Many tech enthusiasts were upset when Apple announced the iPhone 4S and not an iPhone 5. While the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S look the exact same on the outside, the inside is completely redesigned. The iPhone 4S is running Apple’s Dual-Core A5 chip, which is the same processor that Apple used in their iPad 2.
The iPhone 4S currently comes in 3 flavors including black or white 16GB, 32GB, and a big 64GB. The 16 GB will run you $199, the 32GB model is $299, and the 64GB model is $399. These prices are reflected after a 2 year wireless service contract. However, the iPhone 4 is only $99, but is only available in an 8GB model.
As I previously mentioned, the iPhone 4S is running Apple’s A5 processor, while the iPhone 4 is running Apple’s previous generation A4 processor. Having had both phones, I was able to do some comparison test between the two. I did some loading tests on a few applications and games and the iPhone 4S always came out slightly faster. In Safari, the iPhone 4S always had a slight edge on the 4, but there was never a drastic difference. The main difference between the two speed wise, you will notice when loading applications. Launching some of the pre-loaded apps that come on the 4S is almost instant.
The display on the iPhone 4S hasn’t changed since the launch of the iPhone 4. It still features Apple’s 3.5 inch IPS retina display, however, the camera on the 4S has changed drastically. It now features an all new 8-megapixel camera with full 1080p HD video recording with up to 30 frames per second. Video stabilization is also used on the 4S while shooting video. This is a big improvement over the iPhone 4’s camera and the pictures and videos come out amazing for a phone. Face detection also comes in handy when taking pictures of family and friends.
With a faster processor you would expect battery life to have decreased, but this is not the case. The iPhone 4S actually has better battery life than the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S features a talk time of up to 8 hours on 3G and up to 14 hours on 2G. Apple suggests that you should be able to get up to 40 hours of audio playback and I was able to exceed this by a few hours.
Apple also released their new voice recognition technology called “Siri”, which is exclusive to the iPhone 4S. Basically, Siri allows you to ask questions by speaking and the phone will do its best to come up with an answer. Apple calls it an “intelligent assistant.” It’s amazing technology and I’m very pleased to see where Apple is going with this.
Overall this phone is the exact same phone on the outside, but on the inside, it is a completely different phone. Is the phone worth the upgrade? I would say it definitely is. Although the upgrade would be much more significant from an iPhone 3G or 3GS, you will notice a big difference in performance even if you are upgrading from the iPhone 4. Apple definitely didn’t disappoint with the iPhone 4S.
Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone/