The iPhone 5 also betters the battery life of the iPhone 4S, according to Schiller, with eight hours of 3G or LTE talk time or browsing and 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.

It also has better Wi-Fi, according to Schiller, including dual-channel 5GHz 802.11n that gives bandwidth up to 150M bps.

The phone has a single baseband chip for voice and data, and a single radio chip, all of which helps reduce its size and weight.

Twenty carriers will support the new phone at launch, including Orange and Deutsche Telekom. Apple is working with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to offer service in the U.S., and with other providers in Asia, Australia, the U.K. and Germany.