There is always a good and bad when it comes to smartphones, and the iPhone 4S is getting all the attention here. The latest review below comes via a Phones Review reader, and they explain the “7 Reasons Not To Buy iPhone 4S”
The Review
Not so long ago I was one of those who dreamed of buying the new iPhone 4S just because having an iPhone, especially the latest iPhone, is kind of cool. About three weeks ago I decided to make myself a Christmas present and, after reading (and even writing) some reviews and comparison articles praising it, I bought it — the new Apple iPhone 4S.
Now I have to admit that I’m disappointed in the iPhone 4S, and perhaps switching to it from my good old Samsung Galaxy S2 wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made. Below I’ll try to explain what I hate about Apple’s new device and what makes me think that buying it isn’t a great idea at all.
1. Siri
Many of you now probably think that Siri is one of the main reasons why people buy the new iPhone 4S, but for me, after I had the chance to use Siri, it’s one of the main reasons NOT to buy it.
Actually, having an “intelligent” user assistant only sounds that cool… in the reality Siri doesn’t work as we’ve expected: She’s rather slow, often she doesn’t understand what you’re saying (I always thought I didn’t have any problems with my pronunciation, but it took me a while before I could make Siri understand that I was just asking, “Who is Louis Armstrong,” and not “Cool ease Louis Armstrong,” whatever it means), and she’s not that useful after all.
Second, Siri drains the battery and uses much Internet traffic to work. I’d soon go bankrupt if I didn’t turn it off. Ah, I was about to forget to mention that there aren’t many people ready to dictate Siri text messages, especially when there are other people around. That’s not cool at all.
2. Too fragile
I’m sure many of you have already seen this YouTube video with a drop test of the iPhone 4S — the phone’s glass case shatters after a single drop. I used to drop my old Galaxy S2 a lot, and nothing happened to it. Now I’m really afraid to drop my iPhone, even though it has a protective case on it… Will the case really be able to protect such a fragile phone? I’m not sure about this, and it makes me really nervous all the time.
3. Battery life
Apple says the 1432 mAh battery of the iPhone 4S will last for 14 hours on 2G and 8 hours on 3G. That’s not much, especially if we take into account that many other smartphones have more powerful batteries, but the problem is — the iPhone 4S’s battery doesn’t last even for 14/8 hours… I charge my iPhone every night; I keep all the unnecessary processes off (including even the Internet and Siri), but if I listen to music during the day and play games, the battery is dead even before I get home in the evening.
4. iOS
I know iOS has a lot of devoted fans, but the truth is — Android is the most popular platform at the moment, and now I can understand why. Yeah, iOS is easy to use (especially for those who have never had a smartphone before), but Android is more customizable, it’s faster and has more features. My old Galaxy S2 had Android, and I want it back…
5. iTunes
In iOS, it’s far more difficult to play your own content (music, videos and so on) than on Android. In Android, I could just copy the desired songs or videos to my microSD card (or phone’s memory, or whatever) and listen to them via the player I wanted. In iOS I have to convert the songs/videos, use money and time on it, and I still can’t be sure my iPhone 4S will play them after all… Of course, I can buy music from iTunes, too, but who’s willing to pay for a song he/she’s already bought?
6. Apps
Most iOS apps are paid (only 37 percent of apps in the App Store are free, and, as if according to Murphy’s Law, all the apps I want and need are paid and cost more than I want to pay for them). When I had an Android phone, I had access to many free apps and I always found what I wanted in the Android Market.
7. Memory
The iPhone 4S doesn’t have a microSD card slot, and that’s a serious shortcoming for me. You either have to pay much more to get a “bigger” iPhone (buying an SD card would cost you less) or you have to get along with what you have, even if it’s not enough.
I guess this is all for now. I’ve been using the iPhone 4S for 3 weeks or so, and perhaps there are many things in it I haven’t discovered yet. Maybe soon I’ll find other shortcomings in this phone or maybe I’ll understand that it’s not as bad as it seems to me now. We’ll see 🙂
Please do let us know what you think about the above reasons?