UPDATE: Vodafone is only selling the iPhone 4S if you apply to a two year Contract €30/Month and iPhone 4S at €549 11/11/11
The official release announced by Vodafone for the iPhone 4S along with it’s price have been dated to come out on the 11th of this November but I couldn’t wait that long and got the new iPhone 4S earlier. As I opened the box all I could feel was the smell of a new Apple product and the excitement rushing up and after a few seconds my fingerprints where all over the iPhone's screen. Tapping away trying to set up the iPhone 4S without using iTunes.
Apple had announced back in October that from iOS 5 onwards the iPhone can be setup without connecting the device to iTunes, which is very convenient, and also syncing and updating only requires an Internet connection over Wi-Fi. During the setting up process I created an iCloud account which is supposed to back up my settings and push all my new photos’ that are taken to the cloud and streamed directly on to all of my devices like iPad, iPod Touch and Macs, which is another feature that requires no physical connection to the computer. When the setup is finished you’ll be greeted by iPhone home screen and the iPhone is ready to be used.
A problem I encountered was when I tried to send messages from the iPhone 4S on Vodafone. It wouldn't let me and later I found out that the sim-card had to be changed as the old "Messaging Center" number on the old sim-card did not match with the one on the m
The best part was while I was at Vodafone, While I was changing my fake micro sim-card I had a chat with one of the Vodafone’s customer service person and told me that he thinks that the iPhone 4S will be selling at more than €700 or €750 and I assume that it’s going to be locked to the Vodafone network.
I bought the iPhone 4S 16GB Black and Unlocked for €800. At that price you might say that it’s too much but the fact that it’s unlocked makes it much more affordable as your not locked to a contract to which you cannot escape or have to live for more than four years with the same career. I love being free to choose what I want.
The iPhone 4S runs very smoothly with iOS 5 and is very responsive. Although if you give it some time Apple will start launching updates which will most likely screw it up like what happened to the iPhone 3G, but performance is great and I cannot complain.
Siri. Your personal digital assistant, which allows the iPhone 4S to be voice operated. I was impressed by it actually, given that the Maltese people sometimes bend English to minglish. Siri was able to understand everything I say even when a crowd is babbling behind me with the exception for some names and especially surnames. The disappointment was that Apple has restricted location and maps for Siri strictly to the United States and I haven’t found a single clue to when they’re going to expand the feature to be usable by the rest of the world. Also Siri only works when it is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G.
The 8MP Camera, Just Amazing! I took a few photos’ and I was amazed by the clarity of the pictures at first you would think that you’ll need good lighting to take a good photo but your wrong because actually even in little light and the flash off the picture are amazing. Even the video in 1080p is amazing.
Battery Life, Currently the iPhone 4S has a slight problem with the battery life as it drains fairly quickly although there are some quick tips which I’ll review in a moment, Apple has release iOS 5.0.1 to the developers which contain the fixes needed to maintain a steady battery life.
Wi-Fi connectivity has improved as well, as the network signal before with my iPhone 3G could only get three bars in my room but now it seems that the antenna improvement has given me two extra bars for a total of a full signal.
Now enough with babbling and lets see some videos and samples of the iPhone 4S camera, Made by yours truly.
Video #1: Video sample of outside during daylight
Video #2: Video sample of outside during the night
Video #3: Taking with siri
Sample pictures taken by the iPhone 4S in all the combination known to man (HDR / LED Flash / Day / Night / VGA / HD)
Picture of Lilly The Pug
Sundown with no HDR
Sundown with HDR on
Morning with no HDR
Morning with HDR on
Lego Blocks, Detailed Picture LED on
Night shot with no HDR
Night shot with HDR on
Picture of the sun with no HDR
A portrait of me, don't I look ugly...
Picture of the sun with HDR on
Bertugolu doing his thing!
CMa CGM Ship docked in the Free Port
Bertugolu doing his thing with HDR
Now actually these photos where resized by photobucket from a resoltution of "3264x2448" to 1024x768, so to fix this here is a download link for the actual HD pictures I took with the iPhone 4S: Link to Download HD Pictures
After six days of usage
After these six days of using the iPhone 4S I wouldn’t say that it changed the way I lived and did things, but at least some tasks that I had found daunting before, like making schedules for my tasks and meeting are now easier. As all I have to do is talk to Siri and the phone will automatically create and schedule them.
Everyone has been complaining that the battery dies really quickly, it does actually but only if you use it continuously non-stop and take a lot of pictures and movies. If one is responsible about what type of application to use and have a good sense of organization you can organize what you use and when to use them, just to save resources and battery life.
The camera is awesome and it gives off some pretty good quality pictures and video. The downside is that the camera cannot autofocus and release on the user to tap on the screen and manually focus. And it can only shoot video at 1080p because there are no other settings to downgrade the resolution, which is a standard in all camera phones out there.
Time for the final verdict as this review is getting too long now. The iPhone 4S is a worthy phone and I think that I have made the right choice to buy it. If you need a phone that can play games and take good photos, the iPhone 4S is what you’ll want but if you want to a phone to only make calls don’t get the iPhone 4S as won't need it. Unless your an Apple Fanatic or a geek that wants to collect them all.
A lady caught her husband with his mistress at the beach because a helicopter filming a bicycle race deviated from the subject and for a few seconds filmed the beach. Better be careful who you film!
