iPhone 4S: My First NightiPhone 4S: My First Night

I took my laptop down to the living room, fired up the TV, plugged in the iPhone 4S, and got to work. Activating on AT&T's network took less than one minute.

Rather than restore from a backup of my iPhone 4, I treated the iPhone 4S like a new device. This means I had to futz with the controls, settings, apps, and sync media and all that good stuff. One thing I can say with certainty: the iPhone 4S syncs far faster than the iPhone 4 thanks to its A5 processor.

So, how's the phone? I'll tell you.

It is absolutely identical to the iPhone 4. If you've touched an iPhone 4, then you've touched an iPhone 4S. The size, shape, and weight are all the same. The materials and build quality are top notch, with the metal and glass surfaces feeling excellent.

Everything the iPhone 4S does, it does so in an instant. Applications (even heavy duty games, such as Infinity Blade) load up in a blink, screen transitions are instantaneous, and even the camera pops to life swiftly. There's no mistaking the power of the processor. Perhaps where I noticed it most was in the browser. Web pages load incredibly quickly, and the Safari browser felt as smooth as silk when navigating between web pages.

With respect to iOS 5 and the new features, all I will say is that they require some serious tweaking. You'll have to spend some time with the new notification center and adjust its behavior over the course of a few days, so that you're not pummeled with notification and alerts. It is highly flexible, though, and far surpasses the abilities of the Android notification system.

What about Siri? Yeah, I gave Siri a shot. I asked a bunch of questions, such was "What is the distance between my current location and Rochester, New York?" Siri asked for a moment of my time, and then returned the answer, plus turn-by-turn directions. I asked what the weather will be like on Saturday (windy and chilly), what my favorite color is (Siri pulled out a quote from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail",) and other questions. Siri is as much entertaining as useful.

I tested some more practical questions, as well. I asked it to set calendar appointments, to send text messages, and to place some calls. Siri works amazingly well. Do I see this as being useful all the time? Meh, it feels (and probably looks) silly to be issuing orders to your phone in front of other people.

I haven't had a chance to play with the camera and many other features, but the phone is all set up and ready to go. I intend to spend all weekend exploring its features and facets.

In sum, though, my upgrade experience was pleasant and not problematic.

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