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Choosing a Smartphone
Ganluan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've read a bit in the Tech forum about these, but would appreciate some advice.
I am currently about to buy a new phone for both work and personal use. I am unsure about whether I should go with an iPhone or an Android phone. I will be going with Verizon as a carrier through my job's corporate account.
The iPhone provides a native app for the email client we use (FirstClass) but supposedly one will be coming soon for the Android. Android also apparently does not offer support for Cisco VPN clients. On the other hand, I like the concept of Android and a more open operating system.
What are the pros and cons of each? I am specifically looking at 4G LTE Android phones like the Charge and Thunderbolt, and I know the speed would be quite different on an iPhone.
I am currently about to buy a new phone for both work and personal use. I am unsure about whether I should go with an iPhone or an Android phone. I will be going with Verizon as a carrier through my job's corporate account.
The iPhone provides a native app for the email client we use (FirstClass) but supposedly one will be coming soon for the Android. Android also apparently does not offer support for Cisco VPN clients. On the other hand, I like the concept of Android and a more open operating system.
What are the pros and cons of each? I am specifically looking at 4G LTE Android phones like the Charge and Thunderbolt, and I know the speed would be quite different on an iPhone.
Ganluan on
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Android being an "open" operating system is petty meaningless crap for 99% of people without neck beards.
I have an Android with 2.1 collecting dust right now on my desk. I find it to be clunky and generally unremarkable compared to iOS products.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
If you're looking at 4G devices like the Charge and Thunderbolt, I'd recommend the Charge. The battery life on the Thunderbolt is... well, pretty shockingly bad actually. As much as I prefer HTC's Sense UI to Samsung's TouchWiz interface, the battery life is a serious issue.
Of course, interface issues are also why you can install different UI's onto Android devices
The iPhone... it is what it is. To be fair, I don't get all that many calls with people having issues with this device... most the time they're having issues with iTunes and syncing. I don't like the fact that you HAVE to have iTunes installed somewhere to sync/update etc. However, that's my own personal opinion on the matter - YMMV.
For the former, Android. For the latter, iPhone.
As for the platfrom being open source. There are many reasons the average consumer should care about this. The main on being that you can choose an alternate app store, like amazon. Or you can download apps that you want tobe be exposed to not just what apple feels you are mature enough to use.
I like to have my new emails on my main screen and not have to go hunting for the app Icon. But you may not. You may want current sports scores, your current location on a map, or a news feed. The point is making the phone feel like you phone is easy on an Android and you can't on an Iphone. I know you can set wallpapers and put 12 icons in a folder on an Iphone.
This is awful advice. Do not listen to this.
Do tell why?
I don't think by any metric you can say that Android has a better app market than the iOS. The general quality of iOS apps is higher than the same Android apps. iOS also has had multitasking for a little while now, so the statement that you can only run one app at a time is patently untrue.
The general consumer doesn't really care if Apple curates their own app store. In fact, most people shop in stores that decide what kind of items they would like to carry. Maybe if you personally feel that the app store should be a free market on a philosophical level, then you may be justified in only going to the Android store. However, as a lot of examples show, most notably the amount of money the iOS app store generates vs. the Android app store, people don't care about the existence of oversight on apps in the apps store. In fact, they may well welcome it knowing that the apps they download are approved.
Widgets are something that only non-iOS phones have, this is true. Maybe with the new iOS 5.0 set to be unveiled at WWDC next month this will change. I personally suspect that Apple won't support widgets on the home screen. Frequently used apps like mail or sports scores can be pinned to the bottom of the home screen and will show up in every screen apps do.
It is true that Android is more customizable than the iOS. However, this comes at the cost of a lot of things that iOS is good/better at. iOS has a much more mature app ecosystem. It has a better (and legal) system of purchasing and consuming media. And this is all without diving into the issue of updates.
With iOS, the updates come from Apple via iTunes. You download it and you can update it right on your computer. With Android, the updates come from the carriers. This is because carriers customize Android to differentiate their phones from other Android phones, so when Google releases a new update, carriers must update their customizations to the new update. This coupled with the fact that carriers don't have financial incentive to keep your old phones updated when they can just sell you new phones means that often you get stuck with older versions of Android. It is also ridiculous that phones shipping today ship with versions of Android from last year.
While it is true that recently Google announced that it has gotten carriers to commit to 18 months of update support, the specifics are still not detailed; and consumers are well justified in their skepticism given the history of carrier Android updates.
The OP doesn't seem like the type who would want to tinker with their phone and wrestle with managing apps and 4G wireless eating up battery, or scour the internet for signs that Verizon will update his phone to the latest version of Android. And as I've said before, the email protocol that his company uses already has a functioning iOS app, so I'd say that an iPhone is best for him.
Umm.. When you search on the App store, go a few pages past the first. You'll see some horrible apps, let me tell you. Plus, with more iOS applications costing actual money, you're less likely to try out an application for the hell of it. With the Android market you experience 'the crappiness' of bad apps, 'cause the're usually free.
I don't mind tinkering or customizing parts of my phone, but I don't plan on jailbreaking/rooting/etc. whatever one I get. So for the person who mentioned customizing the UI - is that possible without rooting the phone? It sounds like its not from what I've read.
I suppose a better question would be, what is there to gain from jailbreaking/rooting either an iPhone or an Android phone, and would those gains put one ahead of the other?
There are fine qualities to both phones, and especially if you're a first time user, neither will piss you off.
I would consider the iphone a better first time purchase because overall it's presented better and I don't give a fuck what anyone says here, I know as a professional with a small legion of apps on the store, that Apple's app store is in significantly better condition than Android's.
Yes. There are horrible stupid apps on the app store. Thousands of them. But the simple fact is that iOS top 1,000 apps beat the shit out of Android's any day of the weak without contest, and the top 1,000 is all that really matters to most people.
As I said before. If there's nothing specific about the iPhone that would ruin the ownership experience for you, then you should at least try it.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
There are different launcher programs available for android phones (Launcher Pro and ADW Launcher being the two that immediately come to mind) that do not require root access to install. I personally use ADW on my Droid 2 because Motorola's default UI annoys me.
One advantage that the iPhone does have over Android devices on Verizon is they don't have random carrier bullshit baked into the OS.
The important thing would be to go into a store, play with the devices and see which one works best for you.
There are pros and cons to both platforms
Pros for Android
- I love the widgets. Almost all of my screens are widgets, have a date one, weather one, contacts one, calender, media player, etc
- Swype, swype is the best thing ever, and it is very hard for me to use iOS after using swype on my android phone.
- Notification bar, love being able to pull it down and see all email info, text info, missed calls, etc.
- Can shop around for hardware that does what YOU need it to do. Although this is also a con.. see below
Cons
- Hardware fragmentation. When I go to buy/download apps, it really sucks seeing comments "Works great on x device", "Doesn't work on y device."
Pros for iOS
- Things just work, and is easy to use.
- Fantastic battery life.
- Great app store
Cons
-No Swype.
-No Widgets.
I don't care about tinkering with the os, so having the ability to on android, and not the ability to with apple doesn't bother me.
If iOS got widgets, it would be a no brainer for me, if it also got swype and a notification bar, it would be like I died and went to heaven.
Android is like a kit car with a huge engine with a 6 speed and a fancy spoiler that may or may not actually work at all, and a brake bias dial, etc
but it also has a ping pong ball floating in the gas tank
just kind of have to hope it doesn't get sucked up the intake
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Gives me all the flexibility I want with custom home screens and widgets and apps without rooting. Used WebEx the other day and it was pretty awesome even on a slower phone.
Really can't go wrong with either if both are company approved.
The 4g LTE service is incredibly fast and the phone is a beast, but I'm not sure I could deal with the standard battery life.
A nice thing about purchases through the Android Market is that theyre tied to your Google account, so should you lose/upgrade/downgrade/change phones to another Android phone you can get all the apps you paid for on that new phone.
EDIT: As for the screen on the iPhone, while it is nice, Im not sure its that much better than the AMOLED screen on my Incredible. I believe the Samsung on Verizon utilizes a Super AMOLED screen which improves screen visibility in bright areas/direct sunlight.
Yes, the poster is making up some things like iphone's inability to switch between a game and email and back again.
My advice: If you have an apple, def. go with the iphone. If you like to tinker, you can tinker with a jailbroke iphone just as much as an android phone.
The choice, honestly, was agonizing. But the truth is this: Honestly, it's not a huge deal and there isn't a massively big difference between the phones. They all do the same things, and there's no real difference between the apps you'll care about. So, I'd say go with your gut and choose what feels right after playing with all of them.
That being said, I chose the iPhone 4 for these reasons:
* it just fits well in my pocket
* the screen resolution is amazing, much higher than any other phone
* the phone just works, and works great
* it had the apps I wanted(*)
*
The battery life is one thing that really worries me on that phone. Does it feel really bulky with the extended battery?
I'm glad I got some feedback here, because I was leaning toward the Thunderbolt but read up more on the battery issues and that definitely seems like a deal-breaker for me.