Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've owned iPhones since their first incarnation, and have until now almost always been pleased with the developments made to the next generation over the last, with the exception of the iphone 4 and the design fault that resulted in a complete drop of signal when held in your hand without a case on it (I still own 2 of them, don't believe the spin, they really do drop signal). The 4s is a great phone, quicker than the 4 and without the signal / aerial debacle. The iPhone 5 however is a disappointment. It's thinner apparently, not that you'd notice, especially as due to it's design you have to have it in a case to prevent it from being destroyed by everyday careful usage. But in order to make it thinner they had (so they say) to change the sync lead / charger lead connector to a new smaller design. If like me you have owned and continue to own previous versions of iPhones, iPods and iPads, and have several chargers, Docks, car connectors and car chargers etc then this new design is really frustrating. The real reason that Apple changed the design is surely so that everybody has to go out and buy outrageously overpriced adaptors or new leads. I have read that Apple pays less than $0.6 for these leads, yet charges it's customers £25. Apple have also put a microchip in their leads that the iPhone is set to recognise, without which they are rejected by the iPhone in order to prevent third party manufacturers from producing leads that work properly, hence all the terrible reviews for these 3rd party products. It's just another of Apple's underhand money making exercises at the customers considerable inconvenience and expense. It's taller than the iPhone 4s. Some may like this, but I don't. The 4s sits comfortably in your hand and my thumb can reach the top of the screen on the 4s without having to change the position in my hand. I have bigger than average hands too. It is faster than the 4s, only a little, but it is faster. But this is the only improvement in my eyes. Battery life is poor, another sacrifice made to the god of (pointless) thinness. It feels cheaper and flimsier than the 4s too. Maps are a mess. Google maps was so much better on the 4 and 4s. Instead of this ridiculous connector fiasco, why couldn't we have kept the old and perfectly good connector and had wireless charging too? The technology is there, and would be a great improvement over the current system. A more robust design would be nice so that they didn't have to live in cases, and a dust and moisture resistant design would be very welcome. iCloud is fantastic, and so I can't imagine changing phones to another manufacturer until someone else comes out with something at least as good as iCloud. But when they do, I'll be more than happy to switch allegiance, despite twenty years as a loyal Apple customer. Apple can only push their customers so far, and I'm becoming more and more fed up with the way Apple is treating it's customers with regard to their infuriating thinness campaign with their phones, iPads, MacBook Pros and iMacs, at the expense of functionality and in a blatant attempt to corner the market and limit customers buying choices in terms of leads, adaptors, connections, music purchasing, app purchasing etc, as are many many other people. Apple is a great brand and has produced many fantastic products, but the iPhone 5 is not the leap ahead from the 4s that customers had hoped for, and this coupled with frustration and expense incurred by the connector design and the thinness over battery life and durability make it for me a 2 star product. If you own the 4s I'd suggest hanging on to it and waiting until Autumn for the next hopefully much improved iPhone, or Samsung, or whoever the Apple slayer will be.