My iPhone 4S hangs (gets stuck or unresponsive) when deleting photos from the camera roll or use Messages app

Question

I am now on my third replacement phone from Apple because of this issue.  My iPhone 4S frequently hangs (gets stuck), without response, when I click on the trash icon to delete a photo, for about 20-30 seconds before becoming responsive again. I notice that this problem of freezing happens also when I use my Messages app for texts. There is no crash that occurs because the app responds after hanging for some time, therefore does not create a crash report to be sent to Apple.  I never had this problem on my iPhone 4, and truly regret upgrading to the new device. I bought this phone for the faster processor, however I ended up with a device that is much slower and unresponsive. At the instruction of the multiple geniuses at the Apple store, I've restored the phone numerous times and set it up as a new device to no avail, and have lost app data every time.  I've had three different phones now, and the genius cannot resolve my issue. they've even done what's called a DFU mode restore to restore the device firmware, yet no fix.  Is anyone having similar issues? I'm starting to think its a software issue, although the apple store kept replacing my phone with a "remanufactured phone" even though I was within the 30 day return period. When I asked to get a new phone from the box, they told me it couldn't be done since I had my device replaced with a repair model already. 

Answer 1

I suffer same.  AppleCare can't seem to solve the problem.  I did a restore from backup. Then I did a restore as new phone (virgin). Then I did a restore as a new device and then backed up from a stored backup (which does not replace media).  To no avail.  Some days it works fine, and on others it's extremely bothersome. The major symptoms:
1. It can take 5+ seconds to delete a photo.
2. It can take 10+ seconds for the camera app to activate. In many instances, the moment is long gone.
3. Switching from camera to video can take 5+ seconds.
4. Saving a photo that's been optimized in iOS 5 can take 30 seconds. Absurd.
Note that Photos and Camera aren't the only affected applications. What'sApp can have the same issues on occasion. Voice Memos don't respond like they should, either.  I suspect that there's some behind-the-scenes operations with network feed to which iOS gives its full attention (contrary to the UX getting full attention is is historically the case). This makes the user interface painfully slow at times — and, as most of us here would agree — painfully annoying.  This might have to do with changes designed around iCloud, but I'm not even (yet) using it.
The bottom line is that what used to be a quick, pretty good phone camera is now totally lackluster and unreliable for fast shots.  Sometimes I think Apple spends too much time worrying about form and not enough about function.