The
iPhone 4S
was released in October 2011, and was Apples most successful product release in its history. As usual, long wait lines were experienced outside Apple Stores around the US.
With this release however, the supply was well enough to cover the demand. If you stayed in line and waited outside the Apple Store, you would have most probably got an iPhone-4S. Some people pre-ordered on line, and were the lucky ones to receive their iPhone one day earlier than the Apple Store.
Apple sold 1 million iPhone-4S' in the first day, and 4 million in the first 3 days. This number passed the number of
iPhone 4's
sold last year which was 1.6 million in the first 3 days.
Although many criticism came out from different blogs and media stations about the new iPhone, customer satisfaction with this
iPhone
was very high.
iPhone-4S Complaints:
As normal with any
iPhone
release, many rumors and fake images saturate the internet months before the iPhone real release. Some rumors do happen, while some others are false and only based on imagination and some photo manipulation. But some people get attached to those rumors so much and believe in them.
Most of the complaints were about the
iPhone-4S
design being the same design as the iPhone 4 and that the screen was rumored to be larger.
I am not a fan of changing the design every release. In fact it is better to keep the design the same because all your existing accessories will work fine.
Also large screen is not necessarily a good thing. You have to remember that this is a mobile device after all. The
iPhone
size is just perfect in the hand, and the high resolution retina display is still impressive. There is however room for a little bigger screen while keeping the same exterior size.
iPhone4 S Features:
Many of the existing iPhone 4 features are already ported to the
iPhone-4S
with many improvements to the hardware. The speed was improved, the camera, the graphics, the antennas, and some iOS 5 features designed for iPhone-4S like AirPlay Mirror and Siri were also added.
8 Mega Pixel Camera:
The
camera
was improved from 5 Mega pixel on the
iPhone 4
to 8 Mega pixels. A new lens was also added to improve the light to the picture, so you will notice better performance in dark.
1080P Video Capture:
The video capture was improved from 720P to full HD at 1080P. Moreover, a video stabilizer is also added to improve the video capture if you shake your hand.
Dual Core CPU:
The iPhone-4S comes with a dual core processor running at 800Mhz. This CPU is an Apple designed chip, that is called A5 which is used on the iPad 2 at a higher clock speed of 1Ghz. The A5 processor gives 2 times speed improvement from the A4 processor designed for iPhone 4.
Faster Graphics:
The graphics GPU on the iPhone-4S is 7 times faster than the iPhone 4. You will notice this mostly in games.
Louder Speaker:
Another improvement is that the sound level is improved from iPhone 4 to a higher level. Everything on the iPhone-4S sounds louder.
World Phone:
The
iPhone4S
is a world phone which means that it works on both GSM and CDMA networks. This makes it a single iPhone design that in the US can work with
CDMA carriers
like Sprint and Verizon, and GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. Apple used to have two different phones in the past, one is the regular
GSM iPhone
for AT&T, and another CDMA iPhone for Verizon.
The antennas on the iPhone-4S allow it to automatically switch between the two networks. Therefore, you can use your world
iPhone
anywhere in the world. Moreover, you can now buy unlocked iPhones directly from
Apple
. An unlocked iPhone-4S will allow you to buy any SIM card and choose any carrier without a contract anywhere in the world.
iOS 5 Pre-Installed:
The
iPhone 4S
comes with iOS 5 which is the most advanced iOS release. It is loaded with features, some of which require the iPhone 4S such as Siri and AirPlay Mirror.
Siri comes with iOS 5 but is only available to iPhone-4S users. It is an intelligent assistance that replaces voice command that came with previous iPhones. Siri is completely different than the known voice commands available on the
iPhone 4
, or other voice command technologies available on other smart phones from Microsoft and Google.
You don't have to start your request to Siri with a command anymore. Siri is so intelligent that it can answer questions, and follow with a conversation. It understands the intention of the question and search several online sites to get the answer.
You can ask Siri a history questions such as "what is the age of the Egyptian pyramids?" or a math question such as "What is the integral of X^2". It can book an appointment, and it can remind you to do things. This is just scratching the surface of Siri. There are so many hidden features that can be uncovered with a jailbreak. Visit the Siri hacks page to learn more. The future is very bright for Siri.
AirPlay is a feature that started in iOS 4, but with iOS5 it is improved to take advantage of the speed of the
iPhone4 S. The new feature is called "AirPlay Mirror".
AirPlay Mirror allows you to connect your
iPhone
to your
TV
without wires, and then you can mirror your iPhone screen to your
HD TV
, and mirror anything on your iPhone to your TV. The only thing you need is an Apple TV to be connected to your
TV.
The
iPhone 4
can also be mirrored to the TV by using an HDMI adapter or other iPhone video out connections which allow you to connect your iPhone to your TV with a cable.
Displaying your iPhone on an external TV is one of the coolest iPhone features, and with iPhone-4S it is possible to do it wirelessely at an amazing 720P resolution.
Some iPhone applications and games are designed to take advantage of AirPlay mirror. For example, RealRacing 2 HD is one of the games that support AirPlay Mirror. Your iPhone would act as a steering wheel to control your vehicle in the game while the TV would act as an additional display viewing the game play in high definition.
The
As normal with any
Dual Core CPU:
Siri comes with 
