The wait is over. Here’s your instant pub-chatter for the weekend ahead.

New body
Firstly the iPhone 5 has a new look and a new design although by looking at it…

It is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, 18% thinner and 20% lighter to be exact. That’s quite a lot. Along with a new, slimmer and longer body, they’ve included a 4-inch Retina display, like the one on the iPad 3. The taller body might not seem like a big deal, but it means that one handed typing is as easy, if not easier than on the previous version. This is important, because it’s one of the biggest gripes I had about the Galaxy S III…too fat and not conducive to driving and typing. Don’t judge me, you do it too.

What’s not there
While the phone specs look as expected, there are some notable omissions which must be brought up. Firstly there is no Near Field Communication on the device, something I was really hoping for. Including this sort of tech in a device as popular as an iPhone would have instantly pushed the use and convenience of NFC in to our everyday lives. That being said, it is a tech which is still in its infancy, and hasn’t been tested properly in the wild of South African supermarkets. So perhaps we’re thinking too far ahead?

Also, many were hoping to see wireless charging come in the iPhone 6. It didn’t. It’s coming in Nokia’s new Lumia 820, so why isn’t it in the iPhone?

Design. In a word. Apparently the slimness and size of the new iPhone 6 prevented Apple from including these rather important features in the phone. That and the added cost and bulk that these techs would’ve added to the retail price of the device.

No point in whining over something you can’t do anything about, I suppose.

What’s inside
Inside you’re looking at a lightning quick A6 chip which will be running an all new iOS 6 and facilitating 4G LTE technology. Obviously this means little in South Africa at the moment, but it’ll get here eventually.

The new iOS 6 has over 200 new features including: an all new Maps app with turn-by-turn navigation, something iPhone Maps has lacked for a long time, and a promising new Flyover view. There’s Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, with the ability to post directly from Notification Center. And Siri has got some more languages, so finally the Chipowok Eskimos of the Yukon are gonna stop their griping.

All this is going to weigh heavily on the new A6 chip which has a lot of heavy lifting to do with its multi-tasking requirements, twice the CPU and graphics performance, a bunch of new features and a juiced up wireless connection. They’re promising that they’ve improved the battery-life, something all Smartphones struggle with, but only a hands on try will prove that.

Many were hoping that the iPhone 5’s new camera would be 10 or 12MP, but I warned you not to get your hopes up. It sits at a decent enough 8MP but it’s 25% smaller than the iPhone 4S and is bolstered by a panorama feature and video face detection for up to 10 people. They’ve also thrown in the ability to take stills while you’re recording.

The iPhone 5 does, as feared, have a new connection called Lightning and it’s much slimmer and smaller. The reason for this is being explained as due to the thinness of the phone, making the traditional connection impossible. Sadly this new connection is apparently not even adding much speed to data transfer, still running on the USB 2.0 format. But the next gen might change that. So no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt just yet.

The iPhone 6 becomes available on 28 September internationally and in SA shortly after that. Colors are white & silver or black & slate. Dollar prices below:

$200 for 16GB
$300 for 32GB
$400 for the 64GB