The iPhone 4S was launched a year ago and is still a star in the world of smartphones, as it keeps its predecessor’s famous and beloved design with some brand new talents stuffed under that marvelous appearance which we all like. If wanting to upgrade from your iPhone 4 and aren’t quite sure about the 5, take a look at the following review.
Key features
• iOS 5 with iCloud integration
• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• Dual-band CDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO support
• 3.5" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 960 px resolution
• Scratch-resistant glass front and rear, with fingerprint-resistant coating
• 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, Apple A5 SoC
• 512MB of RAM
• Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 16/32/64GB storage options
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• Excellent audio quality
• Slim waistline at only 9.3mm
• Secondary front-facing VGA camera
• Built-in Picture and Video editors
• Rich AppStore
• New antenna design and improved signal reception in poor signal areas
Full specs here.
Its box holds a charger, USB cable used for both charging and making data transfers, a pair of headphones, a little tool for ejecting the SIM, some Apple stickers and the user manuals.
The 4S looks exactly like its older sibling, measuring 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm and having a weight of 140 grams. It’s very compact and comfortable in the hand and your pockets will befriend it too. Its appearance is very sleek and hot and the sexy, glossy back is scratch-resistant, but the 4S is kind of fragile too, like its sibling.
The iPhone 4S comes with a 3.5 inches LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen which has a resolution of 640 x 960 pixels, a 330 ppi pixel density, Corning Gorilla Glass protection and oleophobic coating. The sunlight legibility and viewing angles are wonderful.
Above the nice Retina display are the ambient light and proximity sensors, next to the earpiece and front facing camera for video calls.
Below the screen is the lonely Home button.
On the left side of the phone, we’ll see two volume controls and a Mute key. The right side is home for the microSIM card slot.
At the top, you’ll find the Power/Lock key, the 3.5 mm audio jack and a secondary microphone for active noise cancellation.
At the bottom, you’ll come across the USB charging/cable connector, the mouthpiece and a loudspeaker grill.
The iPhone 4S comes with the iOS 5, which brings, among other features, a nice and helpful voice assistant: we all know the famous Siri. The interface looks great, is very simple and you’ll befriend it quickly if you’re new to the iOS or Apple gadgets. The 4S is also smarter than its brother, having an Apple A5 chipset, holding a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor, 512 MB of RAM, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU and 16/32/64 GB of internal storage. The iPhone 4S is quite a performer and runs smooth through the interface, without raising any issues.
The phonebook keeps its old looks, but adds some new stuff, such as the Related people functionality, which can label your contacts as parents, siblings, friends, spouse and so on. The in-call quality was better than its predecessor’s and so was the reception. The phone holds two antennas, so you won’t experience any dropped calls anymore.
Your SMS and MMS messages are organized in threads and displayed as conversations between you and your contacts. The iMessage service also allows you to send messages through Wi-Fi and 3G between you and other iOS 5 users. The virtual on screen QWERTY keyboard is very easy to use, having its keys well placed, so accidental presses are unlikely to happen.
The Mail app handles multiple mail accounts and has a Universal Inbox, which stores and displays all of your emails.
In the connectivity basket, you’ll find support for quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, dual-band CDMA and CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and USB 2.0.
For surfing the web, the Safari browser has been improved, coming with some nice goodies, like the Reader mode and Private Browsing functionality. The overall browsing experience is great, as the pages are loaded really fast and look beautiful on the Retina display.
Another nice thing about the iPhone 4S is that it comes equipped with an 8 megapixel camera which is capable of taking pictures at a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. It also has a LED flash companion, for helping in low light situations. It offers a lot of features, like touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection and many others. The image quality is great, with accurate colors, good amount of detail and fine contrast.
The phone’s video camera is also excellent, producing some wonderful 1080p videos at 30 fps.
For audio playback, you get the Music player that has some equalizer presets, the Cover Flow interface in the landscape mode and a brilliant audio quality which is among the best I’ve seen. I mean heard.
The video player also does a nice job, but lacks DivX/XviD support. Oh well.
When it comes to useful applications, the star of the show is, of course, Siri, a cool assistant which has been nicely personalized, so if you’ll ask it funny questions, it’ll answer in the same funny manner. That way, you won’t have the feeling that you’re speaking to a completely cold-hearted robot. The Angry Birds also come pre-installed on your phone. You also have the iCloud service and it syncs all your contacts with other iStuff. Other stuff worth mentioning are the video and audio editor, image viewer and editor, document viewer, iBooks, YouTube and others. For more stuff, you have the AppStore.
A built-in GPS receiver is also on board and comes with A-GPS support and GLONASS. For navigation, you have Google Maps.
In conclusion, the iPhone 4S definitely deserves some attention from all of you Apple junkies over there, as it’s a great phone and if you liked your old iPhone 4, you’ll surely fall in love for good with the new one.
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