Tuesday, October 11, 2011

iPhone 4S Review Roundup

Apple has dropped the embargo on iPhone 4S reviews and the usual suspects have filed their reviews of Apple’s latest iPhone. Here’s what they are saying:

“Spending a week with Apple’s newest phone, I’m reminded again of just what makes the company’s products so special. It’s not specs, services, or apps. This phone is not perfect. Certainly it can be improved. But there is something here, beyond the screen and CPU, beyond iCloud, something under the surface. Some intangible spark.

Is this the best phone ever made? That’s debatable. But I can tell you this: the iPhone 4S is pretty damn cool.”

Joshua Topolsky of href="http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/11/iphone-4s-review/ ">The Verge

class="videoContainer">src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cP-SSg_zZ1M" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315">

Here are some of my favorite examples from experimenting with Siri:

Me: “I’m drunk.”

Siri: “I found a number of cabs fairly close to you.” (Perfect; it didn’t dial my ex-girlfriend.)

Me: “I have a flat tire.”

Siri: “I found 14 towing services. 12 of them are fairly close to you.”

Me: “Remind me to steal a ream of paper when I arrive at the office.”

Siri: “Here’s your reminder for when you get to work: Steal a ream of paper. Shall I create it?”

The iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as its predecessor — but who cares? If it was shaped even slightly differently or came in a new color, people would still go nuts over the stuff that’s more important anyway: the insides. And both inside and out, this is a magnificent smartphone.

Brian Chen of href="http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/10/iphone4s/ ">Wired

“The iPhone 4S has speed, a great camera, some cool voice-recognition features, and the same beautiful industrial design that was introduced in the iPhone 4. It’s destined to be immensely popular. The S, in this case, seems to stand for “sure thing.”

Jason Snell of href="http://www.macworld.com/article/162944/2011/10/iphone_4s_its_a_sure_thing.html ">Macworld

class="videoContainer">src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5mNcnj2l6RE" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315">

class="videoContainer">id="flashObj" width="486" height="412" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">name="flashVars" value="videoId=1213089817001&playerID=102195605001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL8JE~,ufBHq_I6Fnyou4pHiM9gbgVQA16tDSWm&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" />name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" />name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" />name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="swLiveConnect" value="true" />name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" />name="src" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" />name="flashvars" value="videoId=1213089817001&playerID=102195605001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL8JE~,ufBHq_I6Fnyou4pHiM9gbgVQA16tDSWm&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" />name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />name="swliveconnect" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" />class="videoContainer">id="flashObj" width="486" height="412" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" flashvars="videoId=1213089817001&playerID=102195605001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL8JE~,ufBHq_I6Fnyou4pHiM9gbgVQA16tDSWm&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" seamlesstabbing="false" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" allowscriptaccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" />

Apple concedes that Siri isn’t a finished product; she is in beta. But even with her blemishes, Siri is pretty darn cool. And she helps make the iPhone 4S pretty darn cool, too.

Edward Baig of href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/story/2011-10-11/iPhone-4S-review/50736270/1 ">USA Today

The iPhone 4S is one of Apple’s less dramatic updates, but, when combined with the Siri, iOS 5 and iCloud features, it presents an attractive new offering to smartphone users. Some may be content to skip the new hardware and just enjoy the software and cloud features with older models. But those buying the phone will likely be happy with it.

Walt Mossberg of href="http://allthingsd.com/20111011/the-iphone-finds-its-voice/ ">All Things D, Wall St. Journal

You can look at each of the items that Apple will release in conjunction with the iPhone and be amazed with how innovative each one of them are.

When you put them all together in one product like the iPhone 4S, you have an incredibly successful product that other companies just can’t compete with.

Jim Dalrymple of href="http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/10/11/review-iphone-4s/">LoopInsight

There are some rough spots here and there; for example, every now and then the 4S’s camera app gets stuck on its startup screen. And while the battery still gets you through one full day, standby time is shorter than before (200 hours versus 300). But over all, Apple has done an excellent job.

Davide Pogue of the href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/technology/personaltech/iphone-4s-conceals-sheer-magic-pogue.html">NY Times

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Comment