iPhone 4S Unboxing Gallery

The new iPhone 4S started shipping in volume this week, and I was one of the customers who opted to upgrade to Apple's latest smartphone. I've been using an iPhone 3GS as a personal phone for several years, and also had been using a Motorola Droid X as my primary work phone. I thought it was time to upgrade, so I opted for the iPhone 4S.

Granted, the arrival of the iPhone 4S was met with some initial disappointment, as many people were guessing that Apple would instead unveil something dubbed the iPhone 5, which--according to the Internet rumor mill--would have had a bigger screen, a thinner form factor, NFC support, an AMOLED screen and possibly dozens of other features.

None of these features appeared in the iPhone 4S, but the phone does offer more of what I truly wanted: more speed, more storage, arguably the best camera available on a smartphone, and perhaps most importantly, compatibility with the dozens of iPhone apps I'd purchased over the years. I've also used Android and Windows Phone 7 devices fairly extensively over the last year or two, and I think they're fine smartphones. I believe that choosing between an iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone 7 device is largely a matter of personal preference, as I think they're all extremely capable devices that work well for the tasks they were designed for.

I've been using my iPhone 4S for a few days now, and I'll be posting a full review of the device later this week. In the interim I've posted a gallery of photos, which you can find below.

What are your thoughts on the Apple iPhone 4S? Add a comment to this blog post, or start up a conversation on Twitter.