For my birthday this year, I asked my parents for a new smartphone. I’ve had the same iPhone 4S for the last two or three years and as much as I would have loved to keep it, too many things were starting to go wrong.
1. “10% battery” actually meant “I’m dead and will now turn off.”
Out of nowhere, my iPhone’s battery calibration decided to get all messed up. I don’t know what caused it but I tried everything in my power to fix it. I re-calibrated the battery, completing entire charge cycles over and over, only to end up right where I was to begin with. My battery would always hit 10% and bam: the screen goes black and a little wheel spins as it powers off.
And nothing is more frustrating than when you’re in the middle of typing something and you think you still have a few more minutes of power, only to find your phone randomly shut down on you mid-sentence.
2. Even when there was memory, it was out of memory.
Me: “Hey, let me take a picture of that!”
iPhone 4S: “Sorry, out of memory.”
Me: Proceeds to delete 178 photos.
Me: “Ok, let’s try this again.”
iPhone 4S: “I said I have no memory.” -.-
It was a constant struggle. Especially because my camera was my most used app. Once I couldn’t take pictures anymore, the photographer in me felt kind of helpless. It actually affected my blogging too! Normally I’d blog about things I captured in photos but when I couldn’t do that anymore, I had to learn to make do with what I had.
With no expandable storage options, I started heavily relying on cloud-based storage like iCloud, Dropbox, and Google Drive. I filled all of those too.
3. My apps were ancient.
I refused to update the OS from the one that it came with. While everyone else was raving about iOS 7, I chose to stick with the old OS. Aside from the issue of not having enough space to download the software update, I simply did not want to. I wasn’t crazy about the redesign and I thought the built-in apps looked nicer the way they were.
The one downside was that I couldn’t update my apps anymore. I was suspended in an age of Snapchat without video and unsupported Skype service. Tons of apps were giving up on me. I felt abandoned. 🙁
WELL NOW, ALL OF THAT IS A THING OF THE PAST.
I upgraded to the new iPhone 6 and got 64GB of memory instead of 16!
Now I can actually take pictures again, use the latest WordPress app, and run the battery from 100 to 0. It’s nice to have a smooth experience with a phone.
Of course, everything has a downside.
1. I had to give up my unlimited data…
It was bound to happen eventually, I suppose… Kind of depressed since, at one time, I did have unlimited data with a 4G LTE smartphone. And now I don’t.
2. I can barely hear people when I make calls.
Even when the volume is set to the highest level, I can barely hear the person I’m talking to. Not sure if this is a hardware problem or some sort of OS glitch. It makes using my phone as a phone a little difficult though.
3. Other people can barely hear me.
Likewise, when I FaceTime my family, no one can hear me. The microphone works because if I scream, they hear me. But if I speak normally, they don’t. And I don’t want to shout. So once again, I can’t really use my iPhone as a phone.
The day after I activated my new iPhone, my “phone” couldn’t even call people. That was resolved simply by restarting the device. I hope I can get the other issues fixed! Otherwise, I might have to swap out my phone for another model.
Glad you shared this, Rocky. I thought I was the only one still using my 4S (with iOS 6). Verizon emails me new trade-in/up emails every week as I’ve had this piece for 3.5 years. It is, however, time to move on. The i6 sounded like the logical swap but now you have me reconsidering. I have two friends who swear by their Samsung Galaxy’s. What to do… what to do…
Nope, you’re not alone! The 4S is a great phone despite the few mishaps I had with mine. I actually don’t know of anyone else having the issues I’m having so I would say go for the iPhone 6. It’s such a nice, smooth phone. I really love it so far. Also, I’d recommend sticking with Apple if you’ve previously invested a lot of money in iOS apps like I have.
Hi! Someone at my workplace is having the same exact problem. Other people cannot hear them speaking on the iPhone 6. A Google search yielded minimal results other than your blog. So, the million dollar question, what did you do to solve your problem? Did you have to replace your iPhone 6? Thanks for your response in advance!
Hahaha omg it’s actually kind of embarrassing. It turns out the reason I couldn’t hear or be heard is because I left the original packaging plastic on the front screen (didn’t have a chance to go out and purchase a screen protector and didn’t want the screen exposed) Turns out the plastic it ship with covers both the speaker and microphone! Make sure it’s peeled off!