Steve Jobs resigned as CEO after a long medical leave and Tim Cook took his place. The new CEO along with other leaders in the company garnered the attention of the people on October 4, 2011, when they held a special media event called “Let’s talk iPhone”. They revealed the newest model – iPhone 4S and talked to length about its new features. The design was to remain the same as was the case with the previous 3GS model which mimicked the design of its predecessor. Apple continues to do the same till this day with all S models.

A day later, October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away. Tim Cook and all other leaders in the company were bracing with the loss of a strong leader and were also preparing themselves for a launch of the iPhone 4S. Apple stores around the world turned into memorials mourning the loss of their co-founder.

On October 14, 2011, Apple iPhone 4S launched in US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany and Japan. The phone sold 4 million units in its first weekend and by the end of the year, it was sold in 70 countries over 100 carriers.

The iPhone 4S is very similar to the iPhone 4 in design and looks. There are hardly any aesthetic improvements on the device, but it comes with some notable changes on the inside. Powered by a Qualcomm RTR8605 chipset, iPhone 4S could be used as CDMA and GSM. This meant that CDMA users at Verizon could now use their device on GSM if they were travelling internationally. The iPhone 4S is Apple’s first world phone.

The antenna band that was the cause of many woes among Apple users is modified in the 4S so that it can work smoothly without any problems for the users. Apple split the antenna into two components so that the phone can intelligently move from transmit to receive and back again and avoid problems arising from attenuation and detuning. The phone also features higher UMTS/ HSPA speed at 14.4 MBPS. Apple vouched for better performance and better graphics with its improved graphics processing unit and a powerful chip. The display resolution is the same – 960 x 480 which allows for a pixel density of 326ppi.

Features on the iPhone 4S that got users excited were, Airplay mirroring where the iPhone can project its interface on Apple TV. It also marked the introduction of Siri, a favorite among Apple users now. Apple was careful with Siri by presenting it as a beta service for iPhone 4S users. Siri was the brainchild of a team of developers who earlier provided the service as an app on the Apple store. Apple acquired the team in April 2010 and took their assistance in integrating Siri with iOS.

While the RAM continued to stay at 512MB, Apple was considerate of the increasing need for more storage space for power users. This brought the 64GB version for customers who wanted to enjoy more storage space in the phone itself. The battery performance of the iPhone 4S is slightly better than the iPhone 4.

You will notice that the front camera is still the VGA camera but the rear camera which works as the primary camera saw an increase to 8MP. Apple has made some significant changes to the rear camera on the iPhone 4S. The picture quality improved a lot with sharpness and brightness of the images. The Apple A5 processor includes an Image Signal Processor (ISP) which makes it easy for the phone to provide facial recognition, white-balance and stability to the images.

The popularity of the iPhone 4S makes it one of the most commonly used phones and Apple continued to push updates to the phone till iOS9. The phone was already four years old when the iOS 9 update came through. Apple usually stopped pushing updates to a particular version after 3 updates but the iPhone 4S was different.

With Apple’s long list of amazing features packed in the iPhone 4S, there came a few problems which got users looking for solutions so that they can use their phone with the least amount of trouble.