Consumer Reports gives a thumbs up to the iPhone 4S

Oh joy, they gave sophisticated technology to Consumer Reports and they didn't hate it. These are the people who pan Jeeps because they are noisy. Maybe next they will pan beer for being carbonated. sheesh.

Consumer Reports is an irrelevant old-school magazine that is fading fast. They do not have a grip on technology recommendations. I used to read their magazine years ago as a child as their reviews seemed thoughtful. Now I realize that they always pick the middle of the road...never the cheapest, and never the best. No thanks, I like to live on the edge and either save a buck or have the best money can buy. Consumer Reports - nice knowing ya.

I would agree that recent Android phones (and recent versions of Android) are quite good and compare well head to head with the new iPhone. Some of the added reasons why they score better are iffy to me, however. I have no interest in 3D and fail to see that this is a major factor for more than a tiny handful of users. 4G support would be nice, but not at the expense of battery life (which is short enough as is), and I think it is still a little early for 4G to be a major factor except in a fairly small number of locales. This is likely to change over the next year or so, however, so I would expect 4G support (well, LTE, which isn't _really_ 4G, but that is an issue for another article...) in the next iPhone or the disparity will be more significant. Finally, while a larger screen (which seems to be CR's main reason) is nice, it isn't if I need a physically larger phone to get it - some of the new "big screen" Android phones are too big to comfortably fit in a pocket (for me, anyway), so would be unacceptable, as portability (so I can always have my phone with me) is more important to me for a phone than is screen size. This isn't true for a tablet - you've already given up pocketability there, so (within limits) bigger is better.

I don't begrudge those that have/want them, but frankly, most of the larger-screened phones look bulky, require two to perform simple (on the iPhone & similar phones, one-thumbed) tasks. I frankly don't see the appeal in daily use. It's like *wanting* to carry a laptop that weighs 9 lbs. and requires a carry-on-luggage sized bag over a Macbook Pro. But then, there are those guys, too. To each his own, but I think these are subjective reasons, and not quality comparison issues, which is more what I expect CR to be reporting on.

Clearly, everyone put off buying the iPhone 4S while they waited for this news.