Before this, I was using a 4S that I recently upgraded to iOS 6, so this basically operates like a much faster version of that phone. It does feel much thinner & lighter and the proportions immediately reminded me of the 2001 monolith, like I said. I immediately put mine in a case because I've heard stories of the aluminum body being easy to scuff or scratch. I'll keep it in the case until I hear whether or not that's actually true.

As far as the map issues go, I think the problem only occurs when you're using the gimmicky 3D overhead view. Building and structures look distorted and weird sometimes. But, if you use it just like the old Maps app, it should work fine. I watched the end of a baseball game this afternoon and was pleased to see that the MLB app now displays 16:9 fullscreen HD video on the new 4" screen.

They switched on 4G LTE service up here about a week before the iPhone 5 came out, so I've been able to use that to download purchased songs & apps all day. It's about as fast as a decent wifi connection, but drains the battery rapidly.

That's it for now.