On October 4th 2011, Apple introduced the iPhone 4S to the world – they call it “the most amazing iPhone yet” and so I decided to find one for myself and give it a full review. The first thing you’ll notice is that…there’s nothing new to notice. Just as the iPhone 3GS was to the iPhone 3G, the 4S is almost exactly identical to it’s older brother, the iPhone 4. Bar a few small much-needed changes to the antenna, it would be difficult to tell the two apart. The inside however, is a different story. The new A5, dual core 800 Mhz processor (taken directly from the iPad 2) is considerably faster than the processor in the iPhone 4. And if you’re a music or video buff you’ll be pleased to know it will be available with up to 64GB of storage.
There’s also a brand new camera and, if you’re a photographer, you’re likely to get very excited about it. Whilst undoubtedly a considerable megapixel improvement when compared to my old phone, the fact that I have no idea what an f/2.4 aperture is means that it didn’t thrill me as much as it could have. Nor, in reality, did the surprise that it has HDR (High Dynamic Range) or five separate lenses. However, the camera is noticeably better than a lot of other smartphones and can launch and shoot in only a few seconds. It also films full HD video. Impressive.
But the biggest new feature that Apple is using to sell the iPhone 4S is Siri. Siri is, if Apple is to be believed, the next revolution in mobile technology – the personal assistant. The idea (which is beautifully executed in the adverts) is a phone that you can speak to quite naturally and have it perform all the daily functions of your life, such as “Siri, send a text message to my girlfriend,” gets “What would you like it to say?” or “Siri, I need to hide a body,” gets “What kind of place are you looking for? Metal foundries, swamps, mines, reservoirs or dumps?” You get the idea.
So next time you’re jogging along, driving or just have your hands full of laundry and can’t pick up your phone, you can still rearrange that important meeting next Thursday. The idea of being able to interact with computers using natural language is a dream many of us share; but unfortunately I don’t think Apple has managed it as well as they claim. For example, Siri can’t tell the difference between Megan and “making” and gives up the fight entirely when faced with a Scottish accent.
On top of this, Siri relies on a permanent internet connection meaning that ever-so-slightly ropey 3G (pretty common in York) leads to a frequent and frustrating “Sorry, I’m having trouble connecting to the network” along with the loss of the entire e-mail you’ve just taken the time to dictate. Oh, and amazingly Siri doesn’t do any location services in the UK whatsoever – meaning he refuses to tell me where I am, find a local restaurant, or give me directions to the nearest mine in which to hide my dead body.
Whilst a nice gimmick, it does mean that Siri is pretty featureless and when there’s no internet connection it actually does less than Voice Control did on the 3GS (which didn’t require a connection at all).
So, with one plus and one minus, how does the 4S compare to other phones? The best way to answer that is to look at the features that people expected Apple to introduce. For instance, NFC (near-field communication) is the technology that allows you to pay for something by just tapping your phone on the card-reader and has just been included in the latest Android software, but was ignored by Apple. LTE (long-term evolution) is the latest standard for high-speed mobile internet currently being introduced in the USA, and whilst Apple improved the speed of the 3G radio they left out LTE capability. And finally, the iPhone has a relatively small screen (only 3.5”) compared to the rest of the market – the quality of it is great, but there isn’t the room for games and video that other phones have.
Whilst there are good technical or practical reasons for each of these exclusions (for instance, a smaller screen means your thumb can cover the whole surface area without stretching too much), other phone manufacturers have managed to work round them with considerable aplomb. Technically, the iPhone isn’t miles in front like it used to be.
In reality, the iPhone 4S is much the same as its predecessor but slightly faster and with a few small add-ons. Many Android manufacturers make their living on doing this with every phone they sell, and they certainly never do it as well as Apple. However, they do it every few months. Assuming the iPhone 5 comes out in October 2012, it will have been 28 months between major releases by Apple and a phone that is missing a few small things today will be a dinosaur after two years.