iPhone 4S Impressions

Congratulations and nice review Alienware!

Yes the 'S' is for speed, just like the 3GS...but some prefer to think it stands for 'Steve'.

I'm eyeing one for Xmas this year and would be doing so because of the speed bump, great quality fast optics (f/2.4 and extra elements) for better low light service, the video stabilization software and the greater pixel counts and 1080HD. One of my 'pastimes' is designing lens systems, so I'm always keen on this aspect. The 'view' in viewfly stands for view camera (up to 8x10). Possibly, I may go for the 64Gb, and hopefully it will get unlocked (although I never buy overseas sims when I travel :O),

And of course there is Siri...which I just lost yesterday on my iP4. I hope you report on that too.

iOS 5 on my iP4 is very fluid and I had no keyboard problems...and it is definitely faster too. iOS incorporate some overdue features, esp. an improved notifications system, which is nice now.

So I'm envious of you at the moment :drool:

Enjoy your new tool! And be a little more careful with the vacuum cleaner cords. It is stainless, but glass too...scratch resistant, not shatterproof.

P.S. would you mind running that Brower speed test I posted in the Apple forums? Here is the link: Browser speed test You'd be one of the first official bench markers here.

 

I would like to have Siri back! Really funny examples.

Alienware, run the browser test even without WiFi. I have three data points now that tell me that this benchmark test is connection speed independent. As if they normalize out the connection speed to only test the browser software and phone firmware.

I ran my iOS5 iPhone 4 with and without wifi, and got the nearly the same results (with Safari): 50,000 to 52,000 score. Running the same test with AtomicBrowser, I get 32,000 which is iP4 iOS 4.3 speeds.

We are suspecting the iPhone 4S to run around 88,000. My iPad 2 hits 102,000; my iMac 560,000 and my Macbook pro, 354,000 roughly.

Try both, if you please!

 

Alienware,

Congratulations and thank you very much for the detailed review. It is always a pleasure reading such a positive review sans the "fanboyism".


I loved your posted conversations with Siri and it sounds like a nice tool besides.

How is the reception and call quality compared to your iPhone 4?


Question for you about the camera. As you know a cellphone camera cannot compare to even a mediocre Point and Shoot when it comes to enlarging and/or printing due to the size limitation on the sensor; have you enlarged any and if they are not grainy then how is the iPhone 4s compensating for the limited size of the sensor? Just curios.

Looking forward seeing the pictures you took.

 

Thank you Alienware! You are the first to confirm (that I know of) what was 'rumored' on the web and at Anandtech.com on the speed (from this one benchmark) of the iPhone 4S.

Pretty remarkable that it is just a shy slower than the iPad 2.

Love to see your comparison photos too. I have seen some on the web, and they do look quite good.

P.S. Just saw your photos after I posted. They look very, very, good. Beyond a mediocre point and shoot camera. I don't think the sensor size is the issue here...its the improved sensor chip and the better optics.



Sent from my iPhone 4 with TapaTalk.

 

Thank you very much Alienware, the picture from the i4 S does indeed have much less noice.

Any chance you can post a comparison picture between the iPhone 4S and a generic point and shoot? I can help by tossing mine to you across the Lake. Lol

Glad to hear that the reception is better as well, you have a winner there.
Thanks again.

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Your question made me realize that I don't know what the sensor size is for the iP4S or any cell phone camera.

I found that the iPhone 4S size is 1/3.2" (for 8 Mpixels); by comparison a random look at Canon's P&S line (SD1300 to the really cheap ones) is 1/2.3" ( for 12 Mpixels). Another low end size is 1/2.6". Not a large difference at all, especially if the actual pixel element is the same size, which determines the noise floor level, which I think is the case here.

From what I've seen in practice ( a few weddings recently); the cell phone camera (any smartphone camera) has become the new Point and Shoot camera.

I think all of the newer lines of smartphone cameras are far better than what we used to call point & shoot not many pre-digital years ago: Kodak Instamatic and the like film cameras. From that perspective, the camera phones today compare very well to what we use to have as P&S.

And that is great!

P.S. here is an interesting site. Can move the green box around to compare photo quality. also chose your phone for comparisons. The 4S is not up yet though.

 

Alienware,

I'm reading in some forums that some users are getting ATT 3G download speeds
between 5.5 to 7.7 Mbps. In selected areas.

What are you seeing? I realize that these reports are with AT&T .


Here is the story: Some AT&T Users Seeing Much Improved 3G Speeds with iPhone 4S - Mac Rumors

 

Thanks Alienware for the speed check. No rush on the photos. I'd like to see your take on the camera, but there are a lot of photo and comparisons floating around the web to confirm the impression that the new camera/optics/software are very good indeed.

I have a question on Siri though, when you have time. With my Siri app under 4.x, a very useful feature was to ask Siri "what flights are there today from New York to Dallas", for example.

Siri would return with a list of flights (most times I would says Continental first), for the day. It wouldn't book the flight, as it might do for a restaurant, but it gave me a selection, and would show all the details of each.

I made it finally to the Apple store to check out the 4S. Funny to see people standing around the table talking to the phones, checking them out.

Anyway, I tried the above question and it said that it can't do that! I was shocked.

Is that really not functional in the new Siri? I know Siri is in Beta, but that is a backwards step.

Curious, when you have a chance.

 

Thanks Alienware, there is absolutely no rush.

I am sure there are many photo comparisons floating on the web, but I would prefer to see them from a trusted source like Alienware.

Siri could not tell my IPhone 4s toting co-worker, if the moon or waxing or waning and gave the name of a local Chinese restaurant with word "moon" in it, Interestingly to the question "Where can I buy an IPhone", it only gave the nearby AT&T and Apple stores, no Verizon or Sprint..

Question: Does Siri work overseas? Will it be able to suggest restaurants, train stations, hotels for example in Vienna? That would be very helpful indeed.

 

I agree. Like to see Aliensware photos too.

I wonder if the new Siri beta has launched backwards. With the Wolfram link, my previous Siri could answer those questions about the moon, sunset, sunrise and more. Hmmm, maybe I will rethink my thoughts about getting the 4S. We will see by Xmas.

I'm certain that Siri only works in the US. At least that was the function before last week.

 

Charlyee,

I thought that I saw this. International maps and search coming in 2012.


Siri: Maps and Local Search for International Customers Coming in 2012 - Mac Rumors

 

I have never been attracted to iPhones really, but the speed of the 4s is really catching my eye. Performance is what I look for when it comes to phones. Screen quality, picture/video quality, etc don't matter much to me as it's just a phone, but I multitask on my phone like crazy for work and have yet to find a phone that can keep up with me. I'm tempted to see if this one will do it. Thanks for the review AlienWare!

 

iTunes match just showed up in my Settings area...I guess OTA updates are working.

Apple Activates iTunes Match Setting in iOS 5, Suggesting Imminent Launch - Mac Rumors

 

Just saw this:

Apple's Siri Shuns 35 Million Americans—Are You One? | Jill Duffy | PCMag.com

 

Verifies your suspicions

http://m.cnn.com/primary/_pOeug4-ihuVd6AsLKb



Sent from my Mystical Moto using Tapatalk.

 

Then it makes sense why Apple removed it from the 4. Another forum supported that Apple didn't include the same set of 3rd party apps as the original version. I can only guess it is coming sometime.

If wolfram is one of them, it should tell you the phase of the moon. Wolfrom does by itself!

Thanks for the linked article.

 

oh, BTW Charlyee, you will be happy to know that the Apple 'Reminders/Tasks' native app is now tied to MS Outlook' Exchange 'To Do/Task' feature.

I just realized it was synching this morning when it came up in notifications and the outlook sidebar.

 

Thanks viewfly. Yes I discovered it some time over the weekend. I had a paid app Task Task HD which I was using but this a welcome addition and now I am using the native application.

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Looks like I can get $350-$400 for my 4 on eBay. $299 4S here I come!!!


Sent from my iPhone 4 with TapaTalk.