Let’s be honest: when Tim Cook has presented during his keynote iPhone 4S instead of 5, there was a shred of disappointment. As it was easy to predict that Apple would hardly let go in the cavalry, after one year of use, the investment made to redesign the latest model, the hope of a new terminal “magic” was present in almost everyone. Although he has not, however, the classic “wow effect” of their products with the launch of Cupertino, 4S iPhone is probably the best iPhone yet, in this review and find out why.
Activate the flight
Once the usual open, minimalist box on launch day in Italy, we included the usual Apple for this kind of terminals: the phone (obviously), part of the documentation in printed material in a small box (also containing the clip to extract the tray of mini-sim), USB-Dock cable, AC adapter and headphones with remote control.
Thanks to the newly introduced iPhone OS 5 and to update the terminals on the air, in fact iPhone 4S is the first Apple phone to be activated, once out of the box, without connecting to a PC. Indeed, there are now three ways to do this steps: activating it as a new phone, starting from an existing backup on the cloud and synchronizing it with iTunes via a computer, that is, as it always has been until now. Of the three options of course the most interesting is the second in our case, before activating the 4S, we performed a backup using icloud applications and settings, and this has given way, at the time the new terminal, they would simply enter the details of our account to transfer all the data “backup game” on the Apple cloud. Verified the validity of user and password it will download quickly all settings (including of course messages, camera roll, and so on), and in the home screen will appear all the folders and icons of the applications that were previously installed, which will be made available for download at this point and installed automatically.
This procedure, although convenient, it is longer than the sync through iTunes, and is closely linked to the speed of your wi-fi. Needless to say, once you activate your account icloud (up to 5GB of free space) to buy each application will be recorded on the cloud, and we can download it on any compatible terminal. To see the list of downloadable applications we just go in the Application Updates App Store, where, under the appropriate heading, find all the applications connected to our ID with a symbol of a small cloud, which will allow us tapping to download the desired application. As for music, video and still photographs we synchronize “the old fashioned way”, and that is through a PC.
Let’s be honest: when Tim Cook has presented during his keynote iPhone 4S instead of 5, there was a shred of disappointment. As it was easy to predict that Apple would hardly let go in the cavalry, after one year of use, the investment made to redesign the latest model, the hope of a new terminal “magic” was present in almost everyone. Although he has not, however, the classic “wow effect” of their products with the launch of Cupertino, 4S iPhone is probably the best iPhone yet, in this review and find out why.
What has changed
Before going into details of differences with the previous model, and analyze the new dual core processor of the iPhone 4S, let’s just talk about one thing on which, in his review of a phone, you can not make concessions: the phone calls. As the controversial “Antenna Gate” seemed to be a lot more media and technical affair, we would not be totally honest if we said that the external position of the antenna has created some problems. Whether it was in areas of poor reception or not, the “Death Grip” (which consisted in challenging the phone in a way that did decrease the signal reception) was an objective problem that has caused many problems to Apple, and The enclosures have given to the first buyers, as well as redesigning the antenna for the Verizon CDMA model can be seen as an implicit admission of guilt by the company in Cupertino.
To cut the Gordian knot Apple has revised the location of antennas on the outdoor grill, and we can assure you that no longer exist as well as handle some problem, the receipt of the 4S is truly remarkable, greatly increasing the possibilities offered by previous models. Thanks also to the new antennas, and the switch automatically according to the best reception, but the download speed has vastly improved (it now supports the terminal bands UMTS / HSDPA / HSUPA to 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz, as well the canonical bands that allow telephone calls around the world), coming to have an overall speed of 14.4 Mbps download, double the previous model. As we said, although the phone looks identical from the outside, under the shell of glass and aluminum A5 beats the new Apple dual core processor, the same as the iPad, which provides a significant performance boost (we are in order, according to the benchmarks, the 30-40% more), especially in games that feels more greedy in terms of resources. For the record, however, we must say that when the differences with the iPhone 4 are not so marked, of course, but this gap is likely to increase with the passage of time. Unchanged but the spectacular Retinal Display 3.5-inch, 960×460 resolution with its px, and a density equal to 326 pixels per inch.
Take that you go
Presented as one of the most important innovations during the keynote, we must acknowledge it to Apple to have done a great job with the new sensor, which is now coming to eight megapixels and can count on a higher level perspective that can provide an opening more objective, as well as a boot performance immediately visible with the photos in low light and macros. The camera application interface is slightly changed, as well as executing the shots using the “+” volume, the zoom is now managed by the classic pinch, and the time between shots the other is now significantly reduced. With little control over depth of field will also be possible to have an effect photo with “blurred background” more marked, the display of the grid to third in the composition of the shot and, of course, the HDR mode, which allows, provided you have a steady hand, several shots of the same scene in quick succession to take the full range of brightness, from underexposure to overexposure.
In recovery mode the video quality adjustable resolution passed by the entrance of HD (720p) to full (1080p), with video of the excellent performance in the presence of high ambient light or in daylight, while the quality goes down as hand that the brightness decreases. It ‘also a digital image stabilizer, which, come to terms with an interpolation may be too massive, it succeeds in alleviating the effects of camera shake. The front camera is VGA instead, and perhaps out of place with the high technological level of the rest of the terminal. We must still accept the fact that a front camera would have a major impact on the amount of data transmitted in a possible conversation FaceTime.
Autonomy
Let’s be clear: low. Too low. despite the technical specifications are in fact unchanged from the previous model, Apple has changed something in the same hours of being declared call and stand-by, but despite this the battery is at the moment, the real Achilles heel of the phone . Used normally too difficult to arrive at night, and indeed very often in mid-afternoon, you are forced to charge via PC or current. It ‘true that not every day there may be a need to use the terminal as a modem, play for a couple of hours, or stream via Air-Play to our Apple TV, but it is also true that in the last years the ‘come to terms with the audience is charge the phone every day, you can not sell phones that do everything but for a few hours a day. Despite the problem of the battery is so thorny and spread in over a month Apple has managed only to deploy an update (on 5.0.1), which has entirely failed to stem the problem, which, it should be remembered, is with software.
The heavy use of notifications and the geolocation of IOS 5 makes fact that some applications will continue to send their data even in standby, reducing the lifetime of autonomy. It must be said that the problem is particularly evident on all phones on which you loaded a backup to other iPhones, but is much less evident on the device initialized from scratch.
Equipment and software, of course, Siri
IOS5 we’ve talked about extensively: the operating system is really a major step forward for the iDevice ecosystem: the new center notifications, clear and customizable, IMessage, Reminder, and especially to support icloud means that the possibilities opened up by new update is really huge. 5 GB Apple offered free with your account (including cuts are also available from 32 and 50 GB of online storax,will allow us to keep backups online Our phone, so you have mail, messages and settings are always ready, without being tied to a specific terminal. About icloud has just been released in Italy the update to iTunes that will allow us, when the service will be activated in the Bel Paese, to take advantage of the opportunity to match iTunes, There will also preserve our music via the cloud, and, where possible, replace the one on your hard disk with a higher quality version taken directly from the iTunes server.
Let us finally to the distinctive features of this new device Apple: Siri. This fact only new 4S, the assistant speech made in Cupertino radically redefines the relationship between man / machine of this kind of device. Once activated by the panel settings, and select the language (only present for the English, French and German), Siri is ready to execute our every request: unlike the old systems based on voice commands, Siri is able to deduce the sense regardless of how the demand will be placed. It ‘makes sense that some criteria will be met, however, and that before a supercazzola the Australian’ll put in difficulty, but its immense database and evolving interpretation of the algorithm required is already an incredible step forward towards what seems to all intents and purposes a true artificial intelligence.
As we said Siri is able to fully replace some functions that were previously the preserve in close interaction with the touch panel: add and check appointments on the phone, look for something on the internet (not based on geolocation, however, currently active in the States alone USA), change settings or run calls. Even in our future best friend beats the heart of the cloud: for the Syrians to work it needs a Wi-Fi or 3G to access the active server Cupertino who interpret the requests and provide the answers, If this is on one side an objective disadvantage, however, we must say that Apple will allow in the future to constantly update the park virtual assistant answers, continuing to add new capabilities and new functions.
Specifications and prices for iPhones
* Height: 115.2 mm
* Width: 58.6 mm
* Depth: 9.3 mm
* Weight: 140 grams
* UMTS / HSDPA / HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz);
* GSM / EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
* CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) 3
* 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n only 2.4 GHz)
* Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Technology
* Retina Display
* Multi-touch widescreen 3.5 “(diagonal)
* Resolution of 960×640 pixels at 326 ppi
* Contrast 800:1 (typical)
* Brightness (typical) 500 cd/m2
* Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on front and back
* Supports simultaneous display of multiple languages and character sets
* 8 megapixel camera
* Autofocus
* Touch & Sharpen
* Detecting faces in photos
* LED flash
* HD video recording (1080p) up to 30 frames per second with sound
* Video Stabilization
* Front camera for photo and video quality up to VGA 30 frames per second
* Geotagging of photos and video
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery integrated
* Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter
* Talk time: up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM)
* Standby time: up to 200 hours
* Internet use: up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi
* Video playback: up to 10 hours
* Audio playback: Up to 40 hours
