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iPhone 4S Hands-Ons and First Impressions

OK here's my take on the entire thing

I have whined like a little kid all along looking for a redesign as I want new things.
The iPhone4 is a great great device in its own and with iOS 5 and iCloud, it is just so much powerful; has more features than probably any other smartphone on the planet. You may not find a dual core processor in it or a 4.3inch screen, but it has a pretty good and an already acceptable form factor appealing to millions of users all over the world.
iPhone4 still blows away the competition when it comes to actual usage, battery life, functionality, user experience, satisfaction, customer service and all that you would want from a frikkin phone.

Now comes the question where a redesign iPhone was perceived and was blown away by the usual media. Was it Apple's fault? I believe Apple could control it by providing a bit more evidence of the i4S, but they didn't really give a **** about it.

As I understand, Apple is under no obligation to just do whatever the consumer asks for. Hell, Apple never does that because there 100,000 types of consumer in this world and Apple usually cares for only 1. Take it or leave it; as simple as that.

I believe just made the already popular Apple device MORE popular with some great new developments and great new features. The camera upgrade is unbelievable and so is the unbelievable speed of the phone. iPhone4 itself is amazingly fast; I wonder how fast it is going to be on an A5 chip. With Siri, it even looks more awesome. People claiming that they don't really care about Siri might find it useful at a later stage. Just like other neglected Apple technologies, this is going to be a great addition and in a year or two, we will see how it totally changed the user interaction with the device.

My only grievance is that I find iPhone4 to be uncomfortable in my hand. I'm pretty sure most find it way comfortable to use, but I don't see how I'm going to adjust with it.
The only thing that's going to take me away from the device is the screen size which I wanted to be a bit more as 3.5inch is too small for me.

But again, its about preferences and opinions. Some people weight battery life more than anything and go with a nokia(like my dad used to); I do prefer a 3.8/4.0inch phone.

But really it wouldn't take me a second to change my mind on the 7th and preorder one for myself.
After all it has been a pretty long wait for a new iPhone. New and better things will always be anticipated, but one cannot end their life waiting and waiting...

Hell-bent for Leather. October 7 -- come sooner. :)

banana6.gif


[Statuary Warning: No spell check; I'm ****in sleepy]
 
If the shoe fits, wear it. This is an excellent design, and I understand their desire to keep it.

The idiots on here truly amaze me, it's actually really funny to read this whining and complaining. It's a phone. Let me reiterate.

It's a phone.

There are famines, wars, and poverty plaguing this world, and you get upset over a phone? Take all that frustration and go volunteer somewhere, or something. Christ almighty. So you got your panties all in a bunch because Apple made a decision that they felt was the right one. Let them, the adults, make the choices. Apple is a good company, and I feel as though Cook is right for the job.

Trust me when I say that no matter how much whining all of you do on here, this phone will still line the soles of this companies' shoes with platinum.
 
I am done with this company. I am ashamed to have recommended them to my family and friends. I will be getting a new non iPhone and computer. Pathetic.
 
It doesn't appear that the stock manipulators...err I mean analysts on Wall Street like the new 4S...

"Apple gets no love from Wall Street for new iPhone"

"Apple’s iPhone 4S Opens the Door for Competitors"

"Apple Underwhelms With iPhone 4S"

"New Apple iPhone fails to wow investors, fans"
 
lilo777 said:
A5 in iPhone is not the same as A5 in iPad. We do not know that it will be clocked at 1GHz. They said today that A5 CPU in iPhone is 2x performance of A4. Well, with two cores vs one I interpret it as that the frequency will be the same (i.e. 800MHz, like iPhone 4).

Dual core 1.5GHz processors are already being released.

There was no LTE a year ago (or HSPA+ to this matter). Well now we expect 21Mbps at least. And, LTE on Verizon already covers 50% of US population. By the time iPhone 5 is released, it'll be 100%.
Click to expand...

Dual Core 1.5 is in production as far as I know, not released yet. But coming soon. Anyway, we don't know the clock speed of A5 inside iPhone 4S yet. In any case, I wouldn't really call the CPU gap has "significantly" widened.

About LTE, I don't really know. I don't live in a LTE covered area. Can people really get full 22mbps from verizon right now?
 
Stick with Apple

awitti said:
1. If you really want a PHONE, there are plenty of flip phones that fit better in your pocket and make reliable calls out there. You'd save enough money to buy that iPad you speak of.

2. I have no doubt that you and all the other 4S apologists will be right back here next year praising the redesign of the iP5 for all of the same reasons that those who are disappointed today are complaining.

Look, I don't hate Apple. I don't want them to fail. But I look to Apple to make things that I want to buy because I know how well they can do it. Sadly, I don't want to buy the 4S. I've been holding on to my 3GS anticipating something really special that would make the upgrade worthwhile. iOS5 sounds promising. I'll try it on my 3GS and we'll see. If that's a no-go, then I will be shopping androids and wp8. Maybe I'll just keep my 3GS and put that money toward an Air - now that's a sexy Apple design. 4/4S? Meh...
Click to expand...

iOS5 may not run well on the 3GS, but even if it doesn't, you'll regret it if you leave Apple. As you seem to recognize, the hardware is only half of the equation. Some of the very latest/best Android phones compete on the same hardware playing field as the iPhone, but they are far from being functionally equal.

...And I say this as someone who is happy to see Android compete...I want the most for my money. If Android phones were really anything remotely like an iPhone in terms of actual performance, I'd consider one. I like the iPhone, but only because it's good at what it does. And, while the hardware of the 4s doesn't matter much to me, the underlying functionality is what really matters.
 
alent1234 said:
anandtech has benchmarks that show that the ipad stomps all over every higher clocked CPU thrown against it. ARM CPU's in the same class have hige performance differences and Apple is usually way ahead
Click to expand...

Didn't know about that. But yes there's the software side of things as well. Just because a phone has a faster clocked CPU than iPhone 4S does not mean it'll perform faster. Real life performance matters over specs obviously.
 
lilo777 said:
* No HSPA+ (iPhone now is officially the slowest phone that can be bought for $100+)
Click to expand...

I'll leave someone else to reply to the rest of your post, but the chip Apple is using (MDM6600) in the iPhone 4 CDMA and the iPad 2 CDMA is also likely the chip used in the 4S, and does support HSPA+, albeit only at the 14.4mbps data rate, rather than the 21, 28, or 42 some people would like to see:

http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releas...ls-new-roadmap-gobi-connectivity-technologies
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8L1)

FoxHoundADAM said:
nagromme said:
No, I got outstanding turn-by-turn GPS for $15 (sometimes more, often on sale for $20): Navigon MyRegion (now owned by Garmin). There are cheaper, even free, options too.

And a real Navigon/Garmin/TomTom app does something Android’s free directions won’t do: work without a good cell signal! What good are driving directions if they cut out when you need them most?
Click to expand...

I was unaware of this one. I'll have to check it out. Still my point is it isn't free.
Click to expand...

It is for me, now, since I paid for it three years ago.
 
Siri is ok...

Siri is ok looking I guess but I'd still like something that's less hands-on. I think they shouldn't stop working on these technologies until it becomes Star-Trek like. Instead of holding in the home button I'd like to be able to say, "Siri" and my phone say, "Yes" or beep or something.

I also wonder about when he asked for the translation of "mitosis" in the demo...could he have said, "read it to me" or would he actually have to look at his phone after talking to it?

My feeling is that this is a good start but it still has a long way to go before it becomes Star Trek-like technology that I'll really be impressed by. :)
 
cshearer said:
If the shoe fits, wear it. This is an excellent design, and I understand their desire to keep it.

The idiots on here truly amaze me, it's actually really funny to read this whining and complaining. It's a phone. Let me reiterate.

It's a phone.

There are famines, wars, and poverty plaguing this world, and you get upset over a phone? Take all that frustration and go volunteer somewhere, or something. Christ almighty. So you got your panties all in a bunch because Apple made a decision that they felt was the right one. Let them, the adults, make the choices. Apple is a good company, and I feel as though Cook is right for the job.

Trust me when I say that no matter how much whining all of you do on here, this phone will still line the soles of this companies' shoes with platinum.
Click to expand...

It's the classic online discussion psychology. People don't come to online discussion forums to discuss stuff. They come to vent and bully each other and get off on it. Since it's anonymous, they can't get hurt or be hit back in the face. This is actually a study area in psychology now.
 
shiseiryu1 said:
Siri is ok looking I guess but I'd still like something that's less hands-on. I think they shouldn't stop working on these technologies until it becomes Star-Trek like. Instead of holding in the home button I'd like to be able to say, "Siri" and my phone say, "Yes" or beep or something.

I also wonder about when he asked for the translation of "mitosis" in the demo...could he have said, "read it to me" or would he actually have to look at his phone after talking to it?

My feeling is that this is a good start but it still has a long way to go before it becomes Star Trek-like technology that I'll really be impressed by. :)
Click to expand...
Star Trek-like implies technology that is hundreds of years more advanced. You know, the kind that runs spacecraft capable of accelerating safely to the speed of light?

Yeah, let's be realistic.
 
nemaslov said:
I wouldn't want a larger screen. Jeez it's a phone. I'm 57 and think the size is perfect. If I want to view something large I'll pick up my iPad.
Click to expand...

I think most (not all) of the people "complaining" about screen size are Android trolls. They don't realize that good UI design can create a better experience than just pumping up the screen size.
 
iBug2 said:
It's the classic online discussion psychology. People don't come to online discussion forums to discuss stuff. They come to vent and bully each other and get off on it. Since it's anonymous, they can't get hurt or actually be hit back in the face. This is actually a study area in psychology now.
Click to expand...
I'm aware, being a psychology student. I know my post has no bearing on whether or not this conversation will stop being ridiculous. Needless to say, it is ridiculous. People are legitimately whining and cursing Apple themselves, like they're a single person.

I find the study of delusional disorders to be more fascinating.
 
As a user, to be honest, I'm a little disappointed because I was hoping for a form factor change. BUT, when you stop to really think about it, it's not THAT big a deal and today's announcements were still very impressive. The only thing missing was a different form factor and larger screen. My guess is that Apple has one already made, but perhaps felt they shouldn't release until low-power LTE was ready (as well as larger scale deployment by carriers).

As a shareholder, I'm not worried at all. There were enough internal improvements + software improvements (Assistant) that it'll continue to sell very very well. The stock took a beating and I just wished I had enough cash to scoop up some more shares. I expect to see good things from their Oct 18th earnings report. In fact, as a shareholder, I think this may be the smarter strategy - staggered announcements. They had plenty to talk about today and I think they chose to delay the form factor change so that they have another rabbit to pull out of the hat for next year. A friend of mine (who works in the high tech industry) and I were discussing it today and he made a good point - if you have 9 surprise developments, you don't release them all at once. You release 3 now, another 3 in six months, and then another 3 next year, while buying yourself time to add more surprises to the bag.

Going back to what we DID see, I think many of the people complaining are missing some pretty big things that were announced.
1) Wireless sync
2) Airplay mirroring - game play without thumbs getting in the way? Playing movies instantly from your couch (no remote necessary)?
3) Easier and faster camera access with vastly improved internals - backlit sensor with an f/2.4 5-element lens is a pretty huge upgrade. The only phone I know of that compares is the HTC Titan (WP7), but that'd be a silly reason to switch to an immature mobile OS.
4) Dual core A5 - yes, same chip as the iPad2's, but I suspect this is necessary for a smooth Siri experience and for smooth Airplay mirroring. Faster chip is always better as long as it doesn't sacrifice battery life and it doesn't sound like it will.
5) Siri. This could be huge once App developers find ways to incorporate it. I'm assuming Apple really has made this seamless enough that it seems "magical". TBD. But I do think that Apple sees the future as voice replacing your finger. Think about it - after a couple more years of fine tuning, I could see an OS that doesn't even really need icons. You just say what you want - "Let's play some chess.", "I want to watch X-men:First Class", "How do I get home using public transportation?", "Where can I get some Thai food for less than $10?", "Send mom a text, 'Great news! Apple's stock bounced back!'". Heck, Siri can probably do some of these things right now.

I do wish they slightly altered the form factor just to differentiate it from the IP4. But, I do think that once the low power LTE chips are ready and they know they can scale production, they'll announce the iPhone 5. I'm going out on a limb to say that I think they may even release it by next June.
 
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cshearer said:
Star Trek-like implies technology that is hundreds of years more advanced. You know, the kind that runs spacecraft capable of accelerating safely to the speed of light?

Yeah, let's be realistic.
Click to expand...

No. Star Trek like means stuff you used to see on Star Trek and say to yourself "I wonder if one day these will become true".

And yes, Siri is one of those things. Voice control was always a futuristic thing people wondered about and it still has not arrived yet, not fully at least. But Siri is a good enough sneak peak.

Same with video chat. That also was a big part of Star Trek people really craved about.
 
lilo777 said:
A5 in iPhone is not the same as A5 in iPad. We do not know that it will be clocked at 1GHz. They said today that A5 CPU in iPhone is 2x performance of A4. Well, with two cores vs one I interpret it as that the frequency will be the same (i.e. 800MHz, like iPhone 4).

Dual core 1.5GHz processors are already being released.

There was no LTE a year ago (or HSPA+ to this matter). Well now we expect 21Mbps at least. And, LTE on Verizon already covers 50% of US population. By the time iPhone 5 is released, it'll be 100%.
Click to expand...

A5 is closed to 2.5x faster than A4. Cortex A9 cores are 25% faster clock for clock. 1.25*2 = 2.5.

LTE will not cover 100% by next year. EV-DO doesn't even cover 100%. It's around 97%.

As for dual core 1.5 GHz processors, none are on the market yet, or if they are Qualcomm based, then those are A8 derivative, meaning they are slightly slower than the OMAP 4470 or Exynos 4212. By the time those hit devices, the A6 will only be a few months away at most. It will be interesting to see if the A6 is simply a die shrink of the A5 with a clock boost or if Apple goes for the jugular and outs a quad core design or a design based on the A15 cores. In either case, they can push the envelope and include some Rogue SGX 6xx GPU cores from ImgTec. My money is on an A5 die shrink so they can save power for LTE.
 
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