Apple (AAPL), as usual, chose carefully whom to seed with pre-release review copies of the new iPhone: The biggest newspapers and magazines, the friendliest bloggers and, with pointed exceptions, the most influential tech sites.

    Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal: The iPhone Takes to the Big Screen."The world's most popular smartphone becomes significantly faster, thinner and lighter this week, while gaining a larger, 4-inch screen—all without giving up battery life, comfort in the hand and high-quality construction."

    David Pogue, The New York Times: IPhone 5 Scores Well, with a Quibble."Apple calls its [charging connector] replacement the Lightning connector. It's much sturdier than the old jack, and much smaller — 0.31 inch wide instead of 0.83. And there's no right side up — you can insert it either way. It clicks satisfyingly into place, yet you can remove it easily. It's the very model of a modern major connector. Well, great. But it doesn't fit any existing accessories, docks or chargers. Apple sells an adapter plug for $30 (or $40 with an eight-inch cable "tail"). If you have a few accessories, you could easily pay $150 in adapters for a $200 phone. That's not just a slap in the face to loyal customers — it's a jab in the eye."

    Ed Baig, USA Today: Apple iPhone 5 in front of the smartphone pack."When Apple introduced the iPhone 4S last October, you could sense the initial disappointment. Many people were longing for an iPhone 5. The iPhone 4S that came instead may not have represented a dramatic upgrade, but it was a snappy handset with an excellent camera and a sometimes-obedient virtual digital assistant named Siri. It went on to become the best-selling iPhone to date. Nearly a year later the iPhone 5 is upon us. And what I detect this time is lust."

    Peter Nowak, CBCNews: iPhone 5 not terribly innovative, but still a smart package."Devices running iOS 6 will thus have Apple's new Maps app, which isn't as good as its Google-based predecessor. The new app is functional and includes transit stops, but these are incomplete. While there are plenty of streetcar stops marked in Toronto, for example, some subway stations are inexplicably missing. Real-time traffic data, for Toronto at least, is also almost non-existent. It also doesn't include Google's popular Street View, so you can't swoop down to take a pedestrian-level view of locations... If Apple allows it, Google is likely to release its own map app for iOS 6 and fight it out for supremacy."

    Harry McCracken, Time: It's all about refinement."Apple's mojo remains fully operational. The iPhone 5 features some upgrades which, though not groundbreaking in the least, are welcome, like its slightly-larger screen and zippy 4G LTE broadband. It sports an improved version of what was already the single best camera in phonedom. It makes Siri smarter. In short, it's the most polished version yet of what was already easily the most polished phone on the market."