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Why I got the iPhone 4 instead of the 4S.
- Thread starter mjmarayag
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I love my iPhone 4. I do plan to upgrade to the 5S whenever it comes out, as my plan ends this August, but the iPhone 4 works great for me.
Yes, sometimes it slows down and gets a tiny bit stuttery when opening apps and trying to reply to a text quickly, but it's fine.
My battery basically was shot a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a new screen, home button, battery, and back panel, and I don't regret anything.
It costed me like $65 to completely re-(design?) the physical aspects of my phone, and I love how it looks now. (new)
As I've said, I think the 4 is very close in user satisfaction with the 4S.
Yes, sometimes it slows down and gets a tiny bit stuttery when opening apps and trying to reply to a text quickly, but it's fine.
My battery basically was shot a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a new screen, home button, battery, and back panel, and I don't regret anything.
It costed me like $65 to completely re-(design?) the physical aspects of my phone, and I love how it looks now. (new)
As I've said, I think the 4 is very close in user satisfaction with the 4S.
the biggest difference will be future proofing. Who knows how many more iOS updates the 4 will get - maybe some of the features on iOS 7 and then no more updates at all would be my guess. The 4s should get iOS 7 (full) and iOS 8 (partial). And even if the 4 runs iOS 6 well, who knows what 7 will bring - could be much more demanding and make the difference between dual core and single core very apparent.
Not that the 4 is a bad phone mind you, but I think looking only at the comparison RIGHT NOW is short sighted.
Not that the 4 is a bad phone mind you, but I think looking only at the comparison RIGHT NOW is short sighted.
That's not true... I bought a iP 4 because I wanted a cheap phone, but don't want to miss iOS experience while I am abroad... compared to 4s the 4 is slow! for example in Facebook it takes a life to download all the news... even passage from page to page in the main pages is slow.... and then safari... when the pages are big and you want to scroll to the top you have always to wait for it reloading!!
I went from a 3gs to a Verizon 4s, when I switched back to AT&T I used my 4s with a interposer, it worked but I got tired of always entering in the APN settings, so I grabbed a AT&T 4 off CL, I have never had a 4 before and its really not much slower than the 4s with the user apps like texting or pandora and music, but with games the 4s wipes the floor with the 4, the camera on the 4 is terrible compared to the 4s, but I seriously think the 4 has a much better screen and LCD, the colors are much more vibrant and crisp on the 4 than a 4s, now I have a 4s for work and a 4 I carry, I feel like a fool carrying around 2 iPhones but.. whatever
I play a lot of games on my iPhone 4. Dead Space and Mass Effect:Infiltrator as well as Shadowgun and Frontline Commando play great. So does Dead Trigger, Time Crisis 2nd Strike, Overkill, Overkill 2 and Trigger Fist. No complaints. 
sluggish is a relative term. our expectations have grown, but i have no doubt the 4 is a perfectly fine phone.
but, one issue that shouldn't be glossed over, is the potential cut-off of support. i'm not saying it'll come with iOS7, but one can certainly say the 4 will lose support before the 4s or the 5. and once the OS support goes, so too does the app support. i wiped my old 3g without thinking about this (no backup), and came to the unfortunate realization that the closed apple ecosystem has no affordances for re-accessing the last version of an app supported by your hardware. additionally, my dad, who had been using the device pay-as-you-go, started having connectivity issues, and the service provider made it quite clear that the device was no longer considered supported on their network.
anyway, long story short, i'm all for being budget and waste conscious, and not constantly chasing after the latest and greatest if you have no need, but you do need to be aware that apple and service providers want people to upgrade as frequently as possible, and that will undoubtably translate into decreasing support especially as the majority of 4 owners are going to be up for contract renewal.
but, one issue that shouldn't be glossed over, is the potential cut-off of support. i'm not saying it'll come with iOS7, but one can certainly say the 4 will lose support before the 4s or the 5. and once the OS support goes, so too does the app support. i wiped my old 3g without thinking about this (no backup), and came to the unfortunate realization that the closed apple ecosystem has no affordances for re-accessing the last version of an app supported by your hardware. additionally, my dad, who had been using the device pay-as-you-go, started having connectivity issues, and the service provider made it quite clear that the device was no longer considered supported on their network.
anyway, long story short, i'm all for being budget and waste conscious, and not constantly chasing after the latest and greatest if you have no need, but you do need to be aware that apple and service providers want people to upgrade as frequently as possible, and that will undoubtably translate into decreasing support especially as the majority of 4 owners are going to be up for contract renewal.
I skipped the 4s altogether when I had my 4. I had no reason to upgrade and I almost skipped the 5 because I still feel the 4 was a great phone. I love my 5 and would skip the 5s but I'm on Sprint and well, the service sucks so I'm going to leave Sprint when the 5s is released. Congrats man, glad you love it!
I'm a year behind the latest model and last year I had to seriously think hard about getting a 4S. In the end the thing that made me do it was the 64 GB model as I just didn't think I'd use the additional features of the 4S. However I've been looking for a 4 for the GF so we can facetime. But now I've realised the 4S is probably only about £25 more and unless you get a very good deal on a 4, the little bit of money saved is a false economy. Like the OP I don't really care about app loading times but every iPhone I've owned has been getting very laggy (especially maps and text entry) toward the time I get rid of them (i.e. 2 years old) - I find 'last years model' works really well as new iOS updates are designed to work well with them.
A lot of people poured scorn on the 4S when it came out, but this is the time when it will come into its own. I can see it being supported till iOS 8. Several current gen products are shipping with A5 chips (iPad 2, iPad mini, 4S, AppleTV) so I can see Apple dropping support for all non dual core chips with iOS 7. The 3GS had a good run but that was because it's CPU / RAM was almost the same as the 4. By dropping the A4 and earlier devices Apple can fully optimise the OS for dual core.
A lot of people poured scorn on the 4S when it came out, but this is the time when it will come into its own. I can see it being supported till iOS 8. Several current gen products are shipping with A5 chips (iPad 2, iPad mini, 4S, AppleTV) so I can see Apple dropping support for all non dual core chips with iOS 7. The 3GS had a good run but that was because it's CPU / RAM was almost the same as the 4. By dropping the A4 and earlier devices Apple can fully optimise the OS for dual core.
i never played games on my iPhone 4, but when i install iOS 6 (fresh install) i noticed it was sluggish.
if you say otherwise you are in complete denial because i experienced this behaviour on more than one iPhone 4.
I found it to be the opposite. On iOS 5 it felt sluggish whereas on iOS 6 it feels more fluid.
OP, you did well. I have a 4S and my wife and daughter both have the 4. In all honesty, if you just had me use them without seeing the color of the case I couldn't tell which was which. Siri is ok I guess but I seldom use it except to goof around. Speed, meh. Who cares. My phone is about getting small tasks done without having to go to a computer, not about how fast I can finish a task that is truly only differentiated by seconds or portions of seconds. If it's functional and meets your needs, that's all that matters.
I have a 4S and everyone with a 5 has to show me how cool it is. I use it and it feels just like mine with an extra row of icons and a bit bigger screen. It's sort of anti-climactic when you already own an iPhone and grab an iPhone 5. Cool for a few minutes, then you realize it's just an iPhone. That's NOT a slam to the iPhone, just the reality of having something that just works well every time and getting your hands on another one that works the same as well.
I have a 4S and everyone with a 5 has to show me how cool it is. I use it and it feels just like mine with an extra row of icons and a bit bigger screen. It's sort of anti-climactic when you already own an iPhone and grab an iPhone 5. Cool for a few minutes, then you realize it's just an iPhone. That's NOT a slam to the iPhone, just the reality of having something that just works well every time and getting your hands on another one that works the same as well.
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.
Glad it worked out for you, I find the "if it's older than 3 months it suddenly won't work" mentality these days a little disturbing to say the least.
Well, it doesn't really matter. The OP sounds like a kid, and $100 means a lot more to a kid than to an adult (when it comes to choosing the 4 vs 4S). Also, kids just want an iphone, they don't care which one they get.
Because that didn't happen to the 4s after the iPhone 5 was released right? Sorry but no. And the S3 sold 50 million units. Hardly a failure. I like the iPhone as much as the next guy and think it's a great solid phone but don't give iOS users a bad name by posting stuff like that.