As you may have noticed, the iPhone 4S was unveiled today by Apple, to the dismay of the rumor mill that predicted an entirely redesigned iPhone 5. Nevertheless, the upgrades in the iPhone 4S are quite significant, so the $14 billion drop for Apple on NASDAQ might seem a little bit unfair.
And while there was lots and lots of talk about the iPhone 5 beforehand, the iPhone4S we got to meet today may well be a precursor; there are lots of improvements under the hood, including the Apple A5 SoC, a new and improved camera and support for 4G.So essentially the iPhone unveiled today should not be too great a disappointment even for hardcore Apple fanatics.
What we got in the iPhone 4S in terms of design is certainly still an iPhone 4 in aesthetic terms. The screen is thus the same, but the news are hiding under the hood, plus we most obviously not forget the new iOS 5 iteration and an improved antenna design, with two different antennas that can adjust themselves automatically--a solution that will hopefully solve the problems the iPhone 4 had unless you held it the right way.
Specifications iPhone 4S
- Dimensions (H x W x D) 115.2 x 58.66 x 9.3mm
- Weight 137g
- Display panel: LED IPS
- Size and resolution 3.5 ", 960 x 640, 326 PPI
- SoC: Apple A5 dual Cortex-A9 cores CPU frequency 1 GHz
- GPU: PowerVR SGX543MP2
- RAM 1GB
- Storage: 16, 32, 64 GB depending on model
- Communication: GSM / CDMA / GPRS / EDGE UMTS / HSUPA / HSDPA + "4G" WiFi 802.11 b / g / n Bluetooth 4.0
- Camera Rear: 8-megapixel camera with autofocus Front: 0.3-megapixel
- Sensors: Accelerometer Digital Compass Proximity sensor for auto-off Gyro Sensor
- Operating System: iOS 5
Inside the iPhone 4S, we find the same system processor in the iPad, Apple's own A5. It will offer twice the performance as its predecessor, and the graphics performance is according to Apple 7x better. The phone also gets 1GB of RAM--twice that of its predecessor. The camera has been updated and is now at 8-megapixels (3264 x 2448), and instead of 720p, the iPhone 4S is able to record movies in 1080p.
It also has an improved the camera for 30% more clarity than its predecessor. We also see things as infrared filters, image stabilization and better finishing techniques. According to Apple themselves the camera even take pictures faster than rivals such as the Motorola Droid and Samsung Galaxy S II.
The network radio is updated to support speeds of up to 5.8 / 14.4 Mb / s up and down. This, says Apple, is the same as their competitors call 4G. It may also support Bluetooth 4.0, which means that battery life will suffer and go down to 200 hours on standby, instead of 300 hours. But otherwise it looks the battery life seems to be unchanged compared to the iPhone 4.
Last but not least a we have the new iOS 5-functions, which is voice control. Voice Control Assistant Siris be using artificial intelligence to answer questions, such as "What's the weather like in Tokyo?" "Where is the nearest Chinese restaurant from where I am now" and so on and so forth. The iPhone 3G is expected to survive at an even lower price than before, but only with 8GBof internal memory, which is half of the recent top model.
This whole affair also shows that many of the rumors circulating are indeed wrong--even when they come from "trusted Apple insiders".
