New Apple iPhone Not the iPhone 5: Or is it?

Apple have finally released their new iPhone and for some reason there is a lot of disappointment going around. Apple didn’t announce a phone called the iPhone 5. Instead they announced the iPhone 4s.

The American stock market was so annoyed with this that Apple’s shares fell five percent.

But when you look into the specifications for the iPhone 4s it is at least an iPhone 4.8. It is very nearly what was expected as the iPhone 5.

At the release it was pointed out that almost everything about the iPhone 4s was new except the case and the screen.

Camera: Apple have put a lot of effort into the camera in the iPhone 4s. They had to. Nearly every upmarket mobile phone (cell phone) made in the last twelve months has a better camera than the iPhone 4. Apple also recognise that for a lot of people the camera in their phone is almost more important to them than being able to make phone calls.

Every component of the camera system in the iPhone 4s is new technology. There is s new improved sensor, a new improved lens, new shutter mechanism, and a new anti-shake system.

The new sensor is an 8 megapixel sensor with a new IR filtering layer that, according to Apple, helps to provide a much sharper image.

The new shutter system provides a maximum effective aperture of f2.4. This even beats the effective f2.8 aperture on the awesome Samsung Galaxy S II.

Apple are claiming that the iPhone 4s has "… the most advanced optics of any phone”.

As time goes by it will be very interesting to see how well the camera’s anti-shake system performs.

One last point about the camera is that it can be activated in a single action, even from the phone’s lock screen. No more fumbling and touching screens to start up the camera and take a picture.

Antenna: As expected Apple have incorporated a re-deigned antenna into the iPhone 4s. Just how much better this antenna will be than the antenna in the iPhone 4 we are yet to find out. But one thing is for sure, Apple would not be putting a worse antenna in the new phone so it is going to be at least as good and most likely it is going to be better. I guess we will find out more about this as review sites get hold of the new phone and run their tests.

Dual Core A5: Again, as expected, the iPhone 4s has the awesomely fast Dual Core A5 processor in it. According to Apple the A5 makes the iPhone 4s seven times faster when working with graphics and about three times faster in general use.

Video: The iPhone 4s supports full 1080p video recording. Additionally the camera’s anti-shake technology functions during video recording. This will take the jitters out of your videos.

I cannot be sure because I actually don’t track mobile phones that closely, but as far as I know there is no other mobile phone that has anti-shake working when recording video. If I am wrong then feel free to comment and let me know.

Due to a combination of the awesome f2.4 bright aperture and the anti-shake it should be possible to take quality video in very low light conditions.

Battery Life: Battery life for the iPhone 4s is expected to be about 30 percent better than the iPhone 4. As far as I can work out this is not because the battery has been upgraded but it is because the iPhone 4s is more power-consumption efficient.

The Press Release for the iPhone 4s claims 8 hours (480 minutes) of 3G talk time.

More Memory: As expected the new iPhone comes in a 64GB version for those find 32GB is just not enough.

So you can see why one might call it the iPhone 4.8 because it is almost a 5.

But it missed on two key points that seem to have been the big disappointments:

1. It has the same case, and therefore looks the same, as the iPhone 4.
2. It has the same screen size as the iPhone 4.

People really were looking forward to a new looking iPhone and it seems—in these days when a 4” screen is almost the standard on all other manufacturer’s new mobile phones (the Samsung Galaxy S II has a 4.3” screen)—they also badly wanted a larger screen because the 3.5” screen is starting to look a little small.

But, all in all, from a technology viewpoint, this is not a shabby upgrade. If Apple did not think this was enough to tag this unit the iPhone 5 then one can only wonder what they have planned for the ‘real’ iPhone 5—but that could be 12 months away; or are they planning something for April next year? Hmmmm!