The iPhone 4S: To buy or not to buy? The specs and features to help answer that question.

October 4, 2011 - By Justin E. Gehrke

It’s official. The next generation iPhone is the iPhone 4S. Though Steve Jobs and his trademark, black turtleneck were noticeably absent, Apple new CEO, Tim Cook took the stage and delivered the much-anticipated details regarding what will undoubtedly become the company’s next big money-maker.

Much to the chagrin of many, the iPhone 5 didn’t appear. That doesn’t mean the iPhone 4S doesn’t come with noticeable improvements over its predecessor, the iPhone 4. Of course, the show included reports on Apple’s recent financial successes, store openings, etc. That said, we know that’s why you’re here, so we’ll get straight to the list of specifications and features that were unveiled during the big Apple event.

iPhone 4S Specifications

• Design, size and physical layout is the same as the iPhone 4 (Hence no iPhone 5)
• Dual-core A5 chip processor
• CPU up to 2x faster than the iPhone 4
• Dual-core graphics that are up to 7x faster than the iPhone 4
• Up to 8 hours of 3G Talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video playback and 40 hours of music playback
• Dual antennas intelligently switch back and forth to transmit and receive data. Theoretically doubles download speeds seen on the iPhone 4.
• GSM and CDMA are now available in one device.
• Camera upgraded to 8-megapixels (3264 x 2448), with additions such as facial detection, backside illumination, improved white balance, and a five element lens.
• Video taken via the iPhone 4S camera will be 1080p HD and include video image stabilization and noise reduction.
• AirPlay Mirroring allows users to view their games on the big-screen without cumbersome wires.
• Siri (Live Voice Recognition) allows users to hold down the button and ask questions about the weather, program the next day’s alarm, check stock prices, find local restaurants, and read your messages aloud. On top of all that, Siri is designed to understand natural, conversational language (English, French and German) and work with all built-in apps. Yes, that means you can dictate natively on the device.

New and Improved Features and Native Apps in iOS 5

• Notifications – Users can now swipe down from the top to see a listing of alerts for mail, calendar, SMS, etc.
• Cards – Allows users to create, print and mail greeting cards from the device. ($2.99 US, $4.99 Worldwide)
• iMessage - Finally, iOS users will have a built in IM client similar to the BBM that BlackBerry users have had for years.
• Newsstand - Similar to iBooks, this app will allow users to purchase and read magazines.
• Reminders – It does exactly what it sounds like. Users can configure to-do lists and set a reminder for when it needs to get done.
• Twitter – Finally, the iPhone will have a native Twitter app that also shares photos right from the camera roll.
• Camera – As expected, the camera app will not include an icon to access it from the iPhone’s lock screen. The volume up button can now be used to take the photograph, as well.
• Game Center – The app will now allow users add photographs of friends, share achievement points and include friend recommendations
• Safari - An updated version of the browser includes reader functionality to save items for later, as well as the long-requested tabbed browsing feature.
• Mail – The new version for iOS 5 will include the ability to use rich text formatting, indentation, rearrangement of addresses and message flagging.
• iCloud – The much-discussed replacement for MobileMe allows for automatic uploading and backup to the iCloud for documents, photos, contacts, calendar items, etc. iCloud also lets you re-download previously purchased apps. (Available October 12, 2011; 5GB free for iOS 5/Lion users)
• Find My Friends - Similar to the Find My iPhone feature, users can now allow their location to be known, so their friends can easily find them. (This may or may not be a good idea, but at least there are built-in parental controls.)
• iTunes Match – For $24.99 a year, users can scan and match their iTunes library, upload songs that were missing to their iCloud, stream music from the iCloud, and upgrade songs to 256 Kbps AAC DRM-free versions. (Available toward the end of October 2011)

Pricing and Availability (with 2-year carrier contract)

The device will be available on AT&T, Verizon and…(drum roll)…Sprint.

• iPhone 4S (16Gb) – $199
• iPhone 4S (32Gb) – $299
• iPhone 4S (64Gb) – $399

Preordering for the iPhone 4S will go live on October 7, 2011. The device will become available in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan on October 14, 2011.

To buy or not to buy?

See? We got straight to the point and skipped all of the fluff and opinion. If you’re a current iPhone 4 owner who isn’t eligible for an upgrade, the iPhone 4S may not be cost-effective. If you’re lucky enough to have a mint condition iPhone 4, though, you may be able to sell it for a good price and offset the full price of the iPhone 4S. For iPhone 3GS owners and non-iPhone owners who have held off on buying an iPhone 4, it would appear that the time has come to take the leap. As always, the decision is yours, but let’s face it. Who doesn’t like to have the newest toy, as soon as it comes out?