iPhone 4S review

Cameras

The iPhone 4 has 5 megapixel shooter which — when it was introduced — was touted as being superior to other smartphone cameras. As far as video is concerned, it should come as no surprise that Apple has done a similarly excellent job here too.

Software

The iPhone 4S isn’t so much about the hardware as it is the software. Now when you get a message or new email, you see a notification at the top of your screen which doesn't interfere with what you’re doing on the phone. You can swipe towards the left of the screen on these messages to make them disappear. The company has also included a new messaging component called iMessage. This service is unique in that it works across devices (so the iPad and iPod touch get the app too).

Siri

The other, major new piece of software on the iPhone 4S is Siri (intelligent assistant). Siri’s utilizes a combination of voice recognition, logic processing, and text-to-speech, the software can interpret requests and follow conversations. Siri also learns things about you and the people around you. You can tell Siri who your wife or brother is. You can tell Siri where you work and live. The software will read or write text messages using voice commands, and can also take dictation in any field where you can use a keyboard. If you ask it things like “do I need a raincoat today,” it understands and responds as a human being would. You can tell it to wake you up at a certain time and it knows to set an alarm, and if you ask Siri how to get home from somewhere, it’ll give you directions in the Maps application.

Score: 9 / 10

Pros

Camera is stunning
Retina Display is still best in class
Siri software is incredibly cool and surprisingly useful

Cons

iOS is beginning to show its age
Improved 3G speeds don’t seem very improved, especially compared to LTE devices
Glass and metal design is beautiful, but easy to shatter