On October 4th 2011, Apple announced the replacement for the iPhone 4 as the iPhone 4S. The much talked about iPhone 5 was not released “yet”. This continues a trend set when the iPhone 3G was replaced with the 3GS, looked the same on the outside, but was all new on the inside. The same happened now with the iPhone 4S. Looks the same on the outside, but in my opinion quite an update to the inside.
- Apple A5 chipset, dual core Cortex A9 for 7 times faster graphics.
- Longer batter life – 8 hrs talk time on 3G, 9 hours browsing on Wi-Fi, 10 hours video, 40 hours music.
- New intelligent switching between antennas
- HSPA+ 14.4
- CDMA + GSM World phone
- 8mp rear-facing camera, CMOS backside illuminated sensor, 73% more photons! High end IR filter. Wide f2.4. Super fast photo taking chip. 1.1 seconds for first photo.
- 1080p, real-time video stabilization, real-time temporal noise reduction.
- SIRI artificially intelligent voice control.
- 16GB, 32 GB, 64GB
This breakdown from tipb.com
The decision to release iPhone 4S rather than an all new iPhone 5 has met with some disappointment, but if you think about the fact that most of these high end phones will be financed on a 2 year cellphone contract, then those that got the iPhone 4 still have around 12 months to go on their contract, ready for the 2012 release of the iPhone 5. But those sitting with the iPhone 3GS, are ready for an upgrade, and are over the moon with the iPhone 4S release.
Apple – Introducing the iPhone 4S
Apple- Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S
Apple – Introducing iOS 5
Siri Artificial Intellegence
Apple acquired Siri, and this is the outcome of integrating that technology into iOS. It’s like “voice command” on steroids. You can do all the normal stuff like calling and playing music with voice commands, but the real power comes with the ability of the system to understand what you are saying and respond with answers.
You can ask “what is the weather forecast for tomorrow” and it will bring up the weather info, but you could say “will I need an umbrella tomorrow” and the answer would be “no” or “yes just in the morning”.
Siri will also connect to Wikipedia and WolframAlpha to get answers, so you can ask any question really.
Camera
Now with 8 mega pixels and 1080p video recording, Apple is saying this is the best camera you have likely owned. They are probably right, but iPhone is not the first to offer this level of specification. I must say, there is really no point any more owning a compact digital camera, at least you will have your cellphone with you all the time.
A5 Chip
This is basically the iPad 2 chip, which improves the speed over the A4 chip in the iPhone 4, but vastly improves the graphics processing. Games will obviously work much better, but Apple says even browsing a website will be quicker.
I do think this is a great phone, if you are in the market for a smart phone, I would add it to the short list. If you are upgrading from an iPhone 3G or 3GS and you have invested quite heavily in the Apple universe, then it’s a no brainer, just get it. But if you have an iPhone 4, then maybe wait for the iPhone 5, iOS 5 will be available for free on October 12. The update will add some very nice features to your iPhone 4, so you could probably live without Siri, the extra power and the awesome camera for now.
By the way iOS 5 will update your iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3 and 4, as well as iPad 1 and 2. Look forward to testing that out.