Nov 27, 2012

Why Upgrade to an iPhone 5?

If you own an iPhone 4 (or an older model than that), chances are good that you may be eligible for an upgrade to the iPhone 5.  (Check with your carrier.)  There are a number of people that I know that are eligible to upgrade that haven't yet. In some cases, they haven't yet decided. I've had my iPhone 5 for almost a month now and there are a number of reasons I'm glad that I upgraded. If you are eligible to up

Speed

 This is by far the biggest reason to upgrade from an iPhone 4. The CPU is far faster, which makes a huge difference when doing...well, everything. The faster CPU is only the first part of the story though. The second part is LTE.  Nearly every place I've been since I bought the iPhone 5 have had LTE coverage and the speed is impressive. I just did a quick speed test using the Speedtest.net app and, as you can see, it's very fast. In fact, it's faster than my home internet service. I use AT&T so I can't speak to the speed of LTE on Verizon or Sprint but I suspect that those are fast also.

Larger Screen

The larger screen is more than just useful for widescreen movies. It's very practical as well. For example, in the month view of the Calendar app, you can see four entries below the month-view instead of just two. In the Music app, the progress bar for a song can be seen without it obstructing the album art.  The visible items in lists are more numerous.

Even the extra row of icons helps organization. The first page on the home screen has more of my frequently used apps available. Folders can also hold an extra row, something I need with all my photography apps.

Siri

I didn't think that Siri would be that useful but more as a toy. However, it's actually very useful. Searching the web while walking is a lot easier by just asking Siri to search for you. Having Siri read the text message you just received when you're driving is much safer than looking at your phone.  Asking Siri what time your favorite college football team is playing is a lot quicker than launching your sports app and navigating to your team's schedule. Asking Siri a quick math question gets you an answer faster than using the calculator.

If you have an iPhone 4S, all this about Siri comes at no surprise. Then again, if you have an iPhone 4S, you probably aren't eligible to upgrade.

These are the big features that I find really make the upgrade from the iPhone 4 worth it. Are you considering upgrading? Why or why not?

1 comment:

  1. Let me know in six months if you're still using Siri. I used her a lot at first, then I forgot about her, and now I'm trying to get back in the habit of using her.

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