The question everyone’s been asking is whether or not the iPhone 5 offers tangible improvements over the 4 and 4S that make the upgrade worthwhile.

Here it is in a nutshell: if you own a 4, and none of Apple’s recent missteps have put you off the brand, then it’s time to upgrade. The iPhone 5 will make you very happy. If you’re a 4S user who simply must have Apple’s latest and greatest, you’ll be pleased, too. But if you’re hoping for an experience that’s miles ahead of those offered by earlier iPhones, you’ll be a little disappointed.

Aesthetically, the iPhone 5 is a crowd pleaser. The svelte body, weight-reducing aluminium rear, the volume buttons and slider switch and the responsiveness of the display add up to make a product that is a marvel of industrial design. It’s simply beautiful on the outside, even though its software is getting a little tired.

Though the handset is marginally taller than its forerunners, it’s noticeably thinner and 20% lighter thanks, in part, to the aluminium rather than glass rear cover. That 20% is not to be scoffed at. Weighing in at only 112g, the iPhone 5 feels discernibly less hefty than the 4S, but equally sturdy. Make no mistake: the handset feels every bit the premium device it’s marketed as.

But the iPhone 5 is not perfect. One of the Apple smartphone’s longstanding selling points has been that its user interface is so simple to use that even the most technologically challenged among us can operate the software. This focus on ease of use has remained through the various versions of iOS. For newcomers to smartphones, this is excellent. For people who like to fiddle with their phones, it can be a little infuriating.

Let’s face facts: Android is outpacing iOS in innovation. After using any high-end Android device, iOS feels dated, limited and restrictive. And, although Apple has been praised for the phone’s relatively small size, fans of 4-inch and larger displays on Android phones will also find the iPhone 5’s elongated display smaller than they’d like. It looks tiny next to Samsung’s Galaxy S3, HTC’s One X or Nokia’s Lumia 920.

Of course, if you’re an iPhone user, the muscle memory from years of use remains unchanged because the width is identical to that of its predecessor — and that is wonderful.

Really, the iPhone 5 is only around a centimetre taller than the 4S, but the larger screen is still noticeable, and still useful, particularly when it comes to applications like sending text or instant messages where the onscreen keyboard previously resulted in a very small amount of text being visible on the screen.

It’s also better for browsing the Web, especially in landscape orientation and, at an aspect ratio of almost exactly 16:9, it’s sure to please the mobile movie-watcher.

The iPhone 5’s tall, 4-inch display is also ideal for using the new — and, frankly, brilliant — Google Maps for iOS. The app hasn’t simply received an update to its design, fonts and interface, but now, like the Android version, includes excellent turn-by-turn navigation instructions as well as thoughtful additions like showing a Street View panorama of your destination as you near it.

In terms of hardware, the iPhone 5 ticks all of the necessary boxes. Its A6 dual-core processor is noticeably snappier than its predecessor — apps load quite a bit quicker — and the battery life is improved, even with three 4G/LTE bands supported. Power users will still need to recharge daily, but it should cover waking hours comfortably. We got around 16 hours out of the iPhone 5 with heavy texting and using the camera.

Speaking of the camera, the iPhone 5’s primary shooter is superb, as it was in the 4S, and the secondary camera now offers 720p at 30 frames per second – great for FaceTime or Skype calls.

In summary, then, the iPhone 5 looks good and feels great in the hand. It’s the best-looking package we’ve seen from Apple. However, iOS is starting to lose its shine, making it more difficult to recommend the device to non-iPhone users.