iPhone or Android?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My current cell phone contract will be finished soon, and I am looking into getting a smart phone. Right now I’m leaning towards a Verizon Android phone, either a Droid X or a Droid 2 when they come out, or the new iPhone with the required at&t plan. Verizon is nice because of the good service and the uncapped data plan.

The most important thing to me is the user experience.  Which phone will provide the most complete, seamless experience, with the best apps and functionality?  I plan on using the phone more as a reading, browsing, gaming, multimedia device more than an actual phone.
2

In terms of “most complete, seamless experience with the best apps and functionality”, there’s no contest. It’s iPhone by a mile. There are other criteria that may lead one to select an Android phone, but it’s not that.

3

That was my sense when I was looking at smartphones about a year ago, but I was beginning to think that it had changed, with more and more apps coming out for Android. Amazon just released the Kindle app for Android today, and I hear more people excited about the new Droid phones than the iPhone (although Droid is still a fairly new concept and the new iPhone seems to have some serious flaws).

Sounds like things are the same, though.

What are the differences in terms of user experience right now? What are the reasons for going with Android over Apple?

4

The biggest reasons for going with Android are:

You can pick any major carrier
You can pick from a wide variety of phones
You can change carriers and keep your phone
True multitasking from day one of the OS

5

I can’t really compare, since I’ve never used and Android phone, but I have been extremely satisfied with my iPhone 3GS. The “true multitasking” thing is, IMHO, mostly a red herring, and one that probably causes as many problems as it solves (there are lots of reports of very poor battery life due to it). Another data point - my boss just got a Droid, and it has the worst audio quality of any phone I’ve ever heard. Try before you buy.

6

Some more points for Android over iPhone:

  1. Android will support Flash in the next update (2.2)
  2. Android Market doesn’t block apps for such lame reasons as “making fun of public figures”
7

I need to get a smartphone for school (damn things have changed) and I’m still on the fence about Iphone 4 vs. Nexus One. I am heavily leaning towards Nexus One for the convenience of being able to stay with my carrier or not pay for ATT rates. Plus, the app I really wanted, Mint, is now available on the Android market.

8

This can be a downside in regard to apps it seems. From browsing the Android Market, I’ve noticed that some apps don’t work with certain phones.

9

I rejected the iPhone because I wanted to stay with Verizon. Yeah, as a phone it leave something to.be desired in terms of voice quality, but Bluetooth works great. Everything else has been fantastic. If my battery becomes an issue I just go into Task Killer and wipe out all the stuff left in memory - usually battery life has been pretty good. I believe more people are writing apps for the Android system than for the iPhone since getting an app accepted is a bit risky. But a big factor was that the Droid cost about half as much as an iPhone after the rebate and the renewal bonus.

I do use multiple apps - I often start the music player, remember I need to look up traffic on Maps, and then switch back.
I don’t know about gaming - I’ve only downloaded a couple of simple, free ones.

10

I have the Motorola Droid and it’s fine. I’ve used an older iPhone (briefly) and the seamlessness of the menus and interaction was probably smoother than what I’ve experienced in the Droid, which is not to say the Droid menu setup is bad, it’s just the iPhone really aces that part. The new Droid and the new iPhone are pretty much neck and neck hardware wise. The iPhone 4 apparently has some antenna issues in being used as a phone but I imagine these will be addressed.

An important factor for me in staying with Verizon was I got the vibe via telco industry news that the AT&T network is being crushed by the iPhone ( and other data phones) G3 streaming demands, and is ramping up punitive pricing plans to address this. The utility of the Android app (PDANet) that lets me tether the Droid to my notebook as a reasonably speedy data modem is huge, and the unlimited data (under the Verizon business smart phone plan) means I can surf without metering myself.

The iPhone is nice but concerns about the AT&T network make me risk averse in trying them out.

11

I say this as an iPhone-owning-AT&T customer…

If you think you’re going to use a lot of data (streaming music/video/YouTube) or do a lot of web surfing on your new smartphone, the biggest reason to stay away from AT&T is the fact that they discontinued the “unlimited” data plan and replaced it with two tiered plans (200MB/$15 Mo. 2GB/$25 Mo.), go over your cap, and you get dinged with overage charges

No matter how good the iPhone is (and I love mine) it does you no good if you’re afraid to use it to it’s potential for fear of going over your cap (you do get text message warnings as you approach your limit)

If you can get a Verizon/Sprint Android-based smartphone, go with that, from what little I’ve played with Android 2.1, it’s been stable and quick, not as polished as the iPhone, but if you haven’t played with an iPhone, you’ll have no frame of reference to compare the “polish” to

go with whatever network that gives you “unlimited” data (most unlimited plans actually have a 5GB unofficial cap)

12

I have an HTC (droid) Incredible and wouldn’t swap it out for a new iPhone even if it was on Verizon. HTC Sense with Android is slick, super-fast, and fun to use.

13

I have no idea what HTC Sense is. Could you maybe tell us what it is and why we want it?

14

Honestly, I’ve had an unlimited data plan for almost a year now wihh my iPhone and have never gone over 600 megs, except one month where I was out of town using my ozone as a modem with MyWi, and i was at 3.2 gigs. AT&Ts new plans aren’t unreasonable, IMO. I’m strongly considering switching to one of them, except you don’t save tons of money and I don’t know… I’m lazy.

The iPhone is way, way, way ahead of the android os when it comes to polish. No matter whY you do, don’t get an android phone with a custom UI. They take ages to get updates. Also, don’t bother getting an Evo, or “super phone” if you expect to have battery life. They die before lunch.

I recommend the iPhone, because they’re nice phones and you don’t need to “work” on them. You can get away with the android the same way, but the reality is that if you leave both to their own devices (so to speak) the android will give you less performance and you’ll be less happy with it.

A simple, and accurate, comparison is OS X to linux. Android is a (modified, simplified) Linux based OS and the iPhone runs a (modified, simplified) OS X based OS.

Apples tight grip over their app market is a downside, unless you’re a lazy bum, and don’t feel like managing your privacy fin applications – iOS is very specific about their allowances for private data usage.

Apples tight grip on multitasking (allowing apps to multitask in certain ways) is a downside – unless you’re lazy and don’t want to have to fine manage your apps on/off and worry about your battery life.

With iOS you can switch backed forth between music and maps. You always could, with iPod, but they now let Pandora and other music apps run in the background via APIs.

15

HTC Sense is

16

I would be surprised if android has 1/5,000 the number of apps iphone has available.

My three year old son learned how to access the apps he plays with in less than 5 minutes. I have never even heard of anyone having to use an instruction manual or be taught how to do something on the iphone, because the thing just does what you want it to do.

The downsides for me are that reception is incredibly bad compared to my ancient verizon phone. In 6 years with Verizon I had never dropped a call. I’ve dropped several with my iphone over the past 5 months since I got it, and have failed to connect with a call probably ten times a month. I get no reception from inside my parents’ house, which is literally less than a mile away from the geographic center of Las Vegas. The reception at my own house is fine, but a significant number of people are complaining about the lack of coverage. There are several places at my work where I can’t get coverage, and I had absolutely no problem in those areas while I was with Verizon.

The iphone itself is incredible, but AT&T is a dealbreaker for many people, and I can’t say I blame them.

17

It’s around 1/3 or 1/4, at least according to the respective wikipedia pages of the two app stores.

18

My wife and I are facing the same quandary, so I will be watching this thread closely.

We want to replace our simple cellphones with smartphones, and our current (Verizon) 2-year contract is about to expire so we’re free to select any carrier. I primarily want web and email (either POP3 or web-based) access in the US; she primarily needs email access (to a Microsoft Exchange server) and a phone that works both in the US and the UK.

My personal preference would be for an Android-based phone because of its more open architecture; my wife is totally OS-neutral.

I have heard (but don’t know for sure) that the iPhone works in the UK. At least in terms of Verizon’s offerings, none of their android-based phones seem to. I could easily be wrong on both of those statements and if so I need to be corrected.

We’re currently on a “family plan” where both phones are from the same provider and the total monthly cost is less, and I suspect that we want to use the same provider (whatever that turns out to be) in the future for similar savings.

19

If you want to use your US phone in Europe than you need a GSM phone which means AT&T or T Mobile. Verizon uses CDMA which is not compatible with most phone systems overseas.

Another advantage of a GSM phone is you can buy a SIM overseas and stick that in your US phone so that you are not charged on your US phone bill. CDMA cannot do that.

20

You have to break your criteria down into two segments.

iPhone.

Android.

For me, the rate of growth of the Android app market alone might be a clincher, but when you couple that with the fact that the iPhone is a one-size-fits-nobody fixed product, but there are dozens of Android phones, it’s a no-brainer. I can’t stand touchscreen keyboards, although I like touchscreens otherwise, so I got a phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Try that with an iPhone. That, and open source software.