Upgrade to new IPhone 5

Deciding when to upgrade is a funny, sometimes expensive thing. Carrier contracts that subsidize the cost of a new iPhone are usually for two years, so it's traditional to upgrade every other model or less. You also want to time it just right, during the iPhone development cycle, so you don't buy a phone months before it's outdated.

If you are an iPhone owner who is pondering an upgrade to the new iPhone 5, here are some things to consider:

Do you long for more screen space/watch a lot of movies?

Perhaps you've heard that the iPhone 5 is taller. This is true. After testing its tallness we've found that there is more space on the screen, which is no longer as short as the previous iPhone screens.

The phone retains its width but is now 9 millimeters taller -- that's one extra row of icons. The dimensions are perfect for watching widescreen movies, which were previously smaller and letter-boxed. The space also gives all other apps a bit more breathing room. Third-party applications must now redesign their apps to fix the new aspect ratio -- which requires time and resources -- so until then, older apps will be shown at normal size, the bar of unused screen space cloaked in mourning-black.

There is a market for much larger smartphone screens, and companies like Samsung have delivered with spacious, high-resolution smartphones. This is largely a matter of preference, but if you find that the iPhone 5's screen is still just too small for you, you may need to defect to something like the Samsung Galaxy S3 which has a 4.8-inch screen.

Does your current phone feel slow?

Each iPhone is typically faster than its predecessor, and phones tend to slow down over time. Apple has added a speedier processor to the iPhone 5 in the form of an A6 chip. The company claims it is up to twice as fast, and after testing, the difference is definitely noticeable.

Holding on to a slightly slower iPhone might not be much of an issue if you primarily use it for common tasks -- calls and texts, e-mailing, Twitter and Facebook, reading, even watching movies. If you don't find yourself grumbling at how slow your phone is, and you're still reeling from the speed improvements over the last iPhone you bought, you can probably carry on blissfully unaware of the difference.

However, if you use your iPhone for bigger tasks like playing graphic games, the speed is a very welcome bump indeed. Another place it's a noticeable improvement is the camera (more on that in a moment).

Sent from my BlackBerry® Smartphone provided by Ufone