The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Sixteen months. 16 long months of waiting. Is the iPhone 4S worth it? Apple fans have been waiting for the iPhone 5 – no doubt. Many were expecting Apple and Steve Jobs to finally deliver the goods at Tuesday’s October 4 keynote. But Steve didn’t make it (god rest his soul) and Tim Cook made his first media appearance as CEO, and instead released the iPhone 4S. So is it good, or not? What’s the real story? I submit to you my iPhone 4S Review. Let’s start with the good. First off, the new dual core A5 chip. It’s fast. REALLY fast… two times faster than the chip in the iPhone 4 and 7 times faster graphics processing. The game play looks amazing sweet. The camera has been upgraded also. 8 megapixel, autofocus, face detection for still pictures, and HD video recording up to 1080p at 30 frames per second. OMG! Battery life has been improved… up to 8 hours talk time on the 3G network, 14 hours on the GSM network, 10 hours of video playback time, 40 hours of audio playback, and standby time is clocked at 200 hours (8.3 days!) Now let’s move on to the great. Voice control ala Siri. According to the Apple website, Siri not only understands what you say, it knows what you mean. It figures out the right apps to use to find the right answer. Then, just like a personal assistant, it answers you. Siri makes phone calls, sends messages, schedules meetings, sets reminders, takes dictation, and more. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Imagine sending Tweets via your voice, or updating Facebook? Apple says that Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it. It’s first generation and will only improve, but wowzers. Now for the bad. It is not thinner, and it is heavier than its predecessor. It doesn’t feature a bigger touchscreen that’s Android phones have had for at least a year, which Apple consumers have been begging for since kingdom come. Like the original iPhone 4, this model still has the same time 3.5-inch display screen. Now the ugly. No SD slot. If I am shooting a bunch of video, I am out of luck when space runs out until I connect to a computer I can sync with to get the videos I shot, out. Why no SD slot? Are you listening here Apple? This phone also has no access to the high-speed 4G networks. None. How can it not, after all that time? Ugh! It looks exactly like the iPhone 4. No difference at all. How dull. The verdict? Should you buy the new iPhone 4S? It releases October 14 to retail, pre-orders begin October 7. Only you can decide. Choose well my friends.