I have a iPhone 4S on son's account on AT&T. AT&T coverage is significantly more limited than Verizon. Both are OK in towns or interstates.
Just got DW a Galaxy S3 with Verizon which has more memory than will ever be needed. $40 at Walmart and $100 at Verizon. Guess where we got the phone. I'm very impressed with this phone compared to the 4S. DW has only had it for 3 days but it's impressive. BTW From all of the reviews we saw no reason to spend $200 for the S4 phone.
I'm sure you can get the iPhone 4S at a good price.
If good maps are important to you then don't go with Apple products. Last fall Apple dumped Google maps and are using Tom Tom maps. These maps are nowhere near as good as the Google maps and since Google has about a 10 year lead on everyone else they provide an excellent product.
BTW I haven't upgraded my phone to the latest Apple software because I'd then have the Apple maps. I'm going to keep the Google maps on my iPhone.