Is iPhone 5 a good start for first smartphone?

I'm getting my first smartphone. YAY! Is iPhone worth all the money? The camera? The battery? What's the battery life on it? Is it a good phone overall? Please help me! Also, which colour looks best? I like the black one, but I heard it loses its colour after a while? Is that true? Must I take the white one?

I've been with apple multiple years but I recently bought an lg Optimus g and its by far a better smart phone. But it doesn't really matter what smartphone you start out with. The battery life on all smartphones aren't very long if you play a lot of apps.

Iphone 5 is excellent. No doubt about it however it's too expensive. Try some of the android devices out there. Sony xperia z any of the top end HTC devices Samsung s4 LG optimus or Google nexus. All of these phones are good and worth a look

The battery sucks but its a good phone and its worth it. I would get iphone 4s. Its cheaper for sure and its better camera.

NO, the iPhone 5 is a top of the line, premium (expensive) smartphone. It is not a good beginner phone… You with probably abuse, mistreat your first phone, so yeah… If you break it or get it wet can you afford another iPhone of any color?

Definitely. Best selling smartphone today.

Camera? Great
Battery? Great as well

Yes it is a great phone.

The colour is personal preference. I've not heard that it looses colour & I have one the earliest ones from the September pre-order.

It's alright, good to start small you know?

Since this is your first smartphone, here are some ideas and issues:
The iPhone lacks a data limiter. What I mean is that you can't cap your data use, so if you go over, you get sent a massive bill. Be wary of your data use, always pay close attention.

Black is epic, all my stuff is in black (My PS3, Xbox, iPad, Galaxy S1 and S2 and soon HTC One, and my computer, all of those had white options some point in time, I find that white gets dirty easily.)

iPhone 5's black option though, is prone to scratching and paint chipping. You must take good care of it. It doesn't fade its colour though.

Battery life is average, like all high end smartphone, you'll be lucky with 1 and a half days. The camera is pretty good, but other phones have better cameras.

But by all means, it isn't worth the $800 (Australian here) in my opinion. New phones have come out now, with better screens, better design and faster insides, as well as better cameras. To top it off, they're cheaper.