Apple iPhone 4S review

After four years and five different handsets, a predictable pattern has emerged with Apple’s iPhone. With pre-launch rumours focusing on an iPhone 5, Apple surprised everyone with a handset containing no great surprises. Just as the iPhone 3GS was a modest improvement on the iPhone 3G, we now have the 4S refining the iPhone 4 formula. Tick follows tock, follows tick, follows tock…

But while you might struggle to notice any difference in appearance, is there anything lurking beneath that glossy black exterior that makes the 4S more than a stopgap for the iPhone 5? Especially given that owners of iPhone 3GS and 4 handsets can also upgrade to iOS 5?

Revamped hardware

Only the most eagle-eyed observer could tell the difference between an iPhone 4S and its predecessor. The silence button has been shifted down a few millimetres – potentially making it tricky to reuse an iPhone 4 case – and the new antenna layout sees a couple of black lines around the perimeter repositioned, but this is to all intents and purposes an identical design.

On the inside, however, Apple has made a few significant improvements. In comes the same dual-core A5 processor that powers the iPad 2, delivering tablet-like performance in the confines of a 3.5in smartphone. The full BBC homepage loaded in only 2.5 seconds – as fast as an iPad 2 running iOS 5, and a second and a half faster than the A-Listed Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The 4S ripped through the SunSpider benchmark in 2.2 seconds – 0.4 seconds slower than our iPad 2, but a third quicker than the Galaxy S II. This is the fastest smartphone we’ve ever seen, and by some distance.

That processing power isn’t only apparent in synthetic benchmarks: demanding 3D games such as FIFA 2012 are flawlessly smooth, even if the back of the phone does get a little toasty when the processor is pushed; multitasking doesn’t trouble the processor – we had the TomTom satnav, the music player and iOS notifications running simultaneously without a hint of slowdown; and there’s none of the occasional juddering witnessed on previous-generation hardware upgraded to iOS 5.

Speaking to Siri

That dual-core A5 processor also (according to Apple, at least) gives rise to the iPhone 4S’s only unique feature: Siri. Although limited voice controls were available in earlier iPhone models, Siri raises the AI bar, allowing users to bark natural language commands into their handset and have the phone speak back or display the requested information on screen. Although Siri offloads the voice recognition duties to the server – requiring an active data connection before it will even attempt to decipher what you’re saying – Apple claims that only the dual-core processor is capable of the necessary data crunching. Although given that apps such as Dragon Dictation have transcribed the spoken word at a similar speed to Siri on earlier iPhones, we can’t help but wonder if this a smokescreen designed purely to differentiate the 4S from its predecessors.

Siri is clever, but not nearly as clever as it might be, and clearly a work in progress. It works best when asked to perform set tasks: “do I have any appointments today?” will send Siri scouring through your calendar, displaying any meetings in the diary; “wake me up at seven,” will set an alarm call for the morning; “tell Jonathan Bray I’ll be in at ten” will send a text message to said reviews editor (provided he’s in your phone contacts) with the necessary message.

It starts to fall down when tasked with more bespoke jobs. Dictating emails or lengthy text messages is too hit and miss, with Siri making it so hard to correct poorly transcribed text that you simply revert to the keyboard. Telling Siri to “remember my laptop when I leave here” creates a reminder that’s meant to go off when the GPS sensor detects you’ve left the building, but it failed to do so on the two occasions we tested it. And potentially useful location-based commands such as “find the nearest Starbucks” or “show me a map of Brighton” only work in the US.

As it is, Siri also needs a decent chunk of time spent training it on who’s who in your phonebook, and for you to get used to the right way to say things for the best results, so it’s not going to replace touch control anytime soon. The one place it could potentially come into its own is in the car, especially as it can be activated with a Bluetooth headset – allowing drivers to have text messages read to them and compose simple replies without risking a fine (or indeed their lives) by reaching for the handset. It has potential, but in its current incarnation it’s not quite the killer feature Apple must have hoped it would be.

Camera upgrade

The only other major upgrade in the iPhone 4S comes in the form of a new camera. The 8-megapixel sensor brings it on a par with the Galaxy S II, although it can’t match the Android handset’s magnificent macro mode, with the 4S struggling to focus on anything closer than 2in in front of the lens. That’s not to say its pictures are a disappointment: in good light they’re rich in both detail and colour – especially if you engage the HDR mode.

A new grid overlay helps avoid wonky horizons, and the iOS 5 option of using the volume up button as a shutter helps you adopt a more comfortable, camera-like grip. However, the camera’s autofocus does have a tendency to wander after it’s locked onto a subject, which could result in fleeting photographic opportunities being missed. When in automatic mode, the camera also seems strangely reluctant to engage the flash, resulting in photos marred by noise. But make no mistake: this is the first iPhone camera that could seriously rival a dedicated compact, and the 1080p video at 30fps is a match for plenty of Flip-style camcorders too (and a step up from the iPhone 4’s 720p video).

A worthy upgrade?

Elsewhere, the iPhone 4S remains very much the equal of its predecessor. It has the same 960 x 640 Retina display as the iPhone 4 – which, with a searing brightness of 581cd/m2 and contrast ratio of 968:1, remains the finest smartphone display on the market. Text is beautifully crisp, photos display lustrous blacks and warm, perfectly saturated colours, and the backlight is as even as a bowling lawn.

Battery life hasn’t improved, either. There was 30% of battery remaining after our 24-hour test, suggesting that owners will still be plugging their smartphone into charge every night – perhaps even more frequently if they’re fans of 3D games such as FIFA, which gobbled through battery at a rate of around 10% per 20 minutes of game time. We should point out, however, that that was with the new Notifications Centre in full swing, so it’s not directly comparable with the iPhone 4 test. It didn’t seem any quicker to drain during real-world use.

The big question, therefore, is whether the 4S does enough to dislodge the Galaxy S II from our A-List. The answer is no, and that largely comes down to price. The Galaxy S II is now free on a £26 per month contract over two years, whereas the same price/duration contract for the iPhone 4S requires buyers to spend £239 on the handset upfront.

Is the iPhone 4S £240 better than the Galaxy S II? We’d argue not. There are many excellent features in iOS 5, and Siri could well grow to become something genuinely useful, but the improvements to the camera and performance don’t do quite enough to justify that price jump.

Should iPhone 3GS owners upgrade? Definitely, especially if they’ve already got a large paid-for library of transferable apps. But iPhone 4 owners have little reason to pester their network’s retention department. Samsung has no reason to panic, either.

Details
Cheapest price on contract	£129
Contract monthly charge	£30.00
Contract period	24 months
Contract provider	3
Physical
Dimensions	59 x 9.3 x 115mm (WDH)
Weight	140g
Touchscreen	yes
Primary keyboard	On-screen
Core Specifications
RAM capacity	512MB
Camera megapixel rating	8.0mp
Front-facing camera?	yes
Video capture?	yes
Display
Screen size	3.5in
Resolution	640 x 960
Landscape mode?	yes
Other wireless standards
Bluetooth support	yes
Integrated GPS	yes
Software
OS family	Other