At a press conference earlier today, Apple finally unveiled its long-awaited iPhone 5 to the masses.

So what’s all the hoopla about?

Well here are all the details!

Let’s start off by discussing the iPhone 5’s design.  For starters, the new iPhone is now just 7.6 mm thick, making it 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S, while also being 20% lighter at 112 grams.  As was already rumored, the phone’s connector has gone by the wayside and will now utilize the much smaller “Lightning” connector that is double-sided.  For those who are outraged at having the 30-pin connector retired, Apple will also make an adapter available, meaning you won’t need to toss out those current cables, speaker docks and other accessories anytime soon.

So how about that screen?  Well the iPhone 5 will have a 4-inch screen, half an inch bigger than the current models, which of course, will have a Retina display.  With the bigger real estate comes a higher resolution too: 1136 x 640; up from the iPhone 4S’ 960 x 640.  The screen’s new dimensions are also much closer now to true 16 x 9 widescreen, so movies look more natural, while advanced color saturation makes images more vivid.  Speaking of change in screen dimensions, any non-native apps will simply get letterboxed, as to avoid decreasing the quality of display.

Apple also revealed that the iPhone 5 will indeed feature 4G LTE from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon in the U.S.  The device will also use a dual-band 802.11n wireless for what the company calls “Ultrafast Wireless”.

Under the hood it will now use the new A6 chip, which is twice as fast and graphically powerful as the A5.  For those concerned about battery life with the new chip and 4G, Apple says it actually improved upon the 4S’ battery, offering up 8hrs of LTE browsing, 8 hours of talk time and 10 hours of video playback.  The iPhone 5 will still feature a 8 MP rear-facing camera, while the front facing camera can now take video in 720p.  That’ll be extremely helpful with Facetime, which will (with iOS 6) be available using a carrier signal, and not just Wi-Fi.  The rear-facing camera will have a quicker shutter, better low-light performance and can take panoramic shots.  When recording in 1080p with the rear-facing camera, the iPhone 5 will have improved support for shaky recordings and will be able to detect up to 10 faces.

Being offered in both black and white, the iPhone 5 will retail for $399 (64GB), $299 (32GB) and $199 (16GB) with a 2-year contract.  The iPhone 4S will be price dropped to $99 and the iPhone 4 will be free, again both with a 2-year contract.

Pre-orders will begin on Sep. 14 and the iPhone 5 will be available on Sep. 21 at 8 a.m.