iPhone 5 Setup Is Easy Peasy [First Impressions]

By

I do not think it means what you think it means, Apple.
I do not think it means what you think it means, Apple.

I had just taped the pre-signed authorization for UPS to the door of my house, when the brown UPS truck pulled up in front. I ran downstairs, signed breathlessly, and took possession of an absurdly small package. Apparently, Apple’s not happy enough with a small phone; they need to make the box it’s shipped in super small as well.

I ran upstairs, sliced the packing tape open, and pulled out an even smaller iPhone 5 box, all shrink-wrapped and beautiful. The exterior retail box is quite a bit smaller than the last iPhone I purchased, the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 itself? Stunningly small and light, yet fits almost perfectly in my hand, as has been said a bajillion times already.

I pulled off the sticky, protective plastic, held down the Wake button, and let the device do its start up thing. Then came the moment of truth: setup. How long was I going to be stuck at my desk?

I pulled out my “ancient” iPhone 4 and tapped through to the Stopwatch feature in the Clock app. I began timing. iOS 6 guided me through the setup process, asking if I wanted to use WiFi or cellular data (WiFi, duh), and if I wanted to pull from a backup with iCloud or iTunes on my Mac. I cautiously chose iCloud, since that’s how I’ve been keeping my iPhone 4 backed up for the last several months. I figured it would take a long time to get started, and — at first — I found my fears justified.

The backup via iCloud screen told me that I would have to wait 1 hour. Then it climbed up to 2 hours. Then 3. Finally, it stopped at 4 hours, and I resigned myself to leaving the iPHone 5 sitting alone and forlorn on my desk. Perhaps I’m projecting my own feelings into an inanimate object?

While I did a few random internet things, like brag to anyone online who cared to hear it about the phone arriving (it made it to Alaska on time!), the iPhone 5 restored from the iCloud backup. The timer on the old iPhone 4 rolled through its numbers, while the new iPhone 5 estimate stayed at a 4 hour estimate for about 25 minutes. Then it changed to a 2 hour estimate. Finally, when the real time stopwatch said 55 minutes had passed, the iCloud estimate window said 27 minutes left.

Three minutes later, the iPhone 5 restarted, taking a total of 58 minutes on a day in which the iCloud data farms are no doubt slammed by everyone doing the same thing I was. The total hour seems worth it, to me, and will doubtless take less time for you as the server demand declines over the next few days.

Now, of course, it’s time to wait for all my apps to pull in from iCloud as well. I have a separate timer for that one.

Image: Here’s The Thing

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.