Android or iPhone?

[97tbird]

same with me - Pretty much every brand these days have 'Fanboys', so it's difficult to avoid any brands due to that reason. I also don't care if a brand has fanboys or enemies, etc., if the product suits me and works well.

The only smart phone i have used so far is my now ancient BB Pearl.

When I played with an Incredible 2 and the Iphone 4 (not 4s) at the verizon store, for me personally, the Incredible 2 seemed cluttered, and messy and loaded with all kinds of verizon apps and bloatware that one CANNOT delete at all. And the UI seemed convoluted and messy with too much gimmicky graphics and gizmos.
The Iphone 4, well, felt 'clean' and straightforward and 'solid' in its feel and operation. Just the right amount of stuff. and no bloatware from the carrier.

I will go and play with the 4S pretty soon...I cam only imagine it being better and faster than the 4. However, i will again take a 2nd look at the Incredible 2

For me huge screen size is not a plus; anything above 4" is huge and i cannot imagine how big the whole phone can be, and that is way too clunky to carry around for me personally. I don't use phones to watch movies and play games so the 3.5" screen is more than big enough. (esp coming from the 1.5" BB screen lol)
Those who tout huge screen sizes need to think about the fact that some people really don't need a lot screen real estate.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We recently bought LG 2x's for us (super cheap on Ebay) and they are dirt simple to use, so easy I was able to simply turn it on and go.

It has been mega fun for months now, and I find it intuitive and simple to use. And I am NOT a button pushing kind of guy!

No bloatware at all, everything is up for grabs with this phone.

 

[VeeDubb]

t-bird, I don't mind a bigger screen because I only want to carry a phone and don't want to carry both a phone and tablet. So minimizing on equipment is what I'm looking for.

The Android customization is not an advantage for me. So if that is the main advantage of Android, it is not a benefit for me. On the downside for my iPhone, I've also had problems getting Google voice to integrate properly on the iPhone. About 80% of my contacts won't download. One of my friends has no such issues with his Android.

I don't like to spend too much time on my phone apart from making sure that it is efficient for getting work done and communication. Most of my apps are productivity apps not games and movies. I need my phone to be functional and flexible. I often spend weeks at a time in Europe and Australia and need to be able to stick a local sim card in. So I am going to buy my next phone unlocked. What I don't like is how overpriced the 4S is relative to high end Androids. You can't find one for less than $900. YOu can get a Galaxy S II unlocked for $500. Is the 4S twice the phone as the Galaxy S II?

 

[97tbird]

Verizon will unlock the SIM card on iphone 4s, once every 10 months if when you let them know that you will be traveling out of the US, and then you can just buy local SIMs and use them, wherever you are.
As we are due for an upgrade, and do need a world phone at least once or 2x a year, we can get the 4s 16gb for $199 each, and have it unlocked as above when we need to...

We have a tiny 11.6" Netbook and I prefer that to a tablet when traveling abroad or long trips within US, so our phones can be regular sized like the iphone, i guess.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Originally Posted By: VeeDubb
t-bird, I don't mind a bigger screen because I only want to carry a phone and don't want to carry both a phone and tablet. So minimizing on equipment is what I'm looking for.

The Android customization is not an advantage for me. So if that is the main advantage of Android, it is not a benefit for me. On the downside for my iPhone, I've also had problems getting Google voice to integrate properly on the iPhone. About 80% of my contacts won't download. One of my friends has no such issues with his Android.

I don't like to spend too much time on my phone apart from making sure that it is efficient for getting work done and communication. Most of my apps are productivity apps not games and movies. I need my phone to be functional and flexible. I often spend weeks at a time in Europe and Australia and need to be able to stick a local sim card in. So I am going to buy my next phone unlocked. What I don't like is how overpriced the 4S is relative to high end Androids. You can't find one for less than $900. YOu can get a Galaxy S II unlocked for $500. Is the 4S twice the phone as the Galaxy S II?



One more thing, if you like to put a lot of media on your phone, most if not all Androids have microSD slots. A 16GB phone + a 32GB SD card can get you 48GB of storage.

And this is from personal experience so take it for what it's worth and I don't know if the 4S is improved, but whenever I talk to my friend who has the iP4 it's usually hard to hear him or he sounds distorted. This is usually not the case with people who call me over a land line, VOIP, other cellphones or my sis who has a phone identical to mine.

It also seems that each new iteration of Android usually makes old phones faster while new iOS updates slow old iPhones down, such as iOS4 and 5 on the 3GS.

 

[97tbird]

it seems the 4s with iOs5 is certainly a fast beast, and is 2nd only to the Ipad2 (which is not a phone): beats all other comparable phones, looks like.

here are benchmark test scores comparing it to many phones (incl. iphone 4) in many categories:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4951/iphon...gpu-than-ipad-2

 

[PandaBear]

Call quality wise, you probably shouldn't compare iphone4 AT&T with iphone4 verizon and iphone4S. They uses different chipset (infineon vs qualcomm) and the call stability and voice quality differ significantly. If you are happy with AT&T with another phone, try iphone4S in the store and see if you like the voice quality and call stability instead of the iphone4.

Remember to compare the same chipset and phone generations when you compare iOS vs Android, chips vendors make huge differences.

 

[dishdude]

I have a Galaxy II S on Sprint and love it. This is my work phone, it syncs with Outlook nicely, I have my personal number ported to Google Voice so that I don't need to carry two phones, and that works flawlessly. Everything I need or want it to do it does flawlessly, it is stable and the super AMOLED display is beautiful. I love the big screen - since the phone is so thin it fits right in your pocket but if you want to type, read or view video you have 4.5" of screen to use. It's a nice mix between phone and tablet!

Navigation is excellent on Android devices - no other way to put it.

I got this phone right after the iPhone 4S announcement, if there had been an iPhone 5 with a larger screen and different form factor as speculated, I'd probably be an iPhone user. I am so satisfied with the Galaxy, I am glad that didn't happen.

Oh! And micro USB. I have 5 million of these chargers laying around the house and office, I don't have to worry about hauling that iPod only adapter around with me when I travel.

 

[MrHorspwer]

Seeing all these new phone with their big screens, I do get screen envy on my iPhone 4.

I'm not up for contract renewal until next September, so unless something happens to my current phone, I'm not in the market anyway. That said, I am really hoping for an iPhone 5 with a larger curved glass display, a la Galaxy Nexus, when I'm ready for an upgrade.

 

[KrisZ]

How about giving the windows phone a try. I keep reading that these phones are really smooth, fast and pretty stable. I will definitely look into these phones when it's time to retire my Galaxy S.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/17/htc-titan-review/

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
How about giving the windows phone a try. I keep reading that these phones are really smooth, fast and pretty stable. I will definitely look into these phones when it's time to retire my Galaxy S.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/17/htc-titan-review/


Looks nice! Thanks for the head's up! I don't consider an Android as a viable replacement for an iPhone, but I do think the Windows Phone can now that Mango (v7.5) is available. It's different...a more cohesive view rather than having everything app-ified. 4.7" screen? Sweet!

 

[Win]

When I looked for a new phone this Summer, I carefully considered the iphone based on my wife's experience with a 3 and a 4, and my friend's android devices with a lot of emhasis on the Atrix, and I wound up choosing another windows phone, a Samsung Focus.

The 7.5 mango update is fantastic, and it is an excellent business oriented phone, much better than the iphone, imo, but it won't do flash either. Not that I need it.

The one place I think the iphone really shines is battery life - those things just seem to go and go and go.

For travel overseas, I would just grab a multi sim card unlocked phone off ebay. I have one that is a combo cell phone / ham radio that also works here with my AT&T sim card.

 

[VeeDubb]

Thanks for the multi sim and Mango suggestins. I have to admit I have been excited about the Nokia windows phones. But the ones released yesterday seemed pretty ordinary though I'd like to see some reviews.