iPhone 4S Unboxing and First Impression

It seems Apple has adopted Intel's Tick-Tock strategy in releasing phones with every Tick giving us a major new phone (think iPhone 3G or iPhone 4) and every Tock giving us a reasonably sized internal update (think iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4S). This year everyone with even half a toe in the world of tech shouted for a major Tick  but as the more grounded of us predicted we got a Tock. Now enough with the clock metaphors lets get into my first impression of the phone.

   If looks could kill this phone wouldn't have any living owners, having killed them all with its "not exactly boxy" rectangular form with glass on the front and back and a thin stainless steel band around the perimeter. With its thin form factor (just 9.3mm thin) and relatively small 3.5 inch touch screen it fits beautifully in the palm of your hand allowing you to use either your thumb or your opposite hand to make use of the phone. The glass used it Corning's Gorilla Glass while is highly scratch resistant and is supposed to survive minor scratches and bumps but I would recommend buying an anti-fingerprint screen guard for both the front and back so that your screen doesn't look like a flurry of fingerprint strokes.

  

 The screen has an absolutely crazily high 960x640 resolution with a pixel density so high even Superman (probably) can't make out the individual pixels. This is higher than the resolution we find on most high-end Android phones which usually have significantly bigger displays and though it isn't an AMOLED it's arguably as good. At the moment the only phone on the Indian market which supports a higher resolution display is the Galaxy Nexus.

   Originally I thought that I might find the keyboard on the 3.5 inch screen small coming from the 4.3 incher on my RAZR but I found it a breeze to type on and was soon upto my normal typing speed. I also found myself making fewer mistakes and the autocorrect helped me out the rest of the time (though it still needs some work). The screen is great for viewing photos, watching videos and reading text but for tasks like these I would prefer at least a 4 inch screen.

   I could write another post simply talking about the camera and about the great still shots and videos it takes but suffice to say for most owners it will be the only camera they ever use. Photo editing options are limited on the phone itself but it helps maintain the simplicity of the phone. 

   One of the major reasons for getting the iPhone 4S is Apple's personal voice assistant Siri which will work fine if you try normal things like setting an alarm but don't expect to have long meaningful conversations with her. While Siri is quite nice it shouldn't be the make or break feature when deciding if you want to get the iPhone.

 The phone differs from the iPhone 4 only in internals such as Apples dual core A5 chip and double the RAM at 512MB. Using the phone everyday you aren't going to notice any difference in simple tasks like surfing the web, opening most apps or texting. It's supposed to offer much improved graphics performance but only in graphic heavy games like Infinity Blade and Real Racing 2 did I notice a significant difference. 

   

The overall package is one most people will be happy with and anyone with the money to spend should look into this phone when making their next purchase. Stay locked on the site for further coverage including a full review and showdowns.