Opinion Piece Author: Kris Russo, NBC25 Account Executive
Design
The iPhone4S looks no different on the outside then previous model, the inside is the where the changes are!
Who knew that through Verizon Wireless there are classes that are available to all Verizon Wireless customers for free to help learn the in’s and out’s of the working’s of the IPhone. It starts with the basics from how to turn your phone and adjust the volume, to more advanced features such as how to use Siri or the ICloud feature that are beneficial to any and all IPhone users!
Display
The iPhone4S from Verizon Wireless has a great display, and is covered in glass on both sides. This makes the phone fragile. Not to mention the fact that the exposed Antenna all the way around the phone.
The antenna on the iPhone4S from Verizon Wireless is stronger then the competition and this could have to do with the fact that Apple added in a 2nd antenna to help with making the signal stronger!
The sleep toggle is on the right side at the top and the 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top left hand side. The volume rocker is on the left side towards the top and right above the volume rocker is a magic little toggle switch that will shut all the volume off on the phone in an instant. (A useful piece of information that Verizon shared during there class!) The bottom us the phone has the plug in the center of the device with a small speaker on each side of the plug.
Camera
There is a front and a rear facing camera which is a nice feature when wanting to use the facetime feature with friends; Side note: The facetime feature can only be used with other IPhone’s and will only work if the phone is connected through a wifi of some kind (Great piece of information the Verizon shares in the free IPhone class!). Facetime is an awesome feature to have on a phone but is a bummer that it only works for IPhone’s and not with all front facing camera devices.
There is a rather substantial upgrade in the camera from phone it went from a 5MP camera in previous models to an 8MP camera in the IPhone4S. The IPhone has some amazing features as editing and changing pictures far surpasses rival devices. Have red eyes in the picture, no worries, that can be removed with one tap of a finger, like the image and want to crop it and add a boarder or caption at the bottom that can be accomplished with a few taps!
Music
There are several ways to get music onto the iPhone4S from Verizon Wireless if you don’t want to use a service such as Pandora or Slacker Radio. It can also, either connect via USB and sync it with iTunes play lists and pod casts. For those who are familiar with Apple products you know you can only sync it with one computer that has ITunes on it, so make sure all your music is on the one and only computer you are going to sync it with, otherwise it will clear off all the music and re-sync it with the second computer you connect and sync it too.
Battery Life
The battery on the IPhone is fabulous; it far surpasses any of its rival Droid phones! With moderate use of the phone all day it still had half a battery left.
Interface
The iPhone4S is running Apple’s new Qualcomm RTR8605 dual core chip. Which makes it faster then the IPhone4, however when having them side by side the difference may not be noticed as much because it is not running on the 4G LTE network. It is however in the works for the next Apple devise to run on 4G once the components are small, fast, and energy efficient enough to meet Apple’s requirements.
Conclusion
There is no denying Apple has a corner of the market with there technology, although the various Droid phone a catching them, there are some things that they just can’t compete with. The battery is amazing the camera features are great, and some of the applications that you can only get for the IPhone or IPad rock. One that was extremely highly recommended was “Find My Iphone” helps you find your lost and/or stolen phone. This app is free and only available to IPhone users, it lets you send a ring to the phone if you have misplaced it and happen to have the ringer off, it will override it, it lets you tack it via GPS to see where you may have left it or if someone stole it, and it also lets you lock the device as well as wipe the device clean should it have gotten stolen. Siri is another great feature; ask her anything….If it is going to snow today? Who won the World Series in 1979?? Or even ask her to read the last text message! Amazing features on an amazing phone!
Verizon Wireless offers different classes for the different types of phones that they carry and they are free to Verizon Wireless customers. They have a basic and an advanced IPhone classes. Check out www.VerizonWireless.com to check on times and locations for the upcoming classes.
Specs
Processor: Qualcomm RTR8605 dual-core Apple A5, custom designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
Storage: 16GB or 32GB availabilities
Camera: Front 720p HD and Rear 8MP 1080p HD cameras
Audio: 3.5mm headset jack
Connectivity: Verizon Wireless 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1
Dimensions: 4.5” (h) x 2.31” (w) x .37” (d) / ~4.9 oz
