Gadgetory

so the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone is announced the media gets the device ahead of time maybe a couple days a couple weeks if we're lucky and we get to use it while we're preparing our review then the date and time of the press embargo arrives the embargo lifts everybody posts their review at once and it is a giant big frenzy of activity this commenters going nuts and defenders and attackers and it's just a huge explosion for about a day and then everything disappears ensure there's follow-up coverage and stuff as people find bugs people have other stuff to say about the devices they wear a man over the course of a day or so but really nobody ever goes back and revisits these devices after that initial blast of review to see how they feel after a couple weeks so let's do something about it let's have a look at a device when it's a couple of weeks after release and not shiny and new anymore I'm high memory better with Parker now calm this is the iPhone 4s in this episode to factor the buzz so as Michael mentioned in Episode one we do our best to thoroughly review a device and one or two weeks but obviously you're gonna be stuck with it for two years with your contract so it's always great to revisit them and see if they're really worth the investment now I carry two devices as my daily drivers but the iPhone 4s has been my top one for the past four months and there are a lot of really good things you should know about it first off let's go through hardware the iPhone 4s is not the best-selling smartphone in the world just because Apple really pushed hardware to the limit here the device is beautiful slim and feels great in the hand even if the screen size is kind of dated now that said Corning Gorilla Glass means strong but it doesn't mean indestructible I've treated my iPhone for us well always using a sleeve and never sitting it bare on the table or in my pocket but still there are minor scratches in the back anyways it has fallen only once and you'll notice how the plastic edges Bend depending on the surface it falls on and the stainless steel does feel it too now a friend of mine also had his device fall once and look at what happened to the back I replaced for him my advice to you is get a case and don't push your luck stay away from Apple's iPhone bumpers though they look good the first week but the materials won't last the fact that there's only one iPhone is actually good in that department since there are a ton of cases you can choose from for just one device the same thing goes for accessories depending on your taste when it comes to color I do regret buying the white model if the terse fingerprints better than the black one but dents are pretty much invisible in the black model also choose your case wisely if you go white I recommend neoprene since any fabric cases may leave lint in the glass border and there is no way to clean that up the home button also suffers from dirt and lint in the edges reselling a white iPhone can be challenging when compared to the black model now replacing the back cover is dirt simple and buying back cover replacements can cost you as low as $10 on eBay replacing the front screen is a nightmare though so beware of that those eBay parts are good in most cases but don't look for wine parts anybody claiming on eBay that the parts are genuine is probably lying to you if you're out for genuine parts one of the cool things about Apple products is their Genius Bar they don't only answer questions and they don't do repairs actually if something's wrong with your phone within the warranty period they'll give you a brand new device for free so in my case my iPhone 4 had passed with the home button after 10 months that could happen to this one tool and I just took it to the Apple store and they swapped it within the warranty period but let's say you smashed your device or for some reason you're out of warranty and you have a problem with it well for a fee they'll actually swap your phone it's 120 bucks for the 16 gigabyte model 160 for the 32 gig and then 200 bucks for the 64 gig now 200 bucks is a bit steep so that's when Apple Care Plus comes in this is a 64 gigabyte model I'm not gonna pay two hundred bucks for a swap that's a lot of money so you can pay for Apple Care Plus which is $100 you extend your warranty for two years which will pretty much cover your contract and then if you smash your phone or any accidential problems happen to it you pay 50 bucks for incident you get two incidents and you get a brand new phone right there kind of makes sense when it comes to my overall user experience I'll say I'm very satisfied my old iPhone 4 suffered from antenna gate issues after its first fall but this one hasn't at all the screen even though small for today's standards is still one of the best screens in the market that said the screen size is very helpful for one-handed operation and applications truly are optimized to make each pixel count still watching a video in this thing feels crammed then Safari on iOS is one of the best browsers in the market but I'm not a fan of so much panning and zooming as a phone it performs as it should great for phone calls decent battery life after iOS 5.1 and theta speeds on HSPA+ are great now the high point on this device is the camera it's just hard to beat the combination of great optics with good software to back it up like in any smartphone low-light photos are tough to get right but it's hard to beat photos on this device with the right lighting 1080p video is superb it definitely won't beat a DSLR or a professional camcorder but it shoots far better video than most consumer camcorders and that even includes a 1080p Canon Vixia that I used to have photos and video do take up a lot of storage though so the ability to choose your storage configuration is great high graphic games take up to two gigabytes of storage so I decided to go for the 64 gig model where I can have all my music library games and photos but that'll all depend on your needs when it comes to software iOS isn't for everyone power users like you and me will easily be bored with the snap grid of icons just moving from side to side but sadly for you and I we make a very small percentage of the market everybody else out there is going for simple and reliable and that's where iOS delivers they'll sound like Tron right now but the grid is still appealing for people that come from feature phones kids and even senior citizens I spend my time and applications more than choosing them so my boredom is compensated by that others saw this through a jailbreak and even their iPhone shine because it's pretty much impossible to bring an iPhone once you go wrong with the jailbreak just put it in DFU and you're set now focusing on the pure iOS experience there are cases were built in applications like email or far superior to competitors even though the OS is 5 years old Safari for example may not be the best browser but the reader feature alone makes the tiny screen worth the sacrifice the software keyboard is another feature that shines for me I've become faster in typing on this thing that even on the old blackberries that I used in the past text prediction is awesome and as funny as it may sound I've come to the point where I'm not even looking at the screen as I type since the phone will probably correct my mistakes 80% of the time as long as you remember where the a is and where the L is for example when it comes to Siri each user relies on it differently I only use it to remind me of things or probably set appointments anything that'll save me the need of entering it myself will probably be my only reason to use it I love it that you can actually lift your phone to your ear and the iPhone will launch Siri by itself but sadly it's still a gimmick for many people and then there's third-party applications where no platform has come close to beating iOS and even though developers complain about apples painful requirements to get applications pushed I won't complain as an end-user I do enjoy apples control freak mentality if it means that applications will look good and work well another advantage I enjoy about iOS is that software updates don't depend on your carrier country or even your device in some cases you can be certain that your device will be eligible to newer versions of iOS well through your two-year contract and that will actually help for the resale value too so bottom line but I still recommend that you buy an iPhone 4s even though it was released more than six months ago the answer is absolutely again this is not the best-selling smartphone just because it's a great performer with great software and looks that appeal to most average users and even power users like you and me just make sure you get a case for the device to last those two years though and in some cases if you want to compare with the iPhone 4 and even the iPhone 3GS my advice to you as 8 gigabytes are not enough for an iPhone definitely that's the reason why I tell you don't go for the iPhone 4 stick to the iPhone 4s and the next generation iPhone will probably not be released until six months from now so it's probably a good time to take the plunge of you haven't this has been jaime with pocketnow.com thanks for joining me in episode 2 of after the buzz be sure to share your experiences with the iPhone 4s or any concerns that you probably have before buying in the link down below in the comment section of our post in the website and well again thanks for watching