I PHONE 5

(CNN) -- One of the more striking things about holding a new iPhone model is how your old iPhone, which seemed perfectly sleek and adequate just an hour earlier, can suddenly feel slow, clunky and heavy. It's a neat trick, one that Apple is betting on to help it ship new units to exsisting iPhone owners in the coming year. After today's Apple press event, we were given some hands-on time with the upgraded iPhone 5, as well as the iPod touch and iPod nano. Here are our first impressions of the taller, lighter iPhone 5, which we tested next to a crusty, pratically fossilied iPhone 4. Opinion: The iPhone is not our savior The iPhones and iPods were laid out on tables in the dim, windowless hall at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Protective Apple employees made sure the devices weren't pilfered, wiped off journalists' finger prints and visibly flinched every time someone dropped a phone (which happened quite a few times while we were there). From the front, the iPhone 5 looks just like the iPhone 4 and 4S. It actually takes a moment to register that it's taller (holding it next to a previous iPhone model helps bring it home). The display is the same retina display found in the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and now, the new iPod Touch, but is now 4-inches instead of 3.5-inches. Apple unveils the new iPhone 5 CNN App shown at iPhone 5 press event Apple unveils smaller, faster iPhone 5 Then you pick it up. The phone is incredibly light, and that weight is its most striking and memorable feature. It feels almost delicate in the hand, naked without some sort of protective case to prevent it from snapping in half. Of course, the iPhone is not nearly that fragile. The body is made out of the same aluminum found in MacBooks, as well as glass. It feels expensive, not like a plastic device that could break easily. (We look forward to the inevitable drop tests.)