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Is the iPhone 4 fast enough in 2012?

A

Aucun Express

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2009
187
0
Hello everyone,

Now that the iPhone 5 is out, I can get the 8GB iPhone 4 "for free" with a $25 a month contract (0 minute, 0 SMS, 1GB data) for two years.

It's not a big deal for me if I do not have the latest features such as Siri and great camera quality. For instance, I have the iPad 2 and if I had to buy an iPad today I would definitely buy the same and save some money.

Regarding the iPhone 4, the only thing that is important to me is speed. Is the iPhone 4 fast enough in 2012 to use the typical features: checking e-mails, listening to music, surfing the Web, etc. I am not talking about playing Infinity Blade II and other big games :)

For instance, when the iPhone 4 came out, my 3G was just unusable. Sluggish as hell. Is it the same now with the iPhone 4? And what about with iOS 6 beta?

Thanks a lot in advance for your answers. I cannot wait to come back to the iPhone world. :)
 
3GS and 4 are fast enough for all the things you mentioned, but to be honest I think the 4 made the greatest improvements - much better camera, retina display, etc.

You'll be happy with the 4, my only concern is that 8GB (more realistically 6 GB due to iOS) wouldn't be enough for you.
 
The 4 is still a great phone. If your wanting to sync music with iTunes i couldn't recommend iTunes Match enough, especially considering you would only have 8GB to play with.

I have my entire 100GB library available everywhere on a 16GB iPhone. I just wipe the cache for it every few weeks so it doesnt take up too much space.
 
It's starting to show its age, but it's still a capable phone. Still does the simple things very well.

Only thing is, I wouldn't want to be locked in for two years. Maybe consider the 4S if you can afford it, as I think it'll 'age' better.
 
Absolutely. It would be fast enough in 5 years. How fast do you need your cell phone to be?
 
Paulywauly said:
The 4 is still a great phone. If your wanting to sync music with iTunes i couldn't recommend iTunes Match enough, especially considering you would only have 8GB to play with.

I have my entire 100GB library available everywhere on a 16GB iPhone. I just wipe the cache for it every few weeks so it doesnt take up too much space.
Click to expand...

How do you dump your cache on the iPhone?
 
I'm using my old iPhone 4 with iOS 6 and it's running beautiful. But after two years of perfect harmony I think it's time to upgrade. Nevertheless the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone I ever had. Let's see whether the new iPhone can top the iPhone 4 or not. :)
 
Should be fine for your considerably 'not so heavy' usage. I'm still using a 3GS, which still works perfectly, and now have even more features on iOS 6.

I'm sure the iPhone 4 will suffice for your needs, and enjoy your time with it! :)
 
The answer to your question is clearly YES. The limits of 8 GB (=6) will be tough though.

AppleStrudel
 
I have an iPhone 4 at the moment (buying a 5 on Friday) and I recently installed the iOS 6 GM and it's actually made it run faster than on iOS 5.1.1.
So yes, I think it's plenty fast enough even with it being over 2 years old.
 
This question depends on what you're used to. When I pickup the 3gs and start messing with it I want to shoot myself in the face it's so slow when compared to the 4s. Even the wife's 4 is slow in comparison. That beings said if you're coming from no iPhone or a 3/3gs you will notice the speed increase.
 
Hazyb71 said:
3GS and 4 are fast enough for all the things you mentioned, but to be honest I think the 4 made the greatest improvements - much better camera, retina display, etc.

You'll be happy with the 4, my only concern is that 8GB (more realistically 6 GB due to iOS) wouldn't be enough for you.
Click to expand...
Thank you and all the others for your replies and tips. From your comments, I think that the 4's speed would suffice my needs.
Regarding 8GB, I am trying to convince myself that this is enough, but clearly you are right. My apps on my iPad take about 8GB, you do the maths ;)
I am not sure what I will do...
 
I still use the iPhone 4 but I will admit it can get sluggish doing certai things. Sometimes when I'm on a web page and go to enter something the keyboard takes a minute to pop up and the keystrokes lag. A lot of times when I open my music all it lags to load all my music. This also happens when I launch settings. Switching tabs I safari can lag as well. I think where I see the biggest lag is when using Instacast for my podcasts. I have 29 subscriptions and that app can take a long time to load and refresh. It crashes from time to time. Oh, and the camera can take quite awhile to launch.
 
miamialley said:
So all you're doing is deleting old podcasts? I don't see the big deal.
Click to expand...

....and/or the music that has downloaded from iTunes Match, which frees up the space on your iPhone. Using iTunes Match would mean the OP has his whole iTunes library available to them over the air, despite only having 8GB to play with.

You're right, its not a big deal. But you're the one asking me how to do it (in reply #8) :confused: ? I was just giving the OP some advice on saving space on his phone :rolleyes:
 
Still happy with my iPhone 4, really don't see a need to upgrade right now. It's still blazing fast with everything I do, if you're suffering from slow-downs simply restore as new and you have a nice speedy phone again.
 
Paulywauly said:
....and/or the music that has downloaded from iTunes Match, which frees up the space on your iPhone. Using iTunes Match would mean the OP has his whole iTunes library available to them over the air, despite only having 8GB to play with.

You're right, its not a big deal. But you're the one asking me how to do it (in reply #8) :confused: ? I was just giving the OP some advice on saving space on his phone :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I'm not being critical. I just think calling it "clearing cache" is a bit confusing. And I don't use iTunes Match so that's a non issue. I thought you'd found a "clear cache" setting that I've missed over the last four years, but you're just manually deleting old files.
 
I'm on a 4 myself. And as you say I remember the performance drop in the iphone 3G when iOS 4 came. It was just aweful! However, i wouldn't say the iPhone 4 is slow. It all depends on what you are used to.
 
The iPhone 4 is a great phone, but it is definitely showing its age. I don't think your question should be is the iPhone fast enough in 2012, but rather is it fast enough in 2013 and into the future. Judging by apples history it will get next years iOS upgrade but in a very limited fashion. So unless you plan on upgrading again next year, I would go with at least the 4s. Also as a current iPhone 4 user, it is defiantly showing it's age. While you'll get used to the speed, if you play around with a 4s for even a short time, you'll notice how sluggish the 4 seems in comparison. Also, it's still questionable as to how well it will run iOS 6, early reports are that it feels even more sluggish with the new OS and I'm sure running the new maps application especially when using fly over and turn by turn you will have some issues.
 
Go for it. It had suffered some slow down with ios5 but ios6 seems to have given it a new lease of life. It's back to its original speed, if not quicker. In my opinion anyway....
 
I was reviewing the iOS 6 features list and was surprised of all the features that are only on 4s and 5. I recommend you read it. I think maps with GPS navigation was one of them that was missing and I love the app.
 
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