iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone design gallery

iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone design gallery | iMore.com Skip to main content AndroidBlackBerryiPhone / iPadWindows PhonewebOS

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The iPhone 5 Apple's 6th version, and 4th major design revision, of the iPhone. It might well have been inevitable, and still be working its way towards Jonathan Ive's Platonic ideal, but it's also a fascinating visual evolution of case shrinking, screen lengthening, and materials improving over generations.

We've done the iPhone 5 in both stunning portrait, and in intimate macro. Here's the Darwinian march of iPhone designs through the years, from the original 2007 iPhone to the 2009 iPhone 3GS to the 2011 iPhone 4S to the brand new 2012 iPhone 5.

Here are the backs, from aluminum to plastic to glass and back to aluminum.

And the dock connector, from 30-pin to Lightning, as well as the speaker and mic grills, and the movement of the 3.5mm headset jack. (Side by side and stacked.)

The controls on the side, stacked, from rockers to buttons.

The SIM cards both in trays and naked, from mini- to micro- to nano-SIM.

And the connector, from the new Lightning to the old 30-pin Dock.

All shots taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and an EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, embedded at HiDPI for iPhones, iPad 3, and Retina MacBook Pro.

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore,co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH podcasts. Cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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More of: Iphone 5, Iphone 4s, Iphone 3gs, micro sim, nano sim, mini sim, Lightning, Dock Connector ? PreviouslyA macro look at the iPhone 5 in micro-fine detail Next up ?Best iPhone 5 PAYG nano-SIM options for traveling to the UK There are 12 comments. Add yours. A-m-B says: Sep 22, 2012 at 3:24 pm - 1 day ago

iphone 5 design isn't good
it's perfect

Reply philbert81 says: Sep 22, 2012 at 4:01 pm - 1 day ago

I still love the aluminum back on the first gen iPhone.

Reply Amnesiakei says: Sep 22, 2012 at 4:55 pm - 1 day ago

Might want to hide the imei from the sim tray

Reply imoremikey says: Sep 22, 2012 at 5:10 pm - 1 day ago

crazy how much has changed ! and to see what hasn't

Reply TFausett says: Sep 22, 2012 at 6:01 pm - 1 day ago

It's still nice, simple and easy to use as it always has been, I love it!

Reply johnwill says: Sep 22, 2012 at 9:19 pm - 1 day ago

The 5D III and the 100 f2.8 macro are a great combo.

Reply Derekhan says: Sep 22, 2012 at 9:50 pm - 1 day ago

Hey Rene,
Why not do an evolution comparison of the iPhone 5 against the Porsche 911?
Both identities are similar but yet different.

Reply iFancruze says: Sep 23, 2012 at 1:50 am - 22 hours ago

Please pick me imore! iPhone 5 need it badly :)

Reply iphone app design says: Sep 23, 2012 at 4:09 am - 20 hours ago

I really love the back design on the device. I don't know what it is but it really does it for me, for some strange reason.

Tapha - http://myapptemplates.com

Reply msalmank says: Sep 23, 2012 at 5:40 pm - 6 hours ago

I've read/heard at various places that the phone feels tall - true that there are taller phones out there, but due to the width remaining the same as iPhone 4S, it would eventually feel tall. Question is: does that have a good feel to it or a bad feel?

Reply Carioca32 says: Sep 23, 2012 at 7:15 pm - 5 hours ago

I still feel that the 3GSs aesthetics are much superior to the blockish 5. If Motorola or HTC had come up with that design when the 3GS was launched, people would call it outright ugly.

Reply LCW says: Sep 23, 2012 at 8:50 pm - 3 hours ago

Interesting how the iPhone 5 has design elements that trace back to its roots. The speaker grill "holes", and the aluminum back and are harking back to the "original". I remember my 2007 iphone. Still miss it. ;)

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