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7 Reasons Not To Buy iPhone 4S

Categories Apple iPhone Phone Comparison
Author by Mark January 12, 2012
3,171 31

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?

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31 thoughts on “7 Reasons Not To Buy iPhone 4S”

  2. applefreak says:

    Lol I think you dont own an iPhone……….U r a four flusher! We can add our own music and it plays all songs very well………….If u cant afford to replace the glass of an iPhone then dont buy an iPhone..If u think that the apps which are provided by the android are the best u are wrong! Apple app store is the best. It has got quality.  

    1. James says:

      “If you cant afford to replace the glass of an iPhone then dont buy an iPhone”

      That’s the most ridiculous statement I’ve read in a while.

      Why the hell should people be prepared to pay extra to fix their smashed iPhone’s when Apple should have better and more thorough quality control?

      Apple will soon lose its way now that Jobs is dead. Give it 5 years and they’ll no longer be top dog.

  5. diver with an iPhone says:

    Remember that Siri is a betta product, so before buying you could have looked at it. Not that it justifies its incompleteness but still
    I never dropped iPhone and hope I won’t still any phone that’s not rugged would crash in any case
    Battery is much much, much better then any other (almost)
    The only bad thing of iOS is it being anti Flash – I really don’t care about customizations
    iTunes – agree!
    Apps – has much more and a lot more, though I agree on free ups, but Apple’s and Google’s business models differ a lot
    I personally consider 32 GB a lot – plus the iCloud is there coming so you shouldn’t have problems.. though it depends what you keep in your phone,. reeally

  6. Alltaylon says:

    Any Software that has been imitated (copied) and not innovated is prone to bugs, look at how unstable Windoze/Android are. Reminds me of when the Russians stole plans for the Concorde, developed their own SST from these plans, and the TU-144 duly crashed on its second flight. Just like Windoze does.

    1. Dayem Saeed says:

      A study shows that iPhone apps crash more on ios than on android so technically Apple’s “Revolutionary” and “intuitive” os sucks

  8. Anonymous says:

    1. Siri is a beta.
    2. Lifeproof or element cases
    3. Battery life is better than any Android phone I’ve owned. (OG Droid)
    4. Customizing is fun. But it got old on Android.
    5. Itunes match
    6. Less malware in App Store and Apps are better supported by devs
    7. Get a 64 GB

  9. Black-cat132 says:

    My galaxy s2 lasts much longer than your iphone.
    And yes, android market rocks!

    P.S:
    iPhone doesn’t support flash and java, which means you cant use 99% of web applications.

  11. VT says:

    I don’t think you really own an iPhone 4s, because you don’t mention smaller screen size. I can’t stand using my wife’s iPhone, because the screen is so small. Once you go bigger, you can never go back.

  15. Dzane876 says:

    Totally agree on every subject my husband and I had android incredibles and switched. Let me tell u my android never froze!! And we had access to everything none of this switching to wifi crap. I miss androids:(

  17. demi says:

    i was just thinking about that iTunes part where u said that  
    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?

    and i was just confused… dude! if u really do have the iPhone 4s u should know that there is iCloud on ur iPhone and with iColud u can EASILY get the music from ur computer to ur iPhone ( without buying the songs u already have ) and that’s much easier than with microSD card. Just saying. and I don’t have iPhone but mu sis and friend do and as far as i know there has NOT been those problems. BUT thanx for this information anyway, cuz it’s also true that iPhone is fragile and so.  and i’m thinking of buying iPhone 4s but i’m just afraid of breaking it or paying so much from a phone that is NOT as good as it should be ( including Siri, apps, Battery etc.)

  18. Nicoley-Oley-O says:

    Apple will be along for a long time, and be best-seller. It is amazing. iPhone 4s is they way to go. It is a great phone, and you can do anything on it. You can get internet, check your emails, text, call, FaceTime, use siri, get directs, call someone through siri, message someone through siri, and many other amazing things. Siri does listen, understands well, and gets who you are after a few days of using it. You may think that it doesn’t know you or anything but she does, give her a chance, just like you would give someone a chance to be your friend again. The iPhone 4s isn’t a waste of time, or money. You can do amazing things ont he amazing phone!

    Thanks for your time.

  20. Anrob says:

    Rubbish , someone paying you to say this . App on the Samsung Galaxy tab is more expensive than Iphone apps . I have never regretted getting an iphone .

  21. Colino says:

    Well I don’t have an iPhone, and I won’t be buying one. In fact, I’ll never purchase another Apple product. OK, so I have an Ipod 2 gen which has always been fine for my needs – then it develops a software problem. Dutifully I reboot and in order to fix the problem have to delete my apps and reload them – then comes the problem, some of the apps are no longer supported on my generation of Ipod. Only option is to purchase a new Ipod – no ability to reload older app versions. Crap support at the very least, and why should i purchase a new product when the older version is fine? No, I won’t be buying anything else from Apple, they are worse than Microsoft and that’s saying something, but at least with Microsoft I can generally find older versions of software and apps if I need them. I have never understood why people bang on about this company – they are con men just like the rest of the industry.

  22. Nop says:

    sounds like someone’s bitter that they didn’t get a new phone. I’ve had a
    4S since the day it came out and I haven’t regretted it once. the battery life is great, I’m still using the case I bought the day I got my phone, never had any problem with breakage, and iOS is vastly better than the droid platforms. I agree with you that siri is useless, and I use it only to dial numbers when I’m too lazy to type them in, but besides that, this article is pretty stupid.

  23. AJ1970 says:

    Still the proud owner of a HTC Desire Hd ,My service provider cancelled my large sim when I go the Micro Sim to put in this Mickey mouse piece of rubbish (AKA iPhone 4s) 
    Battery life IS rubbish ,Yeah I know about battery memory ..thats what I let it run out ,usually in not so many hours and then recharge,I’d love to personalise my iPhone 4S but sadly if your not in the Apple clan then your not getting anything else (BUY APPLE SOFTWARE,RINGTONES..Ect,Ect ) My HTC accepted everything I wished to load up on it ,a truly personalised phone with funky wallpapers, comical rintones and SMS notifications sounds(Utterly useless on the Micky mouse) ..!
    Yep Scared to death of this damn thing breaking,bits falling off and the constant and more re occurant issue of stalling,freezing and jamming ,something HTC endeavoured to resolve with patches and updates if or when teething problems occurred,you’d like to think Apple would have sorted it out by now what we looking to the future of iPhone 5 ..?
    Siri is a waste of time it doesn’t take time to get used to the way you speak it doesn’t understand what you say irrespective of dialect,Rate Rhythm and Pitch ,it’s relentless misappropriation of spoken English becomes tiresome after a while.
    Predictive Text ..W T F Pain in the hole I know you can go about sorting it out ,but still not happy with it,why are things made so complicated with this handset…?
    I’m in the process of asking for a large sim back and wishing my Imickey mouse a not so fond fair well .
    I’ve given the all singing and dancing (circus bear) iPhone a good run out and I’m not convinced ,it’s poorly built about as friendly as a fish tank full of piranhas and hasn’t lived upto anything I’ve seen about it .hyped and let down in the same breath ,piece of rubbish.
    Oh and before all you clowns jump on me I do have other Apple products which I love 17 inch Macbook Pro with OS Lion and a 64 GB iPad excellent bits of kit 
    But the iPhone …well you can poke it …its rubbish .

  24. Petermass9 says:

    People are such babies!  Iphone vs Andriod……This is the same BS that happen in the 80’s with VHS vs Bata or the 60’s Chevy vs Ford……LET it go!!!!! Each device has its merits and short falls….Some people wear Nike and other like Pumas…No one is right it’s just their personal fashion statement or what works for them…….Please just state the facts so the rest of us cn make a educated decision.  Thanks!

  25. Kc says:

    I,being a droid user for 4 years, recently perchased my iphone4s….I miss my droid.
    Siri, sucks, I now run iOS 6 an it’s still horrible, after 3 hardware updates apple should have Siri down to a science, I used the beta version of assistant on my Droid and it was twice as fast as Siri, the “retina screen” is one of the least impressive features, it is small and not as touch sensitive a the gorilla glass on most newer droids, it is also more fragile, I think it’s safe to say I won’t be keeping my iPhone much longer

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