iphone 4s

Familiar and yet again, the iPhone 4s can not be different from the outside, but inside is a very different beast. With its fifth-generation smartphone, Apple is keen to show that the devil is truly in the details: the

iPhone 4S

is awfully fast, devilishly well-equipped and ruthless threat to rivals phone. Can this really be intelligent personal assistant, media center and the window in the cloud, all in a package of 9.3 mm thick? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

Hardware

From the outside the

iPhone 4S

looks identical to the iPhone 4. Inside, the opposite is true. Apple has resisted the temptation to change the design for the sake of change, and stuck with the same 3.5-inch screen of the retina, glass and aluminum enclosure, and the minimalist aesthetic than before. It is a decision that frustrated some in the late kick-off event, but it makes sense if one takes into account developments in the iPhone.
iPhone 4S practice:
A bigger screen we’ve done for a larger device in general and potentially alienated women, young and anyone with smaller hands. Accessories also work with the new 4S in the same way that worked with the iPhone 4, allowing Apple to focus on increasing efficiency (and the logo features as Siri) rather than risk that the new model be dismissed as a change of image and nothing else.
Meanwhile, the current owners are more likely to be able to improve – with an iPhone 3G two years – have much to encourage the newer style and improved specifications. Apple rate of evolution is, as we have seen with the MacBook, Mac Pro and iMac, as more gradual and somewhat haphazard approach of some of its rivals. Not everyone’s taste, but then there is a thriving ecosystem smart to choose from today.

A5 chip

The iPhone 4S is the first dual-core smartphone Apple, so Apple A5 chip currently on the iPad 2 to the new terminal. The company’s key strength is the close integration of IOS and custom processor: it may not be on paper as fast as some of the dual-core chips in the current Android phones, but that line is not background when looking at overall performance. The development of some software and hardware pays dividends in the application speed and battery life.
Apple says the iPhone 4S offers twice the processing power of its predecessor, with an impressive 7x graphics. The proof is in the real world works, and as you can see in our video side by side with the

iPhone 4 against the

iPhone 4S

, the new phone always forward. Much of the benefit has not been unlocked yet: we are hoping that as the iPad 2, as developers get to grips with the current hardware will be even more ambitious software to showcase it.

iOS 5

Apple’s new version of IOS can be fresh for the iPhone 4S, but also sent to the iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd/4th-gen, iPad, and iPad 2 this week. We’ve covered all the changes – and there are many – in our full review iOS 5.
The most notable features are Siri, icloud and the new Notification Center, no doubt the probability of three to have the greatest impact on everyday iPhone 4S.

Siri

Voice control is not new, in fact, the iPhone 4 – between smartphones on other platforms – and responds to voice commands rudimentary. There is a difference, however, between the voice control what Apple offers with Siri, and it comes down to context.
In response to predefined voice commands is simple: there is some work to do to deal with regional accents, but the system knows what to look out for and usually can match what you’re saying with what is expected. That’s what gives Android, for example, and Windows Phone. Siri, however, introduces artificial intelligence (AI) in the mix: not only the recognition of words, but the context and meaning behind them.
Instead of remembering that your phone can call a contact if you give the correct command, preset, Siri is committed to understanding natural language. Hold down the Home button for two seconds – until the purple logo of the microphone at the bottom of the screen – and then ask Siri to “call my wife”, and the time you set up the family relationship in contacts The iPhone starts ringing 4S (if you have not created, Siri says “do not know your wife” and asked to fill in the data).
Where it gets very flexible at the combination of the commands and intuit its meaning. Previous implementations of voice control have been contained, segmented: “Call Joe Smith”. “Open Mail” Siri, however, can handle a phrase with several steps involved: “Tell my wife, I’ll be in the restaurant at eight “for example, messages will automatically open and start a new SMS to your wife, with text saying:” I’ll be in the restaurant at eight. ” Siri read the text – as well as displaying it on screen – before sending it, and can fire off by saying simply “send”.
Incoming messages answered by voice commands. More impressive, however, is the ability to interact with Siri multiple applications at once: in response to a meeting request from a colleague, for example, your calendar is automatically checks the shock – the iPhone 4S flag any problem – and a response sent and a new entry with slots in their schedule.
In fact the most difficult to Siri principle is the recognition of its potential: we are so used to reach our telephone and immediately take advantage of it took some time before we realized we could rely on artificial intelligence. Once the mental adjustment, however, quickly becomes addictive. Need a reminder? Tell Siri “set an alarm for 18: 00 “or” in twenty minutes “or” when I go to work “and the iPhone 4S will use a combination of clock or GPS position to do so. Mention that the notice is to collect the milk from the store, and automatically Siri slot a task in the new iOS 5 application reminders, too.
As for the possibility of combining commands, unlike other systems can have a conversation with Siri. Ask about the weather – either directly or indirectly, such as “Do I need a coat today?” – And will the prognosis, but you can then go and ask “what about in San Francisco” and Siri knows you’re still talking about the weather. Similarly, if you are looking for a place nearby to eat, you can ask, “Where’s good for all Mexicans here?” Siri and uses a combination of Yelp reviews and maps locations to offer some suggestions. If you do not find a result you may want to ask: “What about China?” And the context of close looking for food remains.
Siri works with Phone, Mail, Safari, music, messages, calendar, reminders, maps, weather, stocks, notes, clock, contacts, and using services like Yelp and Wolfram Alpha online. You can tap the “i” – or ask “What can you do?” – And see a list of commands suggested. There is also support for dictation, that works in any application – including those of third parties. A microphone icon is added to the on-screen keyboard tapping and start talking, then when you click “Done”, the text is automatically pasted in.
There are some limits, of course. The beta currently supports U.S., UK and Australia English, French and German, despite the integration of maps and Yelp is only available in the U.S.. You also need a data connection: Siri complex processing device is outside the Apple data center, rather than in the 4S iPhone itself. Currently you can not open applications with Syria, which seems a strange omission (though still only a beta version). And there are times when Siri falls short and can offer only a normal web search, your own skills exhausted.
However, it is an innovative combination of applications and services. Siri is legitimately magical, a very special feature for iPhone users 4S jump from platform to have. Future development potential is huge, too: we can see Siri diffusion across the range of Apple, which control voice Intelligence desktop and mobile, home entertainment and more, the tail of Amnesty International that holds everything together. In the near future, perhaps the low-power Bluetooth 4.0 on the iPhone 4S style was elegant and peripheral clock in the car of integration of information and entertainment, with Siri help keep your phone in your pocket and eyes on the road.

icloud

icloud marked change in Apple’s approach from the desktop to the cloud: iPhone 4S USB connection does not require iTunes to be at first, and does not require periodic synchronization to keep up. IOS upgrades, including future after iOS 5, will be delivered through the air (OTA).
icloud runs from the backup media and security, incorporating remote monitoring, blocking and cleaning services before, as part of MobileMe, and the addition of greater synchronization between the iOS 5 and OS X Lion devices. Now is a free service with 5 GB of cloud storage included, and more available as an annual subscription: $ 20 10 GB, 20 GB for $ 40, or 50 GB for $ 100.
iTunes in the cloud brings the automatic synchronization of any purchased music to all your IOS devices or OS X Lion: buy a place, and downloaded around the world so that everything is up to date. If you are bringing a music library sideloader, say they have booted from a CD, iTunes party is a subscription service of the U.S. and only that, for $ 24.99 a year, the explorations of his songs and automatically adds the finding of Apple iTunes master library (256 Kbps AAC and songs without DRM protection) to his repertoire icloud. Those who do not have, load, along with the playlists.
Photo Gallery is generally the equivalent of icloud, only for the photos. Take a photo on your iPhone 4S and is immediately available disk Photo Gallery 5 of his other IOS devices, iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac, or fall into a default folder on your PC. That works in reverse, too: you can share images with your iPhone 4S from your Mac or PC. The last 1. 000 shots were offered at Gallery in the cloud, and if you want to be saved on a different device can be manually moved to a different disk, the exception is your PC or Mac, which keeps every shot. Individual images appear almost instantaneously, and it is an experience close to the magic of seeing a photo you just shot at the iPhone will come in, for example, the iPad.
We’ve covered the various icloud service as backup, synchronization and documents in the cloud, along with the new Apple Seeking My application extensively in our iOS 5 star review.

Notification Center

iOS pop-up “alerts have gone from being a solution, do one of the main causes of complaint to users. When applications were relatively quiet, the dialog striking feasible now, with local services and cloud shouting our attention to every minute, pop-ups are showing their age.
Apple’s solution is the Notifications Center, a new warning center – along with, optionally, weather and stock updates – get dragging down the status bar. It is a familiar gesture of other smartphone platforms, and quickly becomes intuitive in a 4S also iPhone. Inside, the alerts are organized by application, to an improvement in Android, you can delete all alerts for a specific application – such as calendar reminders – rather than all or nothing approach to Google, but Apple does not allow selectively hide notifications within each category of applications.
The new notifications are displayed on the lock screen, too, each one acting as a shortcut when you last left the application. You can not delete the lock screen, however, this requires downloading the iPhone and displays the Notification Center. In general, it is a great improvement over previous versions.
To repeat, however, iOS 5 brings a lot more to the table and that is worth reading the full review to get to grips with everything on offer.

Camera

Apple is willing to highlight the popularity of the iPhone has become the camera of choice for the mass market, with the use of overtaking point and shoot and DSLR online gallery service Flickr. The iPhone 4S, therefore, takes photography more seriously, with a new 8-megapixel sensor of the intensification of the 5 megapixels of its predecessor.
Like any shutterbug knows megapixels alone do not tell the whole story: there’s magic in the design of Apple’s camera as well. The sensor is – 1/3.2-inches – the same size as the iPhone 4, but uses an improved backlighting system to increase the amount of light actually collected. Then it is paired with a lens assembly of five custom elements, which promises more sharpness and overall accuracy in the final frame. The opening has also been refined: below 2.8 in the iPhone 4 iPhone f/2.4 in 4S. Again, it is increasing the amount of light that can make it through the sensor. Finally, there is a new advanced hybrid infrared filter for better colors.
The “eye” of the camera is half the equation: the “brain” is the other. On the

iPhone 4S

“case that is the image signal processor chip in the Apple A5, one recognizes that the company is on par with what you’d find in a dedicated digital SLR camera. Not only is responsible for the overall quality of the photo recorded, but the speed at which the picture is processed and stored.
It does all the work? I should think so. There are two major improvements – the quality and speed – and it is best that are evident from the beginning. Sharpness and detail are significantly increased in the iPhone 4S, compared to what the iPhone 4 can be achieved, there is less noise and less blood-colored. Aberrations like a fringe on the edges of the structure are cut back, one benefit of the array of five lenses.
In brightly lit environments there is less over-exposure, dark scenes

iPhone 4S

is less prone to the crunchy texture of the shade. We were able to shoot in low light without having to resort to the only LED flash, and still come out detail with increased sensitivity. Apple says that the colors are 26 percent more accurate now, thanks to the work being done in the processing algorithms, and while not exactly can you put a number on which we ourselves no doubt, a more natural feel to images taken with the iPhone 4S.
It is not only still images, either. Video capture is now compatible with 1080p Full HD, above 720 of the iPhone 4, and makes most of the larger opening, rear sensor improved lighting and increased processing power of the chip A5. Real-time digital image stabilization is now offered, softening his trembling hand, and no hint of focus which reacts rapidly and automatically adjusting the exposure. Behind the scenes, Apple has used “temporal noise reduction”: Basically, each frame of images compared to technical problems, noise and other unwanted defects, allowing them to be resolved without problems.
The result is a video that I could not think has been filmed on a phone. One of the problems that users often experience when filming on their mobile is shaking in the final clip, with the quest to make a lighter smartphone also create one that is very easy to move in the video mode. Digital Image Stabilization Apple does a great job of softening things, however, while over-processed things. Add in the issue on the device – either cut basic series, or the use of the option iMovie for iPhone – iPhone 4S and proves itself more than worthy of a place in the pocket of the photographer.
Speed ​​is the other half of the equation: after all, a good photo or video clip high quality no good if you missed the issue of waiting for the application of the load. Apple has direct access the camera directly on the lock screen in iOS 5, or you can access it by double-clicking the Start button, and say that it takes 1.1s to be ready to take the first picture. Do not take on a timer, but next to rival devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II, iPhone 4S is definitely faster. Equally useful is the comparison between shots down – time that the chip does its job A5 crunch of the image and save it – which is a 0.5s back-to-back. Again, there is a noticeable difference between the iPhone and its rivals 4S.
The front camera is the one constant, remaining VGA resolution where rivals have increased to a maximum of 2 megapixels. In practice, the main use FaceTime video calls (video calls and other applications such as Skype) the excesses of pixels are not really necessary. We are happy with Apple focuses on the main camera, which is used much more for most people.

Multimedia

As before, the multimedia content is not scarce, with Apple’s iTunes music store offering movies, TV shows and electronic books for the purchase and, in some cases rent. New, however, is full 1080p HD output, through the Apple Digital AV Adapter ($ 39) or Apple VGA ($ 29), where the iPhone 4 is limited to 720p. When the old phone could only video output, video duplication is now on the iPhone 4S, so you can view and control playback in both the smartphone and your HDTV, monitor or projector at the same time.
AirPlay iOS 5 brings reflection, too, as the name suggests an update of the original transmission AirPlay music to add wireless video playback. The quality is limited to 720p HD, rather than 1080, but if you have a second generation of Apple TV is a quick way to get your purchase, rental or filmed movie clips showing on the big screen. Its use is as simple as playing AirPlay option in the playback menu, then selecting your Apple TV once the analysis.
The addition of other great iOS 5 is icloud, including iTunes in the cloud. We have covered the services of media streaming in our iOS 5 comprehensive review, but the takeaway is that Apple’s new cloud-based services do a great job of changing the music on your phone and remote storage . However, with the support of 1080p Full HD – for both the production and recording on the camcorder – the new 64 GB iPhone 4S is a welcome addition to the range. Storage options start at 16 GB, and as always, there is no memory card slot. Unless the price is a factor of extreme impairment, or is convinced it will have little local video store, we’d opt for the 32 GB iPhone 4S at least.

Phone and battery

Where there used to separate GSM and CDMA versions, there is now a single “world phone” iPhone 4S to rule them all. The new device offers quad-band UMTS / HSPA (850/900/1900/2100) and CDMA EV-DO Rev.A (800/1900) which means that the same model to support voice and data 3G AT & T, Verizon and Sprint in the U.S. as well as networks in Europe and Asia.
The change is useful for CDMA subscribers, who can now travel internationally on GSM networks more common. For GSM subscribers, however, the benefits are less tangible: no roaming for AT & T iPhone Verizon or Sprint 4S, for example, or CDMA networks abroad. Instead, the smart phone operators use GSM. Apple will offer the iPhone unlocked and SIM-free 4S in the U.S. from November – sales have begun for the unlocked version elsewhere – but any jump back to the GSM network is limited.
Apple has ignored in favor of LTE HSPA +, supporting up to 14.4 Mbps for download and upload 5.76Mbps, depending on the network. Based on our experience with Android devices LTE is a good choice: 4G technology adds volume and power drinks, resulting in severe restrictions on fat cell runtime if you take advantage of greater speed. Throw in the limited global coverage and LTE mass audience target market Apple and that’s an argument for waiting until the fourth mobile generation matures.
What you get is a newly redesigned antenna, or more accurately, two of them: both can be used to transmit and receive. The couple can also be changed from mid-call feature that the iPhone 4S decides that the best reception. In practice, we had no problem holding the long voice calls, without falling, failure or static background. The review unit Apple Verizon provided EV-DO saw Rev.A data approval ratings of 1 MB / s, and reaching more than 2MB / s, however, other Verizon phones using the same network have an average of 800 KB / s.
Battery life, meanwhile, has also impressed. Apple cites up to 8 hours talk time GSM 3G or 14hrs talk time up to 200hrs standby, up to 6 hours of 3G or WiFi browsing navigation 9am to 10 hours of video playback or 40 hours of audio playback. Real-world use will be a combination of each of these, of course.
However, with heavy use, including more than five hours of constant play, an hour of conversation, all ready to push, self-loading images and video to Google + and more, along with almost seven hours of expected, the iPhone 4S was reduced to 12 percent. That’s admirable the worst scenario for an advanced user, we expect the iPhone 4S to deliver 7.9 hours of active use in normal, certainly enough for a full day of work.

Conclusion

It is a testament to the iPhone 4 skills that could still maintain its position against its rivals – for consumers and critics alike – more than a year after its launch. If rival Android or Windows Phone fields were beginning to catch up, then the combination of the iPhone 4S and 5 have changed iOS widely followed benchmark.
Wisely resisting the urge to change the design for the sake of change, Apple has focused its attention on that count most: the creation of a smartphone longer it takes better pictures, run applications more smoothly and efficiently helps people manage their mobile lifestyle whether cable is available in your home or office or otherwise. Meanwhile, Siri shows that the company still has what it takes to deliver the game-changing functionality.
There undoubtedly will be smartphones with faster processors or more megapixel cameras, or high-speed 4G connectivity, or bigger, better screen resolution, but it’s hard to imagine any of them competing with the ecosystem of integration when Apple offers now. Challenging the iPhone is not just about creating a single smartphone, the better, but with a portfolio of products and services consistent. The

iPhone 4S

may look the same as before, but it certainly is just as much of a change in the industry as the original iPhone I have done.