My buddy said feels like he's eventually going to drop his iPhone due to how light it is. I think the 4S weight is perfect.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone going back to 4S?
- Thread starter Thierry ba
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My buddy said feels like he's eventually going to drop his iPhone due to how light it is. I think the 4S weight is perfect.
Do you need to upgrade to a 4" inch? Is .5 inches that big of a difference? Maybe if you're a chick it is.
As for different design, is the 4S that heavy to hold?
If you're going from the 4 to the 5, then yes there is a reason to upgrade.
In my eyes going from a 4S to a 5 is pointless. My 4S data is fast enough for me, I don't need LTE to browse.
Yup...
I have to agree with all this. I was on 4 waiting for a huge breakthrough with the 5. The notion of only a longer screen (another row of apps?) to me seemed ridiculous. No NFC? Same 8MP camera? (as iP4S). Aluminium back that would scratch within days of sliding it in and out of your pocket? It seemed to me that apple had lost it. Actually, the SG3 was starting to look attractive.
In the end, I decided to buy a new 4S (at half the price) instead to upgrade from my 4.
Totally glad i did. The performance is great, the camera is great, it feels good in your hands. All glass so mostly scratch / dent proof. Still a work of art. I could not justify in any way upgrading to iP5 from 4.
I'm waiting to see what iP5S will bring. If it's still lack-lustre, I'll hang on to the 4S even longer.
Common apple... you're starting to slip.
.
i have both the iphone 5 and 4s. i got the 5 mainly because i got the 32gb version for super cheap. one of the main reasons i might consider going back to the 4s is for jailbreak. you don't know how much you rely on some amazing cydia tweaks (that for some reason the geniuses at apple have basically made no real progress in enhancing UX on the iphone) until they're gone.
haha
Your friends are clown bro.
Thank you Bryce Harper
The 4S is good phone but why would you want to go back to a smaller screen and more importantly 3G!
If your friends are referencing scuffgate, bendgate, or whatever gate yes there is some truth to those, but when you make millions of phones upon millions of phones there are bound to be some kinks. I personally got a scuffed phone.
If they are talking about the material used then they are right in assuming that aluminum is softer than glass and will dent compared to glass which will shatter. So don't drop your phone or put a case on it.
I think everyone was hoping for a revolutionary phone like the original iPhone or iPhone 4 but common guys we knew what was coming all along.
Here is why I wouldn't revert back to an iPhone 4S
iPhone 4S thicker and heavier
Small screen at 3.5" compared to 5
Slower
Terrible battery life
No LTE
Slower WIFI
Worse photo and video performance
Terrible headphones
Worse call quality
So tell me how the 5 is inferior to the 4S?
Your friends are clown bro.
Thank you Bryce Harper
The 4S is good phone but why would you want to go back to a smaller screen and more importantly 3G!
If your friends are referencing scuffgate, bendgate, or whatever gate yes there is some truth to those, but when you make millions of phones upon millions of phones there are bound to be some kinks. I personally got a scuffed phone.
If they are talking about the material used then they are right in assuming that aluminum is softer than glass and will dent compared to glass which will shatter. So don't drop your phone or put a case on it.
I think everyone was hoping for a revolutionary phone like the original iPhone or iPhone 4 but common guys we knew what was coming all along.
Here is why I wouldn't revert back to an iPhone 4S
iPhone 4S thicker and heavier
Small screen at 3.5" compared to 5
Slower
Terrible battery life
No LTE
Slower WIFI
Worse photo and video performance
Terrible headphones
Worse call quality
So tell me how the 5 is inferior to the 4S?
Well I admit 4" isn't a massive size increase but did you really think Apple was going to jump from 3.5" after almost a decade of using that screen size to 4"+ inches or even phablet size 5"+?
NFC? Your joking right. NFC hasn't even taken off on Android or any platform.
Let us not play the number game with the iPhone's camera dealing with megapixels. The 5 has a better camera, is it by much no, but it still is one of the bets smartphone camera phones period. Adding a sapphire lens made the lens more scratch resistant and it allows more light into the sensor, that alone is a plus
The iPhone 5 defiantly shows more wear and tear compared to the 4/4S but I had the 4 and I had scratches all over the back from "regular" use too. Just put a case on it
SG3 is a great phone no shame is considering it. The iPhone 5 isn't the end all be all phone. It is a very good phone but not the best phone for everyone.
You my friend are stupid. You wasted money even if you paid half the price. Even if you hated the iPhone 5 it's still worth more than the 4S. I would have bought the 5 then sold it when whatever phone came out.
In what way are they so disappointed in the 5 that they are going back to the 4S? Please explain where the quality has let them down.
Is it a slight blemish. If so you need new friends!
You guy are so sensitive about this stuff. Who cares it's not like he's insulting your mom or girlfriend. Just cause someone says something negative about the 5 doesn't mean yours wont work. It's a well known issue that the 5 has QC issues.
Screen: Why not? They could have gone the size of the screen that the SG2 used. There's no denying that most people were hoping for a bigger, not just longer screen. Like you said, after nearly a decade on a 3.5" screen they should've at least tried to get with the times.
Camera: Camera shootouts on IP4S and IP5 showed up no considerable difference. Certainly not worth the cost of an upgrade. 8MP is 8MP. Saphire or not. It's negligible.
NFC: is a technology used widely outside of the US as I understand it. All our supermarkets here in OZ are now using them. Not sure if it's actually available to use on the android market here, but I do remember banking articles talking about that very enthusiastically. Had apple decided to use NFC in their phones already, maybe that would have pushed the technology.
I think apple is more interested in supplying very minor increments in hardware to milk it for all it's worth. And while we're at it, passbook vs NFC? I got a feeling I know which will win out in the end.
Once again, it totally bewilders me how people feel apple can NEVER do ANY wrong. I like apple. Look at my signature. I bought a lot of their stuff. It doesn't mean I get down on my knees and pray to them every night. I'm sure a lot of people do though. Just as Steve Jobs did, if I think something is sh**, then I'll say it's sh** - and lately a lot of things from apple is sh**.
Finally, thanks for calling me stupid. I look forward to compliments like that. However, I did all my sums, and all things considered, I saved about $500 over what I would have paid for a contract with a iP5. On top of that, the plan I'm now on gives me unlimited everything calls, and 4GB data per month. That cannot be beaten. Phone at half price, cheaper per month, more data...
All for a phone that performance and feature wise, is only 1 row of apps less.
Oh stupid me...
.
I honestly can't believe people are selling their 5's and rebuying or going back to the 4S!
To me the 5 feels even more premium and well built than the 4S, this is something I NEVER expected since it's so much thinner and lighter.
I was just shocked. Then the screen size is nicer, the battery life for me has been easily 30%+ better (end the day with considerably more battery). It's damn speedy as well.
Going BACK to a 4S now to me seems quite ridiculous. But hey, just my opinion.
To me the 5 feels even more premium and well built than the 4S, this is something I NEVER expected since it's so much thinner and lighter.
I was just shocked. Then the screen size is nicer, the battery life for me has been easily 30%+ better (end the day with considerably more battery). It's damn speedy as well.
Going BACK to a 4S now to me seems quite ridiculous. But hey, just my opinion.
Last edited:
I am one of those crazyes that went back to the heavy built , like well made jewelery 4s compared to the 5 , i sold my 5 after two weeks testing for one of those reasons , not feeling well made in my hand for day to day use , the " beautifull " " magical " thinness , and headphone on the bottom " brilliant " idea, battery life was abisimal for me ( maybe a bad battery batch ) one of the first ones , and the phone keypad horrible colours being a few reasons , that is why i went back , but hey im crazy like that, its just me , and maybe a few others that feel like me .
The weight feel and thickness of the 4s felt , and still feels perfect match to me , in my crazy world , and i am just curious when you people with the " make it so thin" as a paper thin and with the same weight as a sheet of paper , will feel that o.k ! now ! is thin enough.
Make it like 4s in thickness and give me all day maybe two day worth Lte battery , and i will be so happy.
And thats my crazy rant , ill stay with my trusty jailbroken 5.1.1 perfect google maps and youtube app and sbs settings and all the other jailbreak goodies , and headphone perfect placement in my opinion , till Apple comes up with something realy " crazy " like a screen a little wider , with the same aspect ratio like 4s and not only taller , and some other crazy ideas , like maybe headphone on top for example , a little thicker and better battery life for Lte use.
Lots of people do it. It's their own preference. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you need to call people crazy for making their own decisions.
----------
Another person trying too hard to prove the 5 is MUCH better than the 4S.
Slower is a relative term because it's slower by milliseconds, which people don't notice unless both phones are placed beside one another. The 4S itself is already quite fast, most of the tasks are completed near-instant.
Battery life is NOT terrible. I've seem many accounts of good battery life on the 4S.
Camera is the same quality, so "worse photo and video performance" is not justified.
Call quality is fine, the iPhone 5 just improved on it. Nobody ever complained about the call quality on the 4S btw.
No LTE doesn't matter unless you're on a CDMA carrier. GSM carrier's HSPA+ download speeds are more than enough to complete daily tasks like web browsing without any lag.
Slower wifi doesn't apply because most of the time web pages/App Store content are loaded near-instant on both devices.
By the looks of it, the 5 is only MARGINALLY better than the 4S.
"worse photo and video performance" doesn't only cover the image/video quality aspect of the cameras; it covers everything. The 5 snaps pictures much faster and has enough processing power to allow snapping pictures while recording videos. It also has improved performance in low-light situations.
While the 5's improvements over the 4S could be considered "marginally" better if you look at each improvement on its own, but saying the 5 is only marginally better than the 4S is a HUGE understatement. It is all these improvements together that make the 5 MUCH better than the 4S.
Not sure you're actually understanding just how much better it actually is. You've actually said the exact same thing now in several different posts...yet your narrow vision and inability to accept objective, measurable facts is actually getting quite annoying!
The '5' isn't faster in milliseconds. It's twice as fast. Really isn't relevant which tests you're looking at. Java/Sunspider (2x improvement). Geek bench and Browsermak (2-2.4x speed improvements). GPU benchmarking clearly shows a 100-150% speed boost. No one is saying launching an app is where the perceived speed increase is evident. Play around in iPhoto. Render, place transitions, playback, and export from iMovie. Download a song from iTunes...on LTE in literally less than 10 seconds. Browsing speeds on my home network are noticeably faster. ,y wife has the 4s, I the 5. Our ISP provides 22 mb/s Down/2 mb/s up. AT&T LTE in town ranges from 15-45 down, 10-40 up. The 5 is, I'll agree, just a bit quicker at rendering a page (on wifi--Airport Extreme)...but, in our increasingly impatient world, every little bit helps. And when on LTE, the difference is drastic!
*Quick edit--forgot to add**
The A6 family of processors is the 'new' technology that makes these speed/performance improvements possible as I'm sure you know. In order to ensure the strongest viability of iOS upgrades and future development optimized for the new processor is exactly where you'll see these 'milliseconds' turn into real, obvious improvements to the phone and system itself. It truly is an awesome processor and one I think Apple is pretty proud of...an in house chip wholly and specifically 'tuned' to the platform.
The camera. Megapixels aren't everything. Are you familiar with digital photography? Base ISO on the iPhone 4 and 4s was 80. Base on the iPhone 5 is 50. Noise reduction has been tweaked, quite well too! Maintaining 99% of the sharpness yet significantly reducing grit in luminance noise....doing a better job 'smoothing' some noise characteristics than its older sibling. Again, subtle but an improvement none the less. Unfortunately due to physics, there isn't room for any larger a sensor in there. When you increase megapixels without increasing sensor size, noise can quickly become a problem. Improved low light performance. The ISO cap on the 4 was ISO 1000---the '5'---3200! At this time we can't control ISO, other than dimming the lights...however, Apple IS going to release access to developers soon in the SDK and this is cool! Camera+ and other third party apps are bound to jump on this. You can now capture a still shot while shooting video too.
Not sure why you're not intrigued by improvement in the audio of a phone call. It's actually quite cool what they've done with the multiple microphones.
Yes, no matter what you believe, LTE does matter if you've got access to it in your market. It's undeniably and easily the coolest 'online' experience I've ever had...truly instantaneous response and page loading. Fast downloads.
I'm bit sure what you're expecting in smart phone technology. Apple continues to evolve and IMHO...in the right 'areas'. NFC, in America, isn't ready. Neither was LTE in most markets when the 4s dropped. The next release, if it makes sense and doesn't negatively impact battery life of performance, I'm sure Apple has plans to include it. Other than NFC, there really isn't a 'missing' feature in today's offerings from other manufacturers
Build quality is second to none. Regardless of what is written, primarily on this forum...about cosmetics, the iPhone 5 is amazing in it's design.
Again...if you don't understand why it's a better phone, cool. Wait it out. I'm sure the 5s is going to have everything you're looking for. If not, there are dozens of manufacturers out there with hundreds of options. Why waste your time telling all of us three or four times the same, lame and tired reasons why the 4s is superior? I certainly wouldn't have given up my 4s if this was the case. And it IS the case no matter how many times you try to convince those of us happy with our '5' otherwise.
Give it up...you're wrong, and starting to look/sound funny.
Last edited:
I'm not at all disappointed with the hardware. What i find truly lacking is the software. I'm glad Jony Ive is in charge of interfaces at Apple now. I find it disturbing that Ive's team crafted this beautiful device and software as hideous as Gamercenter is on it. Its so out of place.
SUPERIOR? Since when did I say the 4S was superior? I said the 5S is better, but not THAT MUCH better like some people claim it to be.
Yes, you can go on and on about how the iPhone 5 smashed all the benchmark tests with awesome results, but who truly cares about benchmark tests in real life? Are numbers everything? At the end of the day, it just translates to how fast both phone can complete the same task, and the difference in speed is not THAT GREAT. 2 times faster is only a gimmick that Apple uses every time they release a new phone, go see real world test, it's only 1.2x faster at most.
Yes, and you bring in all the high-tech stuff about camera, ISO and all that. Does a normal consumer really care about that? A normal consumer wants a phone that can snap great photos, not bother about all those nitty-gritty things that you pointed out, only professional photographers care about those. Why not you step out of your house and use both phones to snap a photo and show me how much difference is there? The iPhone 5 camera is essentially the 4S camera plus one or two insignificant improvements just to show people that it's "improved".
And if build quality is second to none, all the scuffs reported on BRAND NEW iPhone 5s wouldn't have existed. As a matter of fact, I've seen more people go back to the 4S due to this reason alone.
I agree with you. People say double the speed like it's really that much quicker, but the iPhone 4S isn't slow to begin with. Double the speed really is difficult to perceive. The speed IS TOTALLY a gimmick. It's totally true.
The one or two features added are to show people that it's new, but doesn't really translate to a better experience. That panorama feature for example isn't the greatest. There are many panorama apps that existed before iOS 6 that are must better than the built in panorama app.
I am sorry that my usage of that word appears to have upset you, I'm not actually implying that someone who would do this is, just to me it makes no sense. It's how I speak in real life so I have changed my post to display a more appropriate statement. Sorry for the confusion.
I thought this at first. I was like 'meh' it's a minor upgrade. I'll keep my 4S for another year or two. Then I got one, and everything changed.
Speed isn't a gimmick. It's seriously improved, I mean anything I do it does instantaneously. After using it for about 2 weeks I went back to my old 4S (which I have given to a family member) and while it is fast, going BACK to it I just wouldn't be able to do.
I would argue it's (close) to the feeling of living with an SSD then using a computer without one. It's not like it's slow, but it's just not as fast.
In the end I agree with another poster above, the hardware quite honestly is incredible (this I did not think when they announced it, it almost took a few days for me to realise what exactly they have done) but the software is where it lags behind.
Anyway I hope you all are enjoying your 4S's and I hope that one day in the future Apple releases a phone that you will accept and enjoy as your new phone.
my plans was to get a 5 and sell my 4 right away !
i still have my 4 even tho i havent used it, cant seem to get rid of it
i did consider selling my 5 and staying with my 4 but on 2nd thoughts when
4g comes to most of the uk carriers next year it is prob best bet to stay with the 5.
i still have my 4 even tho i havent used it, cant seem to get rid of it
i did consider selling my 5 and staying with my 4 but on 2nd thoughts when
4g comes to most of the uk carriers next year it is prob best bet to stay with the 5.
I agree totally. For those who don't or haven't used a 5, the 4S is still fast or does what they need it to do. Once you get a 5 you see the major differences. I thought my 4S was fast until I got a 5. Everything is damn near instant. Switching between apps, sending messages, cycling through songs, everything. Yes I also said "who needs LTE when HSPA+ is pretty fast already". Well on LTE everything loads instantly as well. Every webpage, youtube video, whatever you're trying to do it loads immediately. No wait time. As soon as you can get the web address typed in it loads. I joked with a couple of my friends that my iPhone 5 loads webpages on LTE as soon as I think about it. Average speeds are faster than the home internet of most people. This blows HSPA+ away. The difference almost feels like going from 2G to 3G. LTE is the biggest upgrade of all of them.
2nd to LTE the battery life upgrade over the 4S is amazing. The iPhone 4 had one of the best battery lives of any smartphone, the 4S was a significant downgrade in battery performance. It was a challenge to get it to last a whole day. Now with iPhone 5 I can charge it to 100% overnight and still have around 20% left when I get home at night. With my 4S I would need to charge it at some point during the day or risk it dying early in the afternoon.
Build quality and aesthetically the 5 is beautiful. Especially the black slate one. It's thinner but still has a premium and sturdy feel. I have yet to put a case on it.
Then the screen quality is much better. I actually still have my 4S with T-Mobile service on it so I was able to compare the screens and performance of similar tasks. I've always loved the 4S screen but side by side you can see the improved color saturation on the 5. Everything just looks better. The colors are deeper and richer.
Yes the camera is also improved. Megapixels aren't everything that matter on a camera.
4S to 5 in my opinion is the biggest iPhone upgrade ever. Imagine everything that your 4S could do but way faster and better. No way I could go back now.
