Should I just get the iPhone 5S?

So for the past few months I've been stuck with the dilemma of what smart phone to upgrade to when my contract is renewed. I've been backwards and forwards looking at the pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One but I could never come to a decision on what to by. From the battery life issues, over heating issues and low brightness screen of the S4, to the limited storage, questionable headphone audio quality and non removable battery of the HTC One, they are among some of the cons of the devices that have made it difficult for me to choose. I love the colours of the S4 and the OS is something that attracts me most, I also love the fact that I can expand memory and replace batteries if I need to, but I also love the brightness of the HTC One screen, the fact that it has boom sound speakers and the design is just plain sexy over all. However between the pros and cons I have never been able to choose and I'm now coming to the point where I'm thinking perhaps I should just buy an iPhone 5S.

For the past 5 years I've been using iPhones and to be honest I'm getting seriously bored of the OS. I'd love to use an android phone, more specifically the OS which come with the S4, however I don't want a phone with over heating issues and poor battery life. To be honest the OS on the HTC One looks incredibly dull and I could imagine my self getting bored of it just as much as I'm bored of iOS, there just isn't enough going on the screen and I love lots of colours like the S4 has, but I really don't know what to buy. All I really use my phone for is listening to music, watching videos on YouTube and browsing the web, besides that I use some utility applications such maps, Google Earth, astronomy programs, and the likes, so whether I even need to consider switching to an Android device is something I'm wondering.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Has anyone used all of these devices? Worst comes to worst I'll just not even renew my contract and stick with the phone I've got, because I don't know if I'm ever going to benefit or ever going to be happy with a device when it and all of its competitors have so many flaws, it's like I'm never going to be happy no matter what I get.

 

I'd wait until this is fixed http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/20/apple-working-fix-ios-7-lockscreen-bypass-flaw

 

Lol, well good job to them for figuring it out I guess. So has anyone got any suggestions? Any personal experience with these phones? Personal pros/cons? I'd really like to upgrade again although I don't want to commit a 24 month contract to a phone that's problematic and/or dull to use.

 

As many say though, to eradicate the flaw you just turn off the ability to bring the menu up on the lock screen.

 

I'm totally pro-Apple and iOS but only because I like the eco-system. iCloud works fantastically well for contacts and picture syncing etc and Google and Nokia just cannot compare.

I'm currently on Android but cannot wait to get back to Apple just for everything to make sense again. But admittedly it's one of those things where once you're in the eco-system it's very hard to get out.

I'm not really sure what you mean by having a phone that's dull to use. A phone is a phone and it's up to you what you make of it and what you use it for. Who cares what it looks like. Functionality over form is the most important thing.

 

By dull to use I'm talking about the aesthetics and usefulness of the OS. The S4 looks to have a nice vibrant OS with interesting aesthetics where as at least to me the HTC One has a more dull and slightly more boring OS than its counter part. The lesson I learned with the iPhone is that I get bored of looking at, and something I was looking for in Android was something new to look at. I would choose the S4 for the OS, but I'd choose the HTC One for its screen and speakers, however each seem to have their pros and cons that I can't dedicate my self to either phone. This is why I'm pretty much just considering getting the 5S because at least then I know what I'm getting in to.

 

Well, you realize iOS 7 just came out? It looks radically different from previous versions of iOS. If previous versions made you bored, iOS 7 might get your attention. It got my attention, anyway. Look up some pictures/videos to decide for yourself. Another option is to go to an Apple store and try out a new iPhone. I plan on doing that myself tomorrow, even though I already have an iPhone 5 and don't plan on getting a 5S any time soon.

 

iOS is Yawn city IMO. After the iPhone 4 I jumped to Android and never looked back. Total open and I've NEVER had an issue where I couldn't see a Web page, download something, access data or anything else. Some might start to go on about virus crap but truth be told it's not an issue unless the user is an idiot.

Why limit yourself to the Galaxy or HTC One. There must be other good phones available in your part of the world.

 

I've had a galaxy S2 phone for nearly 2 years now and have CM10 (various iterations of it - currently CM10.2) and I've never had a problem, excellent firmware. I've got mates with iphones who constantly complain about apps not working properly or restrictions hampering their efforts to do stuff.

While I have no experience myself of iphones and can't say whether I like them or not myself, all I can say is I'd recommend my phone to anyone in a heart beat.

 

I must agree with the other Android fans, but then again I am a Linux fan. So it is no big surprise. That I recommend Android too. And well, Android has flash, Apple doesn't. Second of all, I am not fond of Apple, cause there are too much elitism over it.

 

Flash dropped support for android 4.1 and up .

 

If you're looking for a phone that has a rich feature set, does what it's supposed to do, and is easy to use, get an iPhone.

If you're looking for something to tweak, customize, and mess around with, why not install Linux in a virtual machine on your computer?

If you're looking for something pretty to look at, maybe visit a jewelry store? Or a botanical garden? For something amazing, I suppose you could try doing shrooms or acid?

 

Any body that buys a new iPhone now is a grade A mug, in my opinion. They're fleecing you and laughing in your face while they do it. You'd have to be out of your mind to spend almost $1000 on something to watch videos and listen to music on.

Think what you could get with that money. A high spec gaming PC? An Xbox One AND a PS4? Go on a foreign holiday for a week? Plastic surgery??

Get a new Nexus 4 for $200 or just keep your current phone.

 

I have a HTC One, and I can say, its a lot more interesting then Sense UI makes it. Even to that, if you do get bored with it, you can easily root it and install things like the Google Play Edition rom, which gives it the pure stock feel, or many other great roms available. I haven't used a 5S yet, but apparently other than the fingerprint sensor, a tweaked camera, and a 64 bit processor, not much has changed. If you don't need any of that, you can probably get an iPhone 4S and it will run ALMOST the same as the 5S.

 

I'm not sure if you're serious or just trolling, but I'll assume you're being serious.

Did you consider what you were about to say at all before you posted this? Almost $1000? Where did you get that number? An iPhone 5S on contract is $199. I assume you're referring to the off contract phone, which is $649. Agreed, that's a lot of money for a phone, but it's not "almost $1000" any more than 65% is almost 100%. Anyway, I agree that it would be stupid to buy it off contract, but you seem to be implying that anyone who buys an iPhone - even those who buy it for the same price you listed for a Nexus 4 - is an idiot. Also, you realize that smartphones can do things other than play videos and music, right? Fucking hilarious.

 

Google did but that doesn't mean the phone can't run it. My phone is 4.1 and my Nexus 7 is the latest 4.3. Both can run flash just fine with the plugin.

 

I read somewhere that the flagship model was going to be $850. Even if my source was incorrect on that one, if you factor in the over inflated costs of a 24 month contract on a just released high end phone, you're probably going to end up spending over $1000 over that period, so my point still stands.

Nope. Learn to read.

 

I think you made a little mistake in your quotation there. I never said that - those were the OP's words.

EDIT: I see that I misunderstood the part about playing music and videos. My bad about that - I forgot exactly what the OP said, although I did read it earlier.

So, would you suggest that you should only buy prepaid phones? With any standard carrier you're going to pay monthly fees. And again, that's the same with most other phones besides the iPhone.

 

iOS 7 hype was a joke considering how few new features were actually added. But they made the keyboard white, whoopty-doo.

 

I say android for the simple reason of if you don't like something you are free to change it
even the whole "OS" as you put it

I will will say one thing iPhone is easy to use but very locked down so its really for the folk with no interest in learning the finer details.... looks pretty tho :3

BTW installing a launcher to change the look of android is as simple as installing an app from the Play Store

Most of not all have a fully featured free version and a paid version with a few extras so you can tweak the UI a bit more