iPhone 5 (Photo : Apple)

The iPhone 5 release date is no longer surrounded by the cloud of rumors.

Apple's press event on Wednesday put to rest all the speculations on the next-generation iPhone, touted as the best-selling smartphone of all time.

The much-anticipated iPhone 5 will be available for pre-orders on Sept. 14, and will ship on Sept. 21 in nine countries - the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Apple's new CEO Tim Cook gave the press event in San Francisco, and called the iPhone 5 an "absolute jewel."

“It’s an absolute jewel ... Made entirely of glass and aluminum, designed and built to a standard unlike any in the industry," Cook said.

The iPhone 5 sports a slightly bigger 4-inch screen with a Retina Display. The bigger screen gives room to an additional fifth row of icons.

The phones' body is made of aluminum and glass, making the smartphone 18 per cent thinner and 20 per cent lighter than the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 5 will be powered by a faster A6 processor, and run on 4G LTE networks, making it faster to brows the web.

New features include camera's panorama function, which allows users to vertically sweep the iPhone screen to take a 28-megapixel image.

Improvements are made in video's stabilization, enhanced battery life, and 44% more color saturation for showing movies.

Apple's new "wideband" audio promises clearer sound during phone calls.

Safari is also enhanced with a full-screen view, and users can now share tabs from desktop to phone via iCloud Tabs.

The iPhone 5 comes with two colors, black and white, and its prices range from $199 for a 16GB, $299 for a 32 GB, to $399 for a 64 GB with a two-year contract.

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