As opposed to the iPhone 4 and 4S, which had a kind of "ice-cream sandwich" construction, with two slabs of glass around a steel frame, the iPhone 5 has edges that are ever so slightly beveled inward--, if you want to use the technical term. It gives the phone a slightly different feel in the hand, one that doesn't press quite as sharply into the palm as the previous phones.

In the past, iPhone color choices have been pretty limited: The iPhone 3G either had a black back or a white back, but that was it. The iPhone 4 came in black and (eventually) white, front and back, but the shiny metal band around the device was the same regardless of color choice.

With the iPhone 5, the two phones really are different. The white model most closely resembles the iPhone 4/4S, with a white front and back and the silver metal band. But the black model is completely different. It's like the Spinal Tap model iPhone 5: How much blacker could it be? None more black. The front and back have black glass, yes, but the metal band and metal strip on the back are both "slate"--a metallic matte black. The switches are black. Even the box is black, with "iPhone 5" printed in shiny black lettering. If the white-and-silver iPhone 5 is Gandalf's iPhone, the black-and-slate model is Darth Vader's.

And it's gorgeous. Not everyone will want to embrace the Dark Side, but the black metal on the black glass really ties the design of the phone together in a way that the iPhone 4 didn't.