Okay, so a few weeks ago, I posted a thread asking for help for which one I should get: a 4S or a 4. A lot of people gave their opinions. Some said to stick with the 4, while others suggested to go with the 4S. And I finally came to a decision.
6 days ago, I received my iPhone 4 32GB. I bought it for $240, which I think is a fair price where I come from. It was still in very good condition. Never mind the diminutive scuffs here and there; they are noticeable, yes, but to a negligible extent.
Anyway, I decided to go with the 4 because it was about the same with the 4S. It's still an iPhone, I still have access to apps on the App Store, it looks and works about 90% the same as the 4S, and is a heck of a lot cheaper. I don't need Siri, I don't need the 8MP camera, and I don't need a dual-core phone. All I needed was a phone that could connect me to people I want/have to talk to, take and post pictures on different social networking sites, play music, and give me Internet access. All of these things (and more), I could accomplish on my iPhone 4. (Wow, that rhymed!)
Some people disagreed with me, saying that the 4 is sluggish on later iOS versions, it's not an ideal phone to have, has bad battery life, and so on and so forth. Well, sorry to say guys, but what they said and what I experience are totally different things. When I got my phone, those same people were all, "Wow, it's pretty good!" or "It's smoother than my (insert newer-than-iPhone 4-phone here)." or just plain "Woooooooooow...".
iOS 6.1.3 runs awesomely on my phone. It hasn't given me any headaches. It's just as smooth and about as fast as my girlfriend's 4S. Apps work the same, the camera works the same, just about everything that I need it to do, it does with grace.
Battery life is awesome (at least, for me). I only had to charge my phone twice in the last 5 days. Twice! Compared to my old Galaxy Nexus (which I had bought brand new and kept for about 5 and a half months), the 4's battery life is just amazing. I had to charge my old phone the minute I got home from work, which wasn't really a hassle at all, but still troublesome compared to the 4.
Yes, on paper, most of the specs of the Nexus beat the ones on the 4, but the overall user experience is just beautiful. It's incomparable, really. They should really give a name for how smooth iOS is, kinda like how Google coined the term "Project Butter" for the smoothness on Jelly Bean. Maybe "Project Hot Knife"? Y'know, like the saying "Like hot knife through butter"? No? Okay.
But seriously though. I'm not saying all this to bash Android. I mean, I used Android phones for more than a year before I even considered getting an iPhone. Android is great at what it does, and iOS is great at what it does. It's what you need your phone to do that counts.
Let's go back to 4 vs. 4S. I got the 4 for $240, while the 4S sells today for about $340 here. Others may say that the other hundred dollars is trivial compared to what I could get, but it's not a small difference for me. I could do so much with that extra hundred, and no way was I going to spend it just so I can make my phone 2-4 seconds faster. No way.
What I did was, I used that extra hundred to swap my sister's old Lumia 800 for a like-new Galaxy S2. I regret nothing.
Now, let's talk graphics. I don't even really care about this at all. I only play casual games like Temple Run and Angry Birds. You know, the kind of games that people play to waste time. I mostly do my gaming on my computer, so I feel that being able to play games on my phone is just a bonus and not a feature.
Everything else, like texting and calling and whathaveyous work extremely well on the iPhone 4. No hiccups, no lags, no "OMGTHISPHONEISF******SLOW" moments.
In addition, the amount of cases and accessories for the iPhone 4 is just insane! This isn't actually really a requirement for me, but knowing that a lot of extras are available for my phone is very nice.
So, there you have it. These are my opinions, which may or may not be radically different from yours. If you're a first-time smartphone buyer or a first-time iOS device user looking for something affordable while able to give you a good experience, you can't go wrong with the iPhone 4. It's a whole lot more affordable than both the 4S and the 5, and functions basically the same. User experience is also the same, minus the expensive price tag. But if you've got the cash, want something more recent, and need to do a lot of demanding things on your phone, then go with the 4S/5. If I wasn't so strapped for cash I would've gone ahead with the 5, but that can wait for another 5 months.
6 days ago, I received my iPhone 4 32GB. I bought it for $240, which I think is a fair price where I come from. It was still in very good condition. Never mind the diminutive scuffs here and there; they are noticeable, yes, but to a negligible extent.
Anyway, I decided to go with the 4 because it was about the same with the 4S. It's still an iPhone, I still have access to apps on the App Store, it looks and works about 90% the same as the 4S, and is a heck of a lot cheaper. I don't need Siri, I don't need the 8MP camera, and I don't need a dual-core phone. All I needed was a phone that could connect me to people I want/have to talk to, take and post pictures on different social networking sites, play music, and give me Internet access. All of these things (and more), I could accomplish on my iPhone 4. (Wow, that rhymed!)
Some people disagreed with me, saying that the 4 is sluggish on later iOS versions, it's not an ideal phone to have, has bad battery life, and so on and so forth. Well, sorry to say guys, but what they said and what I experience are totally different things. When I got my phone, those same people were all, "Wow, it's pretty good!" or "It's smoother than my (insert newer-than-iPhone 4-phone here)." or just plain "Woooooooooow...".
iOS 6.1.3 runs awesomely on my phone. It hasn't given me any headaches. It's just as smooth and about as fast as my girlfriend's 4S. Apps work the same, the camera works the same, just about everything that I need it to do, it does with grace.
Battery life is awesome (at least, for me). I only had to charge my phone twice in the last 5 days. Twice! Compared to my old Galaxy Nexus (which I had bought brand new and kept for about 5 and a half months), the 4's battery life is just amazing. I had to charge my old phone the minute I got home from work, which wasn't really a hassle at all, but still troublesome compared to the 4.
Yes, on paper, most of the specs of the Nexus beat the ones on the 4, but the overall user experience is just beautiful. It's incomparable, really. They should really give a name for how smooth iOS is, kinda like how Google coined the term "Project Butter" for the smoothness on Jelly Bean. Maybe "Project Hot Knife"? Y'know, like the saying "Like hot knife through butter"? No? Okay.
But seriously though. I'm not saying all this to bash Android. I mean, I used Android phones for more than a year before I even considered getting an iPhone. Android is great at what it does, and iOS is great at what it does. It's what you need your phone to do that counts.
Let's go back to 4 vs. 4S. I got the 4 for $240, while the 4S sells today for about $340 here. Others may say that the other hundred dollars is trivial compared to what I could get, but it's not a small difference for me. I could do so much with that extra hundred, and no way was I going to spend it just so I can make my phone 2-4 seconds faster. No way.
What I did was, I used that extra hundred to swap my sister's old Lumia 800 for a like-new Galaxy S2. I regret nothing.
Now, let's talk graphics. I don't even really care about this at all. I only play casual games like Temple Run and Angry Birds. You know, the kind of games that people play to waste time. I mostly do my gaming on my computer, so I feel that being able to play games on my phone is just a bonus and not a feature.
Everything else, like texting and calling and whathaveyous work extremely well on the iPhone 4. No hiccups, no lags, no "OMGTHISPHONEISF******SLOW" moments.
In addition, the amount of cases and accessories for the iPhone 4 is just insane! This isn't actually really a requirement for me, but knowing that a lot of extras are available for my phone is very nice.
So, there you have it. These are my opinions, which may or may not be radically different from yours. If you're a first-time smartphone buyer or a first-time iOS device user looking for something affordable while able to give you a good experience, you can't go wrong with the iPhone 4. It's a whole lot more affordable than both the 4S and the 5, and functions basically the same. User experience is also the same, minus the expensive price tag. But if you've got the cash, want something more recent, and need to do a lot of demanding things on your phone, then go with the 4S/5. If I wasn't so strapped for cash I would've gone ahead with the 5, but that can wait for another 5 months.
