I decided against doing a full iPhone 4S review – the simple fact is that the iPhone 4S is not a massive jump from the iPhone 4, and you will be quite familiar with the 4S if you have ever used an iPhone 4. But the thing about Apple fans is that they always want the latest and greatest. Luckily I was up for an upgrade from Vodacom, so here we are.

I am doing this review from the viewpoint of a long time iPhone user – I am comparing it to previous iPhones, of which I have owned every version since launch. While I use different phones with different operating systems almost every week, my primary phone is still an iPhone. I am not comparing it to the latest Galaxy Optimus Black Nexus LTE Droid RAZR Defy Plus. I have great respect for some of the latest Android superphones, but right now I am simply going to address the iPhone 4S from the viewpoint of an iPhone user. So here goes.

The Shape

Unpacking the iPhone 4S is almost the exact same experience as the iPhone 4. In fact, you might want to double check that you have the 4S box. Open it up, and the 4S is also almost a carbon copy of the iPhone 4, except for some differences in the outer antenna edges. The rest is all the same. That might bother some people who wanted a bigger screen or a new design. But you know what – I just don’t care. The 4 and 4S are still stunning phones to look at and hold. They just look and feel better than any other phone out there. The steel and glass just feels higher end than every other plastic phone smartphone. If it aint broke, why fix it? Or wait, speaking about breaking – I might have liked a carbon fibre or Kevlar back like the Motorola RAZR. While that glass is nice looking, it is fragile… If you do go for it, get a decent case. Vodacom was nice enough to bundle a nice little bumper case though.

Out of the box you are faced with iOS5′s new startup screens. If you have used iCloud backup on your old iPhone, you dont even have to connect it to your computer. You still have that option though. Switching from my previous iPhone 4 to the 4S took about 30 minutes, and everything was right where I left it.

Fast

In terms of software, it is pretty standard iOS5 fare – but everything is a lot faster. I was not particularly bothered by the iPhone 4’s speed – it felt zippy enough. But then you use the iPhone 4S, and then suddenly the iPhone 4 just feels sluggish. Everything has tiny speed improvements. There is no delay when scrolling long image rich pages, web rendering is a lot faster, and there are no more dropped frames in graphics intensive games, and load times are all a bit faster.

But while everyone is going on about the A5 dual core processor, it is the graphics that has gotten the biggest boost. There are not a lot of games out there that can already harness all the new GPU power. The only example right now is Infinity Blade 2. IF2 looks good on the iPhone 4, but on the iPhone 4S it is amazing. I cannot wait to see what the game developers are going to come up with – with things like Airplay mirroring (which is built into the iPhone 4S by the way) finding its way into games, we are slowly starting to approach a time where full games consoles might be less and less relevant. (Airplay mirroring allows you to use your TV screen for iPhone games – just do a search for Real Racing 2 and airplay mirror to see what I mean).

The Camera

I am not someone who ever really takes note of a cellphone camera, but the iPhone 4S’s 8MP shooter is one of the best cameras I have ever used. During this holiday period I often found myself reaching for the 4S, even though I had a brand new Canon IXUS and a Nikon D90 SLR with me. The 4S’s low light performance, and awesome macro modes amazed me the most. There is almost no image noise, and the camera launch and shutter is nice and quick – not something I am used to with a phone. Sure, I miss some things like zoom – but the 4S is really starting to give decent point and click cameras a go.

Siri

The other major addition to the 4S is of course the new artificial intelligence personal assistant called Siri. The concept is amazing – simply talk to your phone in natural language, and it actually understands what you are saying. Instead of saying “Is it going to rain tomorrow?” you can also ask “Will I need an umbrella tomorrow?” and it will actually answer yes or no. I found it to be best with very scientific or mathematical questions – “How high is table mountain?”. 1087m apparently.  It of course works with a few silly questions as well – “who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”, to which it answers Spongebob Squarepants. “Who is the president of South Africa?” Oh, it is Jacob Zuma, and Wolfram Alpha gives some additional info about him as well, like his age, presidency term, etc. But it does not show how many kids he has already.

But I found using Siri for built in iPhone functions to be the best part – like saying “remind me to call my wife at 7” will correctly identify who your wife is (it checks you relations in your contacts, or simply asks the first time). Telling Siri to set an appointment with John at 12 on Wednesday will even tell you beforehand if there is schedule conflict. Social convention makes Siri somewhat awkward to use – I did not find myself babbling to my phone in public. I mostly used it when driving (it works great with Bluetooth), or when alone. For example – I simply set my alarm for the next morning with my voice now.

This all sounds great, but the honest truth is that Siri is currently severely stunted anywhere outside the US. Many of the questions that come naturally to us is somehow tied to location – like “How far is it to Green Point Stadium?” – which simply does not work. At a certain point you get so frustrated by the lack of services available to us (even though Google Maps has a lot of content in SA), that you just give up, and stick to only things that are specific to the phone. Dictation still works fine though – so you can use you voice every time instead of using the keyboard. Just click the voice button on the keyboard (yeah, just like how Android does it).

It is worth keeping in mind that Siri is still a Beta product. It is not perfect, and you can see there is still a lot of work to be done. But using Siri makes you wish for the day Apple would open up Siri’s API to app developers. How cool would it be to say “Add note to Evernote” and then simply dictating the rest.

So is it worth upgrading to iPhone 4S?

Yes, the iPhone 4S is a somewhat underwhelming upgrade to the iPhone 4, which does make a person wonder whether it is worth it. To the iPhone 4 user I would most definitely not recommend an upgrade, unless you can already get the 4S for free. Siri and the little bit of additional speed is great, but not worth upgrading from the iPhone 4 for. Up until now every new iPhone had some pretty great reasons to upgrade, even the iPhone 3GS, which was mostly a speed increase. But the iPhone 4S is more about refining the overall experience – it is a tiny bit better in every respect, without changing the great design. Evolution, not revolution.

If you are still rocking an iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4S is a must have upgrade though. The solid metal and glass build, the Retina display, and the brilliant camera is a huge upgrade over the 3GS. Unless you are tempted by Android, I really recommend an upgrade to the iPhone 4S. But that is also the thing about the iPhone – right now the iOS ecosystem is so well executed, it is very tough for an iPhone user to jump to Android.

But this time Apple is also selling the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 new with contracts. So you can buy an “older” iPhone new if you want to save some money. If you are up for an upgrade, I would not recommend the 3GS anymore. While it is a great phone, you don’t have the certainty that Apple would keep pushing out software updates for it much longer. You might be tempted by the iPhone 4 as well – again – great phone, but you might save a R1000 tops. The iPhone 4S contracts are luckily not too bad, especially the Vodacom deals. So if you are free to choose, the iPhone 4S is the one to go for.

Images: Getty, iFixit

Related: If you want to be able download Apps, Music, Movies, TV Series etc from the US iTunes store, even if you live in SA, here is how to do it.