iPhone 4S: What we wanted, what we got
And now the burning question – does the new iPhone live up to the hype?
OK, so there was no iPhone 5 but sometimes it’s what’s inside that counts and the iPhone 4S ticked a lot of our rumour mill boxes.
Wanted: The skinniest, lightest smartphone on the planet
Got: No hardware changes were announced, so you’re looking at the same solid iPhone 4 design – weighing in at 137 grams and still standing proud with a 9.3mm waistline.
Wanted: A nice big, 4in screen to play with – preferably with curved glass
Got: The iPhone 4S will stick with the 3.5in Retina Display screen that we came to know and love on the iPhone 4. Not everyone needs a screen the size of their face, remember but sometimes size does matter.
Wanted: A faster dual-core processor, like the iPad 2’s A5 chip, to keep up with the Android army
Got: That’s a bingo! We were suitably impressed by the 7x improvement in graphics over the iPhone 4 thanks to the dual-core A5 chip. Games for iOS like Infinity Blade 2, released on December 1st, should look awesome.
Wanted: 4G
Got: Not that it makes any difference to us Brits living in these backward waters but the iPhone 4S will have 4G data capabilities – and with almost every other manufacturer heading in this direction too, it’s safe to say goodbye to 3G.
Wanted: 8MP camera with a new flash placement and built-in iPhoto app
Got: Apple did us proud on the camera front, sticking an 8MP camera on the new iPhone 4S and bumping up its movie-making credentials with 1080p video skills. It will also be faster than rivals like the Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation at taking shots – 1.1s for the first shot and 0.5s for the second.
Wanted: Better battery life
Got: Just a slight improvement over the iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S will have eight hours of 3G talk time – 14 hours on 2G – and up to nine hours of Wi-Fi browsing (but just six on 3G). Video playback is still ten hours with music at 40 hours.
Wanted: Assistant voice control built into iOS 5
Got: This was the big one for Apple. Renamed Siri, after the company who built this voice control software, this new feature lets your iPhone 4S find definitions, give you directions, book appointments and even talk back to you. Siri can also create reminders, make calendar appointments and create text messages all based on voice commands. Scary stuff, if people murmuring into their gadgets on the street makes you nervous.
Wanted: Bigger touchpad with gesture control
Got: This one was just pie-in-the-sky rumour mill fodder, we’re afraid. The home button’s thumb sized design has survived in 2011’s iPhone.
Wanted: 16GB and 32GB models
Got: We got those storage options and more – a 64GB iPhone 4S to add to the family. And as we expected, the latest iPhone will ship in black and white – oh, they spoil us sometimes.
Apple iPhone 5 liveblog 2011
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
