So my iPhone 4S fell on the floor. The screen crazed and my old faithful finally joined every other iPhone in the house. Tricky to read and not worth stealing. But it was only a couple of weeks away from the release of the much vaunted 6 and my network contract had expired long ago.
These days I buy SIM only contracts with EE. Vastly better coverage than the loathsome Vodafone and O2, and cheaper to boot. So what I needed was an unlocked 6. No problem. Ordered it on Apple's website and within a few days it arrived. Hurrah. Although Apple did send me an SMS text to my old iPhone with a link to a website that an iPhone can't read! iTwats.
Now the most important thing not to do to an iPhone, as I had already discovered, is drop it. The fancy box it arrives in has a tight fitting lid that you have to pull off as the increasing vacuum inside tries to stop you. Finally the lid popped off, releasing my precious and precariously balanced, as I now discovered, £700 iPhone. In slow motion I watched my eagerly anticipated state-of-the-art slice of the world's latest technology perform an arc and land on exactly the same piece of floor that claimed my 4S screen. Test 1 passed. The screen was intact - which was more than could be said for my nerves. I defy anyone to open that box without it flying out.
First impressions were reasonably positive. It was light and slim, but basically looked like pretty well every other over-sized phone. Bendability hadn't yet been suggested as an issue, but I'm pleased to say no sign of that yet.
I plugged it in and half an hour later it was loaded with all my crapps. Hundreds of apps I never use and far too many pathetic pictures of things I never bought, but was thinking about, people I don't recognise, shaky or out of focus something or others, and things taken by my kids when they nick my phone for fun.
But remember it wasn't just the hardware that had been upgraded. I was now also on iOS 8.
Disappointment #1. iOS 8 is identical, and I mean identical to iOS 7. Not a jot of difference that I can detect.
Disappointment #2. The screen is a good bit bigger than the 4. This means more of my crapps appear on each screen. Whilst this might sound like a good thing, it now takes me marginally longer to find the ones I really need, but I'll probably get used to it. I can always increase the size of the icons, but my kids will laugh at me, so chaos is preferable to derision and the admission of failing eyesight.
Disappointment #3. And this is by far the worst. I can no longer type or control apps with one hand. The 4's screen size was just small enough to enable me to rest the phone on my little finger as it lay in my palm with the other three fingers holding it firmly. This left my thumb free to reach every part of the screen. I could lie on my side in bed typing emails or hold something in the other hand while typing or controlling apps. Have you noticed how many times you use the arrow or back button in the top left corner of apps to close things or go back to previous screens? With a 4 you can reach this with one hand, with a 6 you can't... but if you try...
Disappointment #4. Because it's so light, its hard to balance in your hand if you have to loosen your grip to let your thumb try to reach those now inaccessible buttons and icons. You can easily drop it as a result. So you buy a cover to make it less slippery...
Disappointment #5. Not only does the cover now make it slightly larger - therefore forcing you to loosen your grip even more for your thumb to try to reach those unreachable corners - because of the curved edge of the 6, the cover does not finish flush with the screen. There's a 2 mm raised lip. This isn't very Steve Jobsey, but worse, it quickly collects dust and other unmentionable nasties that previously could be removed with a wipe. Yuk. Perhaps I can find a thinner cover (Apple themselves sold me this one).
OK it is noticeably quicker than the 4S (although I've also experienced a few mysterious things happening that I didn't ask to happen - but I'm expecting these to settle down as a) I get used to it, and b) Apple repair iOS 8's bugs). But that's about the only benefit I have so far discovered. It's bulkier in my pocket. It's impossible to use with one hand. And it's easier to drop.
Please just make the old 4S faster - oh and use the same stronger screen material as the 6.
£670 wasted (a local Indian chappie fitted me a new screen for my 4S for £30, which now sits on my desk saying 'what did I do wrong?')
UPDATE. Since writing the above, and having given the 6 I bought to my delighted son for his 18th birthday, I have been shown a shortcut on the 6 where you can double-tap the button to move the top of the screen within reach of your thumb! WHY DIDN'T APPLE TELL ME ABOUT THIS INSTEAD OF HOPING I'D FIND OUT? So Disappointment #3 does have a solution - albeit needing an extra action. And the phone is still perched less securely in one hand than a smaller phone. I guess Apple are hoping we'll all drop them and need to spend even more on upgrading to a 7.
So have I bought another? Nope. I decided to buy a 5S. But my 4S 32GB is nearly full (heaven knows what with). So rather than delete a load of stuff to ensure I've got enough future room to justify hundreds of pounds simply to have a faster phone without a cracked screen (dropped it again!), I needed to buy a 5S with more capacity. Apple used to sell a 64GB version, but they've discovered people have started buying them instead of 6s. So they've removed them from the market. It really is hard to find an unlocked 5S 64GB for sale (other than a reconditioned / stolen one). Well I finally went for one I found on Amazon which costs nearly as much as a 6. Hope I'm not disappointed when it arrives tomorrow (I hope!).
These days I buy SIM only contracts with EE. Vastly better coverage than the loathsome Vodafone and O2, and cheaper to boot. So what I needed was an unlocked 6. No problem. Ordered it on Apple's website and within a few days it arrived. Hurrah. Although Apple did send me an SMS text to my old iPhone with a link to a website that an iPhone can't read! iTwats.
Now the most important thing not to do to an iPhone, as I had already discovered, is drop it. The fancy box it arrives in has a tight fitting lid that you have to pull off as the increasing vacuum inside tries to stop you. Finally the lid popped off, releasing my precious and precariously balanced, as I now discovered, £700 iPhone. In slow motion I watched my eagerly anticipated state-of-the-art slice of the world's latest technology perform an arc and land on exactly the same piece of floor that claimed my 4S screen. Test 1 passed. The screen was intact - which was more than could be said for my nerves. I defy anyone to open that box without it flying out.
First impressions were reasonably positive. It was light and slim, but basically looked like pretty well every other over-sized phone. Bendability hadn't yet been suggested as an issue, but I'm pleased to say no sign of that yet.
I plugged it in and half an hour later it was loaded with all my crapps. Hundreds of apps I never use and far too many pathetic pictures of things I never bought, but was thinking about, people I don't recognise, shaky or out of focus something or others, and things taken by my kids when they nick my phone for fun.
But remember it wasn't just the hardware that had been upgraded. I was now also on iOS 8.
Disappointment #1. iOS 8 is identical, and I mean identical to iOS 7. Not a jot of difference that I can detect.
Disappointment #2. The screen is a good bit bigger than the 4. This means more of my crapps appear on each screen. Whilst this might sound like a good thing, it now takes me marginally longer to find the ones I really need, but I'll probably get used to it. I can always increase the size of the icons, but my kids will laugh at me, so chaos is preferable to derision and the admission of failing eyesight.
Disappointment #3. And this is by far the worst. I can no longer type or control apps with one hand. The 4's screen size was just small enough to enable me to rest the phone on my little finger as it lay in my palm with the other three fingers holding it firmly. This left my thumb free to reach every part of the screen. I could lie on my side in bed typing emails or hold something in the other hand while typing or controlling apps. Have you noticed how many times you use the arrow or back button in the top left corner of apps to close things or go back to previous screens? With a 4 you can reach this with one hand, with a 6 you can't... but if you try...
Disappointment #4. Because it's so light, its hard to balance in your hand if you have to loosen your grip to let your thumb try to reach those now inaccessible buttons and icons. You can easily drop it as a result. So you buy a cover to make it less slippery...
Disappointment #5. Not only does the cover now make it slightly larger - therefore forcing you to loosen your grip even more for your thumb to try to reach those unreachable corners - because of the curved edge of the 6, the cover does not finish flush with the screen. There's a 2 mm raised lip. This isn't very Steve Jobsey, but worse, it quickly collects dust and other unmentionable nasties that previously could be removed with a wipe. Yuk. Perhaps I can find a thinner cover (Apple themselves sold me this one).
OK it is noticeably quicker than the 4S (although I've also experienced a few mysterious things happening that I didn't ask to happen - but I'm expecting these to settle down as a) I get used to it, and b) Apple repair iOS 8's bugs). But that's about the only benefit I have so far discovered. It's bulkier in my pocket. It's impossible to use with one hand. And it's easier to drop.
Please just make the old 4S faster - oh and use the same stronger screen material as the 6.
£670 wasted (a local Indian chappie fitted me a new screen for my 4S for £30, which now sits on my desk saying 'what did I do wrong?')
UPDATE. Since writing the above, and having given the 6 I bought to my delighted son for his 18th birthday, I have been shown a shortcut on the 6 where you can double-tap the button to move the top of the screen within reach of your thumb! WHY DIDN'T APPLE TELL ME ABOUT THIS INSTEAD OF HOPING I'D FIND OUT? So Disappointment #3 does have a solution - albeit needing an extra action. And the phone is still perched less securely in one hand than a smaller phone. I guess Apple are hoping we'll all drop them and need to spend even more on upgrading to a 7.
So have I bought another? Nope. I decided to buy a 5S. But my 4S 32GB is nearly full (heaven knows what with). So rather than delete a load of stuff to ensure I've got enough future room to justify hundreds of pounds simply to have a faster phone without a cracked screen (dropped it again!), I needed to buy a 5S with more capacity. Apple used to sell a 64GB version, but they've discovered people have started buying them instead of 6s. So they've removed them from the market. It really is hard to find an unlocked 5S 64GB for sale (other than a reconditioned / stolen one). Well I finally went for one I found on Amazon which costs nearly as much as a 6. Hope I'm not disappointed when it arrives tomorrow (I hope!).
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