iPhone 5s vs. iPhone 5c vs. iPhone 4s: Which iPhone model should you get?

2013 iPhone buyers guide: How to choose the perfect high-end iPhone 5s, less-expensive iPhone 5c, or zero-dollar iPhone 4s for you!

Once you know you're getting an iPhone and now, you need to decide which iPhone you want to get. While some might consider the the latest, greatest iPhone 5s a no brainer when it comes to their next purchasing decision, others might think the funner, less expensive iPhone 5c, or even the hold-over iPhone 4s is a much better value. If you're on-contract, you'll be paying a couple thousand dollars over the next couple of years anyway, so a few hundred for up-front may not matter to you. However, if you don't have that couple extra thousand up front, especially if you're going off-contract, up-front cost really will matter. It's important to really run the math on this and see what suits you best. So, premium, popular, or passé, which one should you get?

Products and price points

Apple's 2013 iPhone lineup consists of 3 different models, the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 4s. Here are the models and price points, both on and off contract.

• $0/$450 - iPhone 4s 8GB
• $99/$549 - iPhone 5c 16GB
• $199/$649 - iPhone 5c 32GB
• $199/$649 - iPhone 5s 16GB
• $299/$749 - iPhone 5s 32GB
• $399/$849 - iPhone 5s 64GB

Yes, the 32GB iPhone 5c is the same price as the 16GB iPhone 5c. One has more storage, the other higher specs. Price, it turns out, isn't the only factor!

Up-front vs. total cost of ownership

While the cheapest iPhone 4s is $0 on contract and the most expensive 64Gb iPhone 5s is $399, to get that subsidized price requires a 2-year contract in the U.S. Over the course of two years, when you add the price of the voice plan, data plan, and extras like voicemail, messaging, etc. you can easily end up paying over $2000, even for the "free" phone.

The up front difference between $0 and $399 is huge, especially if you have rent to pay or a family to feed. The total cost difference between $2000 and $2399 isn't nearly as big, relatively speaking, so if you have the extra money to spend, the value of the higher end option can outweigh the cost.

Finite vs. future-proof

Apple is pretty good about supporting older devices. The 2010 iPhone 4 - currently only available in China - is getting the 2013 iOS 7, after all. However, compatibility comes with compromise. Older generation iPhones have older generation hardware. They have smaller screens, less memory, and slower processors. That means they don't get all the features, not even all of the interface eye candy.

So, while the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s might be getting iOS 7 this year, and be able to run iOS 7 apps, the odds of them getting iOS 8 and iOS 9 next year and the year are negligible. If you're stuck on a two year contract, that can suck. The frustration level alone can easily overwhelm $100 or even $200 in savings. Trying to sell them doesn't return a lot of value either.

Alternatively, the iPhone 5c and especially the monstrously powerful iPhone 5s likely have many years of useful life ahead of them, well beyond the life of a contract. And, of course, they enjoy much higher resale value.

Who should get an iPhone 4s?

The iPhone 4s has a decent camera and comes loaded with Siri, Apple's personal digital assistant. Other than that, however, it has a small 3.5-inch screen and two year old technology. I maxes out at 3G HSPA networking, and has a pathetic 8GB of internal storage.

If there's any way for you to save up even $99, do it and get a better model. Otherwise, if you have absolutely no money beyond the monthly contract cost, yet really want an iPhone, get an iPhone 4S.

Who should get an iPhone 5c?

The iPhone 5c is based on last year's iPhone 5. It's slightly less expensive, and is aimed at people for whom price is slightly more important. Mainly, however, it's meant to be a lot more fun. It's got colorful shells made of durable plastic, and otherwise all the great tech and still good specs of last year's flagship. That means a taller 4-inch screen and LTE networking.

If you want a great iPhone at a slightly better price, and the new palette and feel holds a lot of appeal to you, save a few bucks, have some more fun, and get the iPhone 5c.

Who should get an iPhone 5s?

The iPhone 5s is the new, high-end, flagship iPhone. The gold standard. Literally. With it you get truly next-generation technology like the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, the much-improved camera, and the amazing Apple A7 chipset. It will cost you more up-front, but it will last you longer, and it will give you access to the future sooner.

If you're an early adopter, if you appreciate premium products, if photography is important to you, if you want the best of the best, get the iPhone 5s.

Still undecided?

If you're still not sure about which to get between the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, or iPhone 4s, jump into our iPhone discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out.

Bottom line, don't spend money you don't have, but don't skimp if you don't have to. Your iPhone will be one of the most often-used, most important possessions in your life. Get as much iPhone as you can reasonably afford, and then enjoy!

How we write for iMore: Our workflows from Mac to iPad to iPhone and back!

Most of what we do here at iMore is write. We put words up onto the internet, and millions of them a year. Managing what we write, however, across Mac, iPad, and iPhone, from idea to draft to final, can often be more complicated than we like, involving different sync solutions and different apps, not to mention our web-based content management system. Each of us has our own workflows, and our own toolkits to accomplish them.

Here's what we're using to write, right now...

Leanna Lofte, app and photography editor

I've had enough painful experiences losing work to learn that I need to write "offline" instead of directly in Drupal 7, the content management framework we use for iMore. My text editor of choice, right now, is iA Writer. It offers a clean, distraction-free environment that makes it easy for me to focus on my work. 90% of my writing is done on my iMac, 5% on my Macbook Air, and the other 5% on my iPhone and iPad. iA Writer uses iCloud to keep everything in sync making it easy to jump between devices. I'm also a fan of Byword, but since it doesn't automatically chose iCloud as the place to save, I've opted to use iA Writer -- there has been too many times I couldn't access something I needed on a device when I wasn't home.

One time, I actually used Siri to dictate an entire article while driving to work. It was a time-sensitive piece that I didn't quite have time to finish before leaving, so I grabbed my Macbook Air, dictated on my way, then hopped onto my laptop to paste and publish in the few minutes I had before class started.

Chris Parsons, editor-at-large

I don't really do any writing on my iOS devices. I do however; rely on Evernote for noting things I may need to remember later on and ideas that I come up with for articles. It all syncs up perfectly so when it comes time to refer to those notes and ideas, they're all on my Mac through the Evernote app or through the web login.

When it comes to getting down to business though, I'm really bad at concentrating and getting the task done some days. So, to help with that I cut my internet off and hop into WriteRoom. It's a pretty basic offering compared to a lot of other apps out there but it works for me, especially with the black theme.

Since it's just a blank, black page, you either write or go insane from boredom.

Peter Cohen, managing editor

I have tried, and failed, to use my iPad for writing ever since I bought it. Maybe if I had an external keyboard it would be different, but trying to write anything longer than a quick e-mail or a tweet using the on-screen keyboard is difficult for me. So I do almost all my writing on my Macs - a Mac Pro, MacBook Pro with Retina Display, or MacBook Air, depending on where I am.

I've written for the Web for almost two decades now, and I've used BBEdit for almost that long. No other text editor comes close for me when it comes to the flexibility and power I'm looking for to edit and transform text. At this point I'm pretty hard-wired to need BBEdit to be productive. I admit that I'm only using a small percentage of BBEdit's capabilities, but it's so finely customized for my workflow, I can't imagine using anything else.

I also appreciate that Bare Bones makes available TextWrangler, a free text editor that uses the same core technology as BBEdit. It makes it easier for folks who don't have the coin to buy BBEdit to use some of the same features. And it's a clever gateway drug to BBEdit, to boot.

Richard Devine, senior editor

If I need to just note down some ideas quickly, the stock Notes app on the iPhone or iPad is the go to choice. It syncs back to my Mac so my thoughts are there when I get back to the computer and start to get down to work.

In terms of the actual writing, I've been a fan of iA Writer for some time now. It's a basic text editor with iCloud sync, so like with Notes, all of my stuff is on all of my devices all of the time. I love the simplicity of iA Writer -- it's just text, no toolbars. I'm also a big fan of the focus mode that will highlight only the sentence you're working on and fading out the rest of your text. Really helps me to concentrate.

From there it's into iMore, add all the Markdown links and off to the Internet!

Ally Kazmucha, how-to editor

I do a good majority of my writing on my iMac. It's very seldom I actually write within an actual content management system such as Wordpress or Drupal. There's just been too much heartache when it comes to saving work and getting errors. It's never fun to lose things.

My weapon of choice is Byword. It uses iCloud to keep your documents in sync across all devices and has apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. While I spend most of my time writing on my iMac, there are times I want to get out of the house or the office and write at Starbucks or another local coffee shop. Instead of lugging around my MacBook Pro, I simply take my iPad and a keyboard case. Then when I get home, I just copy and paste everything where it needs to be and embed images. Since Byword supports markdown, I've already gotten all my links done ahead of time.

While Byword may not be the most powerful solution around, it does all I need it to do and it's a great option for students writing papers, editors, or anyone else that wants the flexibility of writing from multiple devices.

Rene Ritchie, editor-in-chief

I use a combination of tools, depending on what I'm doing and where I'm trying to do it. If I'm driving or otherwise occupied, I use Siri to quickly jot stuff down into Notes. That syncs between iOS and Mac, so at the very least I don't forget about or lose ideas (it's become a natural language clipboard of sorts). When attention isn't an issue, I use Drafts for the same purpose. Drafts lets me type or dictate ideas without having to worry about where it'll eventually end up. As I've said many times before, it's time-shift for text.

When I'm sitting down to write, all proper and formal like, it's almost always in BBEdit on the Mac. I don't even use 1% of its potential, but what I do use is so damn powerful I can pretty much accomplish anything text-based that I can imagine. I write in John Gruber's Markdown, so while the text is plain, it's also formatted and highly portable.

When I have to collaborate with Kevin from CrackBerry or Phil from Android Central, I'll have to use Google Docs. (Daniel from Windows Phone Central claims not to know what that is).

If I have my druthers, however, and I'm out and about without my Mac, I write in Elements, which is pointed at the same Dropbox folder I store my BBEdit work in. That lets me keep working no matter where, or on what device I'm on. If I'm on my iPhone and need to make quick changes on the go, I likewise use Elements.

Elements is just light and easy and killer for Markdown, and BBEdit is a beast. I also make heavy use of Text Expander, both on Mac and on iOS. It removes almost all the repetitiveness from writing and lets me get on with the creative work.

Together, I can get pretty much get done everything that needs doing.

How do you write?

Interestingly, none of us use Microsoft Word. Not even Apple's Pages. We're all using lighter, plainer solutions. Now none of our workflows are perfect. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, advantages and drawbacks. And all of them can likely be improved. So, if you work across a wide range of devices, let me know how you do it, and if you can think of any ways any of us could work better and smarter, let us know in the comments!