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Apple fans brave queues to snatch up iPhone 5

Summary:

The hotly-anticipated iPhone 5 went on sale across the UK today.

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By Jordan O’Brien

Eager Apple fans are out in force across South West London to get their hands on the latest iPhone model.

The iPhone 5 has gone on sale today to much fanfare across the UK – by lunchtime all O2’s stock of iPhone 5 on Pay & Go had been snapped up.

Some O2 stores across South West London are still reporting stock but the Colliers Wood branch had sold out completely by 3pm.

At both Clapham and Putney, the 32GB-variant of the device has completely sold out with neither black nor white available.

Fulham Broadway have the 32GB black left, but have run out of the 32GB white.

Out in Kingston, O2 have reported that the 64GB black, as well as both the 32GB white and black models, have completely sold out.

Elsewhere in the UK Apple Stores opened at 8am sharp with a cheering crowd of Apple staff members making their way out of the shop into the queue.

At Covent Garden the queue was over 2000 strong, with around 600 employees on-hand to ensure everyone is seen to in a prompt manner.

The crowd managed to stretch the length of Covent Garden market and all the way down two more roads.

The new iPhone touts a plethora of new features including a 4-inch touchscreen, which has changed the iPhone’s aspect ratio to 16:9, making it easier to watch Hollywood movies on the phone.

However, the new screen on the iPhone 5 features slightly less pixel density than the iPhone 4S, meaning a lower resolution but Apple still insists it’s a “Retina Display” despite the drop.

One thing a lot of the people we questioned really liked was how thin the device is – at only 0.3 inches, it’s 0.07 inches thinner than the iPhone 4S.

Du Song, from China, was right at the back of the iPhone 5 queue at 7:55am and when we asked her if she liked the new design of the device she said “not really”.

Despite that she said: “Maybe it’s just because it’s a little bit thinner.”

When we spoke to Anna Silver, 22, from London, she had just left the Apple Store. She is one of the first people in the UK to get her hands on the phone.

Ms Silver said: “I’m just really excited I’ve not had an iPhone before.”

Despite the media giving flack to the new iOS Maps, with it placing Wimbledon in Milton Keynes, resurrecting high-street chain Woolworths and forgetting the existence of Stratford-Upon-Avon, most iPhone 5 buyers didn’t seem phased.

Ms Silver said that Apple was bound to fix the problem.

Many people waited at the Apple store for days, desperate to get their hands on the heralded i-Device.

Ms Silver had been camping outside the Apple Store since 6am on Thursday morning, an entire 26 hours before the iPhone 5 went on sale.

She said: “We didn’t expect it to be so much fun, but we’ve all made friends!”

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