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Apple iPhone 4S hands-on

Published Oct 13th, 2011 12:05PM EDT
BGR

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We managed to get our hands on a brand new Apple iPhone 4S a little early, and while we haven’t spent enough time with the device to write a full review yet, here are some initial impressions:

  • The iPhone 4S is noticeably faster. Having used an iPhone 4 since launch day, the experience now closely matches the iPad 2 in terms of UI speed. Apps open faster, browser performance is improved, and other system functions like installing apps from the App Store while you navigate to another app are much snappier.
  • The camera… is amazing. As noted above, the camera app opens much more quickly and taking pictures is faster as well. More importantly, the photos that are captured look worlds better than what the iPhone 4 offers, which was already quite good. We’ll dive deeper into the camera in the review, but if photography is important to you, this is something that’s incredibly impressive.
  • Siri: mind-blowing. Not because Siri can answer anything you throw at it, but because every other voice input system we’ve ever used has been command-driven, and Siri breaks that mold. Apple repeatedly mentioned that Siri can understand the meaning of your request, the context and more, and that the system will only get better. It’s already leaps and bounds above anything Google offers, which is a pretty impressive solution on Android handsets.
  • The iPhone 4S uses the same vibrate system as the Verizon iPhone 4 but it’s not quite as aggressive. It still does the job as well as the iPhone 4, just with a bit less force. It’s just a little thing, but something we’ve noticed nonetheless.
We’re in the process of putting our full iPhone 4S review together, but in the meantime check out our hands-on gallery below!
Jonathan S. Geller
Jonathan Geller Founder, President & Editor-in-chief

Jonathan S. Geller founded Boy Genius Report, now known as BGR, in 2006. It became the biggest mobile news destination in the world by the end of 2009, and BGR was acquired by leading digital media company PMC in April 2010.

Jonathan is President of BGR Media, LLC., and Editor-in-chief of the BGR website.

What started as a side project at the age of 16, quickly transpired into 24-hour days and nights of sharing exclusive and breaking news about the mobile communications industry. BGR now reaches up to 100 million readers a month through the website, syndication partners, and additional channels.