For mobile phone users who always wanted to tell their phone ‘where to go’, now they can with Siri and the Apple iPhone 4S 16GB. This iPhone has a slightly renewed look, but maintains the familiar shape and simple, clean lines of the iPhone 4. It simply is a beautiful mobile phone. Like so many truly beautiful things in life, it’s what is inside the iPhone 4S that is the real story! Whist in terms of appearance there is nothing ground breaking, in the words of Apple’s Phil Schiller “dont be fooled, inside its all new”! As always seems to be the case when a new iPhone is launched there were early morning queues outside any high street shop rumoured to be selling them on launch day, however, a few weeks down the line and they are readily available via online retailers, far more convenient in our opinion!
Apple iPhone 4S 16GB black, 50 minutes to any network and 50 texts. 100MB mobile internet per month.
Tariff Name: iPhone 20 (24m), Network Orange, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 50 Free Text Messages, Apple iPhone 4S 16GB black, Phone Price 300, Total Cost After Discounts £780
Overview
When you take your new Apple iPhone 4S 16 GB out of the box you’ll gaze upon a slightly familiar, yet fresher looking handset sporting an LED-backlit IPS Retina glass display that is both scratch and fingerprint resistant. The 3.5-inch TFT 960×640 pixel display presents sharper images and text than the older model iPhone 4.
The new operating system is iOS5 and brings some cool new services to the iPhone 4S. Notifications is a feature that doesn’t require you clear away the alert in order to continue using the phone. iMessage messaging service encrypts messages between iOS users. Reminders stay in sync with Microsoft Exchange reminders and with iCloud. Twitter is integrated into the OS, but not Facebook, but there’s an app for that. Other notables include Newstand, Camera, Gamecenter, Safari, Mail and PC Free which allows you free yourself from PCs. Well, that’s the concept. Then there is iCloud, Camera and Siri.
iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and other data files and then wirelessly pushes them to all your wireless devices. You take a picture and it is uploaded to your personal iCloud. If you purchase an album on iPad, it also downloads to your iPhone; and iTunes purchases are pushed out through the iCloud to your Mac and PC. No syncing, it’s all auto-magically done for you.
Then there is Siri. According to Apple, your new virtual iPhone assistant is Siri. She/He accepts your voice commands and sends them on as messages, places a phone call, schedules a meeting, gives you reminders, take dictation and maybe even brings you coffee. Well, not that yet, but virtual assistants of the world be on the alert, Siri is out to replace you. Siri is Apple’s voice command app that understands what you say, knows what you want it to do and does it. In some cases he/she even talks back to you. Did Apple really have to take voice recognition that far?
The iPhone 4S 16 GB phone is equipped with an 8 megapixel camera that proves to be a big improvement over the iPhone 4 camera. It provides bright, beautiful photos with natural light, but also has a flash to boost the light in dimly lit scenes. The camcorder got a boost to recording in high-def at 1080p, but there isn’t an option to record in a lower resolution like 720p. There is a secondary VGA camera available for video-conferencing.
What About AntennaGate?
AntennaGate was the design flaw that caused calls to drop and antenna reception to fall away to nothingness. It hit iPhone 4 AT&T subscribers particularly hard in the USA. Apple resolved the problem on the iPhone 4 with a plastic sleeve that protected the phone’s antenna (which wrapped around the iPhone 4 case). The plastic bumper cases are no longer needed other than for protection. The iPhone 4S is designed with two antennas to overcome the “Antennagate” issue. There are two separate antennas, each of which support GSM / CDMA standards. The phone switches between the two antennae. When one is blocked, the other recognizes it and picks up the carrier. It even works when in the middle of a call. Could this be Siri at work again?
Features
- 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, Apple A5 SoC
- Band: 2G Network-GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; CDMA 800 / 1900
- 3G Network -HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100; CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
- Memory: 512 MB RAM,
- Storage: 16 GB, MicroSIM card support only
- Connections: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, USB 2.0 port;
- Display: 3.5-inches; LED-backlit IPS TFT; 960×640 pixels; capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
- Camera: 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash; 1080p@30fps, with Secondary: Yes, VGA
- Dimensions: 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm
- Weight: 140 grams
- FM Radio: No
- Standard battery, Li-Po 1432 mAh
- Stand-by : Up to 200 h (2G) / Up to 200 h (3G)
- Talk time : Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 8 h (3G)
- Music play: Up to 40 h
Pros
- Dual core CPU and upgraded GPU,
- iOS 5
- iCloud integration
- Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
- 8 MP Autofocus camera with LED flash
- 1080p video recording at 30fps
Cons
- Could use a larger display
- No FM Radio
- FaceTime video calls work only over Wi-Fi
- Video recording only at 1080p resolution
- No file transfer over Bluetooth or USB Mass Storage mode
- No MicroSD card slot, microSim card only so you may want the 32 GB model
Apple’s iPhone 4S provides fast dual-core processors and an upgraded 8 megapixel camera, all the benefits of iOS5, and a useful and even fun voice assistant. Antenna issues are resolved by a design using two antennas that back up each other.