iPhone 4S to 6S

LordQ · Feb 27, 2015

Hi guys,

I just wanted to know opinions on this year's iPhone 4S fate and if you'll update to the 6S.

That being said, I have two possible scenarios:

The 4S gets iOS 9 so it means another full year of life and assuming the rumours are true, it will be a very polished and smooth experience.

Or...

The 4S gets dropped but 8.4 works stable enough to still use it as your trustworthy daily phone.

If option 1, then personally I wouldn't change until the 7 or even the 7S (I know, right?) because the phone will be usable, smooth, latest version of most apps will be supported, the camera is still a decent one and overall it will just work.

Else...

I think that, even if the 4S stays with 8.4, I'll upgrade to the 7 next year.

So all in all, what are you guys thinking on doing with that beautiful phone (the most beautiful iPhone IMO) this year?

MH01 · Feb 27, 2015

My favourite phone, but its seriously showing its age, apart from nostalgia, cannot think of a reason not to update to a 5s or 6, without even thinking about the OS.

LostMyiPhone · Feb 27, 2015

my 4s was my first iPhone so it'll always have a special place in my heart (even if it got stolen from my wife).

but yea, at this point, you couldn't pay me to use one of those over any of the newer ones. My 5 is 100% pristine and I'm really considering selling it soon. I'll sell it and my 6 just before the 6s comes out and use that money to buy myself a 6s.

Max(IT) · Feb 27, 2015

The iPhone 4S is an old phone that deserve to rest in peace

Seriously, I hope Apple will drop support for 512 Mb devices in iOS 9.

eclipse01 · Feb 27, 2015

Max(IT) said:
The iPhone 4S is an old phone that deserve to rest in peace
Seriously, I hope Apple will drop support for 512 Mb devices in iOS 9.

I actually agree with this. My 4s was also my first Iphone and boy did I love it.

but it is so outdated from everything offered today.

Heck it doesn't even have LTE support

AAPLinc · Feb 27, 2015

LostMyiPhone said:
my 4s was my first iPhone so it'll always have a special place in my heart.

Me too, my white 4S was my first iPhone, and my introduction into smartphones. Before that I had an LG Env3. My 4S will always be special to me. It's actually still in mint condition when I got my 6 (I had also a 5S that I sold because money was tight-went back to my 4S before my 6).

My original 4S is now owned by my dad, who has it in an Otterbox defender (he's a contractor so he needed something rugged). I actually used my dad's upgrade to get my 6, so when I upgrade again this fall for the 6S, I will just use my original upgrade that is due in Sept, and give my dad my 6, it's a nice little cycle I've discovered. I upgrade while he remains on a newer phone as well. My dad always says "I don't give a ***** what phone I have, as long as it can text and make phone calls." He was on my moms original black iPhone 4, until I went home for Xmas and transferred him to my 4S. It was a nice little upgrade for him.

To the OP (sorry for going off topic)

My 4S seemed to run pretty darn good on iOS8 however it probably wont run so well going into iOS9. The 512mb of ram and 32-bit architecture unfortunately will eventually pull it out of the race. It should probably stay on iOS8 to keep it running tip top, but we shall see.

chrisscottuk · Feb 27, 2015

I bought a 4S on the day it was released. A year ago I had to replace the battery. Upon the iPhone 6 being released, I decided to try to hold out until the 6S, however my phone had other ideas, performance had got slower with iOS 8 being a challenge, and then the battery suddenly started getting awful. So 2 weeks ago, I reluctantly acknowledged that it wasn't worth further money trying to keep it going, and realised I wasn't going to make it waiting for the 6S and upgraded to the 6. I'm really glad it did, I can go the whole day without charging, and I am a heavy user, it's light, slim, fast, great size screen, and a joy to use. When the iPhone 6S is released I'll probably wish I'd somehow been able to wait, but for now I'm loving it....

Paddle1 · Feb 27, 2015

I'm not sure it's worth it to wait for a 7. 5s, 6 or 6s seem more reasonable.

marvz · Feb 27, 2015

I think you really should upgrade to the iPhone 6s. You will appreciate the new user experience from an lightning fast iPhone. And let me say, the iPhone 6 is the most beautiful and elegant iPhone to date.

Max(IT) · Feb 28, 2015

eclipse01 said:
I actually agree with this. My 4s was also my first Iphone and boy did I love it.

but it is so outdated from everything offered today.

Heck it doesn't even have LTE support

Don't get me wrong. I loved my 4s ....... in 2011.
Today is 2015 and current generation 5S/6 are much better.
And I have very high expectations for the iPhone 6S.

oldmacs · Feb 28, 2015

CarlosQG said:
Hi guys,

I just wanted to know opinions on this year's iPhone 4S fate and if you'll update to the 6S.

That being said, I have two possible scenarios:

The 4S gets iOS 9 so it means another full year of life and assuming the rumours are true, it will be a very polished and smooth experience.

Or...

The 4S gets dropped but 8.4 works stable enough to still use it as your trustworthy daily phone.

If option 1, then personally I wouldn't change until the 7 or even the 7S (I know, right?) because the phone will be usable, smooth, latest version of most apps will be supported, the camera is still a decent one and overall it will just work.

Else...

I think that, even if the 4S stays with 8.4, I'll upgrade to the 7 next year.

So all in all, what are you guys thinking on doing with that beautiful phone (the most beautiful iPhone IMO) this year?

I know heaps of people still happy with the iPhone 4S, so my hope is for them that iOS 9 will improve performance on the 4S. There are still a significant number of people on the 4S, probably due to the fact that it sold so well (each version of the iPhone sold better, and the 4S sold exceptionally well IIRC). There are more 4S's around then there were 4's this time last year or 3GS's the year before.

Jeff R · Feb 28, 2015

Get the 6S! Keep your 4S as an iPod for music.

richwoodrocket · Feb 28, 2015

iPhone 4S to 6S

I think you're way to hopeful. iPhone 4s will not get iOS 9. Period. I agree with @Max(IT)

oldmacs · Feb 28, 2015

richwoodrocket said:
I think you're way to hopeful. iPhone 4s will not get iOS 9. Period. I agree with @Max(IT)

Why?

Theres no reason to not support it, especially if the iPod Touch and iPad Mini 1 get it. Apple isn't tied to some stupid 'we have to drop this because it only gets x amount of updates' thing.

I'm glad that you probably have the money to upgrade your iPhone but there are plenty of people who can't, so maybe Apple should do them a favour, and if technically possible, support the 4S with iOS 9.

richwoodrocket · Feb 28, 2015

oldmacs said:
Why?

Theres no reason to not support it, especially if the iPod Touch and iPad Mini 1 get it. Apple isn't tied to some stupid 'we have to drop this because it only gets x amount of updates' thing.

I'm glad that you probably have the money to upgrade your iPhone but there are plenty of people who can't, so maybe Apple should do them a favour, and if technically possible, support the 4S with iOS 9.

Because it would align with past trends in the iPhone...
Apple is in the business of making money. They want you to upgrade to a new phone.

oldmacs · Feb 28, 2015

richwoodrocket said:
Because it would align with past trends in the iPhone...
Apple is in the business of making money. They want you to upgrade to a new phone.

There is no trend - Apple breaks patterns all the time.

They gave the 2G and 3G 2 updates.

They gave the 3GS and 4 3 updates.

If there was any trend, they'd give the 4S and 5 4 updates.

Trends should have nothing to do with this whatsoever. The 4S is in a hugely different situation to the 4 and the 3GS were. Firstly, iOS 7 and iOS 8 (the versions that dropped support for the 3GS and 4 respectively) were not performance fix updates (going by the rumour that iOS 9 is). Secondly there were no other devices with nearly identical hardware to the 3GS or 4 when they were dropped, where as the 4S has the iPod Touch 5 and iPad Mini for sale and around 60 percent of its iPad users on A5 devices, which are very similar to the 4S hardware wise. The 4S also runs iOS 8 (its 3rd update) much better than iOS 7 on the 4, and a better than the 3GS on iOS 6.

Like I said, if iOS 9 either improves performance for the 4S or keeps it around the same, there is no reason not to support it. Most people who were going to update, already have. Those remaining on the 4S are mainly lower end users, who would benefit from another update to carry them over to a new iPhone.

Max(IT) · Mar 1, 2015

oldmacs said:
There is no trend - Apple breaks patterns all the time.

They gave the 2G and 3G 2 updates.

They gave the 3GS and 4 3 updates.

If there was any trend, they'd give the 4S and 5 4 updates.

Trends should have nothing to do with this whatsoever. The 4S is in a hugely different situation to the 4 and the 3GS were. Firstly, iOS 7 and iOS 8 (the versions that dropped support for the 3GS and 4 respectively) were not performance fix updates (going by the rumour that iOS 9 is). Secondly there were no other devices with nearly identical hardware to the 3GS or 4 when they were dropped, where as the 4S has the iPod Touch 5 and iPad Mini for sale and around 60 percent of its iPad users on A5 devices, which are very similar to the 4S hardware wise. The 4S also runs iOS 8 (its 3rd update) much better than iOS 7 on the 4, and a better than the 3GS on iOS 6.

Like I said, if iOS 9 either improves performance for the 4S or keeps it around the same, there is no reason not to support it. Most people who were going to update, already have. Those remaining on the 4S are mainly lower end users, who would benefit from another update to carry them over to a new iPhone.

Personally I'm not speaking about trends, but about hardware.
IOS 8 on 512 Mb devices was a mistake, in my opinion. If you look at the free RAM available after a fresh boot, you can realize it by yourself. IOS 8 initially took about 120 Mb more ram than iOS 7.1 (depending on software configuration, but up to 110-120 Mb with a few widgets and a third party keyboard enabled). IOS 8.1.2 is slightly better, but still 60-80 Mb more than iOS 7.1
It makes 512 Mb devices barely usable every time any sort of multitasking is involved.
But I understood Apple: they just couldn't drop support for relatively fresh devices like iPad mini and iPod touch, thus the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
I still think they are usable, if you don't expect too much and know their limits.

Now they have the opportunity of fine tuning those devices at their best with iOS 8.3, and then drop support.

oldmacs · Mar 1, 2015

Max(IT) said:
Personally I'm not speaking about trends, but about hardware.
IOS 8 on 512 Mb devices was a mistake, in my opinion. If you look at the free RAM available after a fresh boot, you can realize it by yourself. IOS 8 initially took about 120 Mb more ram than iOS 7.1 (depending on software configuration, but up to 110-120 Mb with a few widgets and a third party keyboard enabled). IOS 8.1.2 is slightly better, but still 60-80 Mb more than iOS 7.1
It makes 512 Mb devices barely usable every time any sort of multitasking is involved.
But I understood Apple: they just couldn't drop support for relatively fresh devices like iPad mini and iPod touch, thus the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.
I still think they are usable, if you don't expect too much and know their limits.

Now they have the opportunity of fine tuning those devices at their best with iOS 8.3, and then drop support.

They're not doing any fine tuning in 8.3 - there are only slight improvements. Just because it doesn't run as well as iOS 7, doesn't mean it should loose support. As I've said 60 percent of iPad users are on A5 devices. They also sell two of these A5 devices - one in quite high volumes, and besides one isolated incident, Apple have always given a years support before discontinuation.

They need to get iOS 9 to run well on low end devices, as those improvements carry over to the newer devices. Any fine tuning will most probably be done with iOS 9.

iOS 8 is a mistake on any device really - There are many problems on many different devices. For people who use A5 devices, its not a mistake, it is what makes these devices usable and useful. iOS 8 on the iPad 2 is the only reason I can still use it today.

iOS 9 for A5 would only be to the advantage of users. Those who want it can upgrade, those who don;t, don't ned to update.

Max(IT) · Mar 1, 2015

oldmacs said:
They're not doing any fine tuning in 8.3 - there are only slight improvements. Just because it doesn't run as well as iOS 7, doesn't mean it should loose support. As I've said 60 percent of iPad users are on A5 devices. They also sell two of these A5 devices - one in quite high volumes, and besides one isolated incident, Apple have always given a years support before discontinuation.

They need to get iOS 9 to run well on low end devices, as those improvements carry over to the newer devices. Any fine tuning will most probably be done with iOS 9.

iOS 8 is a mistake on any device really - There are many problems on many different devices. For people who use A5 devices, its not a mistake, it is what makes these devices usable and useful. iOS 8 on the iPad 2 is the only reason I can still use it today.

iOS 9 for A5 would only be to the advantage of users. Those who want it can upgrade, those who don;t, don't ned to update.

Slight improvements after improvements are fine tuning.
512 Mb devices running iOS 8.3 will surely be better than same devices running iOS 8.0

I don't know where did you take the 60% figure, but even if Apple is still selling iPad mini, that doesn't mean it's a good thing, nor they are giving them another operative system upgrade for sure.
The problem isn't the A5, still a good SoC, but the 512 Mb of RAM.
I really hope Apple will cease support for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch in iOS 9, focusing on newer devices.

oldmacs · Mar 1, 2015

Max(IT) said:
Slight improvements after improvements are fine tuning.
512 Mb devices running iOS 8.3 will surely be better than same devices running iOS 8.0

I don't know where did you take the 60% figure, but even if Apple is still selling iPad mini, that doesn't mean it's a good thing, nor they are giving them another operative system upgrade for sure.
The problem isn't the A5, still a good SoC, but the 512 Mb of RAM.
I really hope Apple will cease support for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch in iOS 9, focusing on newer devices.

Its basically no difference whatsoever. The difference is very minimal. iOS 8.0 to 8.3 will have improvements, but very minimal ones. We would have seen them by now, as iOS 7.1 beta 1 had impressive improvements across the board in November 2013. Apple is saving up any good improvements till iOS 9, and that would make sense.

The figure is 55-60 percent and it comes from multiple statistics sites, and is reflected in the app downloads statistics. The iPad Mini 1 has around 21 percent market share, the iPad 2 has around 23, and the iPad 3 has about 15 percent.

Apple has only once discontinued support for a device that it has sold in the previous 1 year period. Only once and it different circumstances.

I'm so glad you're all for ripping off consumers. Again not everyone can afford upgrades, and there are heap of people on these devices. Its not right for Apple to be selling devices that will loose functionality within a year of purchase.

Apple is a big enough company to be able to focus on newer and older devices. That would be to the benefit of consumers, who shell out inordinate amounts of money for devices.

Perhaps if Apple put time into optimising iOS for devices with low RAM, it would run even better on 1GB and 2GB devices.

Max(IT) · Mar 1, 2015

oldmacs said:
Its basically no difference whatsoever. The difference is very minimal. iOS 8.0 to 8.3 will have improvements, but very minimal ones. We would have seen them by now, as iOS 7.1 beta 1 had impressive improvements across the board in November 2013. Apple is saving up any good improvements till iOS 9, and that would make sense.

The figure is 55-60 percent and it comes from multiple statistics sites, and is reflected in the app downloads statistics. The iPad Mini 1 has around 21 percent market share, the iPad 2 has around 23, and the iPad 3 has about 15 percent.

Apple has only once discontinued support for a device that it has sold in the previous 1 year period. Only once and it different circumstances.

I'm so glad you're all for ripping off consumers. Again not everyone can afford upgrades, and there are heap of people on these devices. Its not right for Apple to be selling devices that will loose functionality within a year of purchase.

Apple is a big enough company to be able to focus on newer and older devices. That would be to the benefit of consumers, who shell out inordinate amounts of money for devices.

Perhaps if Apple put time into optimising iOS for devices with low RAM, it would run even better on 1GB and 2GB devices.

According to my direct experience on my sister's iPad 2, there is a very noticeable difference between iOS 8.0 and iOS 8.1.2 performance wise. So I'm expecting slightly improvements on the next two releases.
I'm not for ripping of consumers, since I'm a consumer too, but 3 years are a more than reasonable cycle of life for a tech device.
And if you can't upgrade your iPad mini one year after purchase, that doesn't mean you are losing any functionality. It still works. If you were looking for future upgrades, sorry but very poor choice: it's almost four years old tech you bought.

oldmacs · Mar 1, 2015

Max(IT) said:
According to my direct experience on my sister's iPad 2, there is a very noticeable difference between iOS 8.0 and iOS 8.1.2 performance wise. So I'm expecting slightly improvements on the next two releases.
I'm not for ripping of consumers, since I'm a consumer too, but 3 years are a more than reasonable cycle of life for a tech device.
And if you can't upgrade your iPad mini one year after purchase, that doesn't mean you are losing any functionality. It still works. If you were looking for future upgrades, sorry but very poor choice: it's almost four years old tech you bought.

According to my experience with my iPad 2 ( used constantly) there was an improvement with 8.1.1 which led to less stuttering, but little other improvements - things are still slow. Just like they are slow and buggy even on A7 devices.

You are for ripping off consumers. The iPad Mini 1 is sold by Apple in all their stores as is the iPod Touch 5. Apple doesn't tell you that its 4 year old tech, there is nothing on the box to say so, and it doesn't say that you will loose support within a year. Apple's employees also don't tell you that it is old outdated tech. The inability to update an iOS device with in 6 months would be a great example of ripping off consumers.

Its not a choice I made, I don't have an iPad Mini 1 - However I know plenty of people who have bought one recently, as many places do not advertise them as old tech. People buy Apple because they have a reputation for selling good products, and part of that reputation is updates.

And also I'm sorry but loosing iOS update support does loose significant functionally. You miss out on security updates for one. You loose out on App updates. You end up loosing the ability to sync some things by iCloud.

For example. Had my iPad 2 not been able to update to iOS 8, I would have no longer been able to use iCloud document sync, as I could not update the iWork apps, and as the file type changed with the Mac update, I would no longer have been able to sync. I would have also missed out on significant security updates and many many app updates.

Apple has made the misguided choice of keeping the A5 alive so long, so its their responsibility to do the right thing by their customers and support them for a year after discontinuation.

richwoodrocket · Mar 1, 2015

IOS 8.3 isn't going to work miracles on older devices.... Don't get your hopes up.

Max(IT) · Mar 1, 2015

oldmacs said:
According to my experience with my iPad 2 ( used constantly) there was an improvement with 8.1.1 which led to less stuttering, but little other improvements - things are still slow. Just like they are slow and buggy even on A7 devices.

You are for ripping off consumers. The iPad Mini 1 is sold by Apple in all their stores as is the iPod Touch 5. Apple doesn't tell you that its 4 year old tech, there is nothing on the box to say so, and it doesn't say that you will loose support within a year. Apple's employees also don't tell you that it is old outdated tech. The inability to update an iOS device with in 6 months would be a great example of ripping off consumers.

Its not a choice I made, I don't have an iPad Mini 1 - However I know plenty of people who have bought one recently, as many places do not advertise them as old tech. People buy Apple because they have a reputation for selling good products, and part of that reputation is updates.

And also I'm sorry but loosing iOS update support does loose significant functionally. You miss out on security updates for one. You loose out on App updates. You end up loosing the ability to sync some things by iCloud.

For example. Had my iPad 2 not been able to update to iOS 8, I would have no longer been able to use iCloud document sync, as I could not update the iWork apps, and as the file type changed with the Mac update, I would no longer have been able to sync. I would have also missed out on significant security updates and many many app updates.

Apple has made the misguided choice of keeping the A5 alive so long, so its their responsibility to do the right thing by their customers and support them for a year after discontinuation.

I think is extremely wrong for Apple to keep such an old hardware still in their stores, but I don't justify users buying old hardware without making a very quick search about it.

T5BRICK · Mar 1, 2015

oldmacs said:
Apple has made the misguided choice of keeping the A5 alive so long, so its their responsibility to do the right thing by their customers and support them for a year after discontinuation.

The original iPad had an A4 chip just like the iPhone 4, but it was never updated past iOS 5.1.1, while the iPhone 4 was supported with the latest release of iOS 7(which was a mistake, in my opinion. iOS 7 ran pretty poorly on the 4.)

Just because Apple can make the latest version of iOS avaialble for a device doesn't mean they should. The 4s doesn't have the processing power or RAM avaialble to keep up anymore. It's time to move on.

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