It took Apple awhile to keep up with the ever-changing technology of the camera-features on their smartphones, and unfortunately, their iPhone 5’s 8 megapixel camera is less than impressive. Perhaps that is because the iSight camera on the iPhone 5 is virtually the same one found on the iPhone 4s.
iMore recently did a test to compare both cameras, and what they found really isn’t all the surprising. One thing they noted was that the colors featured on the images taken with the new camera look “punchier”, because the color saturation is 44% more than it is on previous generation devices. The colors look better than they really are. On with the comparison of HDR, which also shows minimal improvements, unless they were shot at a low light of f/2.4 aperture, where there is a little bit of improvement. The fact is, if you put two photos, one taken from the iPhone 5, and the other taken from the iPhone 4s, side by side, you really couldn’t tell which photo was taken from which device.
Despite the lack of a real camera upgrade, the iPhone 5 still has a lot to deliver that goes beyond it’s sleek new facade, which is a huge plus. The iPhone 5 has better screen resolution, and 1.0GB of RAM for faster downloads. While it’s not the most impressive overall improvement from the last generation, it’s still an Apple product.
Apple may slide on this one with minimal improvements, but if Apple fails to meet the need of ever-changing technology with the seventh generation iPhone (which will probably arrive next year), it could be the end of the world’s love affair with the iPhone.
The one question that remains regarding Apple and the iPhone 5, is why did Apple lose the ball in the court on this one? I speculate that they’re putting more of their focus on something else, perhaps the rumored iPad Mini. There is little doubt that Apple knows the power they wield in the tablet market, all thanks to the huge success of the iPad, now all they need to do is corner the budget tablet market.