Sunday 16 October 2011

Apple Iphone 4S

Introduction
By now, you would most probably have heard of the "most anticipated" mobile phone of the year - the Apple Iphone 4S being a sold out among carriers in the United States which includes AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. However, it is not the same as in the United Kingdom as I have observed.

Design
If you own an Apple Iphone 4, the Iphone 4S would not have given you a "wow" factor. I am saying this is because there is not much of a difference when it comes to the design of the Iphone 4S. After all, the Iphone 4S shared the same chasis as the Iphone 4 sibling which remains solid all round. The main different in its design would be the introduction of a dual antenna design which aims to provide better coverage for an Iphone 4S user. I am pretty sure that they have learned the lesson with the Antenna-gate issue when the Iphone 4 was launched last year.

Hardware
Even though you might argue that there is not much changes in its design as compared to the Iphone 4, many things have changed inside the mobile device. It is so like someone looking for a person who can be with them for the rest of their lives - Inner beauty sells! This is nontheless the same as in the Iphone 4S.

Under the hood, you have an A5 which is a dualcore cpu where you can also find it in the Ipad2. However, with the A5 in the Iphone 4S, you do not get the full 1Ghz cpu as in the Ipad2 but rather an underclocked cpu to 800mhz per core. My guess is that Apple want to optimize battery life rather than to maximise the capability of the cpu to its maximum of 1Ghz. I don't see any problem in this as manufacturer like Nokia did it on their Nokia N8 mobile phone. In the N8, Nokia has downclocked the ARM cpu from 772mhz to 680mhz to save juice.

Undisputedly, the Retina display which was first featured on the Iphone 4 remained the same on the Iphone 4S over the 3.5" capacitive screen. Apart from that, you have a brilliant 8MP digital camera with flash at the back courtesy of Sony. I have to comment on the quality of the 8MP lens. Pictures taken with the 8MP digital camera is superb! I'm surprised as to the improvement on the low noise level and the speed in taking pictures by the new Sony lens! I'm impressed! In addition to this, the lens on the Iphone 4S is also capable of taking 1080p at 30fps! This is what I call 'catching up' by Apple as manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have released quality 8MP digital camera mobile phones with 1080p video taking at 30fps respectively.

Stepping aside of the cpu and the digital camera, the Iphone 4S comes with a mono speaker and a mono microphone which you could find it on the Iphone 4. However, the battery on the Iphone 4S has now being bump up to 1430mAh instead of the 1420mAh which you could find it on the Iphone 4. Personally, I think that Apple could have done better by releasing a higher capacity battery i.e. 1500mAh as I have to recharge the battery at the end of the day. I think Apple would be able to better optimise their iOS 5 in the near future.

The Iphone 4S also feature the same amount of memory i.e. 512MB as on the Iphone 4 but the bluetooth on the 4S has been bump up to 4.0! That is just brilliant! I have tried pairing it with a bluetooth headset and it worked perfectly! Above all, users are able to choose 64GB as their preferred choice, a bump up from 32GB over a year ago on the Iphone 4! This is a good news for users!

iOS 5
iOS 5 was launched recently. It brought in many improvements to the Iphone 3Gs, 4 and also the 4S. However, with the 4S, there is something special about it as compared to previous generation of the Iphones. Yes, I am trying to introduce Siri to you guys. I have to admit that using Siri is superb but it is not useful in a noisy enviornment. Siri works best in a quiet enviornment. I think Apple should support more languages e.g. Chinese as Siri could only support English, French and German.

The iOS5 is smoother than the iOS 4 in general but I find that the battery on the Iphone 4S requires more juice than the Iphone 4 even though I have not been using it extensively since Apple started selling them two days ago. The Iphone 4S would charge up faster if you use a wall charger to do so but it will take significantly longer time to fully charge the Iphone 4S if using usb to do so. As the iOS 5 is still in its early stage, it could be improved so much better as to improve on the battery itself - Apple should allow consumers to switch between 2G and 3G! You would not be able to do so if you are using a 3UK or a Vodafone SIM card. I am not sure whether it is a carrier based or Apple has decided to kill the 3G switch. With the 3G switched off, consumers can save more battery!

Reflection
Ever since I have been using it since the day it started selling, I have to admit that Siri has captured my heart. If not for Siri, I would not have made the purchase. I would like to see an improvement in the energy management by Apple for the near future. At this moment, the Iphone 4S is a worthy upgrade from the Iphone 4S even though the screen size remained the same. I think we have to wait for a year before the Iphone 5 is launched next year. Until then, we would have to stick to the Iphone 4S for now.

5 comments:

Joshua Lopez said...

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs, A very sad passing of a Magnificent Man!

Catalin said...

Nice post! The design of the new iPhone was not a surprise for me...it was already very well made and I expected that they might leave it like that. Also, the design of the 3G was used in the 3GS as well so maybe they decided to go with one design for 2 years or new number, new design...

ぜるもう said...

Thanks, Catalin. I feel that the Iphone 4S, even though not a 'refreshed' model, comes with lots of improvements which I am going to write something about it very soon.

Cheers!

Joshua Lopez said...

Launched in Malaysia already!

ぜるもう said...

That is true though, Joshua. However, how much does it cost for a 64GB version?