Iphone 4 camera resolution. How many megapixels does the iPhone camera have? Is it worth looking at megapixels

iPhone 4 is a smartphone that Jobs himself said - "This is the best thing I've done in my life." However, it is possible, of course, that it was just a marketing ploy, so what in what, and Steve was well versed in this.

But even so, who will blame Jobs for drawing too much attention to the four, if this smartphone has brought fans of the company (and not only) into a real delight! iPhone 4 bypassed on all fronts not only its predecessor - the iPhone 3GS, but also a bunch (if not all) of the flagships of competitors. Stunning screen clarity, powerful hardware, brand new metal and glass body. Real handsome! And, of course, this smartphone deserves a full review.

This article is about how the iPhone 4 differs from its competitors and about all its technical characteristics. And let's start the review with what catches the eye in the first place - appearance device.

They say that today all smartphones look the same. However, how can manufacturers be surprised if users are already “addicted” to large screens, and it is no wonder that we are surrounded entirely by monoblocks with a display that occupies the entire frontal surface. However, the iPhone 4 still managed to surprise!

In the world of plastic devices with rounded outlines of soap dishes, Apple introduced a sharp metal brick. Yes, it’s also a monoblock, yes, it’s also a screen for the entire body, but can you really call it the same as everyone else? Definitely not, and you will never question how to distinguish the iPhone 4 from its predecessor. The novelty looks very original, it beckons to itself, gleaming with the body, carefully “wrapped” in tempered glass and a stylish metal edging framing the smartphone along the contour.

Dimensions and weight

And you know what? Once you pick up the device, you won't want to let it go. The iPhone 4 feels very solid due to the use of metal, and I immediately want to ask, how much does the iPhone 4 weigh? However, surprisingly, it is only 2 grams more iPhone 3GS.

Perhaps the dimensions Apple iPhone 4 is the only thing that definitely upset many fans of the "apple" company. Everyone expected that the smartphone would be much larger than its predecessor, but it is almost impossible to distinguish the iPhone 4 from the 3GS in “growth”. And really, the difference is small. The "growth" of the iPhone 3GS is 11.55 centimeters, the iPhone 4 is 11.52 cm. But the novelty has become narrower - 5.86 cm versus 6.21 cm and thinner - 0.93 cm versus 1.23 cm.

The dimensions of the iPhone 4 in inches are 4.54 x 2.31 x 0.37.

Location of keys, sensors and connectors

On the front panel of the iPhone 4 there is one button called Home, in the upper part you can see the “peephole” of the front camera, the earpiece covered with a nice metal mesh, and light and proximity sensors that allow you to change the display backlight level accordingly depending on the level of ambient light and lock the screen when the user is talking on the phone. The last moment is necessary so that during a conversation you don’t accidentally poke your ear where you don’t need it - the screen is touch-sensitive.

On the back of the iPhone 4, there is a branded "apple", "peephole" of the main camera and a flash, as well as some information about the phone - everything is very harmonious and pretty.

As for the ends, here you can see:

  • on the left there are two keys that control the volume and a special very convenient button for putting the smartphone into silent mode;
  • on the right - a slot for microSIM;
  • on the top - a standard headphone jack, an on / off / lock button for a smartphone, a microphone;
  • on the bottom there is a speaker and a cable connector with which the smartphone can be connected to charging, a PC and other equipment.

Display

On the display of the iPhone 4, the developers have worked as well as on the design of the novelty. There are no changes in terms of screen size, the iPhone 4 is equipped with a 3.5-inch diagonal, like its predecessor. But! If the screen resolution of the iPhone 3GS is 320x480 pixels, then for the iPhone 4 it is 960x640 pixels, can you imagine how noticeable the differences are between them?

The developers even gave the iPhone 4 display a separate name - Retina. Retina is translated as "retina", so Apple seems to be hinting that they have made the screen so clear that the human eye cannot see any grain and individual pixels. And, the truth is, the image is very clear, and the colors are saturated and at the same time natural.

If we talk about the margin of brightness, it is also excellent, even in bright sunlight you can see everything you need on the screen. However, the brightness will have to be adjusted manually, the auto-tuning mechanism works, but it frankly underestimates the required brightness, and if you trust it, then on a bright sunny day, problems may arise with the readability of the screen.

It is also worth noting the wide viewing angles iPhone display 4, as well as the fact that the screen supports multi-touch, that is, it can respond to several touches at once.

"Iron"

The iPhone 4 got a very worthy stuffing, it runs on a more powerful ARM-Cortex-A8, 800 MHz processor and SoC than its predecessor - Apple A4 APL0398, and, in addition, the volume random access memory in the new smartphone twice as much - the RAM module here is 512 MB.

If we translate all these characteristics that are difficult to understand for an ignorant user into a language clear to everyone, we get something like the following - the iPhone 4 has become noticeably more productive than its predecessor. It copes with various user tasks faster and easier, it is very difficult to make it freeze, even by running several "heavy" processes at the same time.

Gamers, by the way, will appreciate another important innovation of the iPhone 4 - a three-axis gyroscope, which, in combination with an accelerometer, makes it possible to control the gameplay as clearly as possible.

As for the built-in memory, the user can choose from two versions - the fourth iPhone is available in the iPhone 4 16 GB and iPhone 4 32 GB models. Of course, the second one will be more expensive, but perhaps this is the case when it’s worth overpaying, because there is no microSD slot in iPhone 4, like in any other - this is Apple’s fundamental policy. This fact means that it will not be possible to expand the memory by external means, and if you like to store a lot of photos, videos, music and other information on your phone, you should think about the 32 GB version.

In the hardware section, of course, one cannot fail to mention the wireless interfaces that the iPhone 4 supports. There are classic 3G, EDGE and GPRS and modern Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Soft

iPhone 4 runs on Apple's proprietary platform - iOS, iOS 4 was preinstalled, while the predecessor iPhone 3GS worked on iOS 3.

The new version of the platform received a lot of interesting features, the most striking of which are:

  • Multitasking - Apple users have been waiting for this feature for a long time, because competitive flagships have been supporting it for years. What does multitasking mean? The ability to work simultaneously with several applications and quickly switch between them, moreover, the program that was minimized, when returning to its interface, will open in the same place where it was left.
  • The ability to sort program icons into folders - for example, all educational applications can be collected in one folder.
  • Universal mailbox for different accounts
  • Ability to set your own picture for desktops
  • The emergence of a new reading application - iBooks, a gaming network - iGames and an advertising network - iAD.

The iPhone 4 is preloaded with many useful applications. A description of all of them, perhaps, is meaningless, just take my word for it - among the pre-installed programs there is one necessary to perform almost any user task. However, even if you do not find an application suitable for a particular purpose, you can always download it from the pre-installed company store Apple programsApp Store.

cameras

The review of this section should start with great news - the iPhone 4 finally has the ability to front-facing, and therefore the title is pluralized. Let it go front-camera only 0.3 megapixels, it allows you to take good selfies and, of course, is great for video calls.

How many megapixels are in the main camera? She also received the long-awaited improvements - the sensor here is 5-megapixel, and, in addition, there was a flash. Apple also did a good job on the image processing software algorithms, and therefore the shots taken on the iPhone 4 during the day can be safely compared in quality to a good “soap box” - there is good clarity, very natural color reproduction, and saturated colors.

As for the camera interface, it is very simple - the user cannot manually adjust the settings (with the exception of turning the flash on / off), all that remains is to trust the iPhone, however, as we indicated above, it does a good job. From the "Camera" application, you can quickly go to the gallery of pictures, switch between modes - front / main camera / video shooting.

Battery

A very important characteristic of a modern smartphone is the capacity of its battery, because current gadgets have to work at full capacity. However, in this regard, the iPhone 4 does not disappoint. The battery capacity is 1420 mAh, which seems to be a little, but according to official data (which have already been verified by practical tests), this is quite enough for:

  • 6 hours of continuous surfing on the network on 3G and 10 hours on Wi-Fi
  • 7 hours talk time
  • 10 hours of video viewing
  • 40 hours of music listening
  • 300 hours standby.

Also, tests show that with active use, the iPhone 4 will definitely last a day, and with a moderate battery, it will even last for two days.

Let's summarize

It is most logical to complete the review, of course, by analyzing the pros and cons of the device. The iPhone 4 demonstrates very worthy characteristics - there are clearly more advantages in a smartphone than disadvantages. The first ones include impeccable design, powerful hardware, a beautiful display, an impressive main camera, a lot of new software features, including the long-awaited multitasking, autonomy that is not bad for a modern gadget.

As for the minuses, they are as follows - the lack of support for external memory expansion (however, what to do is the principled position of Apple), the impossibility manual setting shooting, as well as the unreliability of the auto-brightness sensor and a rather modest diagonal size compared to competitive flagships.

As you can see, the minuses are not only less, but they are also less significant than the pros. So, the iPhone 4 is definitely a smartphone that Apple can be proud of.

Apple has again managed to surprise the world, despite the fact that the iPhone 4S is positioned as just a small upgrade of the previous model. It would seem, you would think, thanks to the new processor, the functions began to work faster and the camera had more megapixels. But it is from such trifles that a really interesting device has developed. And today we want to pay attention to the improved camera capabilities of the new smartphone.

More megapixels, more problems

At the time of the iPhone 4, a 5MP digital camera was enough. But with the advent of dual-core camera processors mobile devices made a significant leap in terms of the number of megapixels.

Almost all models from samsung galaxy S II to HTC Sensation received cameras with 8 megapixel sensors. This means sharper images, the ability to print good pictures and even trying to compete with compact digital cameras. entry level. The iPhone 4S also uses an 8-megapixel matrix, and the front camera has a resolution of 2 megapixels - like the Galaxy S II.

According to Apple, the iPhone 4S's camera will allow you to take pictures that are quite printable in 8 x 10 format. In addition, the camera of the new smartphone is focused on increasing the accumulation of light by pixels, which will allow you to take sharper pictures.

Features A5

The A5 processor will give the iPhone 4S much more power when working with a digital camera. In this case, not only the software part will work faster, the lens shutter response time is also reduced.

Apple claims that the A5 handles images as well as DSLR processors. This is a really big statement that puts the iPhone 4S in a higher position than other smartphones. Exposure, focus, dynamic range - all these parameters are improved by the processor.

A bit about optical theory

When it comes to photography, the combination of processor and sensor isn't everything. An important element is the optics of the lens. The new iPhone uses a five-element lens. It provides images with extra clarity, which is especially important for shooting in low light conditions.

And the faster f/2.4 aperture means that even more light will now pass through the lens, which in turn will reduce the load on the sensor when shooting in low light and allow you to take less noisy and better pictures.

In addition, the high-speed aperture will increase the depth of field, which will allow you to highlight objects that are close: they will look clearer and more focused.

And to smooth colors and produce more saturated and balanced images, Apple has provided an infrared filter.

revision software

Not only the features of the iPhone 4S, but the entire iOS 5 platform has undergone a number of changes regarding the camera. First of all, support for zooming with your fingers has been added, replacing the not very convenient scrolling of the previous version.

In addition, the camera now has a face recognition function that can detect up to 10 faces at the same time. An HDR option is also available, using one original and 3 additional shots. And one of the main innovations is the iCloud service, thanks to which the user does not have to worry about where to store pictures and how to quickly transfer them to other devices.

Smartphone editing

The resolution of 8 megapixels provides ample opportunities for image processing. For example, you can crop the edges and still make your photo printable. Until recently, photo editing required third-party editors, but now iOS 5 provides basic image processing features.

You can crop the image, rotate it, remove red-eye, or enhance colors. You can also change the order of photos in an album by simply dragging and dropping pictures, or create new albums.

Even more features

And for those who don't have enough, Apple has posted on its website a whole gallery of demo images of how the new camera's shots can be improved. Of course, to obtain such images, the shooting conditions were chosen very meticulously, but the result is really impressive.

In this way, new camera is one of the most powerful components of the iPhone 4S and new smartphone Apple is quite capable of leading the list of camera phones on the market today.

Now, when traveling on vacation, it is not necessary to take an expensive hefty DSLR with you. The camera on a modern iPhone allows you to take high-quality photos and will always be with you. From this article you will find out how many megapixels are the cameras on the iPhone different versions, is it worth looking at megapixels when choosing and does Apple really have the best mobile camera on the market.

Comparison of photos from iPhone 7 Plus and SLR camera.

Megapixel table in iPhone

The table shows all iPhone models, the number of megapixels for the main and selfie cameras, as well as the aperture.

iPhone model

Main camera

Front-camera

iSight 12 MP, f/1.8

FaceTime HD 7MP

iSight 12 MP, f/1.8

FaceTime HD 7MP

iSight 12 MP, f/2.2

FaceTime HD 5MP

iSight 12 MP, f/2.2

FaceTime HD 5MP

iSight 12 MP, f/2.2

FaceTime HD 1.2 MP

iSight 8 MP, f/2.2

FaceTime HD 1.2 MP

iSight 8 MP, f/2.4

FaceTime HD 1.2 MP

iSight 8 MP, f/2.4

FaceTime HD 1.2 MP

0.3MP VGA 480p

0.3MP VGA 480p

The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual camera. One of them has a telephoto lens with a fixed optical x2 zoom. This means that you can zoom in 2 times without losing quality, and together with software processing create a blurred background effect (bokeh). Like a SLR camera. The technology is not yet perfect, so when the background is blurred, the quality of the photo is often lost or the blur is not what you need.

Is it worth looking at megapixels?

A megapixel is 1,000,000 pixels. The resolution of photos is measured in megapixels, that is, to find out the number of megapixels, you need to multiply the number of pixels in the width by the number of pixels in the height. AT latest versions iPhones with 12MP cameras take 4032x3024 pixels = 12,192,768 photos.


This photo was taken with a Nokia 808 PureView - with a 41 megapixel camera.

The more Megapixels, the better the image detail will be. But there are much more minuses: the size of the photo increases, more noise, blurry. Put at least 40 megapixels on a smartphone, the quality of the photo will not change much. Much depends on the sensitivity of the lens, focusing, noise reduction and stabilization system. This is exactly what Apple is working on. For good pictures, a 12 megapixel camera is enough. This is the best value for money.

Where is the best camera?

DxOMark has been testing and grading professional photography equipment for over 10 years. Many top-end smartphones have been in their hands. Experiments are carried out in laboratory and field conditions, according to uniform rules. Therefore, we can talk about an objective comparison.

In 2017, the iPhone camera is ranked 5th among mobile devices according to DxOMark. She scored 86 points. The first place is occupied by HTC U11, the second by Google Pixel, the third is shared by HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Sony Xperia Xperf.

On the video comparison of HTC U11 and iPhone cameras:

Among the advantages of the iPhone 7 camera: good shutter speed, wide dynamic range, stable and accurate white balance, good detail when shooting outdoors during daylight hours, fast autofocus in good light.

Minuses: small details in open space are lost in low light, the quality of autofocus varies greatly depending on the lighting, in low light there is luminance noise.

Finally, watch the video the best photos made on iPhone:

We evaluate the intelligent assistant Siri, performance and updated camera

Last Thursday, October 13, sales of the new iPhone 4S began. As always, with the already familiar attributes in the form of queues in front of Apple stores and TV reports about the first lucky ones who became the owners of the coveted "apple" smartphone. On October 10, Apple reported that the number of pre-orders for the iPhone 4S exceeded one million in the first day (for the iPhone 4, this figure was 600,000). And this was clear evidence that consumer loyalty to Apple is such that the public is even ready to forgive the postponement of the expected announcement of the iPhone 5 and buy an improved version of last year's novelty instead. But how much improved? Today we have the opportunity to look into this in detail.

For starters, let's look at specifications. You can see a detailed list of them, in the article we will give only the most important characteristics, as well as what makes the iPhone 4S different from the iPhone 4.

Speaking of new iPhone features 4S, Apple is a little cunning, adding to them the capabilities of the iOS 5 operating system. We consider it cunning for the reason that iOS 5 can be installed for free on iPhone 4 and even on 3GS, as well as on the last two generations iPod touch. In the near future we will prepare a separate article, where we will talk in detail about the new features of iOS 5. For now, we will focus on the unique features of the iPhone 4S and its differences from the previous model.

Equipment, design and screen

The iPhone 4S comes in a box that is almost identical in appearance to the packaging of the iPhone 4. The only evidence that this is a new model is the letter S in a silver square (on the left and right sides of the box), as well as the iCloud icon on the bottom (front) side.

Inside the box, everything is familiar and predictable: headphones, a cable for connecting to a computer, Charger(Please note that if you buy iPhone from abroad or from "gray" suppliers, you will have to buy a plug adapter). Two booklets, located in a white envelope, contain a minimum of information and will be useful only for beginners, but a metal clip is useful for installing a SIM card. Like last year's model, MicroSIM is used here.

As for the appearance of the iPhone itself, it has remained virtually unchanged compared to last year. Unless, the location of some elements on the side metal edging has slightly changed (for example, the mute button is now a few millimeters lower). But this indicates rather a change in the location of the telephone antenna, which was announced at the presentation.

Like the iPhone 4, the new model is available in white and black colors.

For people who love to show off the latest gadgets to others, it will be a disappointment that the new iPhone does not indicate anywhere that this is a 4S model, and not 4. Therefore, you will never distinguish a person with an iPhone 4S in their hands from the owner of an iPhone 4 .

The screen also remained unchanged. However, why change if competitors have not been able to oppose the iPhone 4 in this parameter in a year? The number of dots per inch (328) is still out of reach for other manufacturers, and besides, an IPS-matrix (or something similar in color reproduction and viewing angles) is also far from being found everywhere. True, in fairness, we note that on the instance of the iPhone 4S that we had for testing, the screen turned out to be slightly lighter than that of the iPhone 4. But, firstly, this is only visible in direct comparison, and secondly, perhaps it's just a consequence of the fact that the screens are from different batches. It is possible that if we took another iPhone 4, there would also be a lighter screen.

Siri Smart Assistant

So, we figured out the similarities, now let's talk about the most interesting - about the differences. Let's start with program differences. They are, in fact, only one, but very important and interesting. This is the Siri smart assistant. Note that it is an attribute of the iPhone 4S, not iOS 5. Therefore, the owners of the iPhone 4/3GS and iPod touch will not be able to use it. Below are screenshots of the menu. iPhone settings 4 (left) and 4S (right). Please note that in the first case there is no Siri, but in the second it is.

Siri is disabled by default. It must be activated through the "Settings" by moving the corresponding lever. Having done this, we will see the Assistant settings, as well as the choice of languages.

On the this moment only English, German and French are available. Moreover, given that there are three versions of English here, we can conclude that the accent is very critical for Siri. Of course, for Russian-speaking users, the question is very interesting when Siri will work with the Russian language. However, there is no answer to this question yet. It is possible that it is the need to adapt Siri for each country that will cause delays in the release of the iPhone 4S to local markets.

Before starting the conversation, Siri warned us that it would be sending data to Apple. The moment, in fact, is not at all formal: you need to understand that Siri will send almost all the information that it finds from you: contacts from your address book, your location, the contents of your music collection ... But if you still trust Apple and are not afraid of unauthorized use of your personal data, then Siri will offer several commands for example.

The screenshot on the right clearly shows that Siri is integrated into all the main iPhone applications. Moreover, with its help you can not only get some information, but also perform some actions in these applications. This is the fundamental difference between Siri and, say, voice search in Android. There we can only find something on the Internet or on the device itself, but not make any changes. In addition, all previously seen implementations voice control an exact match was required. Siri, on the other hand, “understands” naturally formulated questions that do not contain the name of a specific application. It's hard to believe, it's something from science fiction films, but it really works! Let's give two examples.

First we asked (in English): what is the value of Apple shares? Siri replied: Apple Inc. closed at 422 USD today and showed data from Yahoo. After that, we decided to be mean and asked the same question, only about Microsoft shares. But this did not cause difficulties for Siri.

Note that we have not spoken Microsoft Corporation , but just Microsoft . However, Siri understood the question and very quickly (literally in a couple of seconds) found the answer. The next question was: Who is the President of the United States? Siri immediately brought up information about Barack Obama, finding it by two keywords / phrases - the United States and the President. However, the request to tell us something about Obama caused Siri to freeze.

I did not know Siri and such information as Madonna's year of birth, for example. Probably, the point is the limited bases that Siri can still access. Or in problems with interpretation. However, Siri understands some requests perfectly. For example: I need a bank in New York. Here's what Siri suggests:

And sometimes the intelligence of Siri is a real delight. For example, to the question “Do I need an umbrella?” Siri reasonably noticed that he did not know where I was, so he asked me to turn on the geolocation service (I had it turned off) or tell me where I was. The second seemed easier to me. I told Moscow and received not only a surprisingly “human” answer (“No, I don’t think it’s raining in Moscow right now”), but also a weather report for Moscow for the next few hours.

Look: the program is having a real dialogue with you. Here it is, the future! Moreover, not only the specific implementation of this technology in the iPhone is more striking, but also thoughts about how these technologies can be used in the future. Imagine the following scene. You go to the fridge and ask, “Can I have another piece of pie, or have I gotten too fat lately?” The refrigerator, which has a built-in webcam, takes a photo of you, analyzes your weight and height, and then replies: “It’s better to eat something less high-calorie, for example, a salad that lies on the top shelf; by the way, it will soon expire, so it’s worth finishing it quickly.”

Yesterday I would have called it fantastic. Siri proves that this will become a reality in the very near future. Computers have learned the main thing: to interpret human requests according to human algorithms. An example with the same umbrella is indicative. When I ask another person if I need an umbrella, he understands that the question is not about whether I need one at all, and even less about whether it can be used instead of a parachute (or for some other extravagant purposes). ). And about whether it is raining outside the window. The same associative chain is performed by Siri. In our country, the word "umbrella" is strongly associated with the concepts of "rain" and "weather". So why not teach this to the computer too? Apple - taught. Next is the matter of expanding the bases that the intelligent assistant can access and improving the recognition of questions. In our testing, it was the recognition of voice requests that was the most difficult part of working with Siri. Apparently, it will be easier for native speakers with this, although the same English has many varieties. And it’s not a fact that Siri will understand the Irish, for example, better than us. But, again, we emphasize that this is only a matter of time. And the time, apparently, is very short. By the way, Siri answers questions in a pleasant female voice (much more natural than in car navigators) - and this further enhances associations with science fiction films.

Performance

Another highly touted feature of the new iPhone is performance. Apple has equipped the smartphone with the new Apple A5 SoC, which, unlike the A4, is dual-core. Thus, if the iPhone 4 roughly matches the performance of the first iPad, then the iPhone 4S has reached the iPad 2. Let's check in practice how significant the increase turned out to be!

The comparison will involve the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and last year's iPod touch. All three devices were running iOS 5.0. At the same time, by the way, let's check how critical the smaller amount of RAM is in the iPod touch. The following applications from the App Store were used as benchmarks: 3D Benchmark (3DBench), GLBenchmark 2.1.0 ( paid version), GeekBench 2.1.9 (paid version), CPUBench and Linpack Benchmark. We also used the SunSpider 0.9.1 browser test. So what did we get?

The free 3D Benchmark uses an eight-second scene from the game Defend London (purchasable from the App Store). Unfortunately, the duration of the test cannot be adjusted. Therefore, we are preparing in advance for a large error. We ran the test on each device three times. The table shows the best results for each of the participants. The top line is the number of frames per second, the bottom line is the time for passing the test.

iPhone 4 iPod touch 2010
60.192486 fps 59.285522 fps 56.542412 fps
8.290071 sec. 8.416895 sec. 8.825233 sec.

As you can see, the results do not differ much. At the same time, the error in the case of the iPhone 4S was less than 1 frame per second (the worst result is 60.120571 fps). The iPhone 4 had an error in the region of 2 fps, and the iPod touch had a scatter of results as much as 5 fps (the worst run was 51.357391 fps). How to interpret the results of the 3D Benchmark test? In principle, it is clear that the iPhone 4S all launches are better than the iPhone 4, and the iPod touch is worse than both iPhones. But, firstly, the difference is already very small (approximately at the level of error). And secondly, it clearly does not reveal the full performance of the iPhone 4S.

The next benchmark will be GLBenchmark 2.1.0. This is already a serious professional test, which is also used by Apple. For clarity, we present in the table the results of only the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, as for the results of the iPod touch, then, looking ahead, we say that they are almost identical to the iPhone 4 (and this, by the way, proves that for games there is a fundamental difference between the iPhone 4 and no previous generation iPod).

iPhone 4
GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (Standard) 1623 frame 6575 frame
GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (High) 1200 frames 6517 frame
GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (Fixed Time) 210639 msec 47931 msec
GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (Offscreen) 1282 frame 8248 frame
GLBenchmark 2.1 PRO (Standard) 1107 frame 2951 frame
GLBenchmark 2.1 PRO (High) 881 frames 2924 frame
GLBenchmark 2.1 PRO (Fixed Time) 65384 msec 20971 msec
GLBenchmark 2.1 PRO (Offscreen) 898 frames 6162 frame
Swap buffer test (swap buffer) 599 frame 599 frame
Fill test (texture fetch) 155464932 texel/sec 793450112 texel/sec
Triginometric test (vertex weighted) 1000034 vertex/sec 3009531 vertex/sec
Triginometric test (fragment weighted) 1166851 fragment/sec 4264610 fragment/sec
Triginometric test (balanced) 1005977 shader/sec 3267608 shader/sec
Exponential test (vertex weighted) 3060126 vertex/sec 7724229 vertex/sec
Exponential test (fragment weighted) 3899827 fragment/sec 15713243 fragment/sec
Exponential test (balanced) 1718102 shader/sec 13291464 shader/sec
Common test (vertex weighted) 1520442 vertex/sec 5330342 vertex/sec
Common test (fragment weighted) 1691164 fragment/sec 4912324 fragment/sec
Common test (balanced) 943732 shader/sec 4656304 shader/sec
Geometric test (vertex weighted) 1931631 vertex/sec 6670891 vertex/sec
Geometric test (fragment weighted) 2246119 fragment/sec 7579986 fragment/sec
Geometric test (balanced) 1213080 shader/sec 6537624 shader/sec
For loop test (vertex weighted) 3875164 vertex/sec 7671772 vertex/sec
For loop test (fragment weighted) 4933746 fragment/sec 19137150 fragment/sec
For loop test (balanced) 2494991 shader/sec 15227929 shader/sec
Branching test (vertex weighted) 5074099 vertex/sec 7579216 vertex/sec
Branching test (fragment weighted) 8776278 fragment/sec 34851320 fragment/sec
Branching test (balanced) 2851854 shader/sec 14889438 shader/sec
Array test (uniform array access) 3449388 vertex/sec 7757428 vertex/sec
Triangle test (while) 1634582 triangle/sec 50013768 triangle/sec
Triangle test (textured) 17327119 triangle/sec 42646156 triangle/sec
Triangle test (textured, vertex lit) 9729267 triangle/sec 37657680 triangle/sec
Triangle test (textured, fragment lit) 6235942 triangle/sec 37398232 triangle/sec

So what do we see? iPhone 4S just utterly smashes last year's model. In the Egypt subtest, which simulates a game episode, the iPhone 4S outperforms the iPhone 4 by 5-7 times! In the PRO subtest, the difference is 3-6 times. If you look at the rest of the tests, you can only gain a foothold in the opinion about the superiority of the iPhone 4S. It is possible that Apple somehow specifically optimized the iPhone 4S specifically for passing this test. But in any case, the result is eloquent. Note that GLBenchmark only tests the graphics subsystem. Therefore, such a difference in performance will be felt only in those applications that actively use hardware graphics acceleration.

Now let's see how things are with the performance of processor cores and RAM. To do this, run the GeekBench 2.1.9 for iPhone OS test (this is a multi-platform test; it also exists in the version for Mac OS X and Windows, however, the iOS version must be purchased separately).

The results are quite expected and understandable. The dual-core processor of the iPhone 4S is twice as efficient at floating point operations, and the iPhone 4S also has slightly faster RAM. The only thing that confuses is the fact that GeekBench incorrectly identified the iPhone 4S processor. But, again, the results look quite plausible.

In the free CPU Benchmark 2.0 test, the alignment turned out to be similar. Moreover, if we correlate the obtained results with the base of this benchmark, then we can conclude that the iPhone 4S processor is more productive than even the iPad 2. However, we could not verify this in other tests, because. We didn't have an iPad 2.

Left - iPhone results 4, right - iPhone 4S

The iPod touch scored about the same CPU Benchmark as the iPhone 4. However, we were a little confused by the fact that among the results of the base there was an iPod 3G (apparently the previous generation iPod), which was faster than the iPhone 4 and iPod touch in 2010 . Yes, and the result of the iPhone 4 in the database was listed as 426, while we got only 391. Considering that the GeekBench database was updated in mid-August, and we tested in mid-October, we can conclude that the benchmark algorithms or counting mechanisms were somehow then changed over the past two months, resulting in such a discrepancy in the results.

Another test, already purely synthetic and demonstrating processor performance in floating point operations, is Linpack Benchmark.

Left - iPhone 4 results, right - iPhone 4S

If you run it with the default settings (Problem size - 200, number of runs - 50), then the test will pass quite quickly (iPhone 4S is faster, iPhone 4 is slower), and the results will differ several times. We set the Problem size to 1000, and reduced the number of launches to 5. With these settings, both devices passed the test much more slowly, but the final result turned out to be more plausible.

Left - iPhone 4 results, right - iPhone 4S

And the last point of our program is the SunSpider 0.9.1 browser test. For clarity, we display the results in a table (all results are in milliseconds; accordingly, the less the better).

iPhone 4
3d 488,0 274,4
access 419,8 278,1
bitops 200,0 179,2
recursive 25,3 19,5
crypto 217,3 160,8
date 573,4 327,4
math 409,9 221,0
regexp 113,9 87,6
string 1109,0 690,1
Total 3502,0 2238,1

As you can see, the difference is about one and a half times, which corresponds to the difference between two generations of iPads (they had 3404.3 and 2182.2).

Camera

Last of the Essentials iPhone differences 4S from the previous model is a camera. In principle, the iPhone 4 camera was quite good. However, in this parameter, the iPhone is clearly not the leader among smartphones. The much cheaper Nokia N8, for example, had a better camera. Now Apple offers an eight-megapixel camera (instead of the previous 5 megapixels), and video resolution is 1080p (versus the previous 720p). Let's check how this affects the quality. We will compare the iPhone 4S camera not only with the iPhone 4, but also with one of the main competitors - new Nokia N9, which went on sale a week before the iPhone 4S ( detailed overview Nokia N9 read soon). But there is no point in using the iPod touch in comparison: the camera is much worse there, it is not a competitor to smartphones.

First, let's try out smartphones in complex shooting modes. The first mode is shooting the cityscape at the beginning of twilight (mid-October, around half past six in the evening; it is already getting dark, the lights are on in the houses). First, we present reduced (up to 600 points horizontally) shots of all three smartphones. The shooting was carried out from one position, from the hand, in automatic mode(except that the Nokia N9's aspect ratio was changed from 16:9 to 4:3 in the settings to look like the iPhone). Several pictures were taken for each smartphone, after which the best one was chosen. Click to see the originals.

The next test is shooting in a room, at night, without an external light source. All three smartphones have a flash, so they coped with this task (and the iPod touch, for example, did not cope at all, since it does not have a flash).

iPhone 4

Nokia N9

Once again, the iPhone 4S and Nokia N9 go hand in hand. Pictures vary slightly in color. In my opinion, iPhone snapshot 4S is more natural. But, at the same time, if you look at the original photos (they are available by clicking), then the inscription on the box (Hercules) is readable only on the frame of Nokia N9. But the frame of the iPhone 4 is significantly worse than both competitors in terms of clarity and color reproduction (an unpleasant bias towards yellowness).

And the last photo assignment: take a spread of the book with text. The test was carried out on a windowsill, in daylight. In principle, all three devices coped with the task, that is, the text on all the pictures was clearly distinguishable. However, there is still a difference between the pictures. As before, three pictures were taken for each smartphone, and the best one was chosen. The original photos are available by clicking on the pictures, but here we present fragments of the most difficult part of the book (where the pages were bent).

iPhone 4

Nokia N9

It is clearly visible that the complex fragment of the iPhone 4S turned out to be less clear, it seems that it is a little out of focus. Moreover, it was in all three pictures. In the photos of other smartphones, the focus is more uniform. The iPhone 4 shots turned out darkish.

We also note three details. First, the largest image size is obtained from the iPhone 4S. Less on the Nokia N9, even less on the iPhone 4 (you can judge for yourself by comparing the uploaded images). Secondly, Nokia has more settings. In particular, you can choose between wide (16:9) and full (4:3) format. In the first case, the resolution will be 7 megapixels, in the second - 8 megapixels. The third point: in terms of “rate of fire”, the iPhone 4S is faster than the iPhone 4 and about the same as the Nokia N9.

Finally, let's check the video shooting. Recall that of the three smartphones, only the iPhone 4S can shoot in Full HD. The rest shoot only 720r. And - the video shot on the iPhone 4S is really out of competition. It's just another level. Neither Nokia nor the iPhone 4 even come close to it. Download videos here: iPhone 4S (88.2 MB) , iPhone 4 (39.2 MB) , Nokia N9 (29.6 MB) . In the iPhone 4S video, pay attention to the detailing of the paving slabs - this is not the case in other videos. But do not pay attention to the shaking of the image: the video was shot on an outstretched arm, during a strong wind.

conclusions

Time battery life iPhone 4S, in our opinion, no less than the iPhone 4, although a full test in different modes and with different usage scenarios yet to be pursued. When the official sales of the iPhone 4S in Russia begin, we will definitely return to this issue. In addition, we will test the iPhone 4S for stability of reception and data download speed over 3G - it is reported that these parameters of the new iPhone are better than last year's. And, we hope, by the time the official release of the iPhone 4S on Russian market Siri intelligent assistant will learn to understand Russian speech. Which, of course, we will also check.

Nevertheless, it seems to us that this article answers the main questions. First, the performance of the iPhone 4S is indeed better than that of the iPhone. Moreover, in 3D games, you can win several times. However, so far this statement is based on benchmarks, and not on real impressions. The reason is simple: the games currently available on the App Store were built with the best available performance on the iPhone 4. So you probably won't feel much of a difference if you download games on the iPhone 4 and 4S. An example of this is the benchmark from the Defend London game available in the App Store. On the other hand, improved performance (both in terms of graphics and processor) is a good start for the future. Apple is constantly increasing system requirements iOS, games are getting prettier, so within a year, the difference in performance between the iPhone 4 and 4S will likely be obvious without any testing.

Other major improvements are the camera and the Siri smart assistant. The iPhone 4S camera is indeed better than the iPhone 4. So don't listen to those who say that they just artificially increased the resolution. No, it's not just that. All in all, the iPhone 4S can compete with the best camera phones on the market. Therefore, if you need a smartphone that can take good pictures, then the iPhone 4S should be one of the main candidates for the purchase. Whereas the iPhone 4 at the moment looks already outdated in this parameter. By the way, in iOS 5 it is possible to edit pictures directly in the Camera app, and then publish them on Twitter from there. But we will talk about this (as well as other features of iOS 5) in a separate article.

Finally, the last unique feature of the iPhone 4S is the Siri smart assistant. It is difficult for me to evaluate it in terms of the user qualities of a smartphone. Probably, if functionality is the main thing for you, then Siri cannot (at least not yet) be an argument in favor of the iPhone 4S (we emphasize that it is not available on other devices, including the iPhone 4 with iOS 5). However, if you want to look into the future with one eye, Siri will give you such an opportunity. This is really news from the future - and, at the same time, a symbol of progress. Something like that stele from A Space Odyssey 2001.

In general, it seems to me that the purchase of the iPhone 4S is quite justified even for the owners of the iPhone 3GS, but not for those who have the iPhone 4. At least in the next year and a half for sure. And even for iPhone 3GS owners, I would recommend taking your time and waiting half a year until Siri gets the Russian language, and games appear in the App Store that can fully utilize the graphics capabilities of the iPhone 4S.

For the past four years, Apple has followed a two-year cycle for the iPhone: first a new model comes out, then an update, then a new model again. On the one hand, against the background of other manufacturers that produce dozens of devices at the same time, this looks very conservative. On the other hand, such a model greatly simplifies the life of manufacturers and buyers of various accessories, which are several times more for the iPhone than for any other phone. One of the key strengths of the iPhone is its huge ecosystem, which includes both the AppStore and a host of compatible devices, from portable mini audio systems to full integration into cars.

iPhone 4S(left) and iPhone 4

However, if the iPhone 3G and 3GS were outwardly almost a complete copy of each other and differed only in the color of the inscriptions on back cover, then in the case of c there is one small but significant visual difference: The new antenna system moves the mute button a couple of millimeters down, closer to the volume keys, which have remained almost in the same place. Thus, 4 does not have 100% compatibility with accessories. For example, some protective cases, even the branded “bumper”, will only fit a new phone in an updated universal version.

And of course, a similar appearance significantly reduces the attractiveness of the device among those who like to “show off” a fashionable and rather expensive gadget.

GSM + CDMA + new antenna

After the release of the iPhone 4, Antennagate broke out on the Internet - a huge scandal related to the fact that the phone could significantly lose the signal level when one specific place on the case where the separator between the antennas was located was clamped by hand. By and large, the problem was sucked out of thin air, since in real life This did not cause any problems to most owners of the device. But at that time, Steve Jobs personally had to deal with this mess at a special press conference.

This time the design of the steel frame has been improved, and the phone switches dynamically, on the fly, between different sections of the antenna. If earlier the frame consisted of three segments, now it consists of four. In addition, it now works in CDMA networks, which, however, is only relevant for the US market.

Twice as fast, twice as much

The new iPhone borrows the dual-core A5 processor from the iPad 2, although the processor runs on a slightly smaller clock frequency than a similar component in the "big brother". Productivity compared to the previous model has approximately doubled. The amount of RAM remains the same, these are the same 512 MB. Given that the iPhone 4 was not a particular "brake", now it just "flies". At everyday use this is noticeable in the smoother operation of iOS, the speed of launching "heavy" applications, the speed of games and the rendering of web pages in the browser. Also, the maximum memory is now 64 GB, which is a very nice addition for hobbyists. a large number music and volumetric games.

The battery remained practically the same, the capacity increased by only 0.05 W "h. At the same time, the talk time on paper increased by an hour - from 7 to 8 hours in 3G mode, and the standby time was reduced by 100 hours - from 300 to 200. in real life, the phone runs on slightly less charge than the iPhone 4, but not so much that it was a serious problem. real time work with active use - 1 day. In the future iOS updates Apple promises to improve this figure.

One more point should be noted. Now, when 100% charge is reached, the charging process stops, and the phone starts working from the battery until it reaches 90%, after which it charges again to 100%. The logic of all this is still not entirely clear.

New camera

Perhaps the most significant change is the new camera. It's a significant improvement over the iPhone 4, which, in turn, shot very well (it became the number one used camera on flickr.com within a year). The American manufacturer traditionally does not participate in the “megapixel race”, trying to focus on photo quality.

AT iPhone 4S a CMOS sensor of the same size 1 / 3.2 "is used, but the resolution has increased from 5 to 8 megapixels. But the resolution turned out to be far from the main thing here. The camera is based on a new generation of backlight sensors. Thanks to improved backside illumination technology at the sensor iPhone 4S increased quantum efficiency and sensitivity in low light, as well as expanded dynamic range. Apple claims a 73% increase in photosensitivity. The new miniature matrix architecture received additional circuits. Their task is to divert excess electrons, preventing them from flowing to neighboring pixels and provoking noise.

The second fundamental innovation of the camera is a modified optical design of the lens, which no longer uses 4 lenses, traditional for smartphones, but 5. Apple took this step in order to reduce optical distortions, receiving a 30% increase in sharpness as a bonus. In any case, the fact that the manufacturer pays serious attention to the quality of the camera components is a very good sign.

Optics in iPhone 4S has become faster, the relative aperture is F / 2.4 (against F / 2.8 for its predecessor). In addition to adaptability to shooting in the dark, this also affects the depth of field. Of course, the effect will not be as noticeable as on DSLRs, but it is there, and this can be seen in the test shots. By the way, the HTC Titan has an even bigger “hole” – F/2.2.

Due to the new optical design, the minimum focusing distance has been reduced by 0.5 cm. Lenses are aspherical, made of plastic, so iPhone 4S it is better not to leave the back in the sun - Zeonex transparent polymer does not like this.

In comparison shots, you can see improved, more natural color reproduction. This is the merit of the new hybrid IR filter. The fact that the light of unnecessary parts of the spectrum no longer drives the sensor crazy is easy to verify if you look at the remote control through the camera iPhone 4S.

In natural light, photos look slightly warmer. With fluorescent it behaves great, while the iPhone 4 is very yellow.

The photo was taken under the light of fluorescent lamps.
As you can see, the automatic white balance did a better job in iPhone 4S,
no yellowness characteristic of the iPhone 4

iPhone 4S gives more realistic, not so rich colors

More details in bright areas can be seen at the top of a bright lamp

HDR photo is warmer, slightly yellowish

Again, automatic white balance successfully coped with artificial lighting.

The A5 processor, which is used in the smartphone, is also responsible for processing photos. Preparing the camera for shooting and merging HDR frames has accelerated by 1.5 times. In addition to the faster processing speed, the automatic white balance has been improved. Focusing and autoexposure are also faster. Finally, in iPhone 4S Added face detection feature. Now it automatically focuses on people's faces, their zone is displayed with a green border. Automation sometimes snatches out the contours of the face even where there are none - this is a standard problem in almost all face detection systems.

Big aperture iPhone 4S provides a slightly more blurred background

Image is warmer than iPhone 4

iPhone 4S managed to cope with almost no overexposure, but the iPhone 4 did not

The second major upgrade is Full HD video. The stream is recorded at a frequency of 30 frames / s and a high bit rate of 24 Mbps. The codec used is the same as in the iPhone 4 (standard profile), the videos are quite "heavy", about 30 MB in 10 seconds. If the camera was built on a high profile codec, similar quality could be obtained at 16 Mbps.

As you can see, the electronic stabilization system copes very well with the "shake"

The smaller viewing angle in video mode is also due to the work of digital stabilization. The camera is roughly equivalent to a standard lens with a focal length of 32mm for photography and 50mm for movies.

These clips were filmed when it was getting dark to make the flaws of the cameras more obvious.
Due to the slow shutter speeds of both cameras, the video turned out to be blurry in motion,
iPhone 4S tried to stabilize the shaking, which also resulted in a delay in the video sequence

When working with static areas, the Adaptive Temporal Noise Reduction algorithm works, which subtracts noise on static objects. This is an analogue of multi-frame noise reduction in Sony cameras. By the way, in one of beta versions of iOS 5.1 the camera will have new feature— shooting a panorama by broach.

Well, the last innovation is the replacement of the flash LED. Now he's closer to daylight, while in the iPhone 4, the backlight warps in yellow-green colors.

iOS5 + iCloud

We have already written about iOS5 and iCloud. Probably one of the most important changes a buyer will notice iPhone 4S, is that now the device is not tied to iTunes. You can simply buy a phone, insert a SIM card, connect to a Wi-Fi network, activate the device directly from the interface, register an Apple ID with iCloud and fully use the device without a computer.

If you have iCloud backup configured, then the smartphone will do backup your data on Apple servers. Thus, in case of loss of the device or its failure, you can restore all your data and settings by simply connecting to a Wi-Fi network and entering your username and password on the new device. operating system Now you can update directly on your phone without the participation of a computer.

Another important innovation is the notification center, which is very similar to the one on Android. These moments were probably one of the main competitive advantages of Android, which haunted iPhone owners and which are years late in implementation.

The SunSpider test showed a result of 2234 ms for iPhone 4S and 3543 for iPhone 4,
hence performance JavaScript in 4S 1.5 times higher

In general, everything related to data exchange has been significantly improved. Now you can work with your phone during the synchronization process, and the device can be synchronized via Wi-Fi, and the Photo Stream service allows you to almost instantly see the shot using iPhone photo on all your computers and iPads, no matter where they are.

Another interesting service that is a direct attack on BlackBerry is iMessage. If the sender and recipient of an SMS message use iOS5, then the messages will be transmitted over Internet channels through the Apple infrastructure, completely free of charge, with delivery reports, with attached photo and video files, and in encrypted form.

The system works absolutely transparently and does not require any configuration or registration. Operators and intelligence agencies are indignant.

Siri

Siri is a software add-on that lets you search the web and access your phone's built-in apps using normal speech. You ask to do something or look for something, and the machine does it. The system works via the Internet, speech is compressed with a special codec and sent to Apple servers, where it is processed. That's where the answer comes from. A big plus of this approach is the ability to improve the system on the server side.

English, French, and German are currently supported, and Siri only knows places on the map in the United States. If you do not have perfect knowledge of the language and pronunciation, the usefulness of this function is highly doubtful. If you know English well, for example, and most importantly, have a more or less adequate pronunciation, then you can play around with the service for a while. But if, for example, you have phone book in Russian, there are Russian-speaking performers in the player, entries in the calendar in Russian and in the same language you write SMS, then the usefulness of the service tends to zero.

Pleasant trifles

A small but pleasant difference from the previous model is the use of a linear vibration motor instead of the usual rotary one. This vibration motor works much quieter and softer.

Among other points, we note the following: Bluetooth has been updated to version 4.0, which allows you to connect new devices with low energy consumption to the phone, and the maximum speed of HSDPA has been doubled to 14.4 Mbps.

Should I upgrade my iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S?

If you rarely use the camera and you are completely satisfied with the speed of the iPhone 4, there is not much point in switching to it. Most of the new features can be obtained by updating your phone to iOS5. If you are an active camera user, spend a lot of time playing games, on the web and other applications, then

Internet