ritvij
rated R
This is my first attempt at a review. Please don't be harsh....
People have reviewed iPhone 4s extensively! The internet is full of professional as well as personal user reviews... But most of the reviewers have penned their thoughts after using it for a considerable period of time. I had an opportunity to spend a day with this exotic product, courtesy to one of my friend’s ignorance about its usage which gave me a chance for interface with it and thereafter an irresistible temptation to express my views in black and white. I have used apple products in past from an iPod touch to an iPhone 4 and when my friend asked me to activate his phone and sync his contacts I had a chance to use the 4s which I longed for!
*i.imgur.com/N4WGf.jpg
"the array of apple devices at my disposal"
Left to Right: My iPod, Bro's iphone 3gs, Bro's iPhone 4
To begin with the build quality of the handset, the iPhone 4s is not exactly the same as the iPhone 4. Apple has slightly changed the design of the 4S, by changing to a dual-band aerial design, making sure it doesn't encounter an embarrassing repeat of antenna-gate we had to endure with the iPhone 4. It is thicker than most slim phones but it fits superbly in hand! Obviously the current trend is for slimmer phones but what's the point of buying so slim phones that they cannot be kept into a tight jeans pocket without having nightmares about breaking them. The 4s feels solid and is considered small by some in terms of its 3.5" screen but it fits snugly in your hand without tending to slip! The screen is brilliant in terms of display quality and sunlight legibility is great if you set the brightness levels accordingly.
My friend was earlier using a nokia n900 and I was to transfer the contacts from it to the 4s. It sounds a pretty mundane task but for the non-geeks who just know two ways: Bluetooth or cut copy paste-sim swap; this task is no less than attending a complete Bieber concert!
*i.imgur.com/zEn0P.jpg
"His iPhone 4s..
"
Powering the phone on... A grey screen with iPhone written on it greets you and you need to activate it via cellular network or over the air via Wi-Fi. After the usual continue, yes, allow and I accept the license agreements you get to enjoy the phone.
If you have used an iOS device before then you will immediately feel at home with this device, if not, even then too the learning curve is not that steep. The UI remains largely the same but you get a new notification bar similar to android with the iOS 5 update! It shows the weather and all your notifications from social networks to missed calls. One can simple swipe the missed called notification on the lock screen and call the number without having to unlock the phone.
To transfer the contacts i combined all vcf files to one vcf file and sent it as an attachment to the mail account synced in iPhone. Once i received the mail just a simple tap imported all contacts from it.
Coming to the camera, it is a significant improvement over the camera of the iPhone 4. The 8 MP clicker is awesome for the day shots and the powerful led flash ensures that your night shots are even better. It shoots video at 30fps in full HD and has got a plethora of editing options available which get even more when you turn towards the app store. The front facing camera can still be used for video calls only over face time with other apple users, a disappointment, from a nearly perfect device. Some shots which I took were stunning with every detail being visible which apple claims to be coz of the introduction of a fifth lens in the optics!
The 4s shows no lag of whatsoever kind even on running multiple apps in background nor did the iPhone 4, but the 4s beats the iPhone 4 by a margin when it comes to gaming. I downloaded infinity blade II to test the grunt this phone provides and quite frankly, apple has hit the mark now! The dual core proccy handles the load times efficiently. With the new gpu under its belly, the 4s can display all the latest games in their full glory! Modern combat 3 utilizes fully the presence of the second core and the new gpu. After playing it for an hour on both the 4s and 4, one gets to feel the difference!
Many people (my friend included) go on and on about the demerits of apple's closed system policy and the lack of Bluetooth transfers. It is correct to say that if one buys a device for 50k he should be given complete control over its features, but apple knows that if something happens to the device even because of user's fault the company is the first to get the blame! The Bluetooth worked flawlessly with my BH-503.
Siri, Apple’s voice recognition service rocks big time! I had a great hour playing about with it and it easily picked up four out my every five commands. My friend came over to pick up the device and he was dazzled by it. Now who needs touchscreens when you can send texts without typing a single letter. Of course, there is scope of improvement. Apple still has to perfect Siri for the Indian buyers as it has some problem recognizing accents but undoubtedly Siri is by far the best voice recognition service on a mobile phone.
I couldn’t test the battery life and iCloud service in this short span of time but according to other sources it manages to last for two days with moderate usage and 3g and Wi-Fi turned on throughout. I drained it to about 50% from fully charged status in the 13 hours it was with me.
On a closing note, the iPhone 4s is a fabulous device. It offers nothing extra special over the iPhone 4 but it is the best product apple has ever produced. Samsung Galaxy SII is powerful, agreed; but apple’s touch experience is still a benchmark in the industry. Like it or hate it, the 4s is one of the best phones in the market right now. The major gripe is the pricing. For 44500 for the 16GB and around 50000 for the 32GB, it is a rich man’s toy. One can build a pretty powerful pc in that amount but for real connoisseurs it is a worthy purchase. Apple sure demands a premium but delivers richer user experience than others. So if you have money to burn, go ahead buy the iPhone 4s and be the center of attention amongst your friends. Else, if you are looking for pure performance with little or no attention to UI go for the SII.
Features.. 9.0
Performance 8.5
Build quality 9.5
Value for Money 6.0
Overall 8.25
People have reviewed iPhone 4s extensively! The internet is full of professional as well as personal user reviews... But most of the reviewers have penned their thoughts after using it for a considerable period of time. I had an opportunity to spend a day with this exotic product, courtesy to one of my friend’s ignorance about its usage which gave me a chance for interface with it and thereafter an irresistible temptation to express my views in black and white. I have used apple products in past from an iPod touch to an iPhone 4 and when my friend asked me to activate his phone and sync his contacts I had a chance to use the 4s which I longed for!
*i.imgur.com/N4WGf.jpg
"the array of apple devices at my disposal"
Left to Right: My iPod, Bro's iphone 3gs, Bro's iPhone 4
To begin with the build quality of the handset, the iPhone 4s is not exactly the same as the iPhone 4. Apple has slightly changed the design of the 4S, by changing to a dual-band aerial design, making sure it doesn't encounter an embarrassing repeat of antenna-gate we had to endure with the iPhone 4. It is thicker than most slim phones but it fits superbly in hand! Obviously the current trend is for slimmer phones but what's the point of buying so slim phones that they cannot be kept into a tight jeans pocket without having nightmares about breaking them. The 4s feels solid and is considered small by some in terms of its 3.5" screen but it fits snugly in your hand without tending to slip! The screen is brilliant in terms of display quality and sunlight legibility is great if you set the brightness levels accordingly.
My friend was earlier using a nokia n900 and I was to transfer the contacts from it to the 4s. It sounds a pretty mundane task but for the non-geeks who just know two ways: Bluetooth or cut copy paste-sim swap; this task is no less than attending a complete Bieber concert!
*i.imgur.com/zEn0P.jpg
"His iPhone 4s..
"Powering the phone on... A grey screen with iPhone written on it greets you and you need to activate it via cellular network or over the air via Wi-Fi. After the usual continue, yes, allow and I accept the license agreements you get to enjoy the phone.
If you have used an iOS device before then you will immediately feel at home with this device, if not, even then too the learning curve is not that steep. The UI remains largely the same but you get a new notification bar similar to android with the iOS 5 update! It shows the weather and all your notifications from social networks to missed calls. One can simple swipe the missed called notification on the lock screen and call the number without having to unlock the phone.
To transfer the contacts i combined all vcf files to one vcf file and sent it as an attachment to the mail account synced in iPhone. Once i received the mail just a simple tap imported all contacts from it.
Coming to the camera, it is a significant improvement over the camera of the iPhone 4. The 8 MP clicker is awesome for the day shots and the powerful led flash ensures that your night shots are even better. It shoots video at 30fps in full HD and has got a plethora of editing options available which get even more when you turn towards the app store. The front facing camera can still be used for video calls only over face time with other apple users, a disappointment, from a nearly perfect device. Some shots which I took were stunning with every detail being visible which apple claims to be coz of the introduction of a fifth lens in the optics!
The 4s shows no lag of whatsoever kind even on running multiple apps in background nor did the iPhone 4, but the 4s beats the iPhone 4 by a margin when it comes to gaming. I downloaded infinity blade II to test the grunt this phone provides and quite frankly, apple has hit the mark now! The dual core proccy handles the load times efficiently. With the new gpu under its belly, the 4s can display all the latest games in their full glory! Modern combat 3 utilizes fully the presence of the second core and the new gpu. After playing it for an hour on both the 4s and 4, one gets to feel the difference!
Many people (my friend included) go on and on about the demerits of apple's closed system policy and the lack of Bluetooth transfers. It is correct to say that if one buys a device for 50k he should be given complete control over its features, but apple knows that if something happens to the device even because of user's fault the company is the first to get the blame! The Bluetooth worked flawlessly with my BH-503.
Siri, Apple’s voice recognition service rocks big time! I had a great hour playing about with it and it easily picked up four out my every five commands. My friend came over to pick up the device and he was dazzled by it. Now who needs touchscreens when you can send texts without typing a single letter. Of course, there is scope of improvement. Apple still has to perfect Siri for the Indian buyers as it has some problem recognizing accents but undoubtedly Siri is by far the best voice recognition service on a mobile phone.
I couldn’t test the battery life and iCloud service in this short span of time but according to other sources it manages to last for two days with moderate usage and 3g and Wi-Fi turned on throughout. I drained it to about 50% from fully charged status in the 13 hours it was with me.
On a closing note, the iPhone 4s is a fabulous device. It offers nothing extra special over the iPhone 4 but it is the best product apple has ever produced. Samsung Galaxy SII is powerful, agreed; but apple’s touch experience is still a benchmark in the industry. Like it or hate it, the 4s is one of the best phones in the market right now. The major gripe is the pricing. For 44500 for the 16GB and around 50000 for the 32GB, it is a rich man’s toy. One can build a pretty powerful pc in that amount but for real connoisseurs it is a worthy purchase. Apple sure demands a premium but delivers richer user experience than others. So if you have money to burn, go ahead buy the iPhone 4s and be the center of attention amongst your friends. Else, if you are looking for pure performance with little or no attention to UI go for the SII.
Features.. 9.0
Performance 8.5
Build quality 9.5
Value for Money 6.0
Overall 8.25
