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Coming from Android: Should I wait till the 5?

E

esploded

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 3, 2011
100
1
I currently have a mid range Android smartphone, with unlimited data. I'll be switching to AT&T if I do get the iPhone 4S. The more I think about it, the more I want one, but I have to be realistic.

I definitely can't upgrade to the 5 if it comes out within a year, because AT&T doesn't allow for the early upgrade with the subsidized price. I definitely can't afford paying $700 every time a new iPhone comes out, even if I were to sell the 4S.

Would waiting 1+ years for whatever may come with the iPhone 5 be worth it? Realistically speaking. I have an iPod Touch, 3rd gen, but it's starting to slow down.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I think you'd do well with the current model, especially if you've never had one before.

Besides, no one knows what the iPhone 5 will bring, except that we always expect the next model to be better than those before it.
 
Buy the current one. Because unlike your Android phone, the iPhone will remain current, it'll actually get software updates, and do practically anything the next iPhone does. A year is a long time to go with a cruddy phone, and a phone is very important nowadays.
 
esploded said:
I currently have a mid range Android smartphone, with unlimited data. I'll be switching to AT&T if I do get the iPhone 4S. The more I think about it, the more I want one, but I have to be realistic.

I definitely can't upgrade to the 5 if it comes out within a year, because AT&T doesn't allow for the early upgrade with the subsidized price. I definitely can't afford paying $700 every time a new iPhone comes out, even if I were to sell the 4S.

Would waiting 1+ years for whatever may come with the iPhone 5 be worth it? Realistically speaking. I have an iPod Touch, 3rd gen, but it's starting to slow down.
Click to expand...

Midrange Android phone is the key word.

Unless you have one of the higher end new Android phones. By higher end, I mean Duo Core (say Atrix), I would suggest you update to iPhone 4S.
 
esploded said:
I currently have a mid range Android smartphone, with unlimited data. I'll be switching to AT&T if I do get the iPhone 4S. The more I think about it, the more I want one, but I have to be realistic.

I definitely can't upgrade to the 5 if it comes out within a year, because AT&T doesn't allow for the early upgrade with the subsidized price. I definitely can't afford paying $700 every time a new iPhone comes out, even if I were to sell the 4S.

Would waiting 1+ years for whatever may come with the iPhone 5 be worth it? Realistically speaking. I have an iPod Touch, 3rd gen, but it's starting to slow down.
Click to expand...
Do NOT buy now.

You will be so happy you waited. This 4S has as many bugs as the iPhone 4 did, and the company has yet to address some of them. The only reason I even bought a 4S, after having the infamous "Antennagate Special" that would hardly make calls, is because I dropped the 4 and it shattered like anything glass would.

That's just one a many other reasons I would wait. I seriously doubt Apple will be lame enough to use glass for the next phone.

Based on everything I've heard and read although total rumors, surround the upcoming A6 chip and a much improved version of iOS that Apple intends on installing in some of their thin and light laptops as well.

An across the board change that will be very worthwhile and beneficial. I'm exciting. :)
 
vitzr said:
Do NOT buy now.

You will be so happy you waited. This 4S has as many bugs as the iPhone 4 did, and the company has yet to address some of them. The only reason I even bought a 4S, after having the infamous "Antennagate Special" that would hardly make calls, is because I dropped the 4 and it shattered like anything glass would.

That's just one a many other reasons I would wait. I seriously doubt Apple will be lame enough to use glass for the next phone.

Based on everything I've heard and read although total rumors, surround the upcoming A6 chip and a much improved version of iOS that Apple intends on installing in some of their thin and light laptops as well.

An across the board change that will be very worthwhile and beneficial. I'm exciting. :)
Click to expand...

Ummm.
if you did not want the 4s your could have repaired your 4 for cheap
it is not a lame design.. it may not be practible but aesthetically it is the best
Where are these IOS6 rumours? IOS6 would certainly run on the iPhone 4s anyways- as apple resells the previous model as a budget model
umm btw There is little if any chance of IOS coming to mac. The thin and light macbook air is actually pretty powerful.
To the OP- get it if you do not like your current phone, if you can wait due it. If you could i would upgrade.e
 
OP: there will always be something better coming along. It's just the nature of consumer electronics these days. Regardless of when you purchase your iPhone, there will be an updated model coming out before you are eligible for a new subsidized phone.
You'll be waiting to upgrade no matter which model iPhone you hold out for, so the real question is: how much longer do you want to use your midrange android phone?
 
Thanks for the opinions guys.
I'll probably pick it up. I wish apple didn't refresh every year, I wouldn't have this problem!! :p.

Is there any way to get a subsidized price with AT&T in a year though?

Even if I sell it, I'd probably get a max of say, $400 for a 32GB if I sell it in a year, so I'd still have to pay $200+ dollars to upgrade. It's too much of a luxury if I do that.
 
One more thing-

REALISTICALLY, what do you expect the iPhone 5 to be like?
I honestly don't like how the mockups look with the MBA type design.
 
Why? What does the iPhone 5 have that the 4s doesn't?

There may be nothing that you need or want, and You may even hate it if the form factor changes, or they may have another nasty *-gate.

I came to the 4 from an Android phone, and my opinion is that you can't switch fast enough if you value time and want to use the phone instead of read about how to fix problems.
 
esploded said:
One more thing-

REALISTICALLY, what do you expect the iPhone 5 to be like?
I honestly don't like how the mockups look with the MBA type design.
Click to expand...

FFS, if you wait for technology, you'll always be waiting.

There are a million and two posts discussing what the iPhone 5 looks like. We will not know for sure beyond rumors and speculation until the thing comes out.
 
vitzr said:
Do NOT buy now.

You will be so happy you waited. This 4S has as many bugs as the iPhone 4 did, and the company has yet to address some of them. The only reason I even bought a 4S, after having the infamous "Antennagate Special" that would hardly make calls, is because I dropped the 4 and it shattered like anything glass would.

That's just one a many other reasons I would wait. I seriously doubt Apple will be lame enough to use glass for the next phone.

Based on everything I've heard and read although total rumors, surround the upcoming A6 chip and a much improved version of iOS that Apple intends on installing in some of their thin and light laptops as well.

An across the board change that will be very worthwhile and beneficial. I'm exciting. :)
Click to expand...

And how do you know the next iPhone will be 100% bug free? More over if the RUMORS YOU HEARD about A6 chip will also be used on Apple's new line of thin laptop, don't you think there will be more problem due to cross platform, hardware handling etc?

There will always more problem with upcoming new release, iOS 5.0 is still no good on many aspects, but maybe things will be much better on iOS 5.3 or 5.4. Waiting for the next iOS 6 could mean more problem and bugs.

And one more thing, this just in.. The A7 chip will be much much faster than A6 it could compete with current Intel Core-i5 .. so please wait and don't bother buying the next iPhone release, it's REALLY important for you to notice, okay?? .. :rolleyes:
 
vitzr said:
Do NOT buy now.

You will be so happy you waited. This 4S has as many bugs as the iPhone 4 did, and the company has yet to address some of them. The only reason I even bought a 4S, after having the infamous "Antennagate Special" that would hardly make calls, is because I dropped the 4 and it shattered like anything glass would.

That's just one a many other reasons I would wait. I seriously doubt Apple will be lame enough to use glass for the next phone.

Based on everything I've heard and read although total rumors, surround the upcoming A6 chip and a much improved version of iOS that Apple intends on installing in some of their thin and light laptops as well.

An across the board change that will be very worthwhile and beneficial. I'm exciting. :)
Click to expand...

...then enjoy waiting forever and never buying anything.

Every modern phone (or electronic piece in general) has it's share of problems, bugs and hardware issues. They'll solve the current problems, but as technology increases, new ones are sure to continue to surface.

At some point, you have to stop waiting for the latest and greatest thing on the horizon and simply figure out which one is the best for you right NOW.


Besides, I'd much rather have a highly advanced phone that possibly has some minor issues (many of which can/ will be fixed by software updates) than a crap phone that can't do half of what I'd want it to.


Lastly, even if you're not eligible for a full subsidy phone, most carriers offer upgrade pricing that's lower than paying full price.... depending on when/ how you sell your current phone (and due to the high resale value of iPhones) many iPhone users are able to not spend any additional money out of pocket to upgrade each year.
 
esploded said:
I currently have a mid range Android smartphone, with unlimited data. I'll be switching to AT&T if I do get the iPhone 4S. The more I think about it, the more I want one, but I have to be realistic.

I definitely can't upgrade to the 5 if it comes out within a year, because AT&T doesn't allow for the early upgrade with the subsidized price. I definitely can't afford paying $700 every time a new iPhone comes out, even if I were to sell the 4S.

Would waiting 1+ years for whatever may come with the iPhone 5 be worth it? Realistically speaking. I have an iPod Touch, 3rd gen, but it's starting to slow down.
Click to expand...
Would waiting 1+ years for whatever may come with the iPhone 5 be worth it?

I sure would like to, etc.!
 
The only thing that surprises me is how frequently these kinds of "should I wait for next model?" arise on all of these Apple forums.

Apple refreshes almost every year, without fail. Whatever model you buy, you can be guaranteed it will be replaced with a newer model within 12-16 months thereafter. If having the newest/best model is important to you (and we all have reasons why that may or may not be so), then get used to paying a few hundred dollars to upgrade each year by selling your old model on Craigslist and buying the newest one. If you can get a 1-year contract, go that route. If you can't, just go the unsubsidized route and get off the contract wagon altogether. Once you've done this one time....the golden handcuffs of upgrading out of contract cycles become moot.
 
bpeeps said:
FFS, if you wait for technology, you'll always be waiting.

There are a million and two posts discussing what the iPhone 5 looks like. We will not know for sure beyond rumors and speculation until the thing comes out.
Click to expand...

just get one now and be happy. its the best phone always.
 
The one year contract thing is interesting, but as far as I know, US carriers don't allow it for iPhones.

How much would you expect the iPhone 4S (32GB) to be sold for on ebay?
 
esploded said:
The one year contract thing is interesting, but as far as I know, US carriers don't allow it for iPhones.

How much would you expect the iPhone 4S (32GB) to be sold for on ebay?
Click to expand...

Alot for sure. Upper $700 to $1000. In my honest opinion, I think you should get the 4s. It's a great phone and the faults of the 4s is software base vs the hardware base on the 4. Also you never know if there's going to be another delay with the iphone, especially what happened this year.

With the current cycle that Apple's doing, it sure looks like they're going to release a iPhone 5 and and iPhone 5s the year after. I much rather get the iPhone 5s versus iPhone 5 in the long run.
 
You could wait for the iPhone 5 but you know the iPhone 6 will becoming out after that. Given that there will probably be a iPhone 7 after the iPhone 6 so you may want to wait for that.
 
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