Weeks and weeks after the release of the iPhone 4, my carrier still cannot sell me an iPhone 4. They (Rogers) never have any. Ever.
I’d not care much except that the new iPhone OS turns my iPhone 3G into a brick. It’s only slightly faster than an abacus.
Should I switch to an Android phone? Just what are the benefits of these Droid phones I hear so much about? If I am (or was, when it worked) a happy iPhone user, what Droid would I most want?
No, because those of us waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S from Rogers are getting dicked around even harder than the iPhone 4 crowd. We can’t even get a date out of the company.
The thing you want most on Android is Swype, which is the first touch keyboard technology that’s superior to a physical keyboard. The Samsung Galaxy S is the only Android phone on Rogers that’s superior to the iPhone 4, but it’s pretty close. Most of the advantages of Android come from avoiding Apple nonsense. You can root your phone for quicker upgrades. You have full control over everything, so it’s easier to nuke the stuff Rogers pushes to your phone. You don’t need to use iTunes. It’s cheaper. Android generally has more application options, but iOS has more people trying to make money with good applications. Android receives updates more frequently. iPhone 4 has a better screen, but SGS has a larger screen. Samsung Galaxy S doesn’t drop calls. Google’s first-party stuff is generally better than Apple’s first-party stuff.
Do you want it before or after the current 6 GB / $30 promotion expires?
My Droid sucks. Its often non-responsive. It gets system errors. The volume control is too easy to hit accidently. It’s not loud enough to overcome ambient noise. I want my old StarTAC phone back. I’m old though, I just want a phone that works as a phone.
My Nexus One is amazing, but I don’t think they’re selling them anymore. It depends on what you want to do. There’s nothing an iPhone can do that a good Android phone can’t, but there’s a million things Android can do that the iPhone can’t.
I have mine set up so when I plug into the car dock, wifi turns off, GPS turns on, the screen goes to full brightness, incoming text messages are spoken to me and an augmented reality navigation app opens and shows me what’s nearby. Podcasts are downloaded at 5am every morning so they’re waiting for me when I get up. My wifi turns off and on at certain times during the day, such as when I am usually getting home. When I walk in the house and it connects to wifi, my photos are automatically synced to the computer. Calls are automatically logged to my google calendar. True backgrounding, amazingly useful widgets, icons can be changed and arranged in any pattern, etc.
First off, just because I know I’m not the only one who gets annoyed by it, Android is the operating system. Droid is just the label that Verizon puts on their Android phones. So unless you are on Verizon, your phone isn’t a Droid.
Now, Android vs iPhone is like Windows vs. Mac. Both are similar, but also have huge differences. But since I haven’t had an iPhone, I couldn’t really give an opinion. But you’ll find plenty of comparisons online. But frankly, if you want a great smartphone these days (until Windows Phone 7 takes off) the only options are Android and iPhone.
Now the thing about Android is you’ve got a whole bunch on manufacturers making phones, so options can range from absolutely amazing to total crap. I recommend sticking to phones made by HTC first, then Samsung, and Motorola. Now I say HTC first, because the big issue with Android is that all those companies like to put their own software on top of Android. HTC’s “Sense” is probably the best and least obtrusive, and the best part is that yo can turn it off on some of their phones.
Frankly, all these customized features all completely unnecessary. I’ve got the Nexus One which just has stock Android and it does everything. But it’s not available anymore.
Now, the most important thing when you check out a phone is that is running, at least, Android 2.1. The jump between Android 1.5/1.6 and 2.0 was a huge jump that really proved that Android could stand against iPhone. Unfortunately, some companies still are putting 1.6 on phones. Avoid those at all cost.
Really, the quality of phones that are available depend on the carrier. Of the four major ones, Sprint and Verizon have the best, followed by T-Mobile, and AT&T basically has nothing. I couldn’t really tell you about the smaller carriers though. Occasionally they get good phones.
I knew there’d be a thread on Android phones over the weekend. I just signed up with Verizon yesterday and got myself an HTC Incredible.
It’s not without its flaws (somehow I’m getting two Gmail notifications every time I get a new email, for instance), but on the whole it’s really really nice. It’s exceptionally responsive; the slowest it’s ever gotten so far is when it downloads a web page over 3G. I hear good things about Swype, but the stock touchscreen keyboard is fast and the predictive text algorithm is good enough that I barely have to worry about which button my finger is hitting.
Android also allows for some fairly powerful tools. The one that nearly sold me on getting an Android phone all by itself is the Tasker app, which can make your phone sit up and bark on command. I don’t know the iPhone too well, so I’m not going to go on about other apps, but I’m pretty sure the iPhone doesn’t have anything like Tasker.
I also can’t speak for the Galaxy S, but I’d be comfortable saying the Incredible matches up to the iPhone (maybe not the 4, I don’t know). It’s on Verizon instead of AT&T, so you also get the benefit of a better service.
Of course, the specific flaw I mentioned is pretty fixable, seeing as I managed to get it down to one notification. I’m honestly having trouble finding anything bad to say about the Incredible, although I’m sure as I actually get to using it more stuff will come up. But after dealing with a crappy $20 flip phone for the last few years and testdriving an older Blackberry, I’m just completely in love.
I think Android has some of the same advantages over the iPhone that the PC has over the Mac. Android is more open and flexible with greater choice of hardware and (depending on your carrier) cheaper prices.
In particular the iPhone doesn’t use the homescreen effectively. You should be able to customize your homescreen that the information which is important to you whether it’s your calendar, e-mail, news feed or Twitter is up where you want it. Android does this with widgets but the iPhone doesn’t unless you jailbreak.
As mentioned check to see which OS version is installed on your handset. 2.1 is just fine but 2.2 is better and is being rolled out right around now so you might want to hold out for that.
My wife and I upgraded to Android-based phones two months ago. I love my new Motorola Droid X and she loves her new HTC Incredible. (She didn’t get a Droid X only because it was too big for her to hold in her hand comfortably.)
Then again my golf buddy loves his iPhone 4 (and his earlier-generation iPhone before that). We spend most of our time on the golf course cheerfully dissing the other guy’s phone (and the golf GPS app that he’s using on it), an exercise that we both find enjoyable.
Maybe what you should be changing is your carrier.
Mr. Athena recently got a Galaxy S to replace his first generation iPhone. I got the iPhone 4, because though I’m very intrigued with Android, and indeed doing development for it, I’m just not sure it’s ready for prime time.
And, imo, it’s not. Mr. Athena was very displeased with ease-of-use compared to the iPhone. What was intuitive and easy with the iPhone required more keypresses and hassle with Android. He didn’t like not having iTunes for ease of installation/upgrades. The phone crashed at times.
Ultimately, he brought it back and got an iPhone 4.
On the plus side, the screen was gorgeous. I liked Swype (though he didn’t). Ultimately I think Android phones will eventually come around and be as good as if not better than the iPhone (I am doing Android development and not iPhone development partially for that reason), but they’re just not there yet.
Really surprised by all the replies involving the advanced techie advantages of Android (“you can root your phone! You can download Tasker and spend hours configuring it so that it (for example) automatically turns off your wifi between 2 and 3 pm, thereby saving yourself .01% of battery life! You can spend time teaching yourself Swype instead of the text entry system that you’re already comfortable with!”) to a post from someone who’s clearly not interested in stuff like that. It’s clear the OP is not the sort of person who roots/jailbreaks a phone.
To the OP – since you say your major complaint is just that your phone got slow with the new update. Before doing anything, try this: Apple released yesterday a new version of the software that (they claim) fixes that slowness on your old 3G. Plug in your phone to your computer and ITunes will ask if you want to download a new version. It’ll take 15 minutes, but your phone should then be fast again, and that should buy you enough time to plan your next step.
To everyone else talking about how open Android is – not to highjack the thread, but that’s really not true since the carriers lock it down. See Android Is As Open As The Clenched Fist I'd Like To Punch The Carriers With | TechCrunch for compelling argument. It’s only open if you root it, but that’s no advantage over Iphone since you could jailbreak that, too.
doubled posted what I came in to say: update to the newest version of iOS. It brought my 3G back to life…it’s nice a snappy now.
Article makes some good points about annoying carrier activities, but many of the points were more about annoyances (verizon installs crapware, verizon has an app store in addition to Androids app store) instead of showing it’s not an open platform.
He asked what the benefits of android were so what better way to explain than give examples of what it can do that the phone he is familiar with can’t? Unrooted, Android can still do a lot more than the iPhone. There was nothing in my post that requires root.
Tasker is actually meant to extend control of non-rooted phones and if a person spends hours setting it up to turn off their wifi for an hour, they shouldn’t be allowed to own anything electronic. To set up wifi as you suggest, for example, you’d simply open it, click the clock, select 2 to 3 pm then select net > wifi > off.
Who cares about battery life. Most, if not all, Android phones have removable batteries and sd cards, two more benefits.
The biggest disadvantage (compared to iPhone) is the availability of apps. The selection of Android apps is improving rapidly, but it will take a while longer to catch up with the iPhone’s head start.
Another big difference is that there’s no desktop software to sync with. In some ways it’s inconvenient; you have to use third party tools to sync MP3 files (I think - I don’t use my phone for music). I prefer it this way though; phones (and tablet devices) shouldn’t require a computer to act as a home base.
The main reason I chose Android is because I’m a heavy Google user. Not all Android phones come with “Google Experience”, but I think most major models do, and it means a tight integration with your Google account. The contact list (phone book) is taken straight out of the Gmail contacts list, and the calendar syncs with your Google calendar. You can even set up Google Voice so it’s used for some or all outgoing calls.
Right, for advanced users like you and me, that’s one task is easy. I’m just saying that if you told a smart but not-technical users (my mother for instance) to schedule turning on/off wi-fi when she gets home, it would A) take her a long time to figure out how to navigate the multiple levels of menus, and B) strike her as “why do I care tinkering with such little stuff? I just want my phone to work without me thinking about it.”
Anyone who downloads Tasker is a highly advanced user. Nothing wrong with that, it’s great that the option is there for those who want it; but just realize that the majority of users don’t care such low level control. The OP has a Iphone 3G (not even a 3GS) and says he’s happy with it (or would be if it weren’t slowed down by the 4.0 update) – he’s pretty clearly not the sort of person who needs the power of configuring low level details.
Does the calendar work with the tasks feature? That’s the one major issue with my Blackberry and compelling enough to get me to switch.
Realizing that I didn’t know enough about the differences in phones myself, I found this chart. It breaks down the comparison of iPhone and Android by several different categories, but if you just want a smartphone to use and monkey around with, the only category that really matters is Ease of Use, in which the iPhone wins out.
I think that’s really what it’s going to come down to: if you’re not a power user and you don’t like tinkering with a device’s guts, the iPhone is a more polished, user-friendly phone. If you do like that stuff, then the iPhone is going to be too constrained with not enough options and the Android is exactly what you want.
Although this doesn’t apply to the OP, carrier in the US is also an issue. From everything I hear, AT&T pretty much sucks and is only serviceable at best. Verizon is on top as far as quality and service go. If that’s an important thing, then learning to use an Android phone is probably worth it to be able to use Verizon instead of AT&T, unless you want to play with jailbreaking the iPhone.
Unfortunately no. The calendar app does not show tasks. You have to use the GTask app, or one of many third-party ToDo apps (many of which are capable of syncing with Google Tasks).
Until May I had never had anything to do with smart phones. I was still using a ‘neanderthal’ Nokia phone that was good for calls, some simple text messages and that was about it. Some good things: it was more or less indestructible, it was cheap hardware on a cheap tariff, and the battery life was terrific (I only needed to charge it about once a week).
Feeling the need to get something a little more modern, I looked into the whole smartphone market with the help of four very knowlegeable experts.
I tried a Blackberry, but didn’t like the actual physical device with its tiny keys, and neither I nor the service provider’s own experts could get it to sync with my email account, no matter how many hours I spent in their store.
I ditched the Blackberry and got an HTC Desire. I love it. I absolutely love it. The touch screen interface is a joy, the customisation is a joy, the ‘it just works’ factor has been perfect since I got it, there are some excellent apps, and it has worked very reliably for me when I travel around the world. It’s great for calls, txt, emails and internet, plus I have stored plenty of favourite photos and music on it.
Drawbacks: the battery life is not impressive, even if I try all the smart tricks to reduce consumption. I think owners soon get used to plugging it into the wall at every convenient opportunity. Secondly, although it’s processing power is good, the device isn’t as good as an iPhone at downloading and playing video clips. This doesn’t matter greatly to me. Apart from that, I think the phone is miraculously good, and for personal reasons I enjoy using the phone knowing that I’m not giving any money to either Apple or Msoft.