Reading text is like looking at a printed page. The result is marvelous. Dubbed the “Retina display” by Apple, it’s got a screen resolution of 326 pixels per inch, meaning that the average human eye can’t even see individual pixels. The same eye-popping 960-by-640-pixel screen introduced with the iPhone 4 is present on the iPhone 4S, too.
In terms of styling, the iPhone 4 feels like the most expensive electric razor ever made, or maybe like a finely-tuned luxury watch. The fit and finish are immaculate; not a single thing about the iPhone 4S feels cheap. It’s a classic look, easily my favorite of all the iPhone designs to date. Now here comes the iPhone 4S, which is more of a good thing: It takes the successful look of the iPhone 4 and tosses in a dual-core processor for dramatically improved speed, an upgraded camera, and some brand-new voice-command technologies. and Europe).
The iPhone 4, which remained more or less unchanged for 15 months as approximately a zillion Android smartphone models came and went, has consistently been the best-selling smartphone around (at least in the U.S. But the company seems to be doing OK in the business of building phones. Apple’s never going to win a competition with the wildest imaginations of tech bloggers. The results of my general-performance tests showed the iPhone 4S to be roughly twice as fast as the iPhone 4. As the iPhone 3GS taught us, adding an S to an iPhone’s name can represent numerous under-the-hood improvements, but it doesn’t send shivers down your spine like incrementing a number by one and unveiling a redesigned exterior with mind-blowing features that may or may not include anti-gravity.
In general usage, it didn’t seem to run out of battery any faster than my trusty iPhone 4. However, I didn’t get a chance to run any dedicated battery tests on the iPhone 4S. The end result is a phone that offers largely the same battery life as the iPhone 4. It seems clear, though, that some components are more energy efficient than on the iPhone 4 (I’m looking at you, cellular radio) while others eat more power (dual-core A5 processor).
Apple says that the innards of the iPhone 4S have been entirely redesigned—so many components have changed, there’s no simple explanation for the change in the company’s battery-life claims. Apple claims that talk time on the iPhone 4S’s battery is actually an hour longer than on the iPhone 4, but that Wi-Fi surfing will drain the battery an hour sooner. (The original iPad was similarly faster than the iPhone 4, in fact.) Of course, the iPad 2 doesn’t fit in your pocket, unless you have unusually large pockets or are a clown, or both. In most of my tests, the iPad 2 was slightly faster than the iPhone 4S.
The only iOS device in existence that can match up—and even beat—the iPhone 4S is the iPad 2. The 4S had more than double the score on the GeekBench testing app, and loaded a test webpage in a third of the time. 3GS users will see an even larger speed increase, of course. But a whole lot of people will be upgrading from two-year-old iPhone 3GSes. Of course, many people who just bought the iPhone 4 won't really be looking at the iPhone 4S.
One 3D test sequence played at roughly five times the frame rate of the same scene on the iPhone 4; another was roughly double the frame rate. That’s a best-case scenario, but my tests with the GLBench Pro graphics benchmarking app did show enhanced graphics performance. Apple claims graphics performance on the iPhone 4S has been boosted even more by the graphics component of the A5, with speed gains of as much as 7x. Two processor cores don’t necessarily mean the iPhone 4S is twice as fast as the iPhone 4.
This is a dual-core processor that’s one generation more advanced than the A4 processor that powered the iPhone 4 and the original iPad. Like the iPad 2 before it, the iPhone 4S is powered by an Apple-designed A5 processor.
And if you’ve got an Apple TV, you can do this wirelessly, too. Attach Apple’s HDMI adapter to the iPhone 4S and connect it to an HDTV, and you’ll see the contents of your screen played back on your HDTV. The iPhone 4S has the same capability. But guess what?
This feature initially appeared to be limited to the iPad 2, since it was the only iOS device capable of mirroring its own display on an external monitor. Another feature of iOS 5 is AirPlay mirroring, which allows certain devices to display the contents of their screen on your TV via an Apple TV (which has not yet been launched in India). Our full review of iOS 5 itself is forthcoming, but in the interim, a recap: iOS 5 adds support for a much more flexible notification system, including the pull-down Notification Center interface; support for “PC-free” operation so you can set up, back up, and even update an iPhone or iPad without ever connecting it to a computer; iMessage, a system for sending messages to other devices without using SMS; Newsstand, which gives publishers more control over pushing newspaper and magazine content to iPhones and iPads; a new Reminders app; custom vibration patterns; Twitter integration; and a whole lot more. iOS 5 is a massive upgrade that adds all sorts of features to the iPhone and iPad, but users of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch will also be able to take advantage of them. Although it’s not an iPhone 4S-specific feature, this phone is the first device to ship with iOS 5 as its base operating system.
