iPhone Specs

There are five major iPhone specs available since the beginning of the iPhone revolution, the original iPhone or 2G, the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and then the iPhone 4S specs.

With all those iPhone releases, you will notice only two major style or shape changes. For example, the iPhone 2g, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS were almost identical in style and shape, while the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S had a completely new and similar style and shape.

In this page, you will learn the differences between all those iPhone specs, and what the major hardware and software features that were added with each of those releases.

What is an iPhone?

Before we look at each iPhone specs, lets first define what makes an iPhone. You could think of the iPhone as a mini computer, that can run thousands of applications in different areas and categories.

Historically, What made this process so unique on the iPhone is the ability to download and install application right on the iPhone itself.

It was a revolution when the App store was opened, and you were able to go online and download applications right on your device. The App Store application that comes with the iPhone allows you to use wifi or 3G to download and install applications with ease.

The iPhone specs started to improve quickly in three major areas, the CPU speed, the graphics performance, and the camera.

Because Apple creates the design of both the hardware and the software of the iPhone, you will find that the iPhone specs are optimized with every iPhone release. Therefore, even lower specs iPhones were always stable, and ran with great performance compared to their competition.

Besides the iPhone software, and hardware, the iPhone comes with different sensors. Depending on the iPhone release, you could have some or all of the following sensors:

• A proximity sensor which turns off the iPhone screen and deactivates the touch screen as you hold the iPhone against your face when you talk.

• An ambient light sensor which dims the iPhone screen and adjusts the screen brightness according to the environment.
• A 3-axis accelerometer which senses the orientation of the iPhone and rotates an iPhone applications to portrait or landscape when you rotate your iPhone.
• A digital Compass which allows the iPhone to know the North so that when combined with GPS, it can help you start your direction immediately.

iPhone 4S Specs

The iPhone 4S was released in June 2011. It had the same design as the iPhone 4, so you wouldn't be able to tell a difference between an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 4S from their exterior shape.

However, once you start using the iPhone 4S, and examine its hardware, you will find that every piece of hardware inside this iPhone is improved dramatically.

For example, the CPU is dual core running at 800Mhz giving 2.5 times faster processing power than the iPhone 4. The graphics speed was increased by 7 times from the iPhone 4.

Moreover, the iPhone 4S is a world iPhone, which means it will work on both CDMA and GSM networks.

The camera was also improved from 5MP in the iPhone 4 to 8MP. Also, the iPhone 4S can record HD video at 1080P instead of 720P on the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S camera is so quick in taking pictures, that is it is one of the fastest cameras in the market compared to other smart phones cameras.

AirPlay mirroring for iPhone 4S is one of the coolest features. It allows you to mirror your iPhone 4S screen to any HD TV at 720P using an Apple TV.

Of course those improvements are in addition to the normal iPhone specs that has been around such as, GPS, digital compass, wifi, Bluetooth, high resolution retina display and a front facing camera that works best with video chatting applications.

So, here is a summary of this iPhone Specs:

• iOS 5
• Apple A5 CPU Dual-core 800 MHz Cortex-A9
• PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU
• HSDPA at 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.8 Mbps
• Four sensors: an accelerometer, a gyro, a proximity sensor, and a compass
• 640 x 960 pixels at 326 ppi pixel density, 3.5” diagonal wide screen
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with iPhone tethering capability
• Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP
• 8 MP camera at 3264x2448 pixels resolution with autofocus and LED flash.
• 1080P HD video recording at @30fps with stabilizer, and video tagging
• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• CDMA 800 / 1900
• 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
• CDMA2000 1xEV-DO

iPhone 4 Specs:

The iPhone 4 was the forth generation iPhone and was a revolutionary release in June 2010.

It was a major design change in both style, hardware, and software.

The iPhone 4 was packed with features, and revolutionary technologies like the retina display and FaceTime.

The iPhone 4 had the highest pixel density in the market of 326 ppi, it came with iOS 4 Multitasking capability, iPhone Folders and many other iOS enhancement.

It also came with a front facing camera, that for the first time, Apple was able to main stream video chatting. With FaceTime, you could video chat with iPad, iPod Touch, Mac users and other iPhone 4s owners.

The iPhone 4 was the biggest jump in performance and features since the original iPhone design. It came in 8/16, and 32GB sizes.

Here is a brief summary of this iPhone Specs:

• iOS 4 Multitasking
• Apple A4 1 GHz Cortex-A8
• PowerVR SGX535 GPU
• Four sensors: an accelerometer, a gyro, a proximity sensor, and a compass
• 640 x 960 pixels at 326 ppi density, 3.5” diagonal wide screen
• 5 MP camera at 2592 x 1944 pixels resolution with autofocus and LED flash
• HD video recording at 720P
• HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.76 Mbps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with iPhone tethering capability
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

The iPhone 4 features were so attractive that it sat new benchmark for all new smart phones to come.

Later in 2010 After four years of the original GSM iPhone 4, Apple made a new iPhone 4 design that supports the CDMA network. This CDMA iPhone can be found on the Verizon network. The iPhone 4S then became a world iPhone that will work on any network whether it is CDMA or GSM.

iPhone 3GS Specs:

The iPhone 3GS was released in June 17th 2009. It was two times faster than the previous iPhone 3G, due to the faster processor, faster graphics, and increased ram.

It was also the first iPhone that was capable of recording and editing VGA quality video. So here are this iPhone specs:

• 256MB DDR RAM, 256KB L2 cashe
• 32-bit ARM Cortex-A8 RISK Processor @ 600MHz, two-issue in-order core, 13-stage integer pipeline
• 32KB instruction/32KB data L1 cashe
• PowerVR SGX graphics chip that supports OpenGL ES 2.
• Supports MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, Protected AAC, Audible (format 2,3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• 480 x 320 pixel resolution at 163ppi, 3.5” diagonal wide screen
• Four sensors: an accelerometer, a gyro, a proximity sensor, and a compass
• Composite or component iPhone video output through the dock
• 640 x 480 VGA video recording at 30fps
• Supported video formats are .m4v, .mp4, and .mov
• Support GSM 3G or EDGE networks
• HSDPA 7.2 MBit/s
• Wi-Fi (801.11b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, with A2DP

The iPhone 3GS stood up for some time. The video playback capability was excellent. The performance and speed was very good. You could watch TV on iPhone, or use third party movie players to play different video formats with no problems. Moreover, the iPhone 3GS supported iOS 5 which meant you could use AirPlay and connect to your Apple TV wirelessely.

iPhone 3G Specs:

The iPhone 3G was the second generation iPhone. It was released in July 11th 2008. The iPhone 3G supported the faster 3G network vs the slower EDGE network of the previous iPhone 2G, and it also had GPS chip. It came in 8 and 16GB sizes. The iPhone 3G specifications were similar to the original iPhone specs as follow:

• ARM11 (ARM1176JZF-S) @ 412MHz, single-issue in-order, 8-stage integer pipeline
• 16KB Instruction/16KB Data L1 cash
• GPU PowerVR MBX
• 480 x 320 pixel resolution at 163ppi, 3.5” diagonal wide screen
• 128MB DDR RAM
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• An accelerometer, and a Proximity sensor
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• A-GPS support
• 2 MP camera at 1600x1200 pixels resolution
• Supports MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, Protected AAC, Audible (format 2,3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

The iPhone 3G was discontinued after iOS 4.0 was released at the same time as the iPhone 4. It was still upgradable to iOS 4, but with no multitasking.

iPhone Specs (2G):

This is first iPhone that was introduced in June 2007. It was referred to as iPhone 2G or just iPhone. It was the first touch screen phone. It was this iPhone that started the touch screen smart phone revolution.

This iPhone supported EDGE network only which was slow compared to 3G network. This iPhone was available in 4, 8, and 16 GB sizes. The major attraction to this iPhone was its touch screen, Youtube video support, maps, and its iPod.

The first generation iPhone didn't come with a GPS chip and was a closed system. Therefore, you couldn't install applications on it since there was no App Store at that time.

Here is the complete list of iPhone specs for the CPU, GPU, and sound:

• 480 x 320 pixel resolution at 163ppi, 3.5” diagonal wide screen
• ARM11 (ARM1176JZF-S) @ 412MHz, single-issue in-order, 8-stage integer pipeline
• 16KB Instruction/16KB Data L1 cash
• 128MB DDR RAM
• PowerVR MBX
• An Accelerometer, and a proximity sensor
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with headset support only
• 2 MP camera at 1600x1200 pixels resolution
• Supports MP3, MP3 VBR, AAC, Protected AAC, Audible (format 2,3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• PowerVR MBX-Lite GPU core

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