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What is the point of this article? The iPhone 4s was a slight improvement over the iPhone 4, and frankly I'm still shocked to hear things like the RAM is the sa

What is the point of this article? The iPhone 4s was a slight improvement over the iPhone 4, and frankly I'm still shocked to hear things like the RAM is the same and the processor still clocks at barely 800Mhz. For Apple, this is fine. But saying that my iPhone 3gs-holding-friend shouldn't be disappointed just because Apple is selling millions of them, is just silly. He's disappointed because I'm about to have a 1.5Ghz dual core phone with 1GB of memory and a resolution higher than the computer I used in highschool just 4 years ago in a thinner form factor than his phone. He will love his iPhone 4s and I will love my phone, but I don't understand the tone of this article. Is it really so unreasonable to want LTE given the available phones on the market that have LTE? Or a form factor that is more competitive. I guess from where I'm sitting, I'm used to Apple kicking everyone in the nards from a tech specs perspective, and I don't think that's the case this go-around.

gwright 15y ago
Yes it is unreasonable to expect LTE. The current chips wouldn't fit in the iPhone 4 form factor and would use more power (i.e. less battery life). And of course LTE coverage is a lot less than 3G coverage. So the tradeoff doesn't seem reasonable to me at this point in time. Next summer there will be different chips, a redesigned form factor (probably) and better LTE coverage and so the tradeoff will go the other way.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  Phones on the market and phones that will be on the market in 23 days beg to differ on those claims. Thinner chassis, LTE, at-least-tolerable battery life, twice the ram, twice the proc speed (and dual core), etc.
  - gwright 15y ago
    I was thinking in the context of Apple. Redesigning the form factor every 12-15 months has a cost. For this reason, redesigning the iPhone to incorporate the LTE chips wouldn't make sense since Apple seems to aim for a 24-28 month refresh on the form factor. I wasn't suggesting that it was impossible if you were designing from scratch. Battery life is important. So yes you can sacrifice battery life for more power hungry 1st generation chips but it isn't wrong to decide that the battery life is more important. Seems like the effective CPU+GPU capability of the iPhone 4S is at the head of the pack. When you add in the overhead that Android software has I don't think it is necessary for Apple to goose the processor specs in order to get fantastic end-user experience. This also saves power. Again tradeoffs that have to be made and the ones Apple picked seem entirely reasonable to lots of customers (based on pre-sales orders).
    - vetinari 15y ago
      CPU+GPU wise iPhone 4S is lacking. There are phones on the market right now with Exynos at 1.2 GHz (Exynos is basically A5 minus Apple logo), which is in part reason for the disappointment with 4S.
salem 15y ago
You're thinking from a engineer's perspective, and not average joe. Average joe cares about are downloads 'fast', not that is has to have LTE. LTE is overkill for a broadly marketed product right now considering all the other sacrifices you would be making in form factor, power, buggy new baseband firmware, what people consider broadband speed (4mbps is broadband according to FCC) etc etc.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  I don't think those compromises are fair. Again, devices on the market NOW (aside from battery life) just aren't plagued with the issues that everyone's acting they are. Also, I don't know, but my 3G feels incredibly slow after playing with some 4G phones, hell VZW's 4G coverage is shockingly wide already. (Of course, the definition of 4G and broadband are jokes here in the States. VZW and AT&T's 4G isn't even legally 4G, but they lobbied the international consortium to allow them to use the label until they actually get it up to snuff).

gwright 15y ago

Yes it is unreasonable to expect LTE. The current chips wouldn't fit in the iPhone 4 form factor and would use more power (i.e. less battery life). And of course LTE coverage is a lot less than 3G coverage. So the tradeoff doesn't seem reasonable to me at this point in time. Next summer there will be different chips, a redesigned form factor (probably) and better LTE coverage and so the tradeoff will go the other way.

drivebyacct2 15y ago
Phones on the market and phones that will be on the market in 23 days beg to differ on those claims. Thinner chassis, LTE, at-least-tolerable battery life, twice the ram, twice the proc speed (and dual core), etc.
- gwright 15y ago
  I was thinking in the context of Apple. Redesigning the form factor every 12-15 months has a cost. For this reason, redesigning the iPhone to incorporate the LTE chips wouldn't make sense since Apple seems to aim for a 24-28 month refresh on the form factor. I wasn't suggesting that it was impossible if you were designing from scratch. Battery life is important. So yes you can sacrifice battery life for more power hungry 1st generation chips but it isn't wrong to decide that the battery life is more important. Seems like the effective CPU+GPU capability of the iPhone 4S is at the head of the pack. When you add in the overhead that Android software has I don't think it is necessary for Apple to goose the processor specs in order to get fantastic end-user experience. This also saves power. Again tradeoffs that have to be made and the ones Apple picked seem entirely reasonable to lots of customers (based on pre-sales orders).
  - vetinari 15y ago
    CPU+GPU wise iPhone 4S is lacking. There are phones on the market right now with Exynos at 1.2 GHz (Exynos is basically A5 minus Apple logo), which is in part reason for the disappointment with 4S.

salem 15y ago

You're thinking from a engineer's perspective, and not average joe. Average joe cares about are downloads 'fast', not that is has to have LTE. LTE is overkill for a broadly marketed product right now considering all the other sacrifices you would be making in form factor, power, buggy new baseband firmware, what people consider broadband speed (4mbps is broadband according to FCC) etc etc.

drivebyacct2 15y ago
I don't think those compromises are fair. Again, devices on the market NOW (aside from battery life) just aren't plagued with the issues that everyone's acting they are. Also, I don't know, but my 3G feels incredibly slow after playing with some 4G phones, hell VZW's 4G coverage is shockingly wide already. (Of course, the definition of 4G and broadband are jokes here in the States. VZW and AT&T's 4G isn't even legally 4G, but they lobbied the international consortium to allow them to use the label until they actually get it up to snuff).