After months of speculations, rumors and delay from its usual refresh cycle, Apple has went official with the 5th generation iPhone. The iPhone 4S is reality, and that is the only new iPhone Apple released. With the 4S, Apple has changed the internals, but retained the same design. Does the 4S upgrade live up to the mark? Justify a 15 month gap since the last iPhone launch? How much of the magic is iOS 5? These would remain questions that need a larger debate, and we shall get into that soon, but for now here are a few notable features of the iPhone 4S.
GSM + CDMA, It’s A World Phone
Apple had two different iPhone 4 models out there, one for Verizon (CDMA) and the other for AT&T (GSM). The GSM model made it to the global stage, but the CDMA remained with Verizon. With the 4S, Apple has a world phone, packing in both GSM and CDMA capabilities in one device. Thus, making it more lucrative for international travelers and at the same time at a global stage increasing the prospective number of carriers it can work with.
The HSDPA limits on the iPhone 4S is 14.4Mbps download, compared to the 7.2Mbps on the iPhone 4.
The Camera Gets A Healthy Bump: 8 Megapixel / Full HD Video Recording
Apple has made a bold claim that the iPhone 4S camera beats point to shoot, they have demoed enough substance to back it up. Since the last iPhone upgrade, Apple has been serious about camera, we liked the iPhone 4 5MP shooter, but with the 8MP lens that can also capture 1080p HD videos, Apple has made an expected, but good jump. Apple revealed several features in the iPhone 4S camera, be it the image signal processor of A5 comparing to DSLRs or video stabilization for making those shaky shoots better. The front camera however remains VGA, disappointed?
Apple A5 Processor, 7 Times Graphics Processor, RAM?
As expected, Apple packs in the Dual-Core A5 processor on the iPhone 4S. While for the iPad 2, it game 9 times graphics performance, it is rated at 7x for the iPhone 4S, perhaps it is under-clocked? We don’t know, but it is certainly a power horse if app developers are to be believed. Apple doesn’t reveal the amount of RAM, if its double the last count, it should be 1GB, but they sure didn’t say the usual 2x RAM thing, so we doubt!
Apple is also reporting a dip in the standby time of iPhone 4S, to 200 hours, that was rated at 300 hours for the iPhone 4, however the 3G talk-time has raised from 7hours to 8 hours. Not sure if the Dual-Core chip is to be blamed here, but the battery life on the iPhone 4S isn’t much evolved. The 4S also gets AirPlay Mirroring with the iOS 5, just like the iPad 2, A5 effect for sure.
Siri – Personal Assistant, Voice Takes Over
Now this is launching in beta with the 4S and brings in a wow factor. Even before we get started, Dear Apple, will this work with my Indian accent?
Ok, so leaked previously in detail, Siri’s integration in 4S brings a personal assistant to your iPhone. Something that you can speak to naturally and get things like looking up an address, sending a text or creating a calendar entry done. You probably need to see this video to get a feel of it, but imagine if you spoke to your iPhone about anything you want to be done on the iPhone? Wouldn’t that be amazing.
iPhone 4S: Pricing & Availability:
Yet again, Apple has promised ‘fastest rollout’ with the 4S. 70 countries before year end, while we hope India would be on the list, for now pre-orders begin on 7th October and the iPhone 4S go on sale in US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK from 14th October. The US pricing is $199 for 16GB version, $299 for 32GB and $399 for the 64GB version.
That’s some major changes and bit of news on the iPhone 4S, of course the iOS 5 and iCloud factor count as well, but they would extend to other iOS devices as well. For now, we can also cheer about an 64GB iPhone 4S coming through.
