iPhone 4S review

12. @bradavon, I didn't want to go in to the specifics because as you said all the pluses & negatives of both operating systems are well know. From a personnel point of view though I don't like the stability problems I get with my sg2 it crashes a lot more than my iPhone did, and I've had numerous problems when transferring photos and music across, such as all the music art disappearing tracks with wrong titles and other info which is wrong. Photos that have been stretched and distorted,all things that I've now sorted but it was a real pain. I no kies looks a bit like itunes but it definitley aint itunes its cluncky and frustrating. Also the way some things are stored on internal memory and some on the sd card you can sometimes spend ages sorting your memory out. The apps often seem inferior to their apple counter parts and the app store in general isn't as nice to use. Also while the camara is good I found most pics and videos to be noticably worse than ones from my iPhone. I also miss not having access to iTunes which I took for granted but realise what a great service it is. But things I do prefere is the speed of the sg2 it's lightning quick the screen is amazingly colourful and clear and although it's big it's surprisingly light and well made, the widgets are quite cool and it's nice to be able to Bluetooth again!! Overall value for money it has to go to Android devices but if you judge by how easy and enjoyable they both are I would give to iPhone....for now.

11. Giving a 4.5 out of 5 is a great mark for the phone. I always feel that if you see a 5 out of 5 or a 100% mark it means no other phone, game or whatever should ever be made again. We have a pinnacle that could never be bettered therefore we should just stop. Luckily everything can be improved upon so it will never be the case.

People seem to think 4 out of 5 is a bad mark, in fact even 3 out 5 means, by simple definition, the device is above average.

I'm sticking with Android though as, although I can afford the price, I can't justify it. Frankly I think all phones are too expensive and the plans are ridiculous...

I also find the current squabbles over which is better as slightly tedious. We might as well be arguing about football. The fact is people have a choice and choose to support or purchase as they please. The fact that we still have a choice is great. Although all camps in the technology industry are trying to take that away with their stupid lawsuits and injunctions. Shame on them. Surely they get enough of our cash as it is!

I remember the days of free upgrades every 12 months and plans sitting at under £20 for a the bleeding edge of technology with unlimited calls, texts and internet.

10. I was really referring to not being able to connect a camera than expanding the memory. It wouldn't be hard to fill 32GB though.

I didn't realise you can get an "Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit" (so what I said wasn't possible below is) but Googling it and you're expected to pay £25. Those are extra things to get lost too.

I would love to know the logic in why Apple refuse to include one. I get why Flash isn't included.

Basically I was just saying Flash vs. an SD card slot. I know which I'd find more useful.

@ dunboy: Why do you prefer iPhone to Android? You've not said why. Both have plenty of pros and cons IMO. The negatives/pluses of each are well known.

9. @bradavon

Do you really need more than 32/64gb on a tablet? Personally I've only filed my 32gb twice both before long flights

As for uploading pics, I did that very thing last year on my iPad when in the US, connected digital camera or memory card to iPad and left it uploading the pics to home via Dropbox, perfect and simple to do.

8. I've had my samsung Galaxy now for three weeks after upgrading from iphone 4, and i'm sorry to say that I really miss my iphone now. Apart from a bigger screen which does make it hard to use now with one hand, everything else feels inferior to apples phone, from the hardware to the software. I'm not criticising it because it's far better value for money and is a great phone and i would say is less likely to smash if dropped although I can not verify this as fortunately I haven't dropped my SG2 yet. But it as the old adage goes you get what you pay for and in my opinion the iphone is just much more enjoyable to use. All the android fans do is point out any little faults that on paper looks like it could be an issue but anyone who has owed one knows the little things get lost when you have an amazing OS. I now feel i'm in a position for the first time to judge if android has now caught up with apple and for me they are still a fair bit behind even with apple giving them a over a year to come up with something better. I now just need to convince the wife to take on my new contract so I get the 4s but I think she's cottoned on so I'll guess I'll have to live with my choice but hey... still got ice cream sandwich to look forward to.!!

7. Totally fair point. People who're "actually" buying iPads don't care. I do think this is more to do with the fact the iPads never had it.

I think the omission of expandable memory more of a problem, especially on iPads. Tablets are perfect for uploading photos from a digital camera whilst on holiday.

6. @bradavon

Sorry, my point on flash wasn't about the 4S review, more to do with people's view point on iPhone/iPad's in general.

5. Of course Apple don't install flash by default, neither do Microsoft. Neither Microsoft nor Apple stop you installing it though.

Windows 8 will still support Flash in IE10 Desktop. Flashes days are numbered but I bet we're still seeing it on websites for the next 2-3 years at least.

The battery argument is nonsense, this review points out the 4S lasts two days and it's set to "on demand" on all Android phones anyway. Meaning it doesn't load into memory unless you specifically tap to load it.

The shell is no more advanced to the shells HTC put out on their top end phones (it's personal preference thing). I never said they should release a 5" phone but 3.5" come on!

Fair point about losing the sharpness. That is easily fixed by increasing the resolution though.

Samsung only release one top end phone a year btw (Galaxy S Q1 2010, S2 Q1 2011, S3 rumoured Q1 2012).

It's worth remembering the Galaxy S2 came out in April and plenty of reviews are choosing to compare it to the iPhone 4S.

I am being overly negative but that's purely because the iPhone 4 was already so excellent. I'd expect a new phone to have a faster processor. It's also frustrating when we know Apple is capable of so much more. The iPhone 4 was such a big jump from the 3GS, this not so much.

The review basically sums it up by saying iPhone 4 owners don't need this phone.

4. @bradavon: Apple doesn't install Flash by default on OS X. Also, Microsoft's ditching support for Flash in IE/Metro. Its time as a widespread plug-in is numbered. Flash will soon be an authoring environment.

@bradavon: Funny how many people are moaning about the iPhone 4S's shell, which still remains industry-leading anyway. The internals are a major jump rather than a small one. Perhaps people on the Android side moan more when this happens because new devices appear so frequently.

As for the screen, make it bigger and you drop the sharpness. Bye bye, Retina display (or, hello fragmentation if you retain the PPI). And you also end up with a device you can't operate with one hand unless you have banana thumbs.

3. Let me firstly say the iPhone 4 and 4S are clearly fantastic phones but I find it staggering Apple can get away with releasing such a lacklustre upgrade and people are happy.

Imagine if Samsung tried to palm us off with a small upgrade of the Galaxy S2 when they release the S3. We'd rightly be up in arms. The Galaxy S2 is a major step forward in hardware design from the Galaxy S. As is the HTC Sensation from Desire.

In fact HTC did pull this trick, they first released the Desire S/Incredible S. Everyone rightly complained, HTC noticed and released the Sensation.

iOS5 is clearly a major step forward for software but better a camera, dual core is expected for a refresh. It's not something to get all excited about.

Lets not forget Apple only release one new phone "a year" and "this" is all they came up with? Siri does look excellent but that's it (as far as specifically the phone is concerned).

It's really about time the iPhone was a little bigger. It doesn't have to be 4.3" but 4", come on! I've lost counts of the amount of times Apple fans have asked for this.

As the review says, social networking contact integration is also long over due. It really is a killer Android feature and like decent notifications, it's an Android function iPhone users would equally love.

I understand you can get this by way of the Facebook app integrating with contacts but that's strikes me as being rather sloppy.

2. That just isn't true Phibo. Thousands of sites use Flash over HTML5.

I do agree on a smartphone the problem is exaggerated (the screens are so small comparatively, flash just gets in the way on any Android phone I've ever used) but like a laptop/desktop a tablet is ripe for flash and the iPads not got it. Imagine if Apple blocked Flash in Safari desktop? They wouldn't dare.

Besides TechRadar are giving this 4.5 out of 5. It's hardly a bad mark and if a negative can be found, it needs to be stated.

1. Flash - sign. Why do people still bang on about flash?

Firstly as iPad/iPhone user, i rarely, if ever come across any website that need flash anymore, vast majority now HTML5 capable.

Most importantly - Adobe have already made changes with flash and how it works and before long any sites that are still using flash will be useable on iphone's without any changes from apple.

http://gigaom.com/apple/the-day-apple-won-the-flash-fight/

surprised there has never been a story on this.