So yes. Yet another one came out.
I personally was not surprised with a said "lack" (?) of features or specs. What fanboys and haters alike must understand, is that this is a standard Apple product now. You will get a new one every year. You will pay premium for it, even if it only gets you minimum spec upgrades and new features that mostly should've already been there long ago. What you get since the iPhone 3G is a new year/model device with upgraded specs and OS. Like on the MAC computer lineup. The biggest "surprise" for me was the fact that they still labeled it as the "5" and not the "new iPhone". I was really sure the number was gonna get dropped until I saw the invitation with the 5 shadow on the 12.
The design is along the lines of the previous model, and it has to. It works, and it was expected. People (real buying people) like it like that, and you need people to know that it's an iPhone. And I like the new one.
And not even the OS is that remarkably different, not even iOS5 was. It can't be. You can not reinvent the wheel every year.
About the "lacking" features. I have access to several NFC enabled devices. I use an N9 or HTC One X and my Blackberry has it as well. For what? Nothing. Apple had no real need to sport NFC on the new iPhone, unless to say "me to".
Better camera, more storage etc... Well I guess it would be nice, but at what cost?
All together I think this an almost perfect update to the iPhone, as a single mobile device from Apple. And for once since the original one, it actually looks good.
The one issue I still have with it is video. Although having (finally!) a 16/9 display it hasn't got 720 lines and that is a bit frustrating for me. This will (continue to) force software (iTunes) conversion, or use hardware downscaling via any 3rd party app video player. Now I do loath iTunes itself, on top of the concept of libraries and syncing to start with, so the first one is out of the question. And playing 720p directly will push the hardware a bit more than necessary incurring in slightly higher temperatures and heavier battery drainage. But I'm nitpicking here.
So if this is my biggest issue, then this is a good phone, right? Well we have to see about that because as a "phone" it always sucked. Radio performance was never good on an iPhone (more than occasional speech cuts, dropped calls, unavailability...) and whether that has been solved or not, remains to be seen. But I'm not holding my breath.
Anyway, my personal view still is:
a) if you want a tablet/smartphone set of devices for your personal use, get an iPad and a "decent" phone. That is why I use the Nokia N9 mainly.
b) if you have no use (or budget) for an iPad + a smartphone, then do get the iPhone. The later the model the better. Even with some network/radio issues. You just can't beat the user experience and the gazillion apps on iOS.
I don't think you should or need to have everything running iOS. If you do have all things iOS/Apple, you will be voluntarily (and stupidly IMO) missing lots of very good stuff from other platforms.
Besides you'll look like a "fanboy"!
