The iPhone 4S has received a lot of press, not all for the right reasons. The first reaction for a lot of people on October 4th was that this phone looks no different to the iPhone 4, and so it would not be worth purchasing iPhone 4S deals. On closer inspection though the iPhone 4S has a lot more to offer than last year’s iPhone 4 and people have certainly warmed to the phone after digesting the information available. So what are its best features?

iOS 5

iOS 5 is available on all models of the iPhone, however it is amazing the difference we found on the iPhone 4S with the new software. The 4S is the only iPhone model that has the processing and graphical power to really push the OS to its limits, with a dual core CPU and dual core GPU offering unparalleled performance and graphics.

The new technological advances and the inclusion of things such as iMessage, which is like BBM for Apple users, or the new Android style notification system, make a huge difference.

The inclusion of Twitter integration also makes a huge difference to the social media usage on the device and Find my Friends offers an excellent way of finding people in crowded public places.

Siri

Of course the biggest software leap comes with the Siri voice control technology that the device now has. This accurate technology allows users to command their iPhone to do exactly as they wish. This software is extremely accurate and we must say thoroughly impressive.

It can be used with a wide variety of phone features from currency conversion to voice dialling and Siri also learns to interpret your accent as the two of you grow old together. It also has a number of pre-programmed smart answers for silly questions, which can be quite entertaining.

Dual Core

The new phone also famously has the new Apple A5 chip that is also found in the iPad 2. This dual core chip makes the device twice as powerful as the previous one and really brings it up to pace. Apple has also ensured the device has a new GPU – it offers an amazing 7 times the power of the previous one and the differences to video and gaming are expected to be huge.

As mentioned, this really shows iOS 5’s features off to their full potential. But it also brings the iPhone 4S up to the same level of performance as some of the top Android phones like the Galaxy S2 and Sensation. The new GPU also makes this probably the best smartphone available for mobile gaming.

Camera

The new phone also comes with a leap in the camera technology offered and Apple has given the phone the new 8mp camera that was suspected as well as 1080p video recording. This all leads to the phone being that bit more up to pace in the camera area. They have not just bumped up the megapixels though, as Apple have added a new lens, IR filter and CMOS that all provide better colours, image quality and far faster rate of photo taking. You can now also access the camera by just double tapping the home button.

iCloud

iCloud support means that you can now access you iTunes library, documents, photos and other data from anywhere in the world once you have an iPhone. Unlike conventional Cloud services you don’t even need to upload your own tracks for music, as it reads track IDs from your music library and allows you to access them through the iTunes Cloud library.

So while the iPhone 4S may indeed look a lot like the iPhone 4 it has plenty of new hardware inside and a great deal more software on board to make it in a completely different universe in terms of user experience. One of the benefits of the new iPhone launch is that iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 contracts are now much cheaper than they were just a month ago.