Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black

 Brand Apple | Model: MD242B/A

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Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black

Feature

• Sim Free iPhone 4s
• Refurbished

Product Overview

Dual-core A5 chip. All-new 8MP camera and optics. iOS 5 and iCloud. And introducing Siri.
It's the most amazing iPhone yet

5.0 out of 5 stars Good purchase, 16 Dec 2012

By 

Mr. A. J. Cousins (London, UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Wrong item sent originally, however merchant agreed to have it returned and replaced item so very pleased with the phone.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so good at making calls?, 27 Aug 2012

By 

Michael Cole - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I must start off by saying that I love my IPhone. It's a 32GB 4S and it does almost everything I could possibly want of a small hand held computer.

My music, photos, apps, are all there and very quick to load and the camera facility on both stills and video is better than a camera that I bought specially for the purpose.

My contacts and diary appointments are all seamlessly uploaded to my office and home computer and it feels very strange not to be giving the phone an unequivocal 5 stars.

Why aren't I?

The sad reason is that my 4S doesn't work very well at its primary purpose of being a mobile phone. Calls are dropped regularly, reception can be bad despite the signal bar showing 4 bars. Sometimes it'll take an age to connect but the dropped calls are really the most annoying and I have to admit I've been thinking the unthinkable of switching to another mobile.

I do hope I don't have to but it's gotta improve quickly or there will be one Apple customer less.

5.0 out of 5 stars Better audio than most current rivals, 10 Jun 2012

By 

Mr. P. A. Busby (SE UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I've had the white 32GB version since it was launched on Vodafone last year. It replaces a 3GS that my girlfriend now has. It's virtually identical to the previous model but the silent switch is in a slightly different place so make sure any case you buy is compatible with the 4S - some are not! The other differences are twice the screen resolution of the 3GS, SIRI & potentially faster download speeds, a faster processor, better camera plus a 64GB version.
Although IOS5 works on the 3GS albeit slowly, it runs with little delay on the new model - lets say very fast indeed! Although Apple restrict what you can do with such a phone compared with the Android-based competition, what you can do with it is very slick & intuitive - Apple put ease of use before out & out functionality. Sharing contact info over Bluetooth is an obvious omission.
The 3GS was poor as a phone. It was plagued by inadequate reception that meant it could not make or receive calls where other phones could. The iPhone 4 addressed this issue as long as you didn't touch the metal bands that comprise the aerial. The 4S improves on the previous model further to the point that it has better than average reception so actually works well at it core function: making & receiving phone calls!
You no longer have to sync with iTunes although you still need an account, even updates to the operating system can be done over the air. You can even backup to iCloud (MobileMe is all but dead now) but if you have an updated 3GS or 4, you already know this!
Although some of the competition has caught up or even surpassed the 4GS such as having bigger displays, none have better sound quality or the looks of the 4S though some may disagree. Another great improvement that the latest firmware version has brought is batter life - it is now quite good. If you don't play with it too much, 2 days before recharging is possible. As for SIRI, it works far better than most expect. Apple do have a sense of humour - try asking it silly questions! Apple are yet to add country-specific functionality - you can't yet ask it where the nearest curry house is!
I bought a pair of Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth handsfree headphones. They work brilliantly as stereo wireless phones that can control track selection, reduce the volume when answering incoming calls, accept voice commands etc. Some models of Bluetooth headsets will display their battery level such as Jawbone's later ones. As for music, I use both iTunes & the Spotify app. Both work well with my AppleTV. Although this phone doesn't have infrared you can buy either plug-in remote control devices or Bluetooth enabled remote control battery powered transceivers that can turn the phone into universal remote with customisable touch displays. The number of apps available is vast - many of them either free or under a pound.
The camera works very well and is far better than on the 3GS as well as being 8MP. Like most camera phones, the aperture is fixed but the ISO automatically rises as light levels fade - low light results aren't bad. You also get face recognition autofocus & rudimentary HDR. Movie quality is not bad at all.
To sum up: great as a phone, amongst the best for music, fabulous display, fast web browsing (I get 20Mb per second download speed over Wi-Fi at home), reasonable battery life, a huge number of apps & a real feeling of quality & wonderful looks. There's a pretty good chance that the 4S will be superceded this autumn, this phone still cuts the mustard - even with people who wouldn't buy other Apple products.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, 21 April 2012

By 

MrsG - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

The iPhone was ordered as a gift for my grandson - it arrived promptly and the condition of packaging etc was exactly as it should have been, perfect! He was delighted.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars There's Nothing Quite Like An iPhone, 8 Feb 2012

By 

Syriat - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I upgraded to a 4s a few months back after having a 3GS. My partner has a Samsung Galaxy s2 and I was tempted. But honestly I wouldn't swap this. I wouldn't have upgraded from a 4 to a 4s mind as I see the minor improvements as too small for the money.
Siri is a quirky addition - not particularly useful or just a gimmick for some I find it does have its uses as a hands free addition. Not in the car though as the background noise will render it just too annoying.
The design is sleeker than ever and its quick to load and download. Far quicker than my old 3GS.
My old complaint of the iPhone was that it was good at everything except being a phone. I think its got that sorted now. I haven't had any drop outs and the signal is clearer than ever.
The camera is better quality as well and I am using it far more for that than I ever did my previous iPhone.

Overall I am pleased I upgraded. Sure another one will be along soon and sure there are other phones on the market which get better reviews and have higher specs and are cheaper. But as with everything Apple its the design and build that works. Tt feels right in your hand, works well on all counts and they have improved the battery life as well. So for the next two years I am happy with this.

62 of 68 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone, but think twice before upgrading from an iPhone 4 or even 3GS, 5 Jan 2012

By 

Bruce O'EJ "Love Child of OEJ and RJS (UK)" (Somwhere on the Celtic Fringe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

iOS 5.1 UPDATE: I updated both my iPhone 4S and my 1st Gen iPAd to iOS 5.1 five days ago (I also updated my wifes iPhone 4). This update came to the phone directly via wifi and installed quickly on the 4S. The same update took much longer on the A4 powered iPhone 4 and iPad. This is perhaps the first time I have seen a big speed difference between the iPhone 4S and the older 4. Battery life has improved but only slightly. the 5.01 update made a bigger battery life difference for me. However this update has given you the ability to switch of 3G, leaving the phone to use 2G. Doing this can substantially increase battery life, and it is easy to re-enable 3G if you need to browse on the go away from your wifi. The other significant improvement is the camera is easier to access from the lock screen. The map app seems to have had an upgrade as well (although perhaps I had missed this function before), but now it will rotate the map as you turn making it more useful for navigation.

THREE MONTH UPDATE: I have been using the iPhone 4S for just over three months now. I thought that it would be good to give a general update as I have been using the phone long enough now for that initial shine that new purchases have to have worn off. I am happy to say that the phone has performed almost flawlessly during those three months, and having experienced all the smartphone systems except Windows, I am still more than happy to say that this is the best smartphone available. My only regret is that I opted for the 16GB rather than 32 or 64GB versions. Still given how much you can trade in even an old iPhone 3GS for compared with other brands, I feel it likely that I will get enough for my 4S in two years to allow me to get a 32 or 64GB iPhone 5(S) without feeling guilty. One tip if like me you use your phone calender, is that I would recommend the 'Week Cal' app which has a week view that the native calender does not. It also allows you to individually colour entries (say a different colour for different types of events) in the way you can in MS Outlook. It is fully compatible with all calenders that the iPhone can synch with. Highly recommended as a significant way to improve the iPhone.

The first thing I need to say is that the Apple iPhone 4S is the best smart phone in the market at present, and unless something radical happens will probably be the best smart phone until the iPhone 5 is released. I am not going to labour all the features, these have been well covered in the description and the previous reviews. However I will say that this phone is definitely not worth upgrading to from the iPhone 4 and even if you have an iPhone 3GS I would say it would be better to wait until the next generation iPhone comes out. The reason I say this is that this phone has really only two differences from the iPhone 4 - Siri and a higher resolution camera. I will discuss these first.

Siri - this is a novelty, it is worth a few minutes of fun when you just get the phone, but like all computer speech recognition I have tried, it really does not work. No matter how often I tried to get it to set a reminder it insisted I was saying remainder. I asked it to phone Alison Allen and it thought I said phone Linda Robinson! Strangely it did understand when I asked it to open the pod bay doors!

Camera - Great much much better than any other mobile phone camera I have used, better even than the camera on my old Nokia N95 and N97 phones which were head and shoulders the best phone cameras at the time those phones came out. This is a clear advantage over the iPhone 3GS, but in truth the iPhone 4 camera is also very good. More mega pixels is not the be all for digital cameras. Until they build in an optical zoom lens all I would ever see the phone camera as being for is taking a snap to use as the wall paper for the phone, and for this the 4S camera is no better than that on the 4. It is however faster which could allow you to get a picture of a dog or child that tends not to stay still for too long.

Processor Speed - the 4S is faster than the 4, but you only see it with the very biggest apps. Pages opens noticeably faster on my iPhone 4S than on my wife's iPhone 4, as does the novelty app Talking Tom. However with smaller apps it is very hard to notice any differences. Once running I can see no differences in any app (other than the camera) in terms of speed. Therefore I would conclude that in terms of speed it would not be worth upgrading from an iPhone 4. May be from the 3GS, but I also compared the speed of my 4S against my 3rd Gen iPod Touch which has a similar processor to the 3GS and again for most apps there is no obvious advantage speed wise. Therefore I am not convinced that in terms of speed this is worth upgrading to even from the 3GS.

However this is my first iPhone, and as such I am delighted with it. If they had kept the iPhone 4 16GB model I may however have opted to get it (due to cost) rather than the 4S, but now the iPhone 4 is only available in 8GB it was not an option for me. If Apple had released the phone starting at the same price with a 4 inch screen (biggest that is practical based on playing with a few Android large screen phones) and a starting capacity of 32GB then I would have said that it was worth upgrading to even from the iPhone 4.

A few points about the battery performance. There has been a lot on the internet and even the BBC website about the iPhone 4S draining its battery very quickly. To a certain extent this is true. My 4S goes through its battery faster than any phone I have used in the past with the exception of my Samsung Galxay Ace (Android). However this is mostly to do with the default settings. The iPhone 4S running iOS5 is set to do a lot of reporting back to Apple, to use the iCloud and to keep a very close eye on its physical location. A lot of this adds useful functionality to the phone but for many users it is not needed. Spend a few minutes checking the settings for iCloud and Location services, turn blue tooth off etc and you will find the 4S battery will last at least as long as rivals if not quite as long as the iPhone 4 (I get almost two days,from 100% at 6am on one day to 10pm on the next day, compared with about 2 and a half days for my wife's iPhone 4). We all want super battery performance but the increased functionality with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 does come with a power use cost. In comparison to get my Samsung's battery to last from morning to evening I have had to disable all communications other than the basic connection to the cell network, I have had to keep the screen dim to the point of being difficult to read and have the screen go black so quickly that any pause in using the phone necessitates you reawakening it. So yes there is a slight battery issue with the iPhone 4S, but it has been blown up out of proportion by those who seek to exaggerate every issue with this Apple device. I do wish they would implement a useful feature my BlackBerry had - the ability for the phone to automatically shut down at a set time at night and to reawaken at a set time in the morning or earlier if an alarm was set. That allowed me to get 3 to 3.5 days on a charge with the BlackBerry and also stopped emails and texts disturbing my sleep if I was using the phone as my alarm clock.

UPDATE. The first update to iOS 5 (5.01) came through on Friday. My phone was mid charge at the time. I fully charged it overnight so that it was at 100% at 7am on Saturday morning when I disconnected it from the charger. At the time of typing it is 52 hours 40 minutes since the phone was last on charge and I have still got 40% battery life left. This is excellent for such a high spec smart phone.

SECOND UPDATE. In the above review I am quite negative about Siri. Over the period since October I have to admit that Siri seems to be improving. It now manages to do what I ask about 70% of the time. A better performance than I ever got out of Dragon software on a PC many times more powerful than the iPhone. A few more thoughts about battery life. I noticed that my battery life was slowly deteriorating again. Some investigation showed me that what apps you have installed can greatly influence battery life. It seems nearly every app you install now wants to send data back to the creator. I don't like this and having ditched several such recently installed apps, my battery again lasts 2 to 2.5 days.

5 of 31 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Yellow screens, 31 Dec 2011

By 

D. T. Tzenos "dimtze" (greece) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I return 2 of them at apple store
All was worst than my previous 4
Tired...Congrats apple
Check yr 4s
Compare it to the 4s at apple stores

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, 24 Dec 2011

By 

kyanoun - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Apple's iphone 4s is the mobile you always wanted. Fast, responsive with so many apps and features you ll never been bored of it!
Others are just phones..

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT STEP FORWARD BUT, SLIGHTLY TARNISHED, 2 Nov 2011

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A. Taylor (Surrey England) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Firstly, I would echo the comments of the other reviewer here, check out the Apple store before you buy.

Secondly the phone. Well as I'm sure most everyone is aware to all intents and purposes it's the same shape and size as the IPhone 4, just the volume and screen lock buttons have been slightly moved. This matters if you want to get a case because some manufactures are saying their IPhone 4 cases are suitable for the 4S and they aren't. If you get a case make sure it says it's for all Iphone 4 models (in the US this means both Verizon (sp?) and AT&T).

In general the phone is very similar to the 4 though it is faster carrying most operations. However, and despite that, software wise, if you have IOS 5 on a 4 then unless you want the upgraded camera and or Siri, I honestly don't think there's a great deal of point changing the phone. Having said that I've not noticed the same break up of calls that I occasionally got with the IPhone 4 and never got with an HTC Desire HD, so maybe.....
Far as I can tell the graphics are the same and I haven't seen any apps yet that specifically make use of the new processor in the 4S.

The camera is excellent for a mobile phone, way better than my HTC or the IPhone 4 but as a keen photographer I still would not want to depend solely on it for holiday photos. For one thing, and as you might expect, it's not that great from dusk onward, lots of noise on enlargement. But don't misunderstand, I've had a camera in my mobiles since a Nokia 6070, including N95's N96 N97 couple of HTC's including a Desire HD and IPhone 4 and the 4S leaves them for dead.

Siri is brilliant and has real potential but, and here's one of the reasons for only 4 stars, in the UK we don't get all the bells and whistles that they do in the US with Siri, ask anything about where to eat etc and the male voice (and that's another thing; why male!!!!) will tell you he can't help with businesses outside the US. There is a bit of a work around, get Siri to use Google i.e. "Google the nearest restaurant to my location" etc., but it's not quite the same.

The other reason for 4 stars, battery life, it's woeful. The first day I had the phone the charge said full but with minimal use I got 12 hours before I was red lined. Using one of the tips from the web I have got this up to about 30 hours with light usage which is certainly an improvement and I can live with that - it's slightly better than what I can get with my HTC phone. The tip, run the Iphone absolutely flat then fully recharge. Also only have the mobile network on if you really need to, use WiFi as much as possible.....And you gotta love ICloud, so impressive when you take a photo and it appears on your Ipad and Imac at the same time... If you are buying sim free, as this is, remember that you will need a micro sim, not all companies provide them in which case you'll need a pair of scissors as I did and that's a bit of a heart stopper.

Overall an excellent phone and I'm glad I bought it, but quite disappointing re battery life and if it wasn't for the camera and Siri I'd wonder if the upgrade was worth the £600 :-)

UPDATE 21-11-11

I know Siri is a beta but it's perfomance over the past couple of weeks has been a joke; it rarly connects, the usual response being "try again later", Apples support sites have quite a few complaints of this type. So, while the phones is very good, if it's Siri you want I suspect it will pay you to wait a while until Apple have sorted all the bugs, or pushed out an update, as to my mind it isn't ready for prime time.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars iphone 4, 1 Nov 2011

By 

andy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iPhone 4S 32GB SIM-Free - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)

if you are considering getting this phone then congrats its a brill phone!!! though i would first consider looking on apple store as this item is cheaper there!!

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