As is now standard practice for a new Apple product, the iPhone 5 went on sale accompanied by huge global media coverage, queues of thousands at Apple stores the world over and much bated breath.

 The iPhone 5 features a 4in Retina display, an A6 processor and a thinner and lighter design, along with the new but contoversial Lightning port and an aluminium back.

But aside from the slightly larger screen and performance boost, is the iPhone 5 that much better than the iPhone 4S, and should owners of the latter consider upgrading?

Through this slideshow we take a look at both smartphones to try and come up with an answer. 

Although looking similar in photos to the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 before it, the new model is actually completely different when you pick it up and start using it.

The iPhone 5’s lack of weight is the first thing to surprise you - at just 112g, it’s considerably lighter than both the 140g 4S and 133g Samsung Galaxy S3.

Replacing the rear glass with aluminium is the main reason for the iPhone’s weight loss; instead, glass covers the screen as before, but there are now just two small strips at the top and bottom of the rear cover.

Next up is how thin the iPhone 5 is. At 7.6mm, the iPhone 5 is 1.7mm thinner than the 4S, and while this may not sound like a lot, it’s just as noticeable as the weight saving when the two phones are compared side-by-side.

The most noticeable change is, of course, the extra height from that larger screen. The iPhone 5 measures 124mm tall, compared to the 4S, which is 115mm.

As for smaller updates, the headphone jack has been relocated to the bottom, alongside the new Lightning connector (more on that later) and redesigned speaker and mic grilles.

The front-facing camera is smaller (but higher quality) on the 5 and now sits in the middle, and there’s a third microphone that sits between the rear camera and flash, which is used for better sound isolation when on a call.

Finally, the aluminium used is a slightly lighter shade of grey, the four antennas are now white instead of black and the SIM card tray is smaller, thanks to the iPhone 5 using a tiny nano SIM instead of the iPhone 4S’s microSIM.

Some of these changes are very small, but they all add up to produce a smartphone that differs more from the 4S than you first realise.

After just a weekend with the 5 we found our 4S to feel short, dumpy and a little overweight. The squarer 4:3 screen ratio particularly makes the 4S feel dated once you've got used to the 5.

A change that took some getting used to was the relocation of the headphone jack. At first we continually stabbed the top of our iPhone 5 with the headphones before remembering that the socket is now down by the dock connector.

The change makes sense though, and stops the headphone cable getting in the way of the screen.

Both phones have dual-core processors, but the iPhone 5 gets 1GB of RAM (twice that of the iPhone 4S) and it’s A6 chip is slightly faster, clocked at 1.2GHz compared with 1GHz of the year-old A5 in the 4S.

What this means in reality depends on what you do with the phone. Booting up, flicking through the Home screens and using the pre-installed apps is just as quick and responsive on both phones.

But with more intensive applications it’s a different story. We opened the Co Pilot Live sat-nav application and, while it loaded in equal times on both phones, navigating through maps on the 5 was noticeably quicker than on the 4S, which stuttered and struggled to keep up with what we were doing.

Developers will no doubt be working on new, more demanding applications and games to take advantage of the more powerful A6 processor, and if the demo of Real Racing 3 we saw at the iPhone 5’s launch is anything to go by, then future apps will look very good indeed.

As for battery life, our first few days with the iPhone 5 suggest that it manages as well as the 4S despite the larger screen and extra power. A full day of average use is possible, but of course if you play a lot of 3D games or make video calls then that estimate is going to fall.

Aside from the dodgy iOS 6 maps, it is the new Lightning connector that has received the most negative attention since the iPhone 5 was announced.

In ditching the decade-old 30-pin dock connector, Apple has taken a step forward in switching to a port that is much smaller and all-digital, but this move has upset customers who use speaker docks and other accessories.

Apple sells a 30-pin to Lightening adaptor for £25 (or £30 if you want it on a 20cm cable), which is expensive, but at least for most users it would be a one-off purchase.

Liking ditching VHS for DVD and DVD for Blu-ray, moving from the 30-pin dock connector to the eight-pin Lightning port was an inevitable move that will annoy in the short term but soon be forgotten about and eventually praised.

Apple has given the iPhone 5 an HD front-facing camera (up from the VGA quality sensor on the iPhone 4S), and around the back the 8-megapixel main camera remains, but it gets a new sapphire glass cover.

Thanks to updates from iOS 6, both phones can now shoot 28-megapixel panoramic images by simply sweeping the phone from left to right. The iPhone 5 can also shoot video and take photos at the same time - a feature the older 4S misses out on.

The iPhone 5’s camera can take photos 40 percent faster than the 4S - something that is very noticeable - and Apple has improved its low-light performance, too.

We thought choosing between the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S3 was tough, but this verdict has proven to be the hardest of the year so far.

The iPhone 4S - now at £449 for the 16GB model - represents good value for money and is a truly great smartphone, even a year after it first went on sale.

Apple has moved the game forward with the iPhone 5, but not by as much as people were expecting, or indeed hoping. Upgrading from any iPhone older than the 4S should be a no brainer - you’ll love the new model.

But from a 4S to the 5? It’s a case of synergy - the iPhone 5 is lots of little change that don’t seem like much on their own, but together they create a device more impressive than the sum of its parts.

More impressive than the iPhone 4S? Certainly. Even turned off it's clear the iPhone 5 is better. But worth the upgrade when you already have a 4S? We couldn't make that decision for you, but what we will say is this; rather than seeing the iPhone 5 as a poor upgrade, it goes to show just how good the iPhone 4S was, and still is.

No company can offer the shock and excitement of an entirely new product year in, year out, and the iPhone proves this with every generation. Evolution, not revolution.