iPhone 4S – Better than the iPhone 4, but you can’t tell to look at it…

If you were holding off on buying an iPhone because you were hoping Apple would be launching some revolutionary new handset before Christmas, your wait has partially paid off. This morning, the Cupertino giant announced the iPhone 4S, which features all-new internals in the same, sleek design as the iPhone 4.

While some may be disappointed with the lack of a refreshed design on the iPhone 4, the internal improvements more than make up for it. Powered by the dual-core A5 processor (which is the same processor inside the iPad2), the 4S features an 8MP camera capable of 1080p video recording, and comes with the latest version of iOS pre-installed.

But the biggest feature included in the iPhone 4S is Siri, a voice recognition program that can reportedly understand normal English (including Australian accents) that helps you organise your life. It has access to all the core functions of the phone, so you can tell it to send a text message, email a colleague, check the weather, start a countdown timer, lookup local restaurants or set a reminder to do something.

Unfortunately, Siri will only be available on the new iPhone 4S, and not part of the upcoming iOS5 update, and while time will tell just how well it works, there’s no question that the demos look impressive.

Launching on Friday, October 14, the iPhone 4S will be available in 16GB, 32Gb and 64GB versions for $799, $899 and $999 respectively. iOS5 will be available to download for iPhone 4 and iPad customers from October 13.

Price: From $799
Web: Apple