iPhone 4S or 5?

By Nancy, 18 July, 2013

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hello: I am an IPhone 4S user and I am happy with it. My questions is that I am due to upgrade in a couple of months and I am debating with staying with the 4S or moving up to an Iphone 5. I have no useable vision so the size of the screen doesn't matter to me. I would love any opinions on staying with the 4S or getting the Iphone 5. What are the pros/cons for keeping or upgrading. I have a 16GB phone right now and I am thinking of getting either a 32GB or a 64GB. I look forward to hearing what all of you have to say. Thanks a lot. Nancy

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Comments

By Justin on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Hello Nancy. Personally, I would stick with the iPhone 4S until this fall when the new phone will probably come out. It seems that Apple releases a new iPhone every year or so, so by the time you upgrade to the iPhone 5, and are using it for six months or so, a new phone will probably be coming from Apple, or at least that is what I have been seeing in the past. Honestly I have been having great luck with the 4S for the pastyear and a half or so. Probably one good thing about the iPhone 5, I am guessing here is the fact that it finally gets rid of the 30 pin dock port. Alright enough rambling from me. Hope this helps!

By Michael Hansen on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Hi Nancy, At this point, I would wait until the next iPhone comes out. You mentioned that you were due for an upgrade in a couple of months, and I expect Apple to have a new handset--or, at least, an announcement of a release of a new handset--on the way by this time in September.

By Siobhan on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Hi Nancy. First let me back up and apologize, I didn't look at the gender of the person who commented before me so if i made you the wrong one, forgive me. Second, I noticed on the 4S that the speech can stutter and be choppy, I'm thinking with the faster processor, that will not be such an issue. I'll also wait, I have an elderly four, and the only deciding factor is going to be when the fiveS comes out. If I upgraded now, and in two months a faster, maybe neater phone came out, I wouldn't feel the need to upgrade but I guess I would be disapointed I didn't wait. That's what i'm telling myself anyway, when the phone acts up, I.e. is incredibly sluggish when imputting the first text in a conversaiton. Good luck in deciding. Siobhan

By Andrew on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Hello, I am due to upgrade on August 9th and I am waiting until mid to late September when the new I phone will be released by apple. It is assumed it will be called the I Phone 5s, but who knows what they will name it. I would wait however as if you upgrade now and get the I phone five, you will have just spent the same amount of money for the five as you would of had to spend and just waited a little bit longer for the brand new I phone in September. Those are my two cents. -Andrew-

By Lisa on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

If it were me, I'd wait for the next one, as well. However, to answer your exact question, if you don't wish to wait, I'd go with the iPhone 5. First, it's a later model, and will probably be supported for longer. Second, the 5 is ever so much faster and snappier than the 4S, and it's a lot thinner and lighter. I also noticed there's a decrease in speech stuttering in the 5 versus previous models. The bigger screen size also makes a difference; you can have more apps on the pages of your home screen, and touch typing is easier, in my opinion. So, if you don't want to wait for the 5S, get the 5.

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Seriously get the iPhone 5 because first it has finally navigation voiceover support for maps.

By Toonhead on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

Once again, Isaac completely misses the point. Maps are not the only deciding factor for purchasing an iDevice. and if you have the chance to get the newer model and you can afford it please by all means go for that. If not however, the iPhone 5 works great, and is really solid.

I have had the 4S since it came out and have never had a problem with stuttering speech. It depends on how much you want to spend. You'll get the 4S cheaper, but like a previous user pointed out, you'll probably get more supported lifetime from the 5.

By Joseph Westhouse on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

I sincerely doubt lifetime and support should factor into the equation unless you're planning on using the same phone for the next four or five years, at least. I mean, the 3gs is still supported fairly consistently, except for in apps that require hardware that it doesn't have, like a gyroscope... And speaking of hardware, I'm a little confused - is there actually a significant hardware difference between the 4s and 5? I thought I remembered looking at spec sheets a while back and finding that there wasn't actually any difference under-the-hood in terms of processing speed and power. The only difference I was aware of was camera resolution (surprisingly, I won't lose much sleep over that one) and the screen (again, I'll live). But I could be wrong, so I'm interested to know if someone has more details about that. And one more note - getting rid of the 30-pin dock connector is only a blessing if you don't already have a ton of dock connector accessories. If you do, then I'd actually consider a new connector to be a disadvantage to switching.

By Doug on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

I needed to replace my Iphone 4S and when I went to the apple store, the excellent staff there gave me an IPhone 5 to play with and I noticed no difference in terms of voiceover responsiveness, nor opening applications. The same held true for Siri. One of the "apple geniuses" indicated that for voiceover users, there would be virtually no difference between the 4s and 5. The only question I have is whether, with the higher camera resolution, the 5 may be better at OCR? I had no way to check this one out. Anyone else notice an OCR difference? Would the Iphone 5 have better recognition?

By Lisa on Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 20:26

First of all, lifetime support can actually be useful, because Apple updates it's software every year. The latest updates are usually the best to have, especially in terms of accessibility. Also, there are actually some features that aren't included in previous models. For example, the iPhone 4 does not include turn-by-turn navigation in the maps app, but the 4S and 5 do. There will also be some significant differences in what IOS 7 provides for each device, at least that's what I gathered after Apple's presentation. The iPhone 5 is actually much faster than the 4S. The 5 has a 1.3 ghz A6 processor and 1 gig of ram, whereas the 4S has a 1.0 A5 processor with 512 mb of ram. This A6 processor is twice as fast as the a5 one in the iPhone 4S. I see a tremendous difference in how snappy things work, especially in apps with web browsing capabilities. Another thing to keep in mind is that the iPhone 4S does not support 4G LTE data, so if your carrier has it, you won't be able to utilize it, and you will have to stay on 3G, which is slower.

i Nancy there are not reasons or options why not wait until come out the new iPhone, problably in September but consider the differences between 5 and 4S, below also I hope could open the link in DropBox personally I used both devices iPhone 4S about 10 months and iPhone 5 since last October up to day see the specs below iPhone 4S Processor A5 chip Weight 4.9 ounces (140 grams) Display 3.5-inch (diagonal) Retina display 960-by-640 resolution 326 ppi Intelligent Assistant Siri Use your voice to send messages, set reminders, and more. Camera, Photos and Video 8 megapixel Autofocus Tap to focus LED flash Backside illumination sensor Five-element lens Face detection Hybrid IR filter Æ’/2.4 aperture Panorama Video Calling iPhone 4S to any FaceTime-enabled device over Wi-Fi or cellular Battery life Up to 8 hours on 3G Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi Standby time: Up to 200 hours Video playback: Up to 10 hours Audio playback: Up to 40 hours iPhone 5 Thinner, lighter design Processor A6 chip Weight Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams) Display Retina display 4-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display Intelligent Assistant Siri Use your voice to send messages, set reminders, and more. Camera, Photos, and Video 8-megapixel iSight camera Panorama Video recording, HD (1080p) up to 30 frames per second with audio FaceTime HD camera with 1.2MP photos and HD video (720p) up to 30 frames per second Autofocus Tap to focus video or still images Face detection in video or still images LED flash Improved video stabilization Photo and video geotagging Video Calling iPhone 5 to any FaceTime-enabled device over Wi-Fi or cellular Battery Life Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G Standby time: Up to 225 hours Internet use: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi Video playback: Up to 10 hours Audio playback: Up to 40 hours check this link https://www.dropbox.com/s/ j4js1u1rsq9znzx/DV-2013-07-19- 203148.m4a