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Key iPhone 5 Advances

NEW YORK —The iPhone 5 will be priced the same as its predecessor when it appears in stores Sept. 21. That’s $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB model. 

The iPhone 5, however, sports multiple improvements over the iPhone 4S, although neither model supports nearfield communications (NFC) as do many Android rivals.

A 16GB version of the iPhone 4S version will be re-priced down to $99 from $199. 

Here are some key differentiators between iPhone generations: 

Cellular:4G LTE 100Mbps max, 4G HSPA+ 21Mbps max, and DC-HSDPA 42Mbps max vs. 3G CDMA 1x EV-DO Rev. A and 3G HSPA+ 14.4Mbps.

Display:4 inches diagonally from 3.5 inches with the same width, allowing for a fifth row of icons and providing near-16:9 aspect ratio. 

Screen resolution of 1,136 by 640 compared with 960 by 640, still below the HD resolution of many Android smartphone displays. Forty-four percent more color saturation. Pixels per inch remain the same at 326. Contrast ratio and brightness unchanged. 

Dimensions/weight:Thickness shrinks to 0.3 inches from 0.37 inches. Weight drops to 3.95 ounces from 4.9 ounces. It has an all-aluminum/ glass construction and is described as the “world’s thinnest smartphone.”

Processors:Twice the CPU and GPU speeds of the dual-core iPhone 4S, whose speeds have never been revealed by Apple. 4S CPU has been clocked in bench tests at 800MHz. Battery life: 3G talk time unchanged at eight hours, but 3G data use grows to eight hours from six hours. LTE data use at eight hours. Wi-Fi use grows to 10 hours from nine.

Connector:Nine-pin Lightning vs. 30 pin, with all content delivered in digital. Previous connector delivered audio in analog and digital form. Compact adapter and Lightning-to-USB 2.0 cable available for connection to existing audio products. 

Wi-Fi:802.11a added to 802.11b/g/n, and 802.11n goes to dual- band to boost speeds to 150Mbps. 

Video chat:FaceTime works over cellular, not just Wi-Fi. 

Cameras:40 percent faster photo capture, panorama mode added, front camera upgraded to 720p to join rear 1080p camera, ability to take pictures while taking videos, new dynamic lowlight mode, and shared photo streams to share groups of photos. 

Navigation:Apple’s own app replaces Google Maps as preinstalled nav app. Upgraded Apple nav app adds turn-by-turn voice-prompted driving instructions over previous Apple app as well as 3D photo-realistic flyover views. 

iOS6 operating system:It became available Sept. 19 for downloads to legacy Apple devices. New features include FaceTime over cellular, Facebook integration with iPhone contact and calendar applications, ability to save web pages for offline reading, iCloud Tabs to let users save web pages between devices, and Passbook app to store airline boarding passes, loyalty cards and retail coupons in one location. 

Also improves Siri voice-recognition performance, which also adds ability to ask sports-related questions. 

New calling features include ability to decline an incoming call by sending a text message, blocking calls except for those from callers given priority, and ability to respond automatically to incoming calls with predetermined text messages based on location.

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