GADGET WATCH: iPhone 4S

It’s been just one week since Apple debuted the iPhone 4S, and tomorrow the gadget will be launched in the United States, Europe and for the first time ever in the first round of releases, Australia.

It’s been an unusually short turnaround for an Apple product, as local customers usually have to wait for weeks before getting their hands on a device. But now that the iPhone 4S is just one day away, it’s a good chance to see what the first reviewers have to say about the device.

Hardware and features

The iPhone 4S appears exactly the same as the original iPhone 4. It features a 3.7-inch screen, with glass plating on the back and front, along with two cameras on the front and back, and an LED flash.

The gadget has a 3.5 inch screen, a resolution of 640×960, and the typical home button on the front of the casing.

But Apple is marketing the iPhone 4S as completely new on the inside. It’s now powered by an A5 1Ghz dual-core chip, the same found in the iPad 2, and uses a five-element lens, eight megapixel camera on the back. This allows users to now shoot video in 1080p.

The device comes in three models, a 16GB, 32GB or a 64GB version.

What’s the consensus?

Apple has been promoting the iPhone 4S as a device that is twice as fast as the iPhone 4, and reviewers have definitely noticed, saying all types of apps are opening faster and without a noticeable lag seen on earlier versions.

MG Seigler writes on TechCrunch that after a few days working with the 4S, reverting to an earlier model feels like a chore.

“Apps that used to take a longer time to perform a task – applying a filter in Camera+, for example – now work much faster. More generally, every app seems to load quite a bit faster. The best way to see this is to load the Settings app that is built into iOS.”

“On the iPhone 4, it can take up to three seconds to load. On the iPhone 4S, it loads in less than a second. And the 4S is faster at switching between apps when multi-tasking.”

The camera itself is a significant upgrade, and TechRadar has praised the device for its completely new camera, which has new filtering technology to get a better white balance make colours even brighter.

“The camera is certainly an improvement; backed up by a very good processor and a decent sensor, along with some interesting software options,” it says, although notes the ability to record 1080p isn’t anything new, and that Android phones have had this capability for awhile.

It also praised the speedier processor, but admits that won’t be fully put to the test until more apps are released that take advantage of the iOS 5 software.

The biggest upgrade is definitely the Siri assistant, and most reviewers are pinning this feature as more powerful than they expected. Over at Macworld, Jason Snell writes that he was impressed with the assistant’s ability to understand context.

“It didn’t always work, but when it did, it was magical. I asked Siri for suggestions for places to have lunch, and it provided me with a list of nearby restaurants that serve lunch. I then specified that I wanted to eat downtown, and got a narrower list of places downtown.”

Reviewers, such as CNET, have noted a number of gaps – Siri is unable to understand some aspects of conversation – but mostly, it works. However, Snell muses whether the voice-to-text feature could have been included in previous versions of the iPhone, as it doesn’t take up too much processing power.

Who’s it for?

The iPhone 4S is a significant improvement over the iPhone 4, and with improved speed and better battery life, is sure to gain a few upgrades from customers who are currently using the iPhone 4.

However, this upgrade – an incremental one, not a huge hardware revolution – isn’t necessarily for them. Most users won’t be drawn by the A5 chip, with the only major upgrade from the iPhone 4 being the voice assistant function, Siri. It’s doubtful that many iPhone 4 users will want to upgrade for those features alone.

Instead, this is designed for iPhone 3GS users who are just coming off their two-year contracts. If you have a 3GS and are debating an upgrade, then the 4S is definitely a worthy upgrade. But if you’re on the iPhone 4, you can afford to wait another year.