10 days with iPhone 4S: a personal review

I was so happy to see Apple release another iPhone and I am so glad that I did not wait to get one. I’m very impressed with the clarity of the 8MP camera and the super fast speeds you get with the dual core processor. That is why I cannot wait to use this phone with my employee Sling adapter that I recently got from DISH Network. I can stream live and recorded TV to my iPhone everywhere I have 3G coverage or Wi-Fi. Plus, I can also set DVR recording for my receiver at home from my phone using the free DISH Remote Access app. DISH is actually offering free Sling adapters to all customers, so why not?

I used the "mirror" to read the Jobs book on my 70 " HD. Reading in bed was never this good. One small problem. You have to keep your hand on the iPads screen to flip the pages. It's not too hard, I'm sure a better way will appear. Maybe the Apple TV remote could send a signal to the pad etc. I hope the fellows in Cupertino read this.

ok well here is my stance after reading the article and a good portion of the comments...

coming from a 3GS that had been worn to hell from constant use for 2 1/2 years...
the 4S is outstanding...the battery life is great even considering I can't put it down...

Siri is the best...so cool to use and great for keeping your eye on the road...should help with safety and accidents with you out there that can't drive without texting...lol

another reason I think there is battery issues with others on this post is you have to remember...the 4S is constantly at work...everytime you download an app on your mac/pc it will download on your phone...you can even transfer music to your phone without it even being plugged in...as soon as I am at home and on my home network both the iPad and 4S are connected to iTunes...that is cool

this phone is a monster of love...it is way better than any of the 4's that I see my friends have...I am so glad I waited for this phone...

do not underestimate the power of an update from Apple...everytime it's better and better

Hmmm. Five days here in Oz and I'm addicted to the 4S. Siri has been improving in recognition day by day. Now it takes all my messages and commands beautifully. Except midday here which is early evening in California! Oddly, the dictation from the keyboard mic Siri is much worse than Siri as assistant.
My battery is directly inversely related to THREE items - Siri over-use; geo-fencing in reminders; and Find My Friends. Just as it was back in the day when Maps use sucked my 3G dry. It's still fine for all my needs. I use a Mophie Air when I want to play!!
The camera? I love it. I use my D7000 to MAKE pix, my 4S to TAKE pix. It's a big improvement over the iP4 camera, especially with HDR and low light. Just one interesting note here - in the iP4, the HDR shot was less sharp than my non-HDR shot saved at same time. I now have a set of 4S shots where the HDR shot in low light is definitely sharper than the non-HDR shot. I'm guessing it has an algorithm to select the sharpest of the three shots used to construct the HDR

the battery on mine has lasted roughly 12 hrs each of the last 9 days
siri has been down intermittenly and down completely for the last 24 hrs
i've never dropped it and it has hairline scratches all over the place
sprint 3g coverage has been so so

the other things are quite true, it's blazingly fast and the camera is fantastic for a phone.

I upgraded to a verizon 4s today and honestly, it's the same phone to me... Maybe apps start a little faster... But nothing that I really notice. My take. I'll get some for the few intl travelers that we have..l but otherwise the rest of the fleet will stay 4's. Not 4s's.

Got a HTC Trophey today as well. Very nice phone indeed. Flaws... No visual voicemail as Verizon doesn't want to support it, Microsoft Lync mobile client is still missing. Not many apps in the store that I would want, need to see how CRm works. However mobile Outlook is actually slightly nicer than iPhone's email app.

I had an issue with stalling in the URL field of Safari, and it turned out to be because iCloud had duplicated thousands of copies of my bookmarks folders. Try turning bookmark sync off and on again and see if that helps.

Thanks for the review. I also switched out a 4 to a 4s early and have been happy with it. My reaction has been similar to replacing an iPad with an iPad 2, then going back to an iPad before finically going back to an iPad 2. Is the iPad horrible just because there is something nicer out there? Hardly, but it's those incremental improvements which do matter, things like responsiveness, screen quality, battery life, which, once you have a sense of what your gadget life could be like, it can be hard not to lust after what is new. Regarding battery life in the 4s, it is about the same as the 4, if not a little better, but not as long as when I first had the 4, since performance worsened over time. I have tweaked my email settings to check for messages less often. I think this is what gave me 2+ days on the iPhone 4 and also now with the 4s.

Wow, your experience is far, far better than mine. There is no way the battery lasts the whole day for me, whereas My iPhone 4 (with basically the same usage) always made it through the whole day. Both phone are on AT&T, used almost entirely within Manhattan.

Far worse, however, is that the reception is no better and the 4S, unlike the 4, regularly drops calls, can't connect, or the other person can't hear me even when I have 3-4 bars of service. It has never been able to make or keep a call when it drops to 2 (or 1) bars.

I honestly dont get the battery issues my iphone 4s lasts much longer than my 3gs with many extra features. Its much faster and the picture quality is awesome. I think these people either got faulty batteries or are using it more than normal. Ive been at work for 9 hours taking the occasional gaming break and i'm still at 72%.