When we envisioned the new iPhone, we landed on a remarkably thin and
light design. But it’s nearly impossible to make a device so thin and
so light without sacrificing features or performance.
We could have taken the easy way out and designed something more
reasonable and less remarkable. But we didn’t. If the technology didn’t
exist, we invented it. If a component wasn’t small enough, we
re-imagined it. If convention was standing in the way, we left it
behind. The result is iPhone 5: the thinnest, lightest, fastest
iPhone ever.
iPhone 5 is just 7.6 millimeters thin. To make that happen,
Apple engineers had to think small, component by component. They created
a nano-SIM card, which is 44 percent smaller than a micro-SIM. They
also developed a unique cellular solution for iPhone 5. The conventional
approach to building LTE into a world phone uses two chips — one for
voice, one for data. On iPhone 5, both are on a single chip. The
intelligent, reversible Lightning connector is 80 percent smaller than
the 30-pin connector. The 8MP iSight camera has even more features —
like panorama and dynamic low-light mode — yet it’s 25 percent smaller.
And the new A6 chip is up to 2x faster than the A5 chip but 22 percent
smaller. Even with so much inside, iPhone 5 is 20 percent lighter and 18
percent thinner than iPhone 4S.
Making
a thinner, lighter iPhone meant even the display had to be thinner.
Apple engineers accomplished that by creating the first Retina display
with integrated touch technology. Which means instead of a separate
layer of touch electrodes between display pixels, the pixels do double
duty — acting as touch-sensing electrodes while displaying the image at
the same time. With one less layer between you and what you see on
iPhone 5, you experience more clarity than ever before. All on a display
that’s 30 percent thinner than before.
Never before has this degree of fit and finish been applied to a
phone. Take the glass inlays on the back of iPhone 5, for instance.
During manufacturing, each iPhone 5 aluminum housing is photographed by
two high-powered 29MP cameras. A machine then examines the images and
compares them against 725 unique inlays to find the most precise match
for every single iPhone.
Look at iPhone 5 and you can’t help but notice the exquisite
chamfer surrounding the display. A crystalline diamond cuts this beveled
edge. It’s what gives iPhone 5 its distinctive lines. Fitting for a
phone so brilliant.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/