Finally it's here, The iPhone 4S. After using Android devices for over a year now it's time for me to make a comeback into the world of iPhones once again. After owning the iPhone 3GS and two iPhone 4 I got a bit fed up with Apple. All I did was downloading apps to the brink of madness. I thought I had seen it all but again Apple manage to get me curious with their latest creation. Carefully following the rumours months before the release and then watching the Apple event when it was presented, I made my decision. So here are my thoughts after 3 days of heavy usage:
The good
Siri. The iPhone 4S assistant. This feature is a killer. With Siri you can compose a text message and Mail. Just say "Tell Kristofer I'm running late" and Siri will look at your contact list for Kristofer and then compose an text message. She will then ask if it's ok to send it and you just have to confirm it and there you go. Siri can also supply you with relevant info. For instance if you want to know the weather in a specific city just ask "How's the weather in New York today?" Siri will then present the forecast what to be expected using the default weather app on your iPhone 4S. Siri is also linked to Wolfram Alpha which is a database similiar to Wikipedia which holds information. If you ask "How many calories is there in a banana?" Siri will search the info at Wolfram and in a few moments a data sheet will be presented to you what ingredients a banana actually contains. Thats just awesome. Siri isn't really a new feature. It has been available as an app at the Appstore. But when the iPhone 4S was released the app got unavailable at the Appstore and switched off for those who did download it before the release. This makes Siri exclusive for iPhone 4S. Siri only works in English at the moment but more languages will be released in 2012.
The Camera. It's simply amazing. With brand new optics and more mega pixels it has hugely been improved compared to the iPhone 4. The pictures shows excellent quality. I would say that it could be compared to a ordinary digital camera. The camera now films in 1080P full HD compared to 720P on the iPhone 4. But the main feature with the filming part is that it has an built in video stabilization. I filmed my friends dog running around the other day and noticed that stabilization has greatly improved.
Quicker. With the new A5 processor the iPhone 4S has gotten quicker. It's the same processor used in the iPad 2. Compared to the iPhone 4 you might not see a great difference in general but there is some changes. For instance opening apps. It opens 1 or 2 second faster than on iPhone 4. Safari has been greatly improved with the IOS5 update. When you surf the web it goes lightning fast on the 4S and I think it has partially to do with the new hardware and the new Safari browser update. I haven't tested IOS5 and Safari on iPhone 4 so I can't compare but it seems that 4S would be quicker. Can anyone confirm this?
The screen. I think the screen has been improved. It's more colourful and clean. Apple have implanted a new graphic chip that should be 7 times better than it's predecessor in iPhone 4.
Speakers. Compared to iPhone 4 it sound much louder and cleaner. This is an advantage for me while I sometimes don't hear my phone ring.
The bad
Battery. The battery life is slightly less on iPhone 4S. I haven't fully tested the battery life yet but I have read reports that it has been downsized. The Apple crew is actually looking in to this problem so maybe it will be solved in a future update.
Coverage. Clearly this is the biggest problem right now. I do not know if it regards the whole world but in Sweden suddenly the coverage just drops to zero bars or "no service". The only way to solve it is to restart the device and the phone starts working again for a few hours. Extremely frustrating. I've been speaking with the support hotline for my phone company and they say that this problem exist on every phone company in Sweden and it might be an hardware combined with IOS5 problem. So Apple seriously ...... solve this problem ASAP! It's a disaster!
The design. Nothing really has changed here. Almost identical. That's a bit of an turn off. But it is an S phone so I didn't expect any revolutionary changes on the design. We'll have to wait for the iPhone 5. On the flip side though it's ok that the design hasn't changed drastically, because all the accessories will work on both devices.
Conclusion
Apple has done it again. The "WOW" feeling has returned. I just love the device. But if you already got iPhone 4 maybe you should wait for iPhone 5 to be released instead. Yes there are some changes in the hardware department but you wont see much difference except for the camera and Siri. However if you still are using the 3G or 3GS version you should not hesitate to hook up with the iPhone 4S. Only thing that's not giving the iPhone a perfect of score of 10 is the coverage bug I mentioned earlier. It's truly a shame.
Score 9 out of 10
Thanks a lot, very helpful review! Now I've decided to upgrade to the 4s!
ReplyDeleteJust a detail about the language: you should look at when you write a or an before a word. For example: a phone, an iPhone etc.
Thanks again!! Cheers.
Thanks you! Glad that I've could be of help. I will keep that in mind with an and a.
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