Have you upgraded from an iPhone 4S to 5? Are you glad u did?

[cantdrv55]

My employer is finally going to let us use our iPhones to connect to the intranet. If we are not already iPhone users, they have arranged for Verizon to give us discounts. My question is should I get the 4S or the 5? The difference in price is $100 regardless of memory size. We have to buy the phones and pay for the data package but the company takes care of the bill for the unlimited minutes, text, insurance and taxes. I plan to use the phone as a hot spot, camera, email, some note taking and navigation. TIA.

[id10t]

The 4s has siri, etc so as far as software features wise they are fairly even. The 5 will give you a bigger screen, faster processor(s) (I think they are both multi core), more working ram, etc. and be supported with updates, etc. for longer.

[stomachmonkey]

The 5 is simply stupid fast.

Was sitting with my friend and we did the speedtest.net thing. He got a 1.8. I got 48.

It's consistently faster than my 25/25 FIOS pipe.

If you intend to use it as a hotspot it's a no brainer.

The camera is far better as well.

It's worth the extra $100.

[mreid]

X2, the camera makes my old digital obsolete. Go for the 5.

[enzo1]

5....

[mikester]

Yeah, the 5 is a better refinement than I would have expected.

[nostatic]

5. No question.

[speeder]

Yep, 5. You'll never, ever regret getting the newer/better one but you'll regret the opposite.

[cantdrv55]

I thought I should get the 5 too. But when I went to the mall today, the kid at the Verizon kiosk was trying to talk me out of the 5. He said the difference between it and the 4S isn't worth the extra $100. Weird way to sell.

[porsche4life]

I'd get the 5... My company is beginning to support the 5 soon, and my current android POS is due to be upgraded, I'll just be the douche carrying around a 4S and a 5.....

[mossguy]

Does the 5 not have Siri?

[slodave]

It does and she's just as confused as ever.

[Don Plumley]

I have Verizon's LTE on my iPad and 3G on my 4S. The LTE (5) is freakishly faster for data.

[Dottore]

What everyone says. 5 is the way to go.

[pitargue]

5 just for the 4G which the 4S doesn't have.

[JavaBrewer]

In this case 5 all the way.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Have to disagree simply on the basis of cost. Yes the 5 is faster (LTE on the 5, 4G on the 4S - and yes you most certainly can get 4G on the iPhone 4S...) but the downside if that is the iPhone 5 is going to chew through data quickly and the LTE plans on the major carriers that facilitate those faster speeds are criminally expensive AND data-limited. People who never used to hit data limits with iPhone 4 devices are starting to hit them now with the iPhone 5 and it gets mighty expensive if one does...

I looked at the iPhone 5 on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint - IIRC the cheapest was Sprint at $79 a month BUT to add tethering drove it up to well over $100 per month. Bottom like is you're not getting into one for less than $100-$120 a month AND you're stuck on a data-limited plan on a 2-year contract. For me that was a deal breaker (and add $200-$400 for the device itself of course).

Sprint does have a nice buyback option for older iPhones - if I did that I could basically walk away with an iPhone 5 (64 gig) for close to free but the above reasons made me say no - also consider that there is no untethered jailbreak for A5 or newer devices and there isn't likely to be one for a while. If there were, one could conceivably get around the tethering cost by installing TetherMe and setting up a personal hotspot that way (I did this on my iPhone 4 enabling me to ditch my crummy overpriced $45-a-month home DSL too).

Finally the only GSM options are AT&T (or possibly T-mobile) unless you have money to burn on an unlocked phone - for me that's a no-go. I personally hate CDMA and the resale value of a Verizon or Sprint (CDMA) phone is considerably less than a GSM (AT&T) one. That might or might not matter to you.

Finally if you're considering that you can get it unlocked its not so simple - firstly the iPhone 5 uses a nano (not a micro) sim. Unlike the iPhone 4 this is NOT just a larger sim that can be cut down - AFAIK it's all new technology. Lower cost / third-party carriers don't offer these yet. Also even if you can get a sim for the phone you likely won't be able to edit the APN settings for data and MMS (there's one workaround to this that I'm aware of which may work but I haven't tried it or heard of anyone doing it yet).

Long story short I decided to pick up a 4S (which I'm currently using and typing this on), factory unlocked and kept my jailbroken iPhone 4 as a spare. I run SimpleMobile ($50 a month unlimited everything at 4G speed) and live happy with all the features of the iPhone 5 at a fraction of the cost, no contract and no BS from the "rip-off" carriers. It works beautifully. I keep my personal hotspot for data (no need for home DSL) and all the rest too.

The iPhone 5 is a cool device but it is clearly intended to efficiently just transfer lots of dollars from the user's bank account to that of Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc. more than offering anything truly new or innovative to the point I feel I really need one. YMMV. If someone else is paying for it, sure. For me paying for it personally there's no way it's worth paying the overpriced plans from the likes of AT&T et al.

The 4S works beautifully for me and I can use StraightTalk, SimpleMobile or anyone else for less than half of what the others charge, no contracts, no data limits, etc. Something to consider. For me the 5 just wasn't/isn't worth it but if you're absolutely hell-bent on getting one, go for it - don't come crying to me if you have buyer's remorse a year from now when you're sick of getting raped for $120-$150 a month though.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I have a 3GS, (2) 4S's and (2)5's on a shared family plan. ATT
Runs $52.00 a month per phone with tethering, unlimited talk and text and share 10gigs of data. Last month the total was less than 4 gigs used.

No question the 5 is better.
Bigger, lighter and blazing fast. LTE (when available) is the fastest Internet I have ever used.

Since your company is picking up the tab, get the 5 and try a 2 gig data plan. It is enough for 98% of users.

I am a phone junkie and have never broke the 1 gig mark. Of course it depends on your access to WiFi. Having WiFi at home and office really cuts down on cellular data usage.

[JJ 911SC]

Next month... Giving the 4 to my wive and converting it to as Pay Go phone

[onewhippedpuppy]

5, no brainer. Worth it just for the LTE.

I don't get those that say you'll go through more data. Just because my phone is faster doesn't mean the Internet is suddenly more interesting. I check the same websites that I always did, just much more quickly.