Despite some people being bummed out over the lack of an iPhone 5, I find the iPhone 4S to be an impressive new iPhone, and a solid upgrade to the iPhone 4, providing speed enhancements, better graphics, an amazing new camera and more. As such, I’ve assembled a list of five reasons you might consider upgrading to the iPhone 4S.
Improved Processor & Graphics Performance
Now that Apple has included their dual-core A5 processor in the iPhone 4S, the device is now much faster and more powerful than the iPhone 4. The A5 chip offers up to twice the processing performance as the iPhone 4, and up to 7 times the graphics performance, enabling developers to take their apps to a whole new level.
Siri Personal Assistant Technology
Apple has built a pretty amazing new artificial intelligence technology into the iPhone 4S called Siri. Siri allows you to control your iPhone using normal sentences, and allows you to retrieve information set calendar events, set location based reminders (don’t forget your wallet!), send SMS and iMessages to your contacts, add and edit contacts, and look up almost any type of information you could imagine. You can find a great video of Siri in action in our earlier post.
Wireless AirPlay Mirroring
Due to its faster processing and graphics performance, the iPhone 4S will support high definition mirroring to your HDTV using Apple’s Digital AV Connector, and even supports wireless HD AirPlay streaming when used with an Apple TV. AirPlay mirroring enables all sorts of possibilities, like big-screen gaming and movies, hooking up to a projector to give a presentation, and more.
Improved 8MP Camera With 1080p Video Recording
Apple not only included a higher resolution camera in the iPhone 4S – its also a much higher quality camera with an enlarged aperture, advanced UV shielding, face detection and reduced motion blur, as well as allowing you to edit your photos right on your device.
The lens also allows you to capture 1080p high definition video, and the camera app in iOS 5 is capable of stabilizing video automatically. On many ways, the camera built into the iPhone 4S rivals the photo and video quality of much more expensive photo and video cameras, and is the best camera many iPhone users will have owned so far.
Faster Downloads On GSM Networks
Apple has also included support for faster 3G data speeds, adding support for HSPA+ 14.4Mbps in addition to the 7.2Mbps standard that it already supports, allowing you to surf the web on the go faster than ever before.
Is there anything I missed? If you’re planning to upgrade to the iPhone 4S, what are you most looking forward to?