Inheriting a 4S...procedure to upgrade from current 3GS?

[trina27]

As indicated, I have a 3GS and haven't bothered to upgrade. I am inheriting a 4S from a family member who for work reasons is moving to either a windows or android phone. This is good for me since I get a "newer" phone without having to extend my contract! (It's possible I might eventually buy the new phone later this year but at the moment I'm in no hurry.)

Anyway...if I remember correctly, the 4S uses a different SIM card than my 3GS? If so, what should be my upgrade procedure/process? I'm presuming that when my family member gets a new phone that AT&T will deactivate the SIM in the 4S. So I will then need to get a new SIM from AT&T before I can transfer my data to the 4S?

I have just been in iTunes and confirmed backups to iCloud and to my PC from today.

If I'm at an AT&T store with my family member should I have the staff do anything while I'm there? Will they be able to give me a SIM card and add the 4S IMEI to my account without automatically deactivating my 3GS?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[tardman91]

Just go to any AT&T store and tell them you need a SIM card for a 4S that you acquired. Should be a piece of cake. They might charge you a small fee for the new SIM card though.

 

[forcetactic]

You could also print out a template and just cut the sim into a microsim. It's very hard to screw up

 

[alphaod]

Cut your current SIM or get a new one from AT&T. Both options are free.

 

[trina27]

Thanks all!

I ended up at the AT&T store with the family member (who purchased a Nokia Lumia 920) and since we were there...and since I had backed up my 3GS earlier today...let them put a new SIM in the 4S and I have now done the "erase content & settings on the 4S and am restoring it from my earlier backup. So hopefully I won't have any problems from that.

I do have to say I was momentarily tempted by the Samsung Galaxy 4...AT&T is offering a $200 trade in value on the 4S so other than extending my contract, the Samsung would have been free. Have to say I am still considering it.

 

[tennisproha]

I would wait on the trade-up personally. You will have to go into a new ecosystem so unless you have time to devote to that and are willing to 'learn the phone', your 4S upgrade will have virtually no learning curve.

Personally, if you've never used android, I would test drive a friends or something first and see if you're comfortable with the OS.

 

[trina27]

I would wait on the trade-up personally. You will have to go into a new ecosystem so unless you have time to devote to that and are willing to 'learn the phone', your 4S upgrade will have virtually no learning curve.

Personally, if you've never used android, I would test drive a friends or something first and see if you're comfortable with the OS.

Well, I am willing to learn the phone.

On the other hand, I will still be tied to iTunes & iOS by my iPad.

I'm double checking my initial google search, but it looks like the 4S and Samsung Galaxy S4 both use micro-SIM cards. So...what I may do is keep the 4S and trade the 3GS in towards the S4. My cost would end up being a 2 yr contract renewal + $100 instead of free but that's not that bad.