One of the iPhone-related questions I have been asked my frequently in the last two weeks is this – “I have the iPhone 4. Is Siri reason enough for me to upgrade to the iPhone 4S?” Let me offer a few thoughts and then, hopefully, any of you who have the iPhone 4S will chime in with your opinions.
If you have the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, it is a no-brainer. Your contract is up, so now a discounted phone is likely available; the 3G and 3GS — while still excellent phones — are completely outclassed by the iPhone 4S. I know, however, that is a copout, since the question is not whether the iPhone 4S is a worthy upgrade from either of those models, but whether or not the iPhone 4S is a worthy upgrade from the iPhone 4.
My answer is this:
If you use your iPhone to as an email and messenger device, Siri is reason enough to upgrade since the voice recognition is fantastic and, once you clean up your contacts (Check out our post on Siri as a productivity tool), it formats the message in seconds without you having to type anything.
If you use your iPhone for productivity such as taking notes on the go that you will later turn into an article or post, Siri is reason enough to upgrade. (See our post on using the Notes app with Siri)
If you use your iPhone as your task-list, Siri is reason enough to upgrade since Siri in combination with iOS 5.0’s Reminders functionality is an amazing tool.
If you use anything from Twitter to Yammer, then Siri is reason enough to upgrade. (See our post on using Siri with Yammer)
If you use your iPhone to search the web, Siri is reason enough to upgrade since it makes searches fast and “typeless”.
If you use your iPhone as your alarm clock or sleep timer, Siri is reason enough to upgrade since it lets you set, or turn off, alarms by voice.
If you need comic relief during a stressful day, Siri is reason enough to upgrade since it continues to surprise me with its witty responses.
In short, while on paper Siri might not look like reason enough to upgrade, once you start using it you will quickly discover what many of us have found — Siri is not only reason enough to upgrade, but it is the best thing to happen to mobile productivity in a long, long time.
And if you don’t use your iPhone for any of the above tasks… then you probably don’t really need any iPhone, let alone the iPhone 4S.
Do you agree, or is Siri not worth the hype? If you HAVE A 4S, then share your thoughts!