Rob's Ramblings

I have had my iPhone 4S (on AT&T) for almost three weeks now. I upgraded from an iPhone 4. I wanted to write something about my experiences with it, since there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on if it's a worthy upgrade.

In my opinion: It's worth every penny.

I was able to get the discounted upgrade pricing from AT&T for this one. I have to admit being surprised by that, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I've kept my iPhone 4 and converted it to an iPod Touch that my children can use from time to time (heavily locked down, hand-picked apps only, no Safari, Youtube, etc., and put in it's Otterbox Defender case to resist their best attempts to "toddler" it), but otherwise according to Gazelle I could have been looking at upgrading for almost no cost at all.

So, here are the features that have made me glad I upgraded.

Siri

This was the single biggest reason I wanted to upgrade, and it has not disappointed in the least. I've tried apps like Vlingo on my old iPhone, and I've tried out Android's voice control. For me personally, none of them have been close to the good experience that Siri has been for me. It literally has changed the way I use my phone. For starters, as a father of 3 kids ages 4 and under - and soon to be 4 kids - my forgetfulness has ramped up to new levels over the past few years. As you can imagine, when something pops in your head, or when the wife asks me to remember to do something later, trying to keep track of those thoughts while splitting my attention three ways leads to a low success rate of remembering it. And it's not like there's tons of time to stop, open up the phone, and type in the reminder/appointment/text/email/etc., especially with the youngest one just learning to walk and therefore a head injury waiting to happen in left unsupervised for long.

Enter Siri. Now all I have to do is speak in my words, confirm they were captured correctly, and it's done. Siri's voice recognition has been far better than Vlingo or Android's were for me as well. Not 100%, but probably around 90%. And it learns as it goes along. At first it constantly confused "Ryan" as being "Brian", but after a few times correcting it, it now assumes Ryan as the default.

One thing I use a lot is the iOS5 Reminders app for adding to the shopping lists. Taking a cue from a blog post I read, I created lists for Target and Kroger (groceries) and so when I see that we need something I just add to those lists instead of trying to remember what it was we needed when the time for the trip to the store actually happens.

I love the voice integration with the iOS keyboard as well, voice control doesn't get done just from the Siri app itself. hat makes it nearly universal in any application requiring input.

There are places I'd like to see Siri tied into, mainly other apps I use in place of the native apps. Having directions be opened in my Motion-X GPS app instead of in Maps would be the most notable. I'm hoping that will become a reality in the not too distant future.

Bottom line: This was the game changer that made the phone worth having.

Performance

There is a definite speed increase in the 4S from the 4. And the 4 wasn't too shabby to begin with. It;s one of those things that you don't buy the phone for, but you notice it when it's there.

Camera

Ever since they increased the shutter speed of the camera on the iPhone back in iOS4, I stopped using any other camera for stills, and most videos as well. iOS5 adding the ability to access the camera from the lock screen as well as using the volume button for a shutter made it better. the new 8MP camera on the iPhone hsa made it even better. Life moves by fast in this household, and the ability to snap off a bunch of shots fast to make sure I get one good one to use as a keepsake has been a Godsend for me. It was good in the iPhone 4, it's better in the iPhone 4S.

Call quality

Living outside of the major metro areas, I don't suffer from the issues others report with AT&T. Over the last year they have added some towers around here that have pretty much killed all the dead spots around here, with only a couple of exceptions. But I've not experienced any dropped calls that I can recall with this phone so far. I didn't have many before so it can definitely be attributed to small sample size. At a minimum I can say things aren't any different than they were before.

A note about battery life

Much has been made about the battery, and at first I saw it as well. But even before iOS 5.0.1 came out, I found that by doing a couple of things I was able to make my battery life a lot better. First off, I went into Location Services and disabled Time Zone support. Since I have spent 99.6% of my 39 years of life in the Eastern Time Zone, I don't see the need to have my phone checking to see if it's somewhere else. Also, I let the battery completely drain out, like down to shutting itself down. I recharged it fully, and from that point forward saw improvements. Then iOS 5.0.1 came out and - unscientifically - it seems even better.

Here is what I have seen about the battery life now. What I think was fixed by iOS 5.0.1 was that it dramatically improved the standby life of the phone. When not in use, my phone sips energy just like my previous iPhones did. When it's in use, the battery does drain faster - but I can understand it because with the increased CPU specs that's going to eat a battery faster by it's nature. I can accept that just fine.

So the bottom line is if I use it a lot, I may have to recharge after a day and a half. Under lighter usage, I have been able to go as long as 3 days between charges. I still drain it down to the bottom when I can. If I know I'm going to be out of range of a charger for a while, I'll make sure there's enough juice to not have to think about it. But I don't fret about being tied to a charger with this phone, like others are saying they have been.

So there it is. I love this phone. I am definitely happy I upgraded.

This entry was posted on November 21, 2011 at 4:56 PM and has received 675 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Find AT&T graphic.

This entry was posted on October 2, 2009 at 6:59 PM and has received 173 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

With one week until decision time, here's what I have so far.

Hardware: Love it, best phone ever used. No surprise there, but adding the camera and microphone capabilities has been very useful.

AT&T Phone: So far I have only had one dropped call, and it was in the same place that my wife's company issued AT&T blackberry dropped as well, so it's clearly a dead spot. Good news is that I could reconnect after abut 100 yards of driving. Not a spot I stay at for long so not worried. Signal in office is good to great, sometimes as many as 5 bars. Reception in Toledo is most times full bars both inside and out. Around Temperance the closer to Toledo you are the better the signal, but outside of that one spot have not seen an outside dead zone. Recption in north Temperance inside is not good, but that was expected. I can use WiFi and Skype if I need to place calls at in-laws house, and forward incoming calls to landline while I am there so far has been no problem. Trips to other locales in area have been surprisingly good, even as close as the next town over (which is farther away from Toledo). I was told that this area is in a depression in places, that could explain some of it. Trips to Monroe (10 miles away) and Detroit had full bars everywhere.

Assessment: Not as good as Verizon (expected) but a lot better than I thought. At this point not a deterrent to keeping phone. When/if day comes that my office moves to teh basement, I will be getting that Microcell they are testing now to ensure coverage (initial reviews of that looking good).

AT&T Data: A much bigger disappointment, but not a detriment. Even though claims of 3G in all of south side of Temperance according to maps, I only get EDGE anywhere. While more of a nuisance (some things require 3G, some will work slowly on EDGE) it's not a killer. Plus I have WiFi in the places I am the majority of the time. Crossing into Toledo seems to be like a magic switch for 3G, I get it fine at the bowling center both inside and out.

One thing that has been a fairly major fail is the newly rolled out MMS service. All attempts to send to Verizon phones go out but are not received. Tests to another iPhone were received fine. I'm not willing to be too upset by this because I can send these via email attachment if needed until AT&T clears things up, and a quick Google shows that in many respects I am better off than a lot of iPhone owners.

Assessment: Disappointment, but not a deal breaker.

If I had to choose right now, I'd be keeping the phone. I still want to test indoor coverage at the Kroger in Lambertville, thats the one other place I can imagine needing the phone ("Homey, what was it I am supposed to buy?").

This entry was posted on September 28, 2009 at 2:06 PM and has received 163 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This entry was posted on September 14, 2009 at 12:00 PM and has received 163 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.