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Feb 26, 2012
IPHONE 4S 64GB UNLOCKED, AMAZING FEATURES...DOES IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?
27 of 32 found this helpful Our camera team has spent some professional time with the iPhone 4S, so check out our in-depth findings of the snapper.
The iPhone 4S caught many by surprise, with Apple expected to release the iPhone 5 - but instead we got an iPhone 4 with overhauled innards.
While the masses were initially disappointed, the iPhone 4S features a glut of top-end tech that is designed to put it on a par with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2 - but does it manage to do that?
The changes to the iPhone 4S are easy to document - the camera has been upgraded to 8MP (with an improved aperture ratio), the CPU is now the same dual-core A5 processor as seen in the iPad 2, and a seven time increase in graphical processing power.
Also we've got Siri, Apple's voice recognition service - will this be a game changer for mobile phones or will it be nothing more than a gimmick?
As we've mentioned, the iPhone 4S is almost identical in outward design to the iPhone 4, which might irk those that like to show that they've got the most up to date device from Apple when out and about with friends.
However, the flip side of this is that things like the plethora of iPhone 4 covers on the market at the moment will still fit.
Apple has slightly changed the design of the iPhone 4S somewhat though, by changing to a dual-band aerial design, making sure it doesn't encounter an embarrassing repeat of antenna-gate we had to endure with the iPhone 4.
For all those that haven't seen the older version of the phone, we'll take you on a tour of the new handset: the top of the iPhone 4S houses the power/lock button, as well as the headphone jack, plus a microphone for noise cancellation.
The right-hand side of the phone is devoid of any buttons, but holds the slot for the micro SIM card, which pops out using the included tool (or a paperclip).
The bottom of the phone is pretty standard, with the Apple connector and dual speakers which pump out the (actually quite decent) sound.
The left-hand side of the phone sees the rounded volume keys, with the top one of these also acting as the camera shutter button to make it easy to snap with the new iPhone. We've also got the silencer switch too, which has been slightly moved upwards from the previous iteration.
As you can see, Apple has altered its antenna band technology to move the gaps that plagued the iPhone 4's reception to a less-touchable location.
The iPhone 4S comes with iOS 5.
The iPhone 4S is the flagship model for the new iOS software from Apple, making it much snazzier once more.
We'll walk you through the big changes to start with - and Notifications is up there with the best of them.
The new system apes Android by using a drop down menu from pretty much anywhere in the phone to let you see all manner of updates, weather news and messages, plus new notifications will now ping across the top of the screen rather than plopping straight into the middle of the screen like before and disrupting whatever you were doing.
It's not revolutionary by any means, but it's well-integrated and makes the whole system feel a whole lot different to iOS 4.
The lock screen is now called into more use than ever before too, with new notifications sitting on top to be easily accessed without needing to mess about inside the phone.
2ND HALF TO COME SOON! THANKS, WE HOPED YOU ENJOYED OUR REVIEW OF THE IPHONE 4S. ANY QUESTIONS, FEEL FREE TO ASK!!!
Feb 26, 2012
Bulldozer FX-8150 Best processor ever....or seriously lacking...??
2 of 2 found this helpful AMD's FX-8150 is the first processor we've seen that uses the new Bulldozer core - the first all-new AMD core since 2007's K10. This top-of-the-range model has a whopping eight cores running at 3.6GHz, and can boost up to 4.2GHz in Turbo mode when lightly-threaded applications aren’t using all the cores.
Like AMD's Llano processors, you'll need a new motherboard to use a Bulldozer chip - it requires a Socket AM3+ motherboard with an AMD 990FX chipset. The cheapest board currently available is Gigabyte's £115 GA-990FXA-UD3, but prices should come down as more boards are launched.
The FX-8150's architecture is significantly different from that of its main rival: Intel's Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge chips consist of up to four cores, each with their own Level 1 and 2 cache, sharing a pool of Level 3 cache. The FX-8150 has four modules, each of which contains two Bulldozer cores. Each core has its own level 1 cache, and the two cores within each module share 2MB of level 2 cache. In turn, the four modules share an 8MB block of level 3 cache. AMD claims this means that single-threaded applications have access to more resources, as they can access 2MB of level 2 cache and 8MB of level 3 cache even when using just one core; with Sandy Bridge, single threads only have access to 256KB of Level 2 cache and 8MB of level 3.
AMD's FX range also doesn't have built-in graphics, but every processor in the range has an unlocked multiplier for easier overclocking. At launch, there will be three FX models: two eight-core chips running at 3.1GHz and 3.6GHz, and a six-core model running at 3.3GHz (see table below). Later on AMD will launch a four-core version, starting at £100.
All and all, I was very disappointed based on the hype, and promoting done by amd, hopefully the release of the 2nd generation processors later this year will be able to fix the underwhelmed consumer base that was expecting this to be the top of the line smashing intel into the dust, processor. Thanks, we hoped you've enjoyed our review.