iPhone 4 cases won't fit the iPhone 4S

When the curtain was pulled back on the shiny new iPhone 4S last week, its lack of a hardware upgrade led many (including us) to believe everything on the outside was EXACTLY the same as before. Turns out we were wrong. While we were prevented from comparing the iPhone 4 with its 4S successor at the launch, those stealthy folks over at Android Sale were able to put them side-by-side for a quick comparison.

So, if you turn your attention to acute and direct your gaze to the picture above, you'll notice a very minor shift in the positioning of the silent switch and volume controls. We might have expected as much; the same tweak could be seen on the US-only CDMA iPhone 4 made for the Verizon network.

The (obvious) bad news? If you slot the iPhone 4S into your favourite iPhone 4-tailored case, the buttons will be misaligned. The difference may only be a matter of millimetres, but the cheeky revelation means if you're planning on bagging yourself the iPhone 4S this Friday, you might want to put aside a bit of spare change for a replacement case that's been specifically designed to accommodate this ever-so-slight shift.

And you didn't think Apple made any cosmetic changes?

Also
Apple iPhone 4S review
iPhone 4S – all the stories
Apple iPhone 4S Siri demo
Apple iPhone 4S pre-sales are off to an impressive start