| Porsche-O-Phile |
11-03-2012 01:18 AM |
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. :)
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