Apple iPhone 4S in market today

After iPhone 4S announcement, many analysts and technology bloggers got themselves in a lather about a completely new iPhone with a bigger screen. They were disappointed that this year's model looks exactly the same.



It might look the same but the iPhone 4S is significantly faster than its predecessor, with a new camera and - this year's most attention-grabbing feature - a clever voice control service called Siri. In hindsight, this year's upgrade makes sense: it mirrors the 2009 upgrade from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 4S’ physical design is just the same as the original iPhone 4, but it got an all-new internals which include Apple’s new ARM-based A5 chip which packs a dual-core GPU as well as a dual-core Cortex A9 CPU at 1GHz. Apple says the dual-core GPU on A5 chipset simply means the graphics on iPhone 4S can be up to 7 times faster than the previous iPhone. Of course with the upgraded chipset, the iPhone 4S is expected to utilize more power than the previous iPhone – however, Apple says it has also worked out on the handset’s battery so it can now offer up to 8 hours talk time on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM), 6 hours of 3G browsing, 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours worth of music, or up to 200 hours standby time. Not bad, huh? The Cupertino tech giant has also made a significant overhaul on the iPhone 4 original antenna, so the iPhone 4S will have one which can intelligently switch between different sets of antennas for even better call quality as well as to avoid dropping of calls. There’s also a higher resolution camera at 3264 x 2448 with an 8MP sensor. Another improvement on the new iPhone 4S is the 3G radio which Apple says can offer up to 14.4Mbps downlink and up to 5.8Mbps uplink. Unlike the iPhone 4 at first launch, the iPhone 4S will be available both in GSM and CDMA flavors.

iPhone 4S Specification

iOS 5
Networks (UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA/GSM/EDGE and CDMA EV-DO Rev. A)
3.5-inch 960x640 pixels (326ppi) Retina Display
1 GHz Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, Dual-Core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU (A5 chipset)
16GB, 32GB, and 64GB
512MB RAM
8MP camera with Autofocus and LED Flash
1080p Full HD video recording/playback, up to 30 frames per second
VGA front camera
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, aGPS
3.5 mm audio jack
30-pin dock connector
Built-in Speaker
Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Digital Compass, Proximity, 3-axis Gyroscope
1430mAh Li-Ion battery
115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm
140g

Black and White versions are available with 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB variants, priced in the US for $199, $299, and $399 respectively, of course with two year contract. iPhone 4S preorders start on October 7th, Friday and will be released in the United States, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on the 14th of this month. The iPhone 4S will be available on the 28th to 22 more countries, and 70 other countries by the end of the year.