I’ve owned both an iPhone and currently an Android phone, so I’ll give you my opinion on both:
iPhone Pros
[ul]
[li]Very smooth, intuitive interface.[/li][li]More apps available, including some that I really miss (Scrabble…seriously, why is there no official Scrabble on Android!?)[/li][li]If you already use iTunes for your music management, it is obviously very easy to sync.[/li][li]Any apps you’ve already paid for on another iOS device (like your iPad) you can use on the iPhone and not pay or again, as long as you use the same iTunes account.[/li][li]It looks pretty. I like the look of the iPhone 4 a LOT. I’m sick to death of what most other smartphones look like (including all the previous iPhone versions.) They all remind me of the worst of car design in the 90’s…everything has to have a nice, smooth line, and they all look alike. Sometimes more squarish can be cool![/ul][/li]
iPhone cons
[ul]
[li]Everything is so locked down. Even if you jailbreak it, there are still things you can’t easily do (like add a new SMS noise…seriously, why doesn’t Apple let you add a custom SMS ringtone?!)[/li][li]The hardware is also more locked down. Almost all Android phones use the micro USB standard charger, so you can easily but three or four extra cords and AC/car chargers and it will cost like $10 total. Apple’s connector makes even the cheap knock-off cables more expensive.[/li][li]Fixed storage. While it starts off larger, you can’t add any more to it. [/li][li]Forced use of iTunes. If you don’t like iTunes, it’s harder and more annoying to use an alternative for music and movies.[/li][li]No flash support, and the way Apple and Adobe have been going at it, don’t hold your breath for it.[/li][/ul]
Android Pros
[ul]
[li]Open. You can customize a lot of the software and interface right out of the box, and if you ‘root’ it, you have even more customization.[/li][li]Widgets. Related to the above, but deserve their own mention. Simply by unlocking my phone, and not having to even open an app, I have a widget telling my the weather for the week, a text message widget that shows the body of my most recent text, an EXACT percentage for my battery (that is, an actual area on my screen that says “sixty-three percent”, not that small icon in the corner that could be anywhere from 30%-80%, who knows?), and a little widget that turns wifi on and off without having to slog through three pages of settings.[/li][li]Tethering. I can hook my phone up through USB, Bluetooth, or my making an ad-hoc wireless network and connect my laptop to the internet through the phone’s data connection. Without paying an extra monthly fee (on my phone, I had to root it to do this, but some phones don’t require it.) (I’m also to understand that the AT&T iPhone will get official tethering soon to compete with the Verizon one.)[/li][li]Seamless integration of gmail with the built-in gmail app.[/li][li]Can use micro SD cards to increase storage space.[/li][li]Flash support in the web browser.[/ul][/li]
Android cons:
[ul]
[li]Less apps.[/li][li]The openness. It’s good, in that it provides a lot of customization, but bad because each manufacturer and carrier adds their own crap in there. Though HTC is the best with their ‘launcher/software’, and I’m not sure how AT&T is with carrier bloatware, but it can’t be as bad as Verizon’s, at least. It also results in large delays with major software updates as each manufacturer and carrier has to tweak the main OS a little bit for their phones, though again, HTC is the best when it comes to this.[/li][li]No centralized way to manage music and movies, if you like iTunes. There isn’t an all-encompassing equivalent for Android. There are several different music and video apps you can download, and a few ones you can get for your desktop client to manage them as well, but it’s not super simple like it is for an iPhone. However, if you’re like me and don’t really care about managing music, you can just drag and drop a whole mess of MP3’s and you’re good to go.[/ul][/li]
Overall I vastly prefer Android. I think it’s few shortcomings compared to iOS are more than made up for by it’s strengths.
