I Was Wrong: Well-Made iPhone 5 Is a 'Miracle'

When Apple first unveiled the iPhone 5, Farhad Manjoo was one part of the legion of tech pundits declaring it "boring." But after owning the device for about a week and a half, he's changed his tune—drastically. "The iPhone 5 is the best phone ever to grace the earth," he now writes in Slate. "When I pick up the iPhone 5 and examine it closely, I find it difficult to believe that this device actually exists."

Forget the stats and features; the iPhone is just exceedingly well made. It mostly does the same things as its competitors, but it's just plain nicer. "Apple is building products at a level of quality that may be unprecedented in the history of mass manufacturing," Manjoo writes. You don't think you care about how nice a phone "feels." You care about function, not form. But pick it up, and you'll realize that its incredible, precisely engineered form deeply affects your experience. "As Steve Jobs might say, how it feels is how it works." Click for Manjoo's full column. (More Farhad Manjoo stories.)