Apple's iPhone 4S comes with all the features customers want in a smartphone, but unlike its predecessors, there's little about it that has its competitors looking on with a jealous eye.
The iPhone 4S features an A5 dual-core processor that has seven times the graphical capability of the A4 chip in the iPhone 4 and can perform tasks up to twice as fast. Apple also upgraded the camera to an 8-megapixel lens capable of shooting 1080p video.
Apple is also launching iCloud alongside the device. A free new service that keeps all of users iOS devices in sync with each other, from their apps to music, photos and contacts.
The biggest addition to the 4S, however, is Siri, a new "personal assistant" that users can activate by holding down the home button. Siri responds to users' voice commands like "how is the weather?" and "where is the nearest gas station?" Overall, Siri is one of the most advanced voice command systems on the market today, but it is far from perfect, or even complete, as Apple itself admitted the version in the 4S is a beta.
Let's get this out of the way; the iPhone 4S is a great phone. It's easily one of the two or three best phones on the market right now, but it's not light years ahead of its peers in the same way its predecessors have been before it. Apple is marketing the device around Siri, and while the feature is welcome, it's nowhere near as strong as the advances that have headlined past iterations of the device.
The 4S is also going up against far greater competition than any of its predecessors. The Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Rezound, Motorola Droid Razr and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus all compare favorably to the device. Each of those handsets features a larger screen than the 4S, and with the promise of the Android 4.0 operating system, the software advantage Apple has held for years with iOS may not be as large as it was in years past.
For customers comfortable with iOS and looking to take advantage of iCloud, the 4S is still a fantastic device, even without reaching the high bar Apple has set for itself. However, for those who have been upgrading their iPhones every year like clockwork, the 4S may be the device customers want to skip. Perhaps save your money for next year's new iPhone, or maybe put it towards something else altogether, after all, there are some nice options. View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment