issues reviewers pointed out is actually an iOS 6 problem: Apple’s new Maps application, which replaces the mainstay Google Maps app. The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg writes:
The app is in other ways a step backward from the familiar Google app. For instance, while Apple’s maps feature a 3-D “Flyover” view of some central cities, they lack Google’s very useful ground-level photographic street views. And they also lack public-transit routing. Apple will instead link you to third-party transit apps.
These issues will affect existing iPhone users who upgrade to iOS 6, and I suspect the backlash will be tremendous. My biggest annoyance with Apple’s Map app so far is fairly simple: for whatever reason, it doesn’t have any subway station locations for New York City, something that’s been in Google Maps since the iPhone launched.
But while Apple’s new Maps app has its issues, it does finally bring native turn-by-turn navigation to the iPhone, and its 3D map view is impressive.