Apple iPhone 5? Nope. It’s the 4S
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Apple has announced its next iPhone and it won’t be called the iPhone 5, but rather the iPhone 4S.
From the outside, the iPhone 4S looks just like the iPhone 4 -- which may disappoint some hoping for a new form factor.
On the inside however, the iPhone 4S is a new device, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
Most notably, perhaps, is the addition of Apple’s dual-core A5 chip, which is built by Samsung.
The A5 in the iPhone 4S will offer seven-times faster graphics for better mobile gameplay and is ‘up to’ twice as fast overall as the A4 chip in the iPhone 4, Schiller said.
Live coverage: Apple iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S battery life will also be the best of any iPhone thus far, with eight hours of talk time and 40 hours of music listening capability.
The iPhone 4S has a new wireless system that can ‘intelligently switch’ between its two antennas to ‘make even better call quality,’ Schiller said.
So what does that mean exactly? Apple is promising that users will be able to download data much faster than before using HSDPA cellular technology. The iPhone 4S won’t be a 4G phone, but it will have 4G-like download speeds and send and receive data a lot faster.
As expected, the iPhone 4S will also have an upgraded camera -- 8-megapixels -- capable of shooting images at a resolution of 3,264x2,448 pixels. That’s 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4’s 5-megapixel camera.
Apple said the 4S’ sensor is much better too with a ‘five element lens.’ Schiller said: ‘Here we’ve really gone overboard,’ with an f/2.4 aperture which will improve photo quality in low light situations.
Schiller even said the iPhone 4S takes photos a lot faster than its rivals too. The Droid Bionic takes 3.7 seconds to take a pic, Schiller said, while the iPhone 4S takes just 1.1 seconds.
The camera will shoot better video too -- at a high-definition resolution of 1080p.
Apple has yet to say just how much the iPhone 4S will cost, on what carriers it will be available or when it will be released. [Updated 4:10 p.m.: We’ve got release and pricing info here and carrier info (yes, Sprint is getting the iPhone) here.]
So, what do you think so far? Are you excited for the iPhone 4S? Bummed it’s not a proper iPhone 5 with a new look and a bigger screen? Sticking with Android or Windows Phone? Sound off in the comments.
Photos: Apple iPhone 4S announcement
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles and David Sarno
Twitter.com/nateog and Twitter.com/dsarno