By Orlando Flores Jr. and Rachel Bingham

The iPhone 5 has finally made its debut. Apple reported two million phones were pre-ordered in the first 24 hours of release on Sept. 14. A week later, Apple released the phone to the masses, and more than 5 million were shipped and sold out.

The latest installment of the iPhone boasts new updates, but does it live up to the hype that’s surrounded it over the past year? The two of us were able to get our hands on one to test it out.

Apple’s new phone is the “smallest, thinnest and fastest” it’s ever released with its 7.6 millimeters thin, 112 gram, 3.31 square inches measurements, sleek new design, and new 4 inches Retina display. It also has made the power plug-in 80 percent smaller with the new Lightning connector, requiring iPhone5 users to buy new adapters for all their Apple devices.

The elongated screen gives users much more to work with on a single window while still fitting nicely in the palm of hand. The light, fragile feel of the phone is intimidating at first and requires a proper case and handling.

Apple took its time designing this masterpiece of a phone. According to Apple’s website, “iPhone 5 is made with a level of precision you’d expect from a finely crafted watch – not a smartphone.”

This is the first smartphone that truly looks worth the manufacturer’s price, $199 – $399. The glass and aluminum body, made with the same materials as Apple notebooks, brings a phone to the table that is unlike any other in the market.

Another material worth noting is the sapphire crystal that lays itself over the newly improved iSight camera. The enhancements include Panorama, 40 percent faster photo capture, better low-light performance, noise reduction, 1080p HD video recording and 720p HD FaceTime.

This is possibly one of the greatest upgrades made to the iPhone. The picture quality is on par with traditional digital cameras on the market, and FaceTime’s ability to connect over a cellular network further improves the product that they created a few years ago. Users not on a data plan that allows massive traffic, can still connect to FaceTime over a Wi-Fi signal.

Apple’s new A6 chip processor is twice as fast as the A5 chip, previously installed in the Apple iPhone 4S. According to the website, it provides eight hours of LTE browsing time, eight hours of talk time or 10 hours of video playback time.

4G LTE is extremely fast – users can download faster than on a Wi-Fi signal and browse the internet without hesitation. While LTE is not always available in Wichita Falls, depending on the users carrier, he or she can use this new feature in bigger markets.

iOS 6 is something that Apple fanatics have raved about since it was released last week. Its biggest feature is the brand new map app. Apple created this in-house to replace Google’s map app. It takes advantage of Siri to give turn-by-turn spoken navigation that offers real-time traffic information to calculate ETA and alternative routes in case of traffic. It also gives a  3D view and contains a new Flyover feature, in which you can “explore cities in high resolution as you zoom, pan, tilt and rotate.”

Siri has also gotten a makeover. She is able to post to Facebook and Twitter, show movie reviews, give live score updates and book a table at a larger city restaurant.

One built-in app is Passbook. This little gem is able to hold airline tickets, hotel reservations, gift cards, and more. It’s also time and location based, so users can stop in for a quick cup of coffee and receive a gift card.

Finally, Apple released its  EarPods. These newly designed headphones have improved on the traditional earbuds Apple made famous, by not just improving their comfort level, but also the sound quality; they allow the user to hear deeper and richer bass tones and better acoustics.

With these upgrades, Apple has more than improved on the previous iPhone and has made its first cell phone that seems to have lastability beyond the one year gap usually given between phone upgrades and improvements. The iPhone 5 will be the new benchmark for how smartphones are designed and function, and also how they will service the customer.