The iPhone 4S continues Apple's tradition of making certain tradeoffs over those made by Android "superphone" makers: A smaller screen versus a 4G LTE radio and shorter battery life, for instance. But it also has a number of improvements over the original iPhone 4.
Most of these are refinements, to a formula that has already won the marketplace over. But a few of them are genuinely new features which may have helped cause the iPhone 4S to sell out in preorders already, even if the tech media world has largely spurned it.
Greater memory capacity
The original iPhone 4 was available in 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB models. The iPhone 4S starts at 16 GB for the same price that the 8 GB iPhone 4 used to sell at, and goes all the way up to 64 GB -- the same as the highest-end iPad 2. (The 8 GB iPhone 4 now sells at half the upfront price: $99 on a two-year contract.)
Improved camera and video
The original iPhone 4 was capable of taking 5-megapixel still pictures, and recording 720p HD video. The new iPhone 4S can take 8-megapixel still pictures and record 1080p HD video, as well as featuring face detection (in still photos) and video stabilization. At the event introducing the iPhone 4S, Apple exec Phil Schiller noted that the iPhone is already the single most popular camera on Flickr, and showed off a chart demonstrating how much faster it is to take photos on the iPhone 4S than on a variety of other phones out there right now.
More powerful processor and graphics
The iPhone 4S has a new dual-core processor, which Apple claims can produce gaming graphics that are 7 times better than on the iPhone 4. At Apple's event, Epic Games CEO Mike Capps demoed Infinity Blade 2, a new iPhone game with XBox 360-style HD graphics.
Improved battery life
Despite its having a more powerful processor, Apple's website shows that the iPhone 4S has an hour of 3G talk time over the iPhone 4. The iPhone already had superior battery life to most, if not all, Android phones.
AirPlay Mirroring
The iPhone 4S is now capable of screen mirroring to an HDTV, using an Apple TV or Apple video adapter. This allows web browsing, app use, and even gaming on the big screen. The iPhone 4 was only capable of playing video to an external screen, using an adapter.
Siri
The iPhone 4S' new "Intelligent Assistant," Siri, is capable of answering natural-language questions and commands.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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