iphone 4s or 5?

[sleewell]

phone upgrade time and it could not have come at better mine. my crappy htc evo 4g barely lasted 2 years but now it loads for no reason, freezes up and the battery lasts maybe a good 23 minutes before needing a charge. i love Jenny's iphone so i think i am going that route.

the 4s would be 99 bucks and the 5 would be 199. is the 5 that much better?

[Schweezly]

The 4s is almost 2 years old. When ios7 comes out, certain features won't apply to it. Apple is very much about supporting the current phone and the one before it only.

Get the 5. Better yet, wait a month or two and get the 5 for $99

[facefirst]

http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

[benjamin801]

The 4s is almost 2 years old. When ios7 comes out, certain features won't apply to it. Apple is very much about supporting the current phone and the one before it only.

Get the 5. Better yet, wait a month or two and get the 5 for $99

This.

I use a 4S and my wife uses a 5, and in current functionality there is zero difference. None. However, mine will probably be obsolete in 12-18 months and hers won't.

[sleewell]

good call on waiting but my current phone is killing me. i could maybe swing one more month but two or longer seems brutal. i have done the facotry reset thing and it is still a pos.

[Dave]

Wait.


Dude, seriously wait.


Apple is bad about only the current gen and 1 back working. If you get a 5 now, it will be the previous gen in a month or two (sept announce and usually release within a week) and then a year from then it will be obsolete and abandoned. Basically, if you want in on the iPhone shit, get a new one when they're released so you'll be supported for the 2 year contract. Upgrading at full price a month before new product cycle is a total waste of cash.

[sleewell]

i appreciate all the input. what exactly do you guys mean? in terms of support and upgrades or what exactly about them abandoning the older versions.

not a huge phone / tech guy. i dont really get the latest gadgets and do all the updates. i just want it to work and last for the 2 year contract.

is it that they dont make it so you can update the older versions to the newest version or that they just stop servicing the old stuff completely? i think i could live with the old version as long as it kept working but if its a situation where they just throw up their hands and tell you that you are fucked and buy a new one that is a different story.

with my current phone i have never taken it in for service in fact i am not sure if i really could. i get a sprint employee discount from when a friend used to work there of 25% so me taking it in would look kinda odd.

[Dave]

I dunno if apple intentionally cripples them, but 2 models back seem to have significant problems. Much like you're having with your current phone.


Like my old phone would randomly shut off, apps would frequently stop working, battery life went to shit, lagging bad, etc. I don't know shit about phones either, but having used iPhones since they came out I can say that after 2 years they all had really bad problems.

If you got a 5 today you will be current until next month. iOS7 will work on the 5 for a year or so until they release the 2014 iPhone with whatever iOS it runs. That's when you'll experience severe issues according to my historical data. So basically for the 11 months following that you'll hate the thing, and experience weird glitches that didn't used to exist.

How do I know? I upgraded at the end of the product cycle for the 3G. 2 months after they came out with the 3GS, and a year later when the 4 was out my phone turned to a useless piece of shit. Same thing happened when I upgraded to the 4 (because my 3G literally broke) and finally I just bitched until they let me upgrade to the 5 early, which was soon after it came out.

[Telephant]

I just upgraded to the 5 since some bitch stole my phone... What Dave is saying, is that not only is the new iPhone coming out in September, but iOS7 as well. And in the past, older generations of iphone would run the newest version of iOS sluggish as fuck. However, I don't think this is going to be near as big a problem with the iPhone 5 since its already a nice piece of kit. Now in a year or two when iOS7 has been updated and bloated out, I could definitely see some slowing down. Right now, the iPhone 4S runs fine compared to the 5. The 5 is just noticeably lighter, even though its larger (an entire extra row of icons) and I think slightly faster, definitely snappier than the 4s. Its been awhile since I looked at the tech specs.

The other thing to consider is, we don't know how "updated" this next iPhone is gonna be. It could just be a 5s or they could bust out some legendary shit.

That said, iOS7 is a significant upgrade and its coming in September, so based on that alone, I would tell you to get a iPhone 5.

If you can, I would wait for the new one... If you can't, definitely go with the 5.

[Diocide]

Wait till the next version comes out. Then you'll be ripe for an upgrade in 2 years, which is usually how long Apple takes to make some decent changes.