Yes, the iPhone 5 rocks from its specs compared to its predecessors.
The GPU of the iPad 1 and iPhone/iPod touch 4 is too slow for the number of pixels on the screen. It's the same GPU that the 3GS uses. During the last two years this was always a problem for me (developing games).
When I started with the new Seehund midget submarine version of WOTA I've made a completely new water for the game. Now WOTA is really CPU bound on the 3GS, on the iPad 1 it still suffers from pixel fill rate problems due to the underpowered GPU. When it comes to gaming iPad 2 and 4S are great devices WOTA runs at 60fps with additional eyecandy on them.
Because of the CPU problems on the 3GS I've compared CPU benchmarks of all iOS devices to find out what extras will be possible on which device (I just can't afford to buy them all and the low end devices are most important for testing anyway)
The iPhone 5 is extremely fast! It's a HUGE difference and this difference is huge compared to the 4S, actually when it comes to CPU and memory performance the difference between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S is larger than the difference between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 3GS! Calling the iPhone 5 an insignificant upgrade is just wrong - the iPhone 4 was an insignificant upgrade:
iPhone 5 compared to iPhone 4S:
integer performance: 2.26 times faster
floating point performance: 2.83 times faster
memory performance: 2.49 times faster
memory stream performance: 3.17 times faster
iPhone 4S compared to iPhone 3GS:
integer performance: 2.47 times faster
floating point performance: 2.64 times faster
memory performance: 1.68 times faster
memory stream performance: 1.33 times faster
iPhone 4S compared to iPhone 4:
integer performance: 1.92 times faster
floating point performance: 2.03 times faster
memory performance: 1.26 times faster
memory stream performance: 1.05 times faster
iPhone 4 compared to iPhone 3GS:
integer performance: 1.29 times faster
floating point performance: 1.29 times faster
memory performance: 1.68 times faster
memory stream performance: 1.33 times faster
Also the 3 core GPU is a good upgrade compared to the 4S.
My two cents {
You get the iPhone 5 starting at 1,- EUR with a contract (in germany).
Currently the iPhone 5 is the fastest smartphone on the market, as usual this will change within the year. The pricing of the comparable android high end smartphones is almost identical. It might be a bad buy next summer but currently it is not… except that 600 EUR for a phone (without contract) might be a bit crazy anyway.
But compared to android you will have some advantages:
1. free unexpected adventures due to the new map app
2. almost no risk to install malware apps
3. more apps and games
4. This is the SUBSIM forum - well... WOTA: Wolves of the Atlantic:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163753
I see this android vs iOS thing from a developers point of view:
There are more android
phones (68%) out there than iOS
phones (17%) but the statistics show that 63.48% of the mobile internet accesses comes from iOS devices (android = 22.1% - I'll guess the iPod touch is included in the statistics) - so it seems that iOS devices are more in use than android devices. Maybe a lot of people who don't really need a smartphone just take one for $1,- with their contract but never use it except for phoning?
Same for sales numbers of Apps. Most developers sell 10 times more per app on the iOS app store than on all android markets combined. And the pirated to sale ratio on iOS is already pretty high at about 95:1 - unless you are in the top 1000 you will sell exactly: nothing, ZERO - yes more than 649,000 apps have 0 sales a day - to make any money that will at least pay your time of development you will have to reach the top 300 of games in the USA and stay there for a long time - a highly competitive market with dumping prices, rude customer reviews and on android it is even worse because sales are lower.
It's terrible to try to support all the different android devices, GPUs, screen sizes, Systems etc. - you will end up with ten times the hassle and bad reviews for 1/10 of the generated income.
That's why WOTA for android will come out after a Mac & PC release. and why I would always recommend iOS. ;-) But it's a biased view and someone who just needs a phone with mobile browser, email app, maps etc. might be as happy as an iPhone customer. But I doubt those kind of people would ever seriously debate about android vs iOS. It's almost the same old boring war like Mac vs PC.
}