After 4 years and five various handsets, a predicted pattern has surfaced by means of Apple's iPhone. With pre-launch rumours focus on an iPhone 5, Apple astounded everyone with a handset containing no great surprises. Just as the iPhone 3GS was a modest development on the iPhone 3G, we now have the 4S decontamination the iPhone four formula. Tick follows tock, follows tick, follows tock-
But while you may struggle to notice any distinction in appearance, is there whatever thing hiding beneath that glossy black exterior that make the 4S more than a temporary solution for the iPhone 5? Especially given that owners of iPhone 3GS and 4 handsets may also upgrade to iOS 5?
Revamped hardware
Only the most eagle-eyed onlooker could tell the divergence between an iPhone 4S and its predecessor. The silence button has been shifted down a few millimetres - potentially making it tricky to reuse an iPhone four case - and the new aerial layout sees a couple of black lines around the perimeter reposition, but this is to all intents and purposes an identical design.
Apple iPhone 4S
On the inside, nevertheless, Apple has made a almost no substantial improvement. In comes the same dual-core A5 processor that powers the iPad 2, delivering tablet-like performance in the boundaries of a 3.5in smartphone. The full BBC homepage loaded in only 2.5 seconds - as fast as an iPad 2 running iOS 5, and a second and a half faster than the A-Listed Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The 4S ripped from beginning to end the SunSpider benchmark in 2.2 second - 0.4 seconds slower than our iPad 2, but a third quicker than the Galaxy S II. This is the fastest smartphone we've ever see, and by some distance.
That processing power isn't only apparent in synthetic benchmarks: demanding 3D games such as FIFA 2012 are flawlessly smooth, even if the back of the phone does get a bit toasty when the processor is pushed; multitasking doesn't trouble the processor - we had the TomTom satnav, the music player and iOS notifications running simultaneously without a hint of slowdown; and there's none of the occasional juddering witnessed on previous-generation hardware upgraded to iOS 5
Read our analysis of the upgrade that existing iPhone and iPad owners can download now.
That dual-core A5 processor also (based on Apple, at least) gives rise to the iPhone 4S's only unique feature: Siri. Although restricted voice controls were available in earlier iPhone models, Siri raises the AI bar, allowing users to bark natural language commands into their handset and have the phone speak back or display the requested info on screen. Even though Siri offloads the voice recognition duties to the server - requiring an active data connection before it'll even attempt to decipher what you're saying - Apple claims that only the dual-core processor is capable of the necessary data crunching. Although given that apps such as Dragon Dictation have transcribed the spoken word at a similar speed to Siri on earlier iPhones, we can't help but wonder if this a smokescreen designed purely to differentiate the 4S from its predecessors.
Siri is clever, but not nearly as clever as it might be, and clearly a work in progress. It works best when asked to perform set tasks: "do I have any appointments today?" will send Siri scouring through your calendar, displaying any meetings in the diary; "wake me up at seven," will set an alarm call for the morning; "tell Jonathan Bray I'll be in at ten" will send a text message to said critiques editor (provided he's in your phone contacts) with the necessary message.
Apple iPhone 4S - Siri
It starts to fall down when tasked with more bespoke jobs. Dictating emails or lengthy text messages is too hit and miss, with Siri making it so hard to correct poorly transcribed text that you simply revert to the keyboard. Telling Siri to "remember my laptop when I leave here" creates a reminder that's meant to go off when the GPS sensor detects you've left the creating, but it failed to do so on the two occasions we tested it. And potentially helpful location-based commands like "find the nearest Starbucks" or "show me a map of Brighton" only work in the US.
As it's, Siri also needs a decent chunk of time spent training it on who's who in your phonebook, and for you to get used to the correct way to say things for the best results, so it's not going to replace touch control anytime soon. The one place it could potentially come into its own is in the car, especially as it can be activated with a Bluetooth headset - permitting drivers to have text messages read to them and compose easy replies without risking a fine (or indeed their lives) by reaching for the handset. It has potential, but in its current incarnation it is not quite the killer feature Apple must have hoped it would be.
But while you may struggle to notice any distinction in appearance, is there whatever thing hiding beneath that glossy black exterior that make the 4S more than a temporary solution for the iPhone 5? Especially given that owners of iPhone 3GS and 4 handsets may also upgrade to iOS 5?
Revamped hardware
Only the most eagle-eyed onlooker could tell the divergence between an iPhone 4S and its predecessor. The silence button has been shifted down a few millimetres - potentially making it tricky to reuse an iPhone four case - and the new aerial layout sees a couple of black lines around the perimeter reposition, but this is to all intents and purposes an identical design.
Apple iPhone 4S
On the inside, nevertheless, Apple has made a almost no substantial improvement. In comes the same dual-core A5 processor that powers the iPad 2, delivering tablet-like performance in the boundaries of a 3.5in smartphone. The full BBC homepage loaded in only 2.5 seconds - as fast as an iPad 2 running iOS 5, and a second and a half faster than the A-Listed Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The 4S ripped from beginning to end the SunSpider benchmark in 2.2 second - 0.4 seconds slower than our iPad 2, but a third quicker than the Galaxy S II. This is the fastest smartphone we've ever see, and by some distance.
That processing power isn't only apparent in synthetic benchmarks: demanding 3D games such as FIFA 2012 are flawlessly smooth, even if the back of the phone does get a bit toasty when the processor is pushed; multitasking doesn't trouble the processor - we had the TomTom satnav, the music player and iOS notifications running simultaneously without a hint of slowdown; and there's none of the occasional juddering witnessed on previous-generation hardware upgraded to iOS 5
Read our analysis of the upgrade that existing iPhone and iPad owners can download now.
That dual-core A5 processor also (based on Apple, at least) gives rise to the iPhone 4S's only unique feature: Siri. Although restricted voice controls were available in earlier iPhone models, Siri raises the AI bar, allowing users to bark natural language commands into their handset and have the phone speak back or display the requested info on screen. Even though Siri offloads the voice recognition duties to the server - requiring an active data connection before it'll even attempt to decipher what you're saying - Apple claims that only the dual-core processor is capable of the necessary data crunching. Although given that apps such as Dragon Dictation have transcribed the spoken word at a similar speed to Siri on earlier iPhones, we can't help but wonder if this a smokescreen designed purely to differentiate the 4S from its predecessors.
Siri is clever, but not nearly as clever as it might be, and clearly a work in progress. It works best when asked to perform set tasks: "do I have any appointments today?" will send Siri scouring through your calendar, displaying any meetings in the diary; "wake me up at seven," will set an alarm call for the morning; "tell Jonathan Bray I'll be in at ten" will send a text message to said critiques editor (provided he's in your phone contacts) with the necessary message.
Apple iPhone 4S - Siri
It starts to fall down when tasked with more bespoke jobs. Dictating emails or lengthy text messages is too hit and miss, with Siri making it so hard to correct poorly transcribed text that you simply revert to the keyboard. Telling Siri to "remember my laptop when I leave here" creates a reminder that's meant to go off when the GPS sensor detects you've left the creating, but it failed to do so on the two occasions we tested it. And potentially helpful location-based commands like "find the nearest Starbucks" or "show me a map of Brighton" only work in the US.
As it's, Siri also needs a decent chunk of time spent training it on who's who in your phonebook, and for you to get used to the correct way to say things for the best results, so it's not going to replace touch control anytime soon. The one place it could potentially come into its own is in the car, especially as it can be activated with a Bluetooth headset - permitting drivers to have text messages read to them and compose easy replies without risking a fine (or indeed their lives) by reaching for the handset. It has potential, but in its current incarnation it is not quite the killer feature Apple must have hoped it would be.
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