photo via ifixit
The team over at ifixit, a popular free repair manual Web site, has been busy dissecting Apple’s iPhone 4S like a frog in a science classroom.
What did they find? Luckily slicing into an iPhone 4S isn’t as messy as cutting open an amphibian, but there are still a number of interesting things to look at.
First, there’s the new battery, which is slightly larger than the iPhone 4 variety. Ifixit notes that although the new battery can accommodate an extra hour of talk time over a 3G network, Apple has shaved 100 hours from the phone’s standby time. this is because the new iPhone 4S has a faster processor and other hardware upgrades that tend to consume more power.
Several people have wondered if Siri, Apple’s new personal assistant software, will work on previous iPhone models. Ifixit found that the software is designed to work only with the new A5 chip, which is a dual-core processor. the only other Apple device with an A5 chip is the iPad 2, meaning Siri could easily be integrated into the iPad with a software upgrade.
The camera in the iPhone 4S has been upgraded to eight megapixels from the iPhone 4’s five-megapixel camera. Apple didn’t just drop in a new camera: the company has enhanced its integration with other hardware upgrades too, tapping into the new processor and memory. Ifixit writes that the iPhone 4S knows how to use every last pixel, letting in 73 percent more light than the previous camera and increasing camera speeds by 33 percent.
You can see more of the guts of the iPhone 4S at the ifixit Web site.