he 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.

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.