I was never an Apple fanboy, and originally only had an iPhone because my better half had one, then it was because I had an iPad and all my apps were iPhone/iPad apps.
But when my iPhone screen cracked a few months ago and I still had some time to go before getting a free upgrade, I decided to see what the fuss was about and got a samsung galaxy phone.
Jesus Christ it’s awful. Apps crash more often than Windows 95. Files - photos, videos, songs - randomly and without warning disappear. Just flat out gone. The Samsung equivalent to the iTunes store sucks monkey balls. They haven’t quite figured out how to synch seamlessly with Google mail. Picture files are viewable one day, corrupt and unviewable (and unrecoverable) the next. The button for locking and unlocking the screen is on the right side of the handset, directly across from the volume control, which means trying to do anything locking/unlocking of the screen messes with the volume level. EVERY. TIME.
It’s made me appreciate how -good- the iPhone just effin’ works. ‘Intuitive’ is over-used sometimes, but with the iPhone - it fits.
I went out and bought a new iPhone today, and my stress level is back to normal. Thank god.
I’ve had four Samsung phones, jammed them with apps, used them hard, and recall no problems except for the odd poorly-written app, quickly deleted.
I had an iPhone for two hours before returning it because Apple hadn’t bothered to tell anyone the essential iTunes wasn’t (then, or for quite some time to follow) 64-bit compatible.
In meeting shootouts where everyone grabs their smartphones, the Android users are typically done reading whatever they looked up before the Apple crowd has finished flipping and swiping.
Mileage varies. So does the attitude you go into a new venture with.
I thought one of the major advantages of Android over iOS (for me) was the direct file management and USB mass storage. If files disappear, as you say, Android is looking much much less appealing.
I have some relevant expertise, and unless you got a complete PoS, this is not Android’s fault. It’s a great OS and extremely stable unless you massively overtax it. Nor have I ever seen nor heard of anyone just “losing” data out of thin air - that doesn’t just happen with anything.
So I’m calling partial bullshit unless you can back your statement.
I’m using an android phone made by a Chinese outfit that people in China haven’t even heard about. I’ve had zero problems with it. AFAIC, the thing is awesome.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I got an S2 the day after the iP5 was announced, I was so disappointed. Dumped my 3Gs which I had been waiting to replace, and went ahead with the S2. Loved it from the start, never had an issue, and I did a happy dance watching the status bar on my pc as it uninstalled iTunes.
I now have the S4 and love it harder. I have 3 Gmail accounts that naturally work fine, plus an old yahoo mail account that also is quite nice. And, seriously, who uses the Samsung music store? I didn’t even know there was one. You know you can keep using iTunes, right? Or, you know, Google Play.
My Samsung Galaxy has never had any of the problems you describe. It hasn’t had any problems, period. I know about 8 other people with Galaxy phones, and I’ve never seen them have any problems. Everyone I know likes their phone. I adore mine.
Sometimes (once a week or so) it runs a bit slow, and I’ll check, and yep. I have about 60 apps open. I hit close all. That’s my maintenance.
I’ve had Galaxy phones for a few years now, and we’re a strictly Android family. Occasionally someone has to re-start the phone. That’s the worst that ever happens, and it’s rare. What are ya’ll doing to your phones??
I’ve had an Android phone of some kind since they came out and I’ve never had to do phone maintenance and the only configuring and “fucking-with” I’ve ever had to do with it is setting up my preferences. Care to elaborate on this seemingly odd proclamation?
Huh? I’ve got an LG Optimus Elite (with Android) and I’m very happy with it. The touchscreen stopped responding a few months in, but that was a hardware issue and they replaced the phone immediately and with no hassle. I’ve never had to fuck with it at all, and there’s no maintenance to speak of.
DragonAsh - Why are you using apps from the “Samsung equivalent to the iTunes store?” Do you not have access to the Google Play store? I’ve found that the vast majority of the apps work just fine, and the few that didn’t were made to run best on a different version of Android or a different phone than the one I have.
I don’t think your problem is Android. I think your problem might be that you don’t like your particular phone.
DA may be inexperienced/unclued enough not to have found Google Play. The makers, Samsung included, tend to promote their little block of junkware. I recall glancing at their offerings once and deleting the icon. If that’s all he found, he’d have a smidge of justification for this part of the rant.
OTOH, spending a little time learning how Android works might have saved a lot of time and trouble. No, it’s NOT exactly like iOS.
Android user here…still happily using my Samsung Galaxy Captivate, and I have no idea what the OP is talking about. If the phone gets a little laggy, I just check to see what’s running in the background, and close apps as necessary. You do have to look out for apps; there’s a lot of crap out there, but a lot of good stuff can be found too (for free!). I’m about to enter the world of custom ROMs – I’ve reached the point where I need to either upgrade the ROM or get a new phone – so we’ll see how that goes.
I had HTC Incredible. It had horrible memory management to the point where it would not receive texts. HTC blamed the Android system. Android blamed HTC. Eventually I switched to a Samsung Galaxy which works better but:
It has loads of problems with images. Sorting them is very unintuitive and finding the one I want is a royal pain.
The tilt sensor seems to have a delay when I want it to turn and tilts in a heartbeat when I don’t want it to (“20 degree tilt on the phone? Time to turn!”
The system avoids going to 4G for downloading stuff at times - so if I move away from a friendly router it gives me errors.
There are several types of music the built-in player cannot play.
A host of other reaction problems combined with a host of delays and stalls in the system.
I’ve never had an iPhone so I cannot say if they also have the same issues. I have assumed they do (except for the HTC issues) since I see nothing special right or wrong about Droid. I am open to corrections.
I should have said ‘Play Store’ - that, to be honest, took me a day to figure out was what I wanted, not the sorry-ass Samsung store. Not exactly the most intuitive of names.
Google ‘disappearing photos Android’ and you’ll find it’s most definitely not an isolated case. Some weird shit is going on. I lost 40 pictures of my kid’s Sports Day that disappeared mid-way through the day. Music files loaded on to the phone - vanish. At least those I obviously have on my PC so they’re not gone forever, but still, it’s ridiculous. My favorite bug: transferred a folder of songs from a recently purchased album. Songs play fine on my PC. Songs show up on my phone with the same file name, correct song length, but play completely different songs.
The whole point for me when I got this phone was I thought I’d be able to delete iTunes and use the phone almost like a portable, external hard-drive. It drives me batshit crazy that stuff on the phone doesn’t stay on the phone.
Did I mention there are a bunch of audio and video files it won’t play? Did I mention that what I think was the most popular podcast app available needed a third-party app to change playback speed? Did I mention rampant memory problems - something I almost never had with my iPhones? Did I mention the non-user friendly photo gallery and it’s ridiculous sorting (or lack thereof)?
I build my own PCs. I’ve had smartphones for over 10 years. I have an intricate wireless setup streaming music and video to various TVs etc throughout the house. I wouldn’t call myself a consumer electronics expert, but I’m heavy-use, experienced consumer. And I’ve never had a phone that I outright hated as much as that Samsung phone.