Monday, October 17, 2011

iPhone 4S first thoughts

Right on time, my friendly FedEx delivery guy dropped off a little brown box at my front door last Friday.  I have to admit, I was a bit more excited to get my iPhone4 last year, but the day a new Apple product arrives is always a pretty good day.

As with the iPhone 4, the 4S migration was painless and fairly quick for me, unlike some others that I've heard from.  I upgraded my 4 to iOS 5 earlier in the week so I was already familiar with most of the new features and the fact that the sync process how happens somewhat in the background once you get the phone's initial set up complete.

So, yeah, I played with Seri a bit and it's as billed.  I used the Voice Command feature on my 4 quite a bit when I'm in my car so I had a good comparison.  Bottom line, there is no comparison.  For someone who works from their car quite a bit this should be a must have, both for efficiency and safety.

While the news was mainly about Seri, the speed of the 4S is the real story.  It's noticeably quicker,  smoother, more responsive...all of the things you would expect from a major Apple phone upgrade.  And, gee, all of my iPhone accessories still work so that's another bonus.

The camera was my main reason for upgrading and it does not disappoint.  While a lot of the cool new features are in iOS 5 and available for the 4, the speed of the 4S makes the camera work even more like a standalone device.  Add a very nice lens and sensor upgrade and the 4S looks to me like another nail in the coffin of point-and-shoot cameras.

Bottom line? Well worth the upgrade if you use your iPhone a lot and you can qualify.  If you don't qualify yet, I suggest you don't play around with a 4S because it will make you want to replace your 4 even more.  But the advances with iOS 5 on the 4 makes it almost like a new phone so if you haven't stepped up and updated your software yet I strongly encourage it.

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