Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Buying an iPhone 4S now?

T

theman123

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 5, 2008
53
0
I'm up for a new phone on Verizon Wireless and I'm down to two phones, the Droid Razr Maxx and the iPhone 4S. I've been all iPhone until I got my hands on the Razr. The battery life is insane and that's a huge plus for me. I've juggled with poor battery life over my last few phones(rocking the Droid Eris) and I hate it. I really do need one full day of use, can the iPhone give me that?

I also am worried about the impending 5. I am not going to wait until october to get a new phone, and the 4S seems like it's becoming out dated. It still uses 3G which I don't think any future phone will get. I know I'm in a pretty Apple biased forum, but do you guys think I should still get the 4S even with the 5 coming out? And with how great the battery is on the Maxx.
 
theman123 said:
I'm up for a new phone on Verizon Wireless and I'm down to two phones, the Droid Razr Maxx and the iPhone 4S. I've been all iPhone until I got my hands on the Razr. The battery life is insane and that's a huge plus for me. I've juggled with poor battery life over my last few phones(rocking the Droid Eris) and I hate it. I really do need one full day of use, can the iPhone give me that?

I also am worried about the impending 5. I am not going to wait until october to get a new phone, and the 4S seems like it's becoming out dated. It still uses 3G which I don't think any future phone will get. I know I'm in a pretty Apple biased forum, but do you guys think I should still get the 4S even with the 5 coming out? And with how great the battery is on the Maxx.
Click to expand...

Eris user here too...the battery life on the Eris was pathetic. I'm assuming mine is largely damaged or something due to wireless tethering, but at 100% with EVERYTHING turned off...my phone was dead when I woke up in the morning.

I think anything is better than the Eris, but I'm going with the 4s on Monday.
 
Being someone who's more than willing to wait on something I REALLY want instead of settling for something that I sort of want but is available NOW, I'd say wait until the iPhone 5 (commence flaming over the name of the next iphone...NOW). If you are the sort of person who requires instant gratification, get the 4S or RZ Maxx. You'll be thrilled and pleased beyond belief for the next few months. But when the next iPhone comes out and it's LTE enabled, you're going to be cussing yourself and regretting your decision everyday until that looooong 2 year contract is up. I understand the "not waiting on technology" argument, but LTE changes everything with respect to cellphones. Anyway, that's my $.02 on the subject and why I am waiting for the iPhone 5 and NOT getting a 4S even though I'm on a crappy android phone now and off of contract. If your phone is no longer functional, get a used something or another to keep you talking until fall.
 
My 4s can last all day but it barely makes it without charging it. The battery life is worse than the 4. For me it isn't an issue as I have access to a charger all day at work. I doubt another iPhone will come out until after summer but of course I have no clue that's just an opinion. If you like Android and just hate the battery life of your current device then get the Razr Maxx.

groupersandwich said:
Being someone who's more than willing to wait on something I REALLY want instead of settling for something that I sort of want but is available NOW, I'd say wait until the iPhone 5 (commence flaming over the name of the next iphone...NOW). If you are the sort of person who requires instant gratification, get the 4S or RZ Maxx. You'll be thrilled and pleased beyond belief for the next few months. But when the next iPhone comes out and it's LTE enabled, you're going to be cussing yourself and regretting your decision everyday until that looooong 2 year contract is up. I understand the "not waiting on technology" argument, but LTE changes everything with respect to cellphones. Anyway, that's my $.02 on the subject and why I am waiting for the iPhone 5 and NOT getting a 4S even though I'm on a crappy android phone now and off of contract. If your phone is no longer functional, get a used something or another to keep you talking until fall.
Click to expand...

If LTE changes everything he can have it now with the Razr Maxx.
 
If your at the store, use both side by side and see which you like better. I didn't like Android before but after getting my GSII I love it, great companion for the iPhones. But I also love tweaking etc the phones to what I want, same reason I jailbreak. New Androids do have some great battery life, even LTE phones, mainly b/c the batter is larger, so the only negative to that is they can take longer to charge. My GSII last longer then our 4S in heavy use, but it takes about an hour extra to charge b/c of the bigger battery and charger units on Androids are capped at low amps for whatever reason.

keep playing with both and see which you like, no matter which one you get now, the next iPhone will still be out this year sometime, so you could flip either phone to save money on buying it off contract.

I'll also say as much as I like LTE, I'm fine with the hspa+ (i.e. +3G lol) speeds on the 4S and GSII. It's plenty fast for mobile use, sometimes I've left wifi off and didn't realize it, and you get teh same long battery life of normal 3G use. This year sometime should have the new chipsets for LTE with reduced power consumption, so that will be great.

Plus all future phones for now at least will still have 3G, for quite a while actually, as nobody is finished building out LTE/4G for full deployment and this is the initial stage, they'll be gearing up to upgrade their 4g networks to the second gen "true" standards.
 
Last edited:
I'm very confident you won't see the next iPhone until this fall. With that established, I'd get the 4S now. You can resell it for a good price if you decide to get the next iPhone this fall.

I can't speak about your battery concerns because I don't know how you use your phone. I also can't speak for the Android device you mention because I've never seen or used it. I did just glance over the review at Engadget and it looks ugly but they did trump the battery life.

If my iPhone 4 were to stop working tomorrow I would purchase a 4S without question even knowing the next model will arrive in roughly 8 months.
 
Both the 4S and the Maxx have enough battery to last you a day. And that's all anyone every really needs anyways because I know that most people that preoccupy themselves with the battery (myself included) charge their phones every night anyways. As for which battery is better, I think I've seen benchmarks indicating that the Maxx had the best battery for several things such as 3G talk time etc...I don't remember the sources unfortunately :(
 
wait for the iphone 5 and when that is released then wait for the iphone 6 then when that is released wait for the iphone 7 and when that is released then wait for the iphone 8. Yea i would hold out for the 8 i hear it has a bigger display.
 
iPhone 4S

I have recently purchased an iPhone 4S (an upgrade from my iPhone 3GS) and i would say the battery life on this device is pretty good. My day usually starts at around 10AM, at which point my 4S battery is at 100%. By the time i come home from school and work, (10PM) with moderately high usage of my phone, the battery is around 40%. This includes using the phone for browsing, listening to music and random app usage.

I hope this gave you some insight about the battery capabilities of the iPhone 4S battery.

:)
 
Hosei said:
I have recently purchased an iPhone 4S (an upgrade from my iPhone 3GS) and i would say the battery life on this device is pretty good. My day usually starts at around 10AM, at which point my 4S battery is at 100%. By the time i come home from school and work, (10PM) with moderately high usage of my phone, the battery is around 40%. This includes using the phone for browsing, listening to music and random app usage.

I hope this gave you some insight about the battery capabilities of the iPhone 4S battery.

:)
Click to expand...

Well, on my Droid i'm using texting all day, make about 3 phone calls a day, about 35 min long. I check email about 4-5 times, facebook a few times and am running through scoretracker at night. I think it should be able to handle that, but when I get a new phone I plan on pobably using it a bit more and probably browsing the web a little bit more but not drastically.
 
theman123 said:
I'm up for a new phone on Verizon Wireless and I'm down to two phones, the Droid Razr Maxx and the iPhone 4S. I've been all iPhone until I got my hands on the Razr. The battery life is insane and that's a huge plus for me. I've juggled with poor battery life over my last few phones(rocking the Droid Eris) and I hate it. I really do need one full day of use, can the iPhone give me that?

I also am worried about the impending 5. I am not going to wait until october to get a new phone, and the 4S seems like it's becoming out dated. It still uses 3G which I don't think any future phone will get. I know I'm in a pretty Apple biased forum, but do you guys think I should still get the 4S even with the 5 coming out? And with how great the battery is on the Maxx.
Click to expand...

You'd want to get the Droid Razr Maxx, it's already got the 4G. The Razr has unstoppable battery power. It's so thin. You don't have to feel pressured into getting an iPhone- shop around! The 4S is quickly on it's way out the door in lieu of the iPhone 5/6 but you've got a while. Try something different. I'm not going to tell you that the 4S has great battery life.
 
If it were me I would find a decently priced iPhone 4 off contract somewhere and use that until later this year when you should have the iPhone 5, Galaxy SIII, and the HTC Edge to choose from.
 
I'm in the same boat. I am eligible for an upgrade in April. I so very much want to get an iPhone, but I keep telling myself to hold off until the Fall. I really want my next phone to be LTE, since that is where everything is going, and I think I can suffer along with my Android device until the iPhone 5...

And by that time, VZW should have their data share plans in effect, so I can take advantage of that by adding in an iPad 3. ;)
 
It's very simple,

Make a list of your requirements from a phone, then look at the specs of the phone, if it has what you need, buy, if it does not have what you need, wait.
 
On Verizon I'd go with the maxx. I have a 4s and sometimes Verizon 3G can be really bad. That or wait for the 5.
 
Oh but I do get a full day of use from my 4S. With my usage I get about 6 to 7 hours USE per charge. Standby is great too.
 
I bought a used iPhone 4 off ebay rather than burn my 2 year contract on a mid-cycle phone (4s). It'll do me just fine until the iPhone 5 comes out (whether I get that or something else).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back