Is it worth it to upgrade to an iPhone 4S from an iPhone 4?

[UngratefulNinja]

Not worth it for me. I wish I'd saved my upgrade for the next phone

[WeegieMac]

Originally Posted by JS82712

Simple answer: no.
The 4S has an atrocious battery life, worse than the 4.
But you do get a faster phone with better camera.

Absolute nonsense.

iPhone 4 owner for 18 months.
iPhone 4S owner for 6 months.

[Abazigal]

You also get some features in IOS6 that were withheld from the iphone4, such as siri, facetime over 3G, panorama and turn by turn in apple maps.

In your case, you might be better off jailbreaking your iphone4 to unlock more features. The iphone4 remains a very capable phone, after all.

[d123]

Originally Posted by Abazigal

You also get some features in IOS6 that were withheld from the iphone4, such as siri, facetime over 3G, panorama and turn by turn in apple maps.

In your case, you might be better off jailbreaking your iphone4 to unlock more features. The iphone4 remains a very capable phone, after all.

But not worth the effort (and the problem of having to be a tethered JB on any recent firmware). Jailbreaking won't bring a speed increase, or a better processor or camera.

If the OP can sell his 4 and buy a 4S for say around a $100 more he would appreciate all the improvements on the 4S, and IMO be happy with the increase in performance until the i5 successor arrives.

[irDigital0l]

$200 isn't worth the upgrade.

Siri works great...when it works. Its cool at first, but your not going to using it after two weeks.

8MP iSight camera is better but if your not into pictures, you wont notice

Maps is cooler but isn't better. I just use Google Maps app and it works the same.

Dual-core A5 chip is a little faster, but the 4S still has the same RAM (512MB) and runs at 800Mhz while the iPhone 5 runs at 1.3Ghz.

World phone feature is nice if you travel a lot and if use AT&T, you get HSPA+ which is nice but its not LTE by far.

The battery is at times worse than the iPhone 4's.

FaceTime over cellular is nice if you actually FaceTime.

If you really want one, wait until it becomes free because its really just minor spec bumps that will be good only if you actually use those features a lot.

[AppleFanatic10]

Originally Posted by mossme89

I have a morphie juice pack... So I'm not too worried about that.

Ah, I miss my mophie! 😔

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Originally Posted by AlbertCotter

Its a good question

I also own iPhone 4. And a week or two before I was discussing it with my little brother whether I should upgrade it to iphone 4S or not. Coz he has good knowledge about latest smart phones (both iphone and android).

And here I've found a thread about it too.

I'm still confused, whether I should stick with this phone, go for iphone 4S or iphone 5. :S

I'd say go 5. I had the same issue when my iPhone 4 started showing its age. I didn't wanna pay for basically another iPhone 4, so I chose to get the 5. It has LTE, something I'm loving right now, FaceTime over 3G, it's faster and a lot lighter/taller. I haven't regretted my purchase either. I know I would've been pissed if I had bought the cheaper iPhone 4S because it would've been terribly slow (Verizon's 3G is horrible sometimes). LTE is the way to go!

[clyde2801]

Originally Posted by mossme89

Could potentially be much less, you're right.

And just as an update, I think I'll go ahead and buy the 4S. That should hold me over until the 6 at least, as only recently I became frustrated with my 4. Though, the 4 is only a single core - single threaded device in a multi core - multi threaded world so I'm hoping the 4S will stay smooth longer.

Basically, the decision came down to accessories. I have a lot invested in the current dock connector and current design so I'd want to get a bit longer out of these accessories. On a side note, I use a charger/transmitter in my car to hook my iPhone up to my radio. Does anyone know if that would work with a lightning connecter + 30 pin adapter?

The charger part will work but the lightning adapter doesn't allow for iPod out, so you won't be able to play music on it. The 'no ipod out' is the only real letdown on the lightning connector; otherwise I like it more than the original 30 pin.

Found THIS on newegg a while back, and I prefer it to the Monster FM car transmitter and the others with my 4S. But it also uses bluetooth to connect, which means it will fully work with the 5.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16875991014

The only other thing I use the 30 pin connector with is my bose sounddock, and it's hooked up to an airport express. It can charge my 5 at night, or play music using the airplay connection, but not both at the same time. A bit clunky, but workable.

There's also a couple of 30 pin bluetooth adapters that allow legacy accessories to play music, etc., from your phone, but using them means you can't the accessories to charge your phone. Again, doable if a bit clunky.

http://www.iphoneproductreviews.com/...ps-and-tricks/ suggested a couple of tips to speed up your iPhone 4.

The kicker is that every owner of legacy accessories will eventually be in the same place where you are. They'll have to face using older iPhones, having to ditch their accessories and buy new ones, or use kludgy compromises like air play and bluetooth adapters. The writing's already on the wall.

[zipster]

The 4S, in hindsight, is Apple's best phone.

[Random 995K]

Originally Posted by zipster

The 4S, in hindsight, is Apple's best phone.

I lol'd. The 4S is just the 4 with faster internals and a better camera. The 5 is a wayyy bigger upgrade and has everything the 4 has except you can hold it for hours on end and looks 10 times better. The battery life also is horrible on the 4S, atleast it was on my old one. I can't possibly see how the 4S even compares to the 5. Looking at an iphone 4/4S it looks like one of those 20 year old brick phones... It's just ridiculously thick and bulky imo.

[mossme89]

Originally Posted by clyde2801

The charger part will work but the lightning adapter doesn't allow for iPod out, so you won't be able to play music on it. The 'no ipod out' is the only real letdown on the lightning connector; otherwise I like it more than the original 30 pin.

Found THIS on newegg a while back, and I prefer it to the Monster FM car transmitter and the others with my 4S. But it also uses bluetooth to connect, which means it will fully work with the 5.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16875991014

The only other thing I use the 30 pin connector with is my bose sounddock, and it's hooked up to an airport express. It can charge my 5 at night, or play music using the airplay connection, but not both at the same time. A bit clunky, but workable.

There's also a couple of 30 pin bluetooth adapters that allow legacy accessories to play music, etc., from your phone, but using them means you can't the accessories to charge your phone. Again, doable if a bit clunky.

http://www.iphoneproductreviews.com/...ps-and-tricks/ suggested a couple of tips to speed up your iPhone 4.

The kicker is that every owner of legacy accessories will eventually be in the same place where you are. They'll have to face using older iPhones, having to ditch their accessories and buy new ones, or use kludgy compromises like air play and bluetooth adapters. The writing's already on the wall.

Maybe I'm missing something but if Lightning doesn't support iPod out, then how will lightning docking station speakers work? Thought I've seen some already in the store. Are you saying that the 30 pin adapter doesn't support iPod out but the built in lightning connector does?

And I still ordered the 4S. It should hold me over until the 6 in 2014, and it only turned out to be about $150 total. Plus, I'll get more life out of my accessories. Can't take advantage of LTE anyway (on Straight Talk), so that's not a big concern of mine.

[TacticalDesire]

Depends on how long you can live with a 3.5 inch screen. It's a nice performance improvement, the cameras are better, and it will probably see 1 or 2 more iOS updates depending on how generous apple decides to be.

[Alx9876]

If the 4s is your main upgrade then yes get it. You are restricted to these options due to your finances.

That's ok.

[teribithia]

The 4S is more fast than 4. But now 5 release why not upgrade 4 to 5.

[clyde2801]

Originally Posted by mossme89

Maybe I'm missing something but if Lightning doesn't support iPod out, then how will lightning docking station speakers work? Thought I've seen some already in the store. Are you saying that the 30 pin adapter doesn't support iPod out but the built in lightning connector does?

And I still ordered the 4S. It should hold me over until the 6 in 2014, and it only turned out to be about $150 total. Plus, I'll get more life out of my accessories. Can't take advantage of LTE anyway (on Straight Talk), so that's not a big concern of mine.

May not have been clear. The lightning to 30 pin adapter won't support iPod out.

Can't say I blame you for getting the 4s, at least you're getting to delay your accessory update problem for another year or two.

[mossme89]

Originally Posted by TacticalDesire

Depends on how long you can live with a 3.5 inch screen. It's a nice performance improvement, the cameras are better, and it will probably see 1 or 2 more iOS updates depending on how generous apple decides to be.

The screen size doesn't really bother me. And I'm guessing 2 more updates since it's a dual core and that's the pattern Apple seems to be following. They update the products they still sell, so the last update for the 4 will probably be iOS 7, then once the 5S comes out and the 4S is bumped to entry level it will probably get iOS 8

[mossme89]

Wanted to reply to this thread with an update. I got the 4S and it was okay, much faster and I used it for a couple weeks then decided to get a Galaxy S3. Didn't like that, so traded it for an iPhone 5. So I've had the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5.

The 4S is very much an incremental update. If you're someone that's cheap and you can upgrade for under $100 without signing another contract, do it. You'll easier get another year or two out of your phone.

But the 5... wow. What a great phone. It makes my 4 look like a laggy and tiny piece of junk, and is much faster than the 4S (which isn't a slow phone by any means.) If you can get a 5, get it. Otherwise, maybe wait for the 5S which would be just as good, but probably better. I can see myself keeping my 5 for at least 2 more years, maybe more. It's a great phone.