iPhone 4S test shows web and Siri features

A contributor to AppVV in China has managed to get pre-release access to an iPhone 4S in a hands-on video (below) before it has even started shipping in earnest. The short clip shows it nearly twice as fast in the overall BrowserMark test at 89567 points. In the JavaScript-heavy SunSpider web test, it was even faster: it was nearly as fast as the iPad 2, which itself was four times faster than the original iPad and iPhone 4.

Also spotted in the demo were the features available to Siri users, which won't be public until late this week. Along with setting the language, users can turn off voiced feedback or turn off Siri entirely. Owners who want to keep the commands quiet can also turn on a "raise to speak" feature that detects when the iPhone has been brought up to the user's head to automatically start instead of requiring the home button press.

The close comparison on the web was conducted with Wi-Fi and rules out the network as a potential bottleneck on performance. In practice, the iPhone 4S could be even faster on the web when on 3G, as GSM versions will use 14.4Mbps data and have more headroom for data on top of the processor. CDMA iPhones don't get a speed benefit this generation on the network but should still load pages faster.

Such a close comparison between the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S suggests that Apple may well outperform the Galaxy S II in practice, despite having a theoretically lower clock speed. While not a breakthrough, it would make the phone as fast as newer peers, not just the months-old Samsung phone. [via MacRumors]

By Electronista Staff