iOS 5 preview: Our hands-on gallery

The features revealed in Apple’s update are wide-ranging and numerous, so we decided to try it for ourselves, upgrading to the preliminary beta of iOS 5.

In our preview, we’ll give you our first impressions on the new version, which will arrive on iPhones (from 3GS), iPad, and iPod Touch (from 3rd generation) We’ve already curated the highlights, but it was all to tempting, and we decided to plunge into the world of iOS 5.

The Setup

We’re using an original iPad, so we knew we’d be unable to play with the multi-touch gestures. But there’s still plenty more features to play with.

Once we had loaded the developer version of iOS 5, installed iTunes 10.5, and rebooted our iPad, it was great to be able to use the tablet without a PC connection. (Although you will need to use the forthcoming iCloud features to sync apps, music and more without a USB cable.)

You’ll be asked to setup the tablet; and it’ll ask for language preferences, location, and you’ll also be able to setup a WiFi connection from the start.

We were then asked whether we’d like to back-up from a previous iPad profile. We went vanilla, so it was a nice blank canvas to show off all the new stuff. “You’re now ready to start using the most advanced iOS ever.” Well, yes, it should be the most advanced iOS- it’s got the biggest number.

Click for our own hands-on impressions of iOS and more in-the-wild pictures.