The new phone looks pretty identical to iPhone 4 and I have not been able to tell any differences between the two. Apparently there is a bit of difference in weight and thickness, but both are quite marginal and none that I've been able to detect. I've had the phone for 2 days now and I'm really impressed with it! As I'd already upgraded my iPhone 4 to a white device, I don't really have the thrill of feeling like I have a new phone as it looks identical to my previous one. A huge difference is that my new one is 64GB which means a lot more music for me to carry around!
The main difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S is the camera and of course, Siri, the voice operated personal assistant that is ONLY available on the 4S and not the 4. The new iOS5 is pretty fantastic and fixes a lot of problems that I used to have with the old device like pop up notifications that were ridiculously annoying. That has now been fixed and makes the phone a lot simpler to use. The new iOS (which is the operating system of the device.. or in even simpler terms, the base software that the phone runs) can be installed on the 4S so a lot of people might choose to just use that on their iPhone 4's and might choose not to upgrade.
The iOS5 has the new iMessage app that allows people from Mac devices to be able to message each other for free. Upon it's announcement a lot of people figured that it would be a competitor to BBM or Whatsapp and it's a question quite a few people have been asking me the past few days. Honestly upon receiving my new phone (I had chosen to not download iOS5 on my old phone till I received the 4S) I was searching for the iMessage app and was wondering why I didn't have it. It's only upon a quick google search that I realized that it only worked until after I sent a friend a message did it let me know that the message had been sent and received via the app and therefor SMS rates would not apply. I don't quite understand why Apple decided to do that and not show the user which of their friends had that application on their phone. Overall, while it worked flawlessly, I just wish it worked a little.. well.. more like BBM or Whatsapp.
Ok back to the 4S device itself. I don't have any pictures on the camera yet to be able to demonstrate the picture quality and I will upload some soon. In the meantime, I've done a video review to show you a bit of what Siri functions like and to show you guys the actual device. Hope you like the video! I ran off in the middle to meet my friend for coffee hence the break. Also, the video was shot using my iPhone4 and edited on that phone before loading it up, so I do apologize about the lack of editing and the shakiness. The 4S has image stabilization by the way, so if I use my new device to shoot the iPhone 5 next year, hopefully I won't have the same issues!
So yes, Siri is a complete hoot and my friend and I have had hours of fun playing with her over the past few days. Nadia is convinced that poor Siri is just going to spontaneously combust due to our stupid questions and constant chatter with it! Anyhow, I haven't had any problems as such with the phone but today it did give me the wrong caller ID with it showing somebody's name and somebody completely different calling... Maybe Siri is getting back at me playing pranks? Who knows! I will update this post if that continues or if it was just a one off situation. Overall, the phone is great and since I'd managed my expectations on what the phone was and wasn't, I was quite pleased with it. Whether it is worth the upgrade over the iPhone 4 is entirely your call, whereas for me it was a no-brainer.
I decided to play some more with Siri and show her off to you guys, so check out the video below to be truly impressed. Additionally, here's a great post I found online on all the things Siri can respond to. But sadly enough, the thing I enjoy most is swearing at her... And yes, she comes up with different responses each time, which is why I continue! :)
And if you're wondering how one can pass hours chatting with Siri, watch me and Nadia in all our silliness below! We tried convincing her that she was a boy (apparently Siri is genderless) and that her name was really Sebastian. I had another video with us going all out and asking her all sorts of random questions, but I deleted that one by mistake. Just as well!!! Skip the video unless you really have nothing to do (don't tell me I didn't warn you)...
Hope you enjoyed the review. For those upgrading from a 3GS or from another platform, check out my review of the iPhone 4 here which shows off FaceTime and talks about the phone in general.
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The iPhone 4S will be available in Jumbo stores very, very soon!
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