IPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S is a touchscreen slate smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fifth generation iPhone and successor to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S was unveiled at Apple's Let's Talk iPhone event on October 4, 2011 in Apple's Headquarters (Cupertino, California).

Its features primarily consist of a faster processor, a camera with higher resolution, better video recording, better antennas, voice control (Siri) and support for 14.4 Mbit/s (4G as of AT&T) HSPA+ networking.

For US customers, it will be available for AT&T, Verizon, and for the first time, also for Sprint and C Spire. In Japan it will be available for au (a KDDI brand) and Okinawa Cellular, for the first time.

The iPhone 4S runs Apple's iOS operating system, as is used on the iPad and the iPod touch. It is primarily controlled by a user's fingertips on a multi-touch display.

Features
The new features of the iPhone 4S are mainly internal changes regarding speed and new features including Siri, personal assistant (voice). Though in addition to the upgrades mainly regarding performance, various software features were also introduced exclusive to the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S mainly retains all of it's design as its predecessor, the iPhone 4. The front and back are flat, the screen made out of glass. There is a camera on the front and the back, the sides are made out of stainless steel with metal buttons. It keeps it's 3.5 inch (8.89cm) screen of past iPhones with the home button at the bottom. The iPhone 4S still comes with two colors, black and white.

Processor, memory and storage
The iPhone 4S has a 1GHz Dual-core A5 processor underclocked to 800MHz to extend battery life and to prevent heat, compared to the single-core A4 processor used in the iPhone 4. It has 512MB of RAM, the same as its predecessor. The iPhone 4S is the first iPhone to have 64GB storage whilst the 16GB and 32GB model options were retained. It scored 677 in the Geekbench speed test whilst the iPhone 4 scored 370.

Camera
The camera on the iPhone 4S is capable of shooting 8MP stills (3264x2448) and record up to full 1080p HD at 30 frames per second with upgraded quality (30% better clarity, 26% better white balance and color accuracy). The camera can now be accessed directly from the lock screen, and the volume up button as a shutter trigger. The built-in gyroscope is able to stabilize the camera while recording video. Other features of the camera are macro (for close up pictures) and faster capture including being able to take its first picture in 1.1 seconds and the next half a second later.

Gaming
The iPhone 4S uses the Apple A5 system-on-a-chip that uses an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX graphics processing unit, which features pixel, vertex, and geometry shader hardware, supporting OpenGL ES 2.0 and DirectX 10.1 Shader Model 4.1. The SGX is the same GPU used in the iPhone 4S’ predecessor, the iPhone 4. However, the iPhone 4S uses a dual-core model, the SGX543, that is integrated with the Apple A5 SoC in the same way as the iPad 2.

Apple’s claim that the iPhone 4S can process graphics up to “seven times faster” than the iPhone 4 was corroborated by Epic Games President Mike Capps. At the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event held by Apple on October 4, 2011, Capps demonstrated Epic Games’ Infinity Blade 2, the sequel to Infinity Blade, on an iPhone 4S. Capps boasted that the game uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 and features the same graphic techniques used in the Xbox 360 game Gears of War 3.

Gaming on the iPhone 4S has been likened to the PlayStation Vita, that features the same SGX GPU only in a quad-core configuration, and the Nintendo 3DS handheld game consoles. Additionally, the iPhone 4S’ ability to process 30 million polygons per second has been compared to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 home video game consoles that are capable of processing 700 million and 500 million polygons per second respectively.

CVG’s deputy editor Andy Robinson told TechRadar that the “[iPhone 4S] is certainly laying down some serious credibility for the iPhone as a core gaming device. Not only is it now pushing out games that simply eclipse the [Nintendo 3DS] visually, but features like cloud saving and TV streaming support are really exciting for gamers.”

Senior Gaming Analyst at Jon Peddie Research Ted Pollak believes the biggest improvement to gaming on the iPhone 4S is the voice control features, noting that “one of the features that Nintendogs players loved was the ability to talk to it. There’s no reason why a game like that couldn’t be done on the iPhone 4S, and much more sophisticated given the voice control shown.”